IN January, three Malaysian women made the cut for the 50 over 50 Forbes list that highlighted 50 inspiring women over 50 years old across the Asia-Pacific region.
These women include film director and founder of film house Current Pictures Tunku Mona Riza, lawyer and human rights advocate Ambiga Sreenevasan and executive director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) secretariat Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria.
ALSO READ: Three M’sian women make Forbes’ 50 over 50: Asia 2024 list
This time, four Malaysians have been included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
The list includes 300 changemakers and entrepreneurs under the age of 30, the youngest being 15-years-old.
Squash player Sivasangari Subramaniam is the youngest at 24 years old – out of the Malaysians in the list, ranked number 11th globally after her triumph in the recent London Squash Classic match, beating three out of the top five squash players in the world.
ALSO READ: Sivasangari in brilliant form at London Classics
Sivasangari, who was in 13th place internationally, also clinched two gold medals at the 19th Asian Games last year in China. She is currently aiming to compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Comic artist and animator Erica Eng, 25, won the comic industry’s most sought after Eisner Award in 2020 for her webcomic, Fried Rice, the work which was inspired as a result of her disappointment for not being able to leave her hometown for the United States.
The webcomic which was launched in 2019 as a story about the main character Min who aspires to be an artist when her application to study abroad was rejected.
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After graduating from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco with an online bachelor’s degree in animation and visual effects, Eng managed to complete the adaptation of the webcomic in 2022.
The book was initially rejected by several publishers until Eng opted to self-publish 3,000 copies of her work which is now available in several physical and online bookstores.
According to Forbes, she is currently working on a new webcomic, “Beloved”, which is based on her years growing up practising the Christian faith and the significance of the said faith as she grows older.
On the culinary side of things, owner and chef of Eat and Cook Malaysia Lee Zhe Xi, 26, knew he wanted to be a chef at 10 years old. Lee started out his venture during the pandemic in 2021 with a university friend as he was out of a job at the time.
Eat and Cook initially started as a six-seater eatery that eventually got upgraded to a 32-seater space in 2022, Forbes wrote.
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Lee’s brainchild was has made it on the Michelin Selected list in 2023 and 2024 and recognised in as Asia’s Best Restaurants in 2022 and 2023 as well as clinched the American Express One To Watch Award.
He is also the owner and co-chef of Bar.Kar in Kuala Lumpur.
The fourth Malaysian to appear on the list, Angel Low, 26, is a principal under stakehold management at the Hive Southeast Asia, a collaboration between Tuas Capital Partners, Sunway Group and Palo-Alto based The Hive.
The Hive Southeast Asia is a fund with US$50 million (RM233.45 million) created to invest in startups in the Southeast Asian region.
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Forbes added that Low is a general manager of AI Nusantara which is one of The Hive Southeast Asia’s investments and the Selangor Digital School’s initiative which aids students to prepare for the “digital future” through the mechanisms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine-learning education.
Low was previously an investment analyst at Malaysia Venture Capital Management and worked as a project analyst at Huisheng Consulting Group.
