Love, Bonito, Southeast Asia’s leading digitally native direct-to-consumer womenswear brand, announces new additions to its leadership team consisting of its very first Chief People Officer (CPO), Head of Japan as well as the Head of Hong Kong and Taiwan. These hires were made fresh off the brand’s latest funding round late last year, where it secured US$50Million to fuel both category and international expansion.
People are at the heart of our organisation
Helming the CPO role is veteran people expert Lisa Askwith, who brings with her over 20 years of experience across various industries from retail, consumer, technology to pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Love, Bonito, Lisa ran her own HR consultancy where she supported various companies from multi-billion dollar ventures to start-ups, helping them find new ways to tackle challenges and support growth.
Lisa’s work with SafeGuard Global (Australia and New Zealand) saw the business grow its client base exponentially, doubling revenue while maintaining the highest staff and customer satisfaction score in their years of business. In addition, she also led the development of training opportunities for a business in the aviation industry, which was further offered to the public at an educational institute, resulting in revenue generation for the company. Lisa is also a mentor at the Founder Institute and a key chairperson at the Executives’ Global Network (EGN) Singapore, where she has guided over 70 Singapore-based SMEs, from various industries that are scaling both locally as well as globally.
Lisa will leverage her expertise to spearhead and strengthen Love, Bonito’s people and culture strategies, especially in the areas of people development, people experience, talent acquisition, people operations and organisational development.
North Asia Leads double-down on local market offerings
Lisa is joined by Tomoko Okada, Head of Japan and Christina Wang, Head of Hong Kong and Taiwan, both of whom have led new businesses and projects for iconic brands in the North and Southeast Asia region. Both ladies will be focusing on strengthening Love, Bonito’s omnichannel offerings in the North Asia region, with plans to grow local teams and set up physical stores in the respective markets.
Tomoko Okada spent the last two decades with renowned brands like eBay, Yahoo and Delivery Hero where she led teams in acquiring large chains of retailers, restaurants and strategic partners. Moreover, with her strong diplomatic experience and negotiation skills, she was constantly approached for revenue consulting with large corporate partners.
Christina Wang hails from a world of luxury fashion with key brands like Givenchy, Wolford and Dunhill under her belt. She comes with a wealth of experience in new business development, where she conceptualised and implemented omnichannel strategies across markets and timezones.
“We believe that great and lasting organisations are a construct of its people and the way the structure and processes are built should be done with intention, care and heart. We knew from the day we met Lisa, that her belief and passion in helping people succeed would be key for Love, Bonito as we scale and grow internationally. Her wealth of experience in people management and track record in transforming businesses with people at the heart will be pivotal to our success,” said Dione Song, CEO of Love, Bonito.
“On the international business side of things, we have seen tremendous growth across various markets in the last few years and with Tomoko and Christina onboard, we want to further capitalise on their long-standing expertise and understanding of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan to better provide for our customers.”
Rachel Lim, Co-founder of Love, Bonito added, “People have always been the heart of our organisation and I’m excited for what’s to come. With the right people in the right seats, I am convinced that we are one step closer to our vision of building a female ecosystem. These ladies making the senior bench will also add to the count of our female leadership roles here at Love, Bonito and we want to continue pushing for such representation to provide role models for our younger generation and to combat gender stereotypes and preconceptions.”
