Amit Singh (Accenture) among most influential young Asian-Australians
The Asian-Australian Leadership Summit has named the winners of its 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards for 2021, with Accenture managing director Amit Singh among the honourees.
Supported by among others the Australian National University, Asialink and PwC, the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit initiative honours the contributions made by young Asian-Australians (under the age of 40) across a variety of categories, including arts & culture, business, science, entrepreneurship, and government.
The overall winner for this year’s 40 under 40 awards was writer and performer Diana Nguyen, noted for her “leadership, creativity and humour in shining a light on inclusion and diversity in contemporary Australia.” Other category winners included Jeanette Kar Yee Cheah (entrepreneurship), founder of the Hacker Exchange, and quantum physicist Seiji Armstrong (corporate), who heads up Trust & Safety for Machine Learning at Google.
Named among the Legal and Professional Services awardees was Accenture managing director Amit Singh, who joined the firm in March of last year upon its acquisition of boutique strategy consulting firm AlphaBeta Advisors. Prior to the purchase, Singh led AlphaBeta’s Melbourne office, before which he served as Uber’s global head of economic policy in San Francisco and as a vice president at consultancy Pottinger in Sydney.
In addition, the dual law and commerce graduate from the University of Sydney (2006) has served two Australian prime ministers – Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd – as a senior economic advisor over three years, as well as holding the role of Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy in the office of former Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten until 2016. At Accenture, he guides leading tech sector platforms and marketplaces on a range of issues.
“There is a growing awareness and confidence among young Asian-Australians to step up as leaders, be recognised and be role models for others. It is an exciting near future for Australia and for organisations, like Asialink, dedicated to driving meaningful creative engagement with our region,” said Pippa Dickson, director of Asialink Arts and awards co-convener. PwC’s Australian consulting boss David McKeering was also among the judges.
Other honourees with a background in big league consulting included Lisa Teh, the founder of digital marketing company CODI Agency who started out as a corporate tax consultant at KPMG; Catherine Mah, head of corporate strategy at TPG Telecom and a former business analysts at Port Jackson Partners (last year acquired by EY-Parthenon); and PEXA Chief Data and Analytics Officer Tracey Le, who spent seven years in the transaction advisory wing of Ernst & Young.
“These awards are critical because it is a reminder of the need to advance efforts in elevating Asian-Australian representation in senior leadership roles across Australia’s public institutions and private sector corporations,” said Jieh-Yung Lo, Director of the Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership at Australian National University.
“To achieve cohesion and equality, leaders and decision makers are required to take a greater intersectional approach in our wider diversity and inclusion agenda at all levels of society.”
