Women’s Directorship Programme
Join Women’s Leadership Training to prove your capability
Women have been facing different challenges in their workplaces like gender stereotypes, discrimination and unequal treatment. It not only jeopardises the career path of women leaders, but also deprives them of opportunities. By joining our Women’s Leadership training programme, you will know how to add your unique value and perspective into your company, as a female leader. Having gender diversity in the team is critical to the company as women can help to build the competitive advantages by contributing their efforts. HKU Women’s leadership training offers a wide range of interactive and practical modules to help female participants to develop their leadership and management skills. By joining the leadership training, their capabilities of decision-making, trouble-shooting and human resources management will also be advanced.What will you learn?
Our Women’s leadership training programme aims to inspire and empower Hong Kong women to engage in higher career development and take on responsibility for critical decisions. This programme is especially suitable for those females who will be promoted to a higher position like managers and directors. As a team leader, we expect participants will be able to lead their crew and make changes with more confidence, and increase the efficiency of management. During the women’s leadership course, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by women in the workplace, as well as how to make good use of their advantages. The training aims to inspire participants to think about questions like ‘What is the value of women in the workplace?’ ‘How does the gender stereotype impact women?’ ‘What shall we do to encounter gender-difficulty?’ ‘What are our leadership goals and what do we want to achieve?’ How to facilitate teamwork in the workplace?’ ‘How do you define success?’, and more topics related to women’s leadership. The training will enable women to be a good leader by managing conflicts among team members.Women as a leader
Many frontline positions are assigned to women and they have more job options than men, such as secretaries, clerical positions and teachers. Although women seem to have an advantage over men, only a small number of women can be promoted to the higher position while most of the management positions are men. However, research has shown that women in leadership positions can make an organisation more personal and help to drive financial results. The HKU Women’s leadership training helps to address many of the barriers that women must overcome in their workplaces so they could pursue their ambitions in leadership and management roles.Programme
Women’s Directorship Programme
Programme Length
6 Days (2 sessions, 3 days each)
Programme Fee
US$14,250
Medium of Instruction
English
Delivery Approach
Face-to-face
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
Gender-balanced boards are proven to result in greater business success. Business community calls to tackle the existing gender diversity imbalance in boardrooms for years. Also, board members face new challenges and increases in responsibility since the recent wave of governance reform swept in. Directors need to be better prepared – beyond just compliance – to best represent the interests of shareholders and stakeholders.
Executive Education, Business School, The University of Hong Kong and Meraki Executive Search & Consulting have joined forces with senior business leaders to create the first certificated, internationally focused, cross industry, board preparedness programme, exclusively for women – the Women’s Directorship Programme.
As of the year 2020, 30% of our participants joined Executive Committee while 50% joined a board after graduating from the Programme.
GLOBAL NETWORK
With former programme participants from across the world, the WDP Alumni form an international network ready for the challenge of the boardroom.
EVENTS
The WDP Alumni network hosts regular events to ensure all cohorts are connected, as the network continues to grow.
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
The WDP Alumni network offers continuous learning opportunities, from quarterly webinars to guest speaker events.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
The Women’s Directorship Programme is designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to demonstrate they are ready for the responsibilities of the boardroom as a Director or Non-Executive Director. It also serves women who are currently serving on boards, who want to improve their skills and knowledge to a world-class level.
All participants are required to meet a number of requirements in order to ensure that the programme is conducted to suit a certain skillset and level of understanding. These requirements ensure all participants gain maximum benefit from the programme:
- Working in a leadership role for five years or more
- Financial exposure / responsibility for P&L
- leadership competencies.
Alumni of Women’s Directorship Programme
Companies Represented
Financial Services
AIA
AXA
Bank of China
Bupa
CITI Group
Credit Suisse
HSBC
JP Morgan
Manulife
Mastercard
Prudential
Sun Life
Zurich Insurance
Corporate Sectors
Estée Lauder
Haier Group
Hitachi
Philips Lighting
Polar Air Cargo
Schneider Electric
Starbucks
Van Cleef & Arpels
WalMart
Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Cisco System
Citrix Systems
Hong Kong Broadband
Nokia(China)
Oracle Corporation
PCCW
Turn , Inc.
Verizon
Management Consulting
A. T. Kearney
Accenture
Emst & Young
McKinsey & Company
Mercer
Demographics of past participants
Years of working experiences
BENEFITS
Through a comprehensive combination of lectures, interactive sessions, leadership exercises and input from senior business leaders, this world-leading board governance programme is dedicated to increase the pool of board-ready women executives and is designed to:
- Address current and contemporary issues in the workplace, across industries and geographies
- Help women gain new skills and knowledge to be more effective at managing boards
- Learn how to best position themselves for an INED role
- Join an incredible international alumni of women leaders changing the face of boardrooms worldwide
Testimonials
Patsy Chan
Richemont APAC Ltd
CEO, Northeast Asia
“This is a great program that brings professional women together from different walks of life, different professions to share and learn from each other, the power of woman is being amplified by our guest speakers Rachel Duan and May Tan. WDP provides practical insights and real business cases covering board fiduciary responsibilities, ethical decision making and best practices of effective board governance. I like the final Boardroom dynamics simulation to complete the course.”
Rekha Gomes
Prudential
Chief Operating Officer – Group Risk
“The course was well planned, featuring brilliant faculty, and providing a comprehensive program for preparing female leaders for directorship. The networking opportunities and discussions with talented female leaders from diverse backgrounds were invaluable. The board simulation exercise at the end was particularly beneficial for practicing strategic thinking and decision- making skills necessary for effective board membership.”
Polly Wang
Prudential – Eastspring
CEO, Eastspring Investment Taiwan
“An amazing program filled with intellectual sharing from the experienced professors and prestigious guest speakers, and the valuable interactions among the professional female leaders from diverse industries and geographies. The content and cases were very well designed to inspire the participants how should we position ourselves in the board and the role and responsibilities that a good INED should play. Wonderful experience!”
Priyali Kamath
Imperial Brands plc
President – Africa, Asia, Australasia,
Central & Eastern Europe
“WDP is a brilliant immersion into the world of Corporate Boards, with thought provoking content from HongKong University business professors, experienced industry leaders and a class of fabulous women who form an incredible network. As C Suite leaders, the subtle differences in the role of an INED vs. an executive are not obvious or natural, unless you have a course like WDP to drive that deep reflection on the skills and behaviors that could make you successful in both.”
Jane Wong
Century Supply Chain Solutions
VP, Customer Experience
Eleanor Coleman
The Financial Empowerment
Managing Partner
“This programme came highly recommended and didn’t disappoint. It brings together a strong community of women wanting to change the world together and supports them through the journey of leaning more about governance, responsibilities, and how to be a better board member. The board simulation was fascinating and give us all a real chance to practice our skills. I look forward to continuing to meet up with the amazing alumni community and seeing what we can all achieve.”
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
This six-day programme, split into two sessions of three days each, will allow participants to fully immerse themselves in the learning experience and network with international peers, away from the distractions of daily life.
There are six modules, which include:
- The Real-World Roles of Board and Committee Members
- Strategic and Collaborative Leadership
- Persuasive Communication and Conflict Resolution
- Public Company and Securities Market Regulation
- Ethics and Compliance
- Board Simulation exercise
Participants have the opportunity to meet and network with counterparts from different industries and functions, in addition to enhancing their network through the involvement of influential guest speakers.
The class size is kept small under 20 to ensure learning quality and sufficient interactions among professors, guest speakers and peers.
The Qualifications Framework (QF) in Hong Kong (HKQF) is a seven-level hierarchy covering qualifications in the academic, vocational and professional as well as continuing education sectors to promote and support lifelong learning with a view to continuously enhancing the quality, professionalism and competitiveness of our workforce in an increasingly globalised and knowledge-based economy. Qualifications recognised under the QF are quality assured and level-rated in accordance with objective and well-defined standards.
The Certificate on Board Directorship Program is being registered on Qualifications Register at level 6, with QR Registration Number 15/003452/L6 and Registration Validity Period as 1 January 2016 to On-going.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
The programme is led by International faculty members, involves real life case studies and thought leadership delivered by industry leaders who are champions of diversity in the boardroom.
FACULTY PROFILES
Prof. David BISHOP
- Juris Doctor, The Georgetown University Law Center
- B.A. (History and Mandarin Chinese), Brigham Young University (magna cum laude)
Prof. David S. LEE
Associate Professor of Teaching
BFin (AMPB) Deputy Programme Director and Admissions Tutor
- J.D., UCLA School of Law
- M.Sc., London School of Economics and Political Science
- M.A., Harvard University
- PGCert, University of Cambridge
- B.A., Brigham Young University
Mr. Beau LEFLER
- JD, University of Michigan
- BS (Economics), University of Utah
Past Guest Speakers
The following list is in no particular order.
Anne MINTO
INED, Shire and Tate & Lyle
Sir Donald BRYDON
Chairman of Sage Holding
Christine HODGSON
Chair of Severn Trent Plc
May TAN
Independent Non-Executive Director of Link REIT
Nancy TSE
INED – DBS Bank, Link REIT and HSBC Provident Fund Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited
Dr. Raymond CH'IEN
Chairman, Hang Seng Bank
Rick HAYTHORNTHWAITE
Chairman of Ocado Group
Ruth MARKLAND
Senior INED of Quilter & INED Arcadis
SCHEDULE AND VENUE
Dates
| Session 1 | 22 – 24 May 2025 |
| Session 2 | 25 – 27 September 2025 |
Venue
HKU Business School
Block B, Cyberport 4,
100 Cyberport Road,
Hong Kong
FEES AND FUNDING
Full programme fee:
USD$14,250 (USD$500 off for HKU alumni or for corporate rate of 3 or more concurrent registrations)
Deferment Policy
- Participants may defer their participation in the programme for a maximum of one year only.
- If a participant wishes to defer, they must provide an official statement in English detailing the situation and reason for deferral. This will be reviewed by our faculty office, which will determine whether the deferral request is approved.
- Administrative fees may apply to deferment applications.
CONTACT
Ms. Andrea KUK
Phone: +852 3917 3274
Email: [email protected]
