Celebrating Mexican Women Who Inspire Us

This year's International Women's Day's theme, #ChooseToChallenge, inspires us, as do the following Mexican women in Hong Kong. They are fiercely and gently taking responsibility and challenging different issues to spark change. We hope you'll join us in celebrating and supporting them and all the women in our lives.

Paola Sanchez

The daughter of an accountant, Tabasco native Paola Sanchez is an accountant in her own right. She has been in Asia since 2010 and is currently working on her CPA qualification in Hong Kong. Paola also served as treasurer at The Mexican Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong for over two years. Her challenge? She is striving for work-life balance by consistently doing yoga.

Ane Alfeiran

Ane Alfeiran (anealfeiran.com) self-taught artist, and COO and co-founder of Xoloplastics, uses her art to challenge our own feelings towards and interpretations of this form of expression. Through Xoloplastics (xoloplastics.com), Ane also creates art for social impact and environmentally sustainable projects in her hometown of Mexico City.

Diana Cortés

Economist and gender bias challenger Diana Cortés has been in the financial sector for over seven years. She focuses on digitalization and AI, but she has worked against money laundering and terrorist financing in Mexico, Germany, and Hong Kong. Born in Mexico City, Diana has also done socioeconomic studies for TECHO. This non-profit fights extreme poverty in Latin America by building transitional housing and implementing social inclusion programs.

Yamilette Cano

A former professional ballet dancer from Queretaro, Yamilette Cano is a multilingual entrepreneur and communication coach. She shares her passion for helping individuals and brands empower themselves through Louder (louderglobal.com). Yamilette, a well-known MC and speaker in Hong Kong's event industry, challenges the concept that emotions should be dismissed in business. She believes that we should all embrace emotions to create more meaningful teams, connections, and collaborations.

Luz Deneb Martinez

Luz Deneb Martinez, a marketing expert from Guanajuato, manages the Latin Department at CW CPA. She is also studying for an MBA while volunteering at MexCham HK as Head of Information and Research. Luz, meaning "light" in Spanish, beams when embracing the challenge of raising Mexico and Latin America's profiles in a multicultural place like Hong Kong and wherever she goes.

Pamela Dabdoub

Pamela Dabdoub is challenging us to revisit how we interact with the Earth and question our current relationship with the food we consume. With roots in Sonora and a lawyer by trade, she is founder and co-owner of Freida Club (freida.club) and partner of Permaclub (facebook.com/permaclub). With her legal and business skills, Pamela is creatively integrating food and cultural experiences in nature.

Cristina Villasenor

Cristina Villasenor speaks four languages and the language of computers. She holds a degree in information systems from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and helps banks become more technologically innovative. A programmer with several hackathons under her belt, this native of Baja California challenges how women are underrepresented in the tech sector, as their inclusion would greatly enrich the entire industry.

Irasema Castellanos

Mompreneur Irasema Castellanos calls Mexico City her birthplace. An international business professional and a water sports fan, she has founded two trading companies, America Supplies and Chinelos (chinelos.hk), and imports products from Mexico to Hong Kong, from chiles to herbs to handcrafts. Irasema challenges the notion that women cannot be both good mothers and successful business people at the same time.

Carolina Romero

Originally from Mexico's capital city, Carolina Romero holds a graduate degree in international finance and is one of the youngest female managing directors at HSBC. She is also a certified yoga instructor. To achieve work-life balance, Carolina urges us all to be courageous and to challenge ourselves. Only through self-awareness and knowing one's limiting beliefs can we begin our journey towards a well-rounded and well-balanced life.

Brenda Alatorre

Environmentalist Brenda Alatorre is fearlessly facing the global sustainability challenge by empowering people to live in greener ways. She is a nanotechnology and renewable energy engineer, currently pursuing a master’s degree in environmental and public health management in Hong Kong. A daughter of San Luis Potosi, Brenda has also cared for senior citizens and young burn victims and played basketball for Mexico at the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Claudia Bolanos

Claudia Bolanos chooses to challenge unconscious bias, the prejudices we are unaware of that hinder diversity and innovation. Creating shared value also inspires this Mexico City native who firmly believes that doing well while doing good is possible. When Claudia is not advising on foreign investment and corporate governance as a divisional head at a global financial institution, she deep-water dives and regularly fosters puppies.

Alma Arredondo

Her name means "soul" or "heart" in Spanish. Hailing from San Luis Potosi, Alma Arredondo is creating community and challenging our lack of deeper connection with ourselves and others through Mexican food. Currently, on a mission to hike all 50 of Hong Kong's highest peaks, Alma is a passionate culinary professional. She designs authentic food experiences (http://freida.club/.../products/mexican-culinary-experience), shares her culture, and feeds our hearts and souls.

Clarissa Guevara

For Clarissa Guevara, hard work, teamwork, and education are the pillars to building better societies. So is overcoming the challenge of finding and maintaining a work-life balance. With a varied and disciplined exercise habit, this financial and business analysis professional from Michoacan faces that challenge while in charge of overseeing the Latin American and Caribbean business for the world's leading port investor, developer, and operator.

Susana Munoz

Susana Munoz, President, MexCham HK, is an anthropologist, sociologist, and former government officer who has been in Asia for over a decade. Born in Mexico City, she helps Mexican and Chinese companies identify and implement successful business strategies through her venture GBA LatAm (gbalatamtradeinvestment.com). Eternally curious about people and cultures, Susana challenges the belief that you can't become an entrepreneur unless you study business.