Icons of Change Ambassador for SDG 5

Amy Kunrojpanya

Founding Member – The Elevate Group
Former Vice President of Communications, Asia Pacific – Netflix
Former Senior Director of Policy & Communications, Asia Pacific – Uber
Former Head of Public Affairs & Communications, New & Emerging Markets, Thailand – Google
Former Head of Internal Communications, Asia Pacific – Syngenta
Former Head of Public Affairs & Communications, Indochina – Coca-Cola Sabco
Former Public Affairs & Communications Senior Manager, Southeast & West Asia – The Coca-Cola Company
Former South & Southeast Asian Regional Project Manager – Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)

SDG Focus: Sustainable Development Goal 5 – Gender Equality
Changemaker for Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Leadership (Australia)

Here is an Icons of Change Keynote for Sustainable Development Goal 5, delivered by one of the most influential voices shaping gender equality, inclusive leadership, and strategic advocacy across the Asia Pacific region.

She moves with precision through five core lenses of her advocacy:

1. The Imperative of Safety and Dignity

Amy delivers a sobering reminder: 1 in 3 women worldwide experience violence in their lifetime—a statistic unchanged for decades. She challenges the audience to recognize that this is neither inevitable nor acceptable.

She calls for leaders across sectors to take ownership, refusing to outsource responsibility for equality to future generations or unnamed stewards of change.

2. The Corporate Mandate for Gender Equality

Drawing from her 25+ years of global leadership, Amy underscores the responsibility and strategic advantage organizations hold:

“Hire women. Pay women. Promote women. Protect women and mothers in the workforce.”

Her keynote reframes equity not as an HR initiative but as a business-critical growth and performance strategy—a model proven repeatedly throughout her career at Netflix, Uber, Google, Syngenta, Coca-Cola, and Austrade.

3. Policy, Representation, and Power Structures

Amy emphasizes that true equality requires women to occupy—and influence—every table of decision-making.

She calls for:

- Greater representation of women at all policy levels

- Laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and violence

- Stronger data and measurement frameworks

- Gender-responsive governance from technology to climate action

Her message is clear: systems cannot change if the voices of those most affected are missing from the rooms where decisions are made.

4. Storytelling as a Catalyst for Equality

As a storyteller and cultural strategist, Amy challenges the passive language often used around women’s empowerment:

“Power is not something to be given to women—it already exists within them.”