Archives: Authors

Marga Ortigas has travelled the world as a journalist for three decades, with a career spanning five continents and two of the largest global news networks. After getting her start in the Philippines, she joined CNN in London, working across Europe and covering the war in Iraq from its inception. In 2006, she returned to Manila and the Asia Pacific region, reporting from the frontlines of armed conflict and climate change as senior correspondent for Al Jazeera. Her extensive coverage of the Muslim rebellion in the southern Philippines was recognised by the International Committee of the Red Cross for Humanitarian Reporting.
A British Council Chevening Scholar, Ortigas earned her MA in literature and criticism at the University of Greenwich. She speaks three languages, and is the editor of I, Migrant, an online platform which showcases writing from the diaspora, advocating a universal humanity beneath people’s differences.

James Finch grew up in America. He began a career in international private law in Tehran, Iran. He later joined the US Foreign Service, serving in Ecuador, Trinidad and Argentina. Returning to the private sector, he worked over the rest of his career as a partner in law firms in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma, where he spent twenty-two years.

He has three published novels previous to Silence in the Land of Gold. Among his passions are photography and Burmese art. He has just finished the manuscript of a book on the sacred statue of Burma, a decades-long effort.

James has a house in North Carolina, USA and travels the streets and roads of the world with a camera and Debbie, the love of his life.

Dr Rohayu Binti Shahar Adnan graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, and came back to Malaysia to do her one-year internship at Hospital Tuanku Jaafar, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. After completion of her internship, she worked in Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang in the Surgical and Forensic Medicine Departments as a medical officer before succeeding to pursue her studies in Forensic Pathology. She enrolled in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM), a 4-year Master of Pathology program. Upon graduating, she went on to do her 6-month specialist gazettement in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. She was then transferred to Johor in 2010 and worked in Hospital Sultan Ismail as a Forensic Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine Department. Currently, she is heading the Forensic Medicine Department of Hospital Sungai Buloh. Besides heading her Department, she has been actively involved with medical undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Forensic Medicine in both local and private universities. She also organizes and gives lectures in many seminars and workshops for medical officers, assistant medical officers, nurses, lawyers, students, and secondary school children on Forensic Medicine. She has performed more than 1000 autopsies, supervising more than 3000 autopsies, and has attended almost 100 court cases all over Malaysia. Not to mention, she attended a course training in Forensic Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, USA, and Central Institute of Forensic science Bangkok. Forensic Pathology has always been her passion and it is her dream to share her knowledge of Forensic Medicine to the public.

Fatin Amin has been on an unorthodox route when it comes to garnering experience. As a Journalism graduate from The University of Tampa and a Professional Golf Management Degree holder from the Professional Golfers Career College, she has never sauntered away from embracing new opportunities. Fatin has harnessed various leadership roles throughout her college career, and even took up practical training in a golf course, which was generally male dominated. Breaking barriers and acquiring new knowledge, paved a clear path of success for Fatin. Though life never goes to plan. After going through grief of losing her older brother Haikal from cancer, and multiple rejections of gaining work, post graduate goals became a blur. Her mother Jamilah decided to advise her on using her strong traits to create something on her own. As a primary caregiver for her late brother, and holding such passion for writing, Fatin’s mother advised her to create a blog to spread awareness. After much thought, World Footprint, a Kindness Project Initiative was created. It is a project inspired by her brother’s act of kindness to spread positivity, break social barriers, and create a safe space for individuals to express themselves. Being highly sports orientated, Fatin has always set her mind to win majors in anything she does. This book is a huge milestone for her, and has open doors for her to finally achieve the goal of creating a foundation in honor of her late brother, to help people wherever she can.

Duncan Hewett is an industry champion for the representation of women in business and technology. He is focused on driving actionable results for gender diversity in the workplace and has consistently driven acceleration for women across leadership levels. Duncan is currently the Senior VP and General Manager for VMware’s business in Asia Pacific & Japan and has previously led IBM’s Asia Pacific software business.

With a passion for driving greater participation of women in the workforce, Duncan developed VMinclusion Taara, a program that VMware leverages to help women upskill and regain the confidence to back work in the technology sector in India. More than 11,000 women have benefitted through the program so far, and over 1500 have returned to work. The program has been awarded by ‘Women Leading Change Awards 2020 for Asia Pacific’, India’s reputed Economic Times’ ET Now – CSR Program of the Year 2019, JobsForHer’s – Top 20 Most Innovative Practices Women Returnee Programs and Zinnov VMware India’s Inclusion & Diversity Award.

Duncan’s philosophy on diversity takes an inside out approach by equipping women to succeed, helping with skills, practical tools to navigate the corporate world and help build their confidence. He believes this turns them into lifelong athletes in the workforce and allows them to forge their chosen path. An advocate for mentoring, Duncan mentors more than 30 women today. His vision for the workplace is to be representative of society, which is 50:50 participation. As he says, “If it is not, we have work to do.”

Marina Mahathir is a writer, women’s rights and HIV/AIDS activist. She served as the President of the Malaysian AIDS Council for 12 years from 1993-2005 and was a member of numerous international and regional committees on HIV/AIDS.

From 2010-2016, she served on the Board of Sisters in Islam, which advocates for justice and equality for Muslim women, and remains a member of the Finance and Fundraising Committee.

Marina has written a column in a local English-language daily for more than 20 years, and writes and speaks regularly on current issues particularly where it relates to gender, human rights and religion. She is active on Twitter (@netraKL) and Facebook and has authored three compilations of her newspaper columns, In Liberal Doses (1997), Telling It Straight (2012), and Dancing on Thin Ice (2015).

In 2010, Marina was named the UN Person of the Year by the United Nations in Malaysia. On the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day in 2011, Marina was one of only two Malaysian women named to WomenDeliver.org’s list of 100 Most Inspiring People Delivering for Girls and Women. In 2016, Marina received France’s highest award, the Chevalier de la Legion D’Honneur in recognition of her work in HIV and women’s rights. This is in addition to receiving the Dato Paduka Mahkota Selangor (DPMS) from the Sultan of Selangor in 1997 which carries the title ‘Datin Paduka’.

Marina’s abiding interest in education especially for young women has led her to be appointed to the board of the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. In 1997 she received an Honorary degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia for her work in HIV/AIDS education, in 2014 from Wawasan Open University, Penang for her work in human rights and in 2018 she received an Honorary Doctorate from her alma mater, the University of Sussex, UK. Previously she also co-produced an award-winning TV programme for young women, 3R -Respect, Relax, Respond which ran for 10 years on TV3.

Marina’s latest venture is a website for women travellers in Asia and the Middle East, Zafigo.com and ZafigoX, an event on women and travel that features inspiring women who have faced challenges and barriers while travelling and overcome them.

In 2019, Marina completed with Distinction a Master’s Degree in Biography and Creative Non-Fiction from the University of East Anglia, UK.

Michael O’Sullivan is a writer and academic based in Hong Kong. He has published 12 books on literature, philosophy and education. His most recent book Cloneliness was published by Bloomsbury in 2019. His poetry and essays appear in Times Higher Education, Voice and Verse, Asian Cha and PEN Hong’s Kong’s recent Hong Kong 20/20.

Edilberto C. de Jesus served as president of: Far Eastern University (1995-2002); the University of the Cordilleras (2008-2009); and the Asian Institute of Management (2009-2012), where he now holds a Professor Emeritus appointment.
In 1987, President Corazon Aquino appointed him Deputy Peace Commissioner, on secondment from AIM, where he was Chair of the Rural Development Management Program. In 1988, he received a concurrent appointment in the Cabinet as Presidential Adviser on Rural Development (1988-1992). Returning to AIM, he served as Associate Dean for Research and established its Policy Center.
He was president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities and a board member of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations when he was appointed Secretary of Education (2002-2004). He was President of the Council of Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 2003, later serving as its Secretariat Director in Bangkok (2005-2007). He served in the Asia-Europe Education Hub established by the Asia Europe Foundation for the ASEM (Asia Europe Ministerial Meetings) and has been on the Advisory Committee of the Philippine Business for Education since its inception in 2006.
He obtained a B.A. Honors Course in the Humanities, cum laude, from the Ateneo de Manila University and the M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in History from Yale University. He is the author of The Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines: Bureaucratic Enterprise and Social Changes, 1766-1880 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1980) and co-edited, with Alfred McCoy, Philippine Social History: Global Trade and Local Transformations (Ateneo de Manila University, 1982).