GPH Joins MABC Panel on Mentorship, Networks, and Elevating Others for International Women's Day 2026

Published: 24 August 2026

On Thursday, 2 April 2026, Monash University Malaysia President and Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Dato' Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman joined a distinguished panel at HELP University for "CAMPUS TO CORPORATE: Lessons in Mentorship, Networks & Elevating Others," an International Women's Day 2026 event hosted by the Malaysia Australia Business Council (MABC) Women in Business chapter under the theme "Give to Gain." Monash University Malaysia served as venue sponsor for the evening. The Department of Global Population Health (GPH) was represented at the event by Senior Administrative Executive, standing in for Head of Department Professor Sarah Hawkes.

The event opened with an address from keynote speaker H.E. Danielle Heinecke, Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia, who drew on her own experience as a leader and single mother to speak on the practical steps businesses, policymakers, and NGOs can take to support women's advancement. She pointed to the newly launched Social Norms, Attitudes and Practices Survey for Malaysia, which found broad public support for gender equity but a persistent gap in translating that support into real behavioural change. She also set out the shared momentum across both countries: Malaysia's push toward 60% female workforce participation and the outsized role women play as owners of most SMEs, alongside Australia's record 63.1% female workforce participation in 2025 and its Workplace Gender Equality Act, which requires large employers to set and report on gender gap targets.

The evening's panel discussion, moderated by Norlida Azmi, Founder of Chapter Advisory Sdn Bhd, brought together Professor Adeeba, Robyn Dittrich (Vice President, Global Business Services at BHP), and Natalie Loi (Head of Technology, UnBound Malaysia & Australia) for a wide-ranging conversation on what actually makes mentorship work.

The panel was candid about when mentorship fails: Professor Adeeba noted it falls flat as a "tick the box" exercise rather than a sincere commitment, Dittrich pointed to the demotivating effect of mentees being coerced into it by their bosses, and Loi stressed that it simply doesn't work unless both parties are willing to invest the time, honesty, and vulnerability it requires. On the flip side, Dittrich described how the right mentor becomes invaluable in high-stakes environments such as major transformations or new market entries, offering guidance through ambiguity that textbooks can't teach. She also walked through how mentorship needs to shift across a career — from skill-building in one's twenties, to balancing career and family in the thirties, to re-entry and reinvention in the forties and fifties.

Natalie Loi offered a generational lens, describing how mentorship has moved from a strictly hierarchical model toward a more reciprocal one, with reverse mentoring — where younger colleagues share technological know-how upward — increasingly common in tech-driven workplaces. Professor Adeeba connected the discussion back to outcomes, observing that mentored individuals consistently present as more confident and prepared in promotion exercises, and made the case for embedding mentorship more deliberately into academia, beyond formal academic supervision. Both Professor Adeeba and Natalie closed with examples of how networks translate directly into impact: Professor Adeeba's connections within the HIV/AIDS community helped drive change in difficult environments, while Loi described how a well-placed contact helped her navigate cultural nuances when exporting technology to Brazil, and how another saved her years of effort in publishing her book.

The session reflected Monash Malaysia's ongoing engagement with the Malaysia Australia Business Council and reinforced GPH's broader commitment to gender equity as a pillar of its research and community engagement work.