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The Top 10 Most Powerful Women in Business in Asia 2025

The Top 10 Most Powerful Women in Business inAsia2025:

1.Tan Su Shan, CEO, DBS Group, Singapore

Despite her numerous accomplishments, Susan Tan is perhaps best known within Singapore's banking community for bringing a Bloomberg terminal into the delivery room during her 1999 birth. She later joked that she had "no choice," given the rapidly depreciating Japanese yen at the time. As the first female leader of DBS Group, Southeast Asia's largest bank, Susan Tan has been with the bank for over 15 years, having held positions at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Before becoming CEO in March of this year, she led DBS's institutional banking business and drove the continued expansion of its consumer finance, wealth management, and international businesses.

Susan Tan succeeds Piyush Gupta, known as the "Singaporean Jamie Dimon," who led DBS's revenue growth from US$4.6 billion in 2009 to US$17 billion today. DBS Chairman Peter Seah called Susan Tan "an exceptional choice" to lead the bank into its "next chapter." In an interview, Tan Su Shan jokingly described herself as a "nagging grandmother," stating that this interpersonal communication style, inherited from her predecessor, emphasizes consistency, clarity, and good communication. Current geopolitical uncertainty is threatening DBS's performance, a particular challenge for trade-dependent Singapore and Southeast Asia. Despite this, Tan Su Shan remains confident in the bank's growth prospects and is bullish on Singapore's future as a financial hub connecting Southeast Asia, China, and India. She is also enthusiastic about new technologies, believing that artificial intelligence models are a "transformative force" in the banking industry.

2.Grace Wang, Cofounder, Chairwoman and CEO, Luxshare Precision Industry, China

Under Wang Laichun's nearly two decades of leadership, Luxshare Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (Luxshare) has grown into a key hub in the global electronics industry chain, with businesses spanning consumer electronics, communications, and automotive parts. After a decade at Foxconn, she co-founded Luxshare with her brother in 2004 and serves as its chairman. Under her leadership, the company has become a core supplier for Apple, producing AirPods, assembling iPhones, and providing core modules and connectors for a variety of devices. In 2024, Luxshare's revenue exceeded US$37 billion, earning it a spot on the Fortune Global 500 list, solidifying its position as one of the world's most dynamic manufacturers. The company has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2010 and submitted an application for a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2025. This low-key and pragmatic entrepreneur is actively reshaping her supply chain and developing new manufacturing bases to address the new challenges posed by geopolitical tensions and protectionist trade policies.

3.Meng Wanzhou, Deputy Chairwoman, Rotating Chairwoman, CFO, Huawei, China

Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, serves as the company's Chief Financial Officer and serves as rotating chairman alongside Vice Chairman Xu Zhijun. She is currently serving a six-month rotating term, which will end in March of next year. As the United States continues to tighten restrictions on semiconductor technology exports to China, Huawei has become a key component in China's efforts to develop its own independent chip industry. Nvidia considers Huawei a "strategic competitor." Huawei's technological independence has yielded fruitful results: in 2024, the company is projected to achieve revenue of $118 billion, nearing its 2020 record high.

4.Bonnie Y Chan, CEO, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, China Hongkong

The claim of "uninvestable" is mere empty talk. As investors capitalize on the DeepSeek craze, China's economic recovery, and undervalued valuations, the Hong Kong stock market is experiencing a surge. The driving force behind this surge is Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) Group CEO, Chan Yik-ting. Chan is arguably Hong Kong's second most prominent financial figure, following Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Her efforts are bearing fruit: Hong Kong is experiencing a surge in the number of IPOs from mainland China and Southeast Asian companies. Trading volumes on the HKEX have consistently reached record highs, placing the city back among the world's top IPO markets. As the US increasingly restricts Chinese companies from raising funds overseas, Hong Kong is experiencing new capital opportunities. The HKEX's efforts to promote gender diversity on the boards of listed companies are also showing initial success. After years of advocacy, only 0.7% of Hong Kong's approximately 2,600 listed companies still maintain all-male boards.

5.Kathy Yang Chiu-chin, Rotating CEO, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), China Taiwan


Yang Qiujin is the first female rotating CEO of electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn. She also serves as the group's global chief campus operations officer, overseeing the group's manufacturing sites and overseeing logistics, trade compliance, and the supply chain management platform Just-in-Time Delivery (JUSDA). Over the past year, Foxconn achieved record revenue, fueled by the boom in artificial intelligence. Despite geopolitical pressures and rising US tariffs, the company has continued to forge ahead.

6.Malina Ngai, Group CEO, AS Watson, China Hongkong

The world's largest chain of drugstores and cosmetics is not a Western giant, but Watsons Group (a subsidiary of Hong Kong Cheung Kong Hutchison Holdings Limited), headquartered in Hong Kong. Its business covers Asia and Europe, with 17,000 stores. Ni Wenling has been in charge of Watsons Group since 2024. The retail business is the largest segment of Cheung Kong Hutchison, contributing 40% of the group's revenue in 2024. As the flagship brand of this segment, Watsons' history can be traced back to a pharmacy founded in Hong Kong nearly two hundred years ago. Today, Watsons Group not only operates Watsons stores, but also owns European chain brands such as Savers and Superdrug, as well as supermarkets, beauty stores and electronics retailers throughout Hong Kong and mainland China. Ni Wenling was once a competitive athlete and represented Hong Kong in the 1994 Asian Games. She once said in 2018: "My career has benefited from my sports background, which has brought me to where I am today."

7.Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson, HCLTech, India

As the chairperson of India's HCLTech, Roshni Nadar Malhotra has become India's richest woman and ranks third on the country's richest list after inheriting part of the shares transferred by her father. She is actively promoting the use of artificial intelligence in HCLTech to maintain efficient operations while streamlining staff. Roshni worked in television news in her early years. She returned to the family business in 2008 and became chairman in 2020, responsible for overseeing the company's overall strategic planning. In addition to helming HCLTech, she is also actively involved in a number of charitable causes, including providing educational funding for talented students in rural India and participating in nature conservation projects. She hopes to see more women join India's fast-growing technology industry. "We hope that more women can build long-term careers in technology," she said in an interview with Fortune India earlier this year.

8.Choi Soo-yeon, President and CEO Naver, South Korea

As the head of Naver, one of South Korea's tech giants, Choi Soo-yeon is leading the company through a new wave of technological advancements. Naver is best known for its search engine, but it also has ventures into e-commerce, cloud computing, and user-generated content. Now in her second term, Choi Soo-yeon is pushing for the full integration of artificial intelligence into the company's core services. In 2024, Naver's revenue exceeded 10 trillion won (approximately US$7 billion) for the first time, thanks to a strong rebound in its advertising and e-commerce businesses, setting a new record for a domestic Korean internet company. Naver's next major strategic initiative is to build "sovereign AI"—an AI system tailored to a country's culture, environment, and characteristics. The company also recently released the open-source model "Hyper CLOVA X SEED," which is freely available to the public. As of September of this year, Choi Soo-yeon was also invited to join the board of directors of the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative.

9.Makiko Ono, President and CEO, Suntory Beverage and Food, Japan

In 2023, Makiko Ono became CEO of Suntory Food & Beverages (the non-alcoholic beverage and food division of the Suntory Group), becoming the first woman in Japanese history to lead a company with a market capitalization of over 1 trillion yen (approximately $7 billion). The company achieved record revenue of 1.7 trillion yen in its most recent fiscal year, a 2.7% year-on-year increase. Female CEOs remain a rarity in Japan, where the proportion of female business leaders lags not only globally but also even behind other Asian countries. Makiko Ono hopes to change this. “We are opening a door so that more young female employees can see a brighter future,” she told Fortune in an interview last year.

10.Mitsuko Tottori, President and CEO,JAL Group, Japan

Mitsuko Tottori's rise to the leadership of Japan Airlines' parent company has been an extraordinary career journey. She joined JAL in 1985 as a flight attendant, rising through the ranks to become head of cabin crew and then chief customer officer. Tottori has said her early experience as a flight attendant honed her risk management skills. Last year, she became the first female CEO of Japan Airlines Group. Her tenure as CEO has been somewhat rocky: Tottori voluntarily took a temporary pay cut following an incident involving two pilots drinking alcohol before a flight. Despite this, JAL achieved record revenue of $12.7 billion in the fiscal year ending in March, driven by continued growth in inbound tourists.