Each year the Asian Australian Leadership Summit presents the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians Awards – an initiative that celebrates the accomplishments of Asian Australians and confronts Australia’s ‘bamboo ceiling’. At this session, 2020 overall winner, lawyer and human rights activist Lyma Nguyen and 2019 overall winner Dr Muneera Bano, a software engineer who works with human-centred technologies, are joined by 2021 winner, actor, comedian and writer Diana Nguyen for a conversation about leadership.

A passionate advocate for women’s empowerment, STEM education, and diversity and inclusion, Dr Muneera Bano has a strong commitment to smash society’s gender and cultural assumptions about scientists. A ‘Superstar of STEM’, ‘Most Influential Asian-Australian Under 40’ in 2019, and Ambassador ‘Go Girl, Go For IT’ 2020/2021, she aims to inspire the next generation of girls in STEM careers.

Lyma Nguyen received her title as overall winner of the ‘40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians’ for 2020. In 2014, Lyma was the youngest of ‘45 Trailblazing Women Australian Lawyers’ whose oral history is to be archived in Australia’s National Library, in recognition of her pro bono practice since 2009 as International Civil Party Counsel at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia.

Diana Nguyen is an actor, comedian and writer. She also calls herself a creative entrepreneur who had worked in this arts business for 16 years. She was recently awarded the overall 2021 Top 40 Under 40 Asian Australian Influential award.
Image credit: Emma Holland

Benjamin Law is a writer and broadcaster. He’s the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and his sold-out debut play Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company) ran February– March 2020.