Sirina Sisombat-Hervy is proud winner of Asean Business Award

Long before she won the 2017 Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Asean Business Awards (ABA), Ms Sirina Sisombat-Hervy had emerged as a confident role model for other women across Laos.
The Managing Director of Sinouk Coffee, a leading player in the coffee industry in Laos whose achievements have been recognised by the Asean Business Advisory Council, Ms Sirina has always been very ambitious about improving her company and its products.
She said she was very happy to win the important regional award, which was presented to her in the Philippines last year. On the same occasion, she was also named as one of two scholars chosen for the 2018 Asean Global Leadership Programme to attend a week-long session at the NYU Stern School of Business in the US in April.

Ms Sirina Sisombat-Hervy with her trophy.

Ms Sirina said the title was very important for her because it’s an honour for all women in the Asean region. She hoped her achievement would inspire other women, especially in Laos, to continue enhancing their skills and empowering themselves to contribute to the prosperity of the country and the region.
She said it wasn’t easy for her to win the title because she had to compete against many women from other Asean nations who were all well qualified, including the 16 other women who were chosen as finalists.
“It wasn’t easy because there were many competitors and many steps to follow. One had to have a clear strategy for business, a vision for improvement and the way to build a successful business that had to be presented to the jury. I was confident and tried my best to explain things to the jury based on the reality of my work and, fortunately, I won this title,” she said.
“I think I won because I’m confident. All women have talent and ability and we should just be confident. We also need gender equality so that women can do what the men do. I would like to encourage all women, particularly young Lao women, to be confident about doing everything and also to apply for this title next year.”
“I would like to thank the organising committee for giving me a chance in the competition and the jury for considering and understanding my proposal. This title is really important, meaningful and an honour for the women of Laos and Asean countries. Of course, I’m so happy and proud on behalf of all Lao women to win it.”
Ms Sirina was born on August 21, 1983, in Paris, France, and graduated with a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Reims Management School. Her father is Lao.
Before she started working in Laos in late 2014, she visited the country every summer when she was young and more often over the past three years. She also headed the office of a start-up in Singapore, where she built her network and knowledge of the Asean market, before coming to Laos.
Ms Sirina has been running Sinouk Coffee with her father since 2014. The company aims to become a recognised player in the Asean market within the next five years, and raise the level of awareness of Lao coffee to the international stage.
Her ambition is to lead the expansion of the company to the Asean market and to keep raising the level of awareness about Lao coffee. Her actions are already bringing in results and the company plans to export its roasted coffee to four Asean nations this year.
Ms Srinia’s leadership at Sinouk Coffee has inspired continuous innovation that has led the company to increase its competitive advantage through quality coffee made from unique Lao-based products. She has also led the company’s internal transformation to scale up its future growth in the domestic and regional markets.
Under her leadership, the company has reinforced its presence in the Lao market with a unique value proposition as it masters the entire coffee value chain. The company grows its own coffee, roasts the coffee with its own recipe, and distributes it to HORECA, while Ms Sirina has her sights set on establishing coffee tourism as a key draw in southern Laos.
Her previous experiences in marketing and sales in France and Singapore, as well as her leadership, have added a new dynamic to the organisation. She is also transforming the way of drinking Lao coffee by raising it to international expectations, and progressively bringing in disruptive consumption models which can be adopted by the Lao people.
Ms Sirina also won an award in 2013 for her LinkedIn Power Profile (for being one of the 43 most viewed profiles in the Singapore tech industry). She is now awaiting the results of the 2018 Women of the Future Award, for which she was one of the finalists.

By Visith Teppalath
(Latest Update March 7, 2018)