The Asian American Journalists Association Asia Chapter (AAJA-Asia) is pleased to announce that the 5th cohort of the Executive Leadership Program (ELP) Asia gathered in Bangkok on 26-31 May, in conjunction with the New.Now.Next Media Conference (N3Con) 2025. 15 journalists from eight Asian markets (China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, The Philippines, South Korea and Thailand) successfully completed the one week, fully in-person training focused on strengthening their leadership and management skills.
The 2025 Asia ELP cohort was led by Paul Cheung, Strategic Advisor and AI Initiative Lead for Hacks/Hackers, Bernice Sibucao, Senior Manager and Deputy Head of GMA Integrated News’ Digital Strategy and Innovation Lab, Brolley Genster, Staff editor at The New York Times, and Gilles Demptos, Director for Asia Pacific at the Asian American Journalists Association.
The program featured coaching sessions, training workshops and case studies led by experienced media coaches such as Andreas Votgiazakis, Executive Director at AMVPLUS Advisory; Anjali Kapoor, Principal at Hot Laundry Digital; Glenn van Zutphen, Founder of the VanMedia Group; Juliana Liu, Senior Asia Editor, CNN Business and Pichai Chuensuksawadi, former Editor in Chief of the Bangkok Post. The event also included exclusive “Executive Real Talks” with senior newsroom leaders such as Patrick Barta, Asia Enterprise Editor at The Wall Street Journal; Adam Schrek, Asia-Pacific News Director at The Associated Press; Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Tokyo/Seoul Bureau Chief for The Washington Post and Julie Pace, Executive Editor and Senior VP at The Associated Press.
To expand access to ELP, AAJA-Asia launched a fellowship supporting the participation of members who have been active within the Asia chapter in a leadership role or as a contributor to AAJA-Asia’s regional or local projects. Holly Chik, a reporter at the South China Morning Post and AAJA-Asia’s Hong Kong subchapter Co-Vice-President, was the first recipient of the new fellowship.
AAJA-Asia is also extremely grateful to AAJA past President and founder of the Executive Leadership Program, Dinah Eng, for supporting journalists to attend the program through the Dinah Eng Leadership Fellowship. This year, Akshi Sharma from the Hindustan Times was able to join ELP Asia thanks to this fellowship, while GMA Networks’ Criselda Caringal, also a 2025 recipient of the Dinah Eng Fellowship, used it to attend N3Con 2025.
INTRODUCING THE 2025 ASIA. ELP COHORT
Akshi Sharma is a journalist with Hindustan Times, where she has been covering a range of topics including politics, policy, culture, and public interest stories. With nine years of newsroom experience, she is known for her clear editing style and strong news sense. Akshi has contributed to in-depth coverage of elections, armed conflicts, and socio-economic issues, offering readers well-researched and balanced perspectives. She is particularly drawn to stories that highlight governance, climate crisis, and rights of marginalized communities. With a background in print journalism as well as digital media, Akshi blends traditional editing with an understanding of evolving news platforms. She believes in the power of storytelling to drive change and inform public opinion. Her work reflects a commitment to accuracy, integrity, and accountability. As a part of the HT’s editorial team, she continues to engage readers with compelling narratives rooted in facts and context.
Armando Peñafuerte III is an independent journalist who has co-led award-winning projects related to news production, education, community building, and more. He was part of a Filipino news team that won the George Foster Peabody Award for Best News Coverage in 2013. As an experienced communicator and ardent collaborator, Armando, or Andy as he is known, specializes in digital journalism, communication research, and event management, with proficiency in digital publishing and social media management. He is an alumnus of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Programme in Journalism, Media and Globalisation (with honors and a best thesis award) in Czechia and Denmark. On the side, he has initiated, co-organized, and volunteered in journalism and digital media literacy and capacity building events for the youth and professionals in Beijing, Manila, Prague, Vienna, and other cities.
International, multi-awarded financial journalist Cathy Yang marks a full return to media in 2025, following a four-and-a-half-year stint in the tech and telco ecosystem in the Philippines. On January 1, 2025, Yang began her leadership role at Cignal TV, Inc. under MediaQuest Holdings as Head of Programs and Host/Anchor. On February 10, 2025, she launched her multi-platform business news program, Money Talks with Cathy Yang, while continuing to host her multi-platform weekly talk show, Thought Leaders with Cathy Yang. She served as Group Head of Corporate Communications at PLDT and Smart from July 27, 2020 until November 30, 2024. In September 2024, Yang was awarded the Gold trophy at the 2024 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence in New York City, the highest recognition under the category, “Executive of the Year—Communication Technology”. She was recognized for spearheading strategic efforts at PLDT Group as Leader in the Global Child Forum’s children’s rights and business benchmark, helping set the gold standard for integrating children’s rights into the workplace, marketplace and communities.
Dai Wakabayashi is the Asia business correspondent for The New York Times based in Seoul. In this role, he covers economic, corporate, and business stories throughout the region, focusing on China. Before his posting in Seoul, Dai covered Google as part of The Times’ technology team in San Francisco. Before he joined The Times, Dai worked for The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco and Tokyo. During his time in Japan, Dai was named Journalist of the Year by the Society of Publishers in Asia for his coverage of Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami. He also received the award for Excellence in Feature Writing. Dai started his career at Reuters.
Dita Alangkara works as Chief Photographer for Indonesia and East Timor at the Associated Press Jakarta Bureau. Throughout his career, Dita has covered various major events, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999, Aceh separatist conflict, the sectarian conflict in Maluku, 2004 Aceh tsunami, as well as international sports events such as the Australian Open tennis tournament, Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and and Beijing, China, Summer olympics in Tokyo and Paris. In 2014, Dita took part in the Associated Press investigative team that uncovered slavery practices in the seafood industry in Southeast Asia, a report that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service category. Since July 2018, the Yogyakarta-born photojournalist has been appointed as lead photographer for AP in North Korea.
Eunice Xu is a stockbroker-turned-financial journalist. She will begin her Master of Journalism at the University of Hong Kong this September. Her work has been published in Global Trading, the Hong Kong Writers Circle Anthology, and the Hong Kong Women in Publishing Society Anthology. Previously, she worked as an equity sales trader at Credit Suisse and Virtu Financial, with additional experience in investment research, management consulting, and corporate sales. She holds a Master’s in finance from London Business School and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Farah Fleurima is a seasoned editorial professional with decades of experience with print and online publications. She has worked and/or written for the likes of The Dallas Morning News, The Detroit News, The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Now an international news editor, she has also been a widely published food writer and cultivated a love of all things culinary while pursuing a master’s in creative writing. A resident of Seoul, she is fluent in restaurant Korean and also speaks French.
Holly Chik is a reporter covering China for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She is co-vice-president of AAJA-Asia’s Hong Kong subchapter.
Justin Joyas is a Senior Business Development Manager at GMA News Online, where he incubates and implements strategic initiatives to enhance digital reach and audience engagement. From 2016 up until 2023, he managed the department’s social media team composing of 15 members. During this period, their accounts became the most engaged (Crowdtangle), had the highest online reach (Reuters Institute), and had the most local news views worldwide (Tubular Labs). Recently, he helped GMA News Online become the highest ranked local news site in the country and around the world (Similarweb). In addition, he advocated for the responsible use of social media in newsrooms and beyond at speaking engagements and private sessions. Passionate about the evolving media landscape, he is committed to bridging traditional, fact-based journalism with innovative strategies to withstand the fast-paced changes in the digital space.
Karnjana Karnjanatawe is the Deputy News Editor of the Bangkok Post overseeing daily news output as well as editing political and current affairs stories. A journalist with extensive experience producing national and international stories, she received the Online Story of the Year, Women’s Empowerment Category – Journalism Awards 2015 and the Sustainable Tourism Reporting Award 2015 – Silver Prize. Karnjana holds a MA in Journalism, Chulalongkorn University (2000) and an AB in Journalism, Thammasat University (1994).
Ken Wang is the Team Leader of the Chinese-language editing team at Bloomberg News, overseeing a geographically distributed group of nine editors and translators in Asia. In this role, Ken is responsible for managing editing workflows, ensuring quality control, and leading English-to-Chinese translation for Bloomberg’s Chinese-language services. His work supports the delivery of timely, accurate, and insightful financial news to Chinese-speaking audiences across the globe. With over a decade of experience in financial journalism and capital markets reporting, Ken has held various editorial and leadership roles at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. He has a proven track record of producing impactful stories, managing high-performing teams, and driving cross-regional collaboration. Ken holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University and is fluent in Mandarin, English, and Cantonese.
Lala Lacsina is a journalist from the Bicol Region who moved to Manila to pursue her passion for impactful storytelling, driven by the limited opportunities and lower pay in provincial journalism. Her provincial upbringing instilled in her a deep commitment to inclusivity and amplifying diverse voices. Now an Assistant Manager at GMA Network’s Digital Strategy and Innovation Lab, she uses data, technology, and creativity to drive meaningful storytelling. Lala spearheaded the creation of a vertical video team, made up of LGBTQ+ members and regional talents, to spotlight marginalized communities. One of her recent projects is a five-part series on HIV Awareness for Pride Month 2024. Lala pushes for regional representation and LGBTQ+ reporting and sensitivity trainings to build a more inclusive newsroom.
Mayuko Ono joined the Associated Press’ Tokyo team in June 2024 as a senior producer after training as a Video Journalist at AP’s Video News HQ in London for over 15 years. She started her career as a newspaper journalist in Japan prior to that.
Patpicha Tanakasempipat is a reporter covering Thailand for Bloomberg News. She also makes frequent appearances on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg’s Big Take and Big Take Asia podcasts. Over the last decade, Patpicha has covered a broad spectrum of topics from politics to business, and reported from the front lines of many historic events. Delivering both breaking news and long-form features, Patpicha reports from Thailand and other countries in the Southeast Asian region. She has won a SOPA award for investigative reporting, and her work has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, SABEW, and Gerald Loeb Award. She was part of the team that won a Breaking News of the Year Award at Reuters, where she spent the first seven years of her career. Patpicha graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Chulalongkorn University. She is a board member at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT).
Ted Ortiz is currently the assistant manager of GMA Integrated News Social Media Team, one of the biggest and most trusted news accounts in the Philippines. He leads a team of diverse and young digital journalists or online content producers that monitor, produce, curate, and disseminate content for more than 93 million online followers on various social media platforms. His dedication to providing informative, innovative, and engaging content in the world of social media has resulted in various recognitions internationally. Particularly, in 2022, he and his team won Best In Audience Engagement at the WAN-IFRA World Digital Media Awards and the Asian Digital Media Awards for their Dapat Totoo campaign, where they used augmented reality, TikTok challenges, and skits to prepare the voters for the then-Presidential elections. In 2024, his team’s AI Sportscasters Project was recognized at the Asia Pacific Broadcasting + (plus) Awards for the innovative use of technology in digital media. The project has since kickstarted the necessary use of artificial intelligence in newsrooms all over the country.
For more information about the Executive Leadership Program Asia, please contact asia@aaja.org