Charlene Liu was born in Malaysia and has lived in the US, Singapore, and now Shanghai, China. She is an engineer, a social change maker, and a community leader.

She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BSc in Electrical Engineering and has 20 years of working experience in different areas of the Semiconductor & Electronics industry, ranging from design, engineering, manufacturing, project management to sales and marketing. She also has experience with events, corporate innovation, and management consulting at PwC.

Charlene has 16 years of community leadership, commercial event management, and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) advocacy experience. In 2009, she co-founded ShanghaiPRIDE, an annual festival run entirely by volunteers that promotes diversity, in 2014 Q-Events, an event management company, in 2016 Ladies Who Tech, a social impact community for women in STEM, and in 2019, D&I Consulting, a consultancy which helps corporates cultivate a more inclusive culture. Charlene is now embarking on a full-time journey managing these platforms.

In 2014, she and team ShanghaiPRIDE were awarded Shanghai Hero by TimeOut Shanghai, and in 2018, Best Event Organizer in East China by Huodongxing.

Why did you wait before, and why are you not waiting anymore?

Waiting is for yesterday. Life is too short and fun to give in to waiting. Everyday is a new day for us to discover new things and do things that are meaningful to ourselves and helpful to others.