Women of Substance is a new series on Channel NewsAsia highlighting women’s issues. The series focuses on how women leaders are breaking the glass ceiling and doing things differently in forging ahead. Here is the interview of Lori Granito, serial entrepreneur & foodie, Hong Kong, conducted by journalist Chloe Cho.
Lori Granito is the co-founder of Kitchen Sync, Hong Kong’s first culinary incubator for start up food entrepreneurs. She is also the owner of several other F&B companies, including the award winning Magnolia private kitchen.
Lori has received numerous accolades in many of Hong Kong’s major newspapers including: the SCMP (Best Private Dinner Party Caterer of the Year), HK Standard, Asian Wall Street Journal, Eastern Express, Time Out, HK Magazine, and HK Economic Times to name but a few. Her companies have also been featured internationally in publications such as the Sydney Sun Herald, Travel and Leisure, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Essence and The Robb Report. Her television appearances include TVB Pearl’s Money Magazine, CNBC’s ‘The Winners’, CNN’s Global Office program, and a six week run on Bloomberg’s Asia Confidential.
Lori received the prestigious American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong’s ‘Women of Influence’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2016. She was also named 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year by Skal Hong Kong, an organization comprised of hotel GM’s and top executives from the hospitality and travel industry in Hong Kong.
She is a sought after speaker, and in addition to being a Tedx speaker coach, has done talks for Google, several Rotary Clubs, InvestHK, Metta, Female Entrepreneurs Worldwide (FEW), and AXA. She is a 3 time Ted speaker and her TedX Wanchai Women talk on entrepreneurship garnered the only standing ovation of the event. Her other Ted talks include TedX Lingnan University and TedX HKUST. She has given several talks for the HKU MBA programme.
She is a former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Women Business Owner’s Association, Former Vice Chair of the Soho Business Association, and is currently on the board of the Women’s Entrepreneur Network in Hong Kong.
She speaks fluent French and a smattering of Spanish, Japanese and Cantonese. She is also learning Mandarin.
Lori’s speaking topics include:
- Fail forward – Turning obstacles into opportunities by choosing possibilities instead of problems. Make your mess your message.
- Jump into Greatness – Why playing it safe is the enemy of success
- Why People Buy – Demystifying the Customer Experience
- Digital Footprints – How your online personal ‘brand’ affects your offline corporate experience
- Leaders go to the back of the line (queue)! – How your company culture can inspire teams to get more done through empowerment rather than fear.
- Stop asking for your piece of the pie – get the recipe! Change your outlook to overcome limiting behaviors (Entrepreneurs)
- The Biggest Bully is You – Quit being an asshole to yourself
- Embracing diversity to drive innovation
- What Box are you in? – Are you sure you’re who you think you are? Re-think your identity and what you believe you are capable of in order to unleash your full potential.
- Partners in Success – Embrace collaboration instead of competition in order to rise
- Entreprenuership – Lessons from a cartoon fish (Tedx) – overcoming adversity,
- The Power of Perseverance – Why Findng your passion isn’t enough
- Women’s Entrepreneurship/ Women as Leaders – Various topics
- The (not so) Secret Sales Sauce – and why most people still don’t get it
- Risk Taking and Decision Making – The Value of thinking like an Entrepreneur
Chloe Cho is Presenter/ Executive Producer in Channel NewsAsia’s Current Affairs Department. She presents, develops programmes, and oversees editorial content for the channel’s business shows, including the new weekly Investor Insights, and an interview series entitled, Millionaire Minds. She’s also co-host for the business reality show, StartUp. Chloe’s involvement in a diverse range of projects comes as she rejoins the channel in July 2014 after being away for nearly six years. Previously, she presented prime time evening programmes as well as breaking news coverage alongside hosting and co-producing current affairs shows.
Earlier, she was with CNBC Asia where anchored regional and global shows out of Singapore alongside London, and Sydney, checking the pulse of global financial markets and examining their investor implications. A prolific international journalist, Chloe has presented and reported on key news developments from the global financial crisis and Thai political tensions to the North Korean nuclear showdown and G20 meetings. Her work assignments have taken her across the Asia-Pacific, Eastern & Western Europe and the Americas. Chloe often interviews top newsmakers around the world including IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, SouthKorean President Lee Myung-bak, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Samsung Electronics Co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon, and Roubini Global Economics Chairman Nouriel Roubini. Chloe is an experienced moderator, having chaired panels at the World Economic Forum and the World Knowledge Forum. In 2009, Chloe was selected among Newsweek Korea’s 50 Most Influential Koreans recognized for their work in international media, culture and arts.
Chloe began her broadcast career as a teen in educational TV in South Korea and went on to become anchor, morning news editor and news team manager for Arirang TV while working as a CNN World Report contributor. During her time off, Chloe enjoys writing, having released her first book in Korea entitled, “Good Morning Singapore. This is Chloe,” in Korean. Raised both in the United States and South Korea, Chloe is a native speaker of English and Korean, and also speaks French. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in French at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
Contact us if you would like Lori Granito or Chloe Cho for your next event.