Catalyst for Change
Over 500 Employees

Recognizes a woman driving systemic change in the industry by promoting ethical practices and inspiring positive change in their organizations and beyond.

Buky Famosa

Mattel

SVP, People & Culture

Buky demonstrated exceptional leadership in redesigning the Brand organization, pushing boundaries to imagine what was previously not considered possible and translating those ideas into action. She played a central role in enabling the most significant organizational transformation Mattel has undertaken in the past decade. She navigated complex change, including workforce decisions, communications, and negotiations during a period of cost discipline, ensuring alignment and minimal disruption. Her ability to deliver high-quality work under pressure, coupled with strong judgment and partnership, drove more agile, effective, and forward-looking organizational outcomes.

Cara consistently demonstrates leadership through her ability to navigate complex and sensitive situations with both empathy and candor. She plays a key role in guiding difficult conversations, ensuring that challenges are addressed thoughtfully while maintaining trust and respect across teams. Blending strong HR expertise with business acumen, she contributes meaningfully to organizational decision-making, helping leaders approach people-related matters with clarity and perspective. Through her steady, values-driven approach, she strengthens team dynamics and fosters a culture where employees feel heard, supported, and empowered to succeed.

Cara Shadbolt

asmodee

VP HR, Europe Route to Market

Cara consistently demonstrates leadership through her ability to navigate complex and sensitive situations with both empathy and candor. She plays a key role in guiding difficult conversations, ensuring that challenges are addressed thoughtfully while maintaining trust and respect across teams. Blending strong HR expertise with business acumen, she contributes meaningfully to organizational decision-making, helping leaders approach people-related matters with clarity and perspective. Through her steady, values-driven approach, she strengthens team dynamics and fosters a culture where employees feel heard, supported, and empowered to succeed.

As SVP of HR, Laura champions a people-first culture by prioritizing internal mobility, actively mentoring talent, and creating clear pathways for employees to grow within the organization. Leading HR across multiple locations, she has strengthened consistency in employee experience while maintaining a strong local culture. She led strategic benefits negotiations to enhance employee well-being while managing costs, and spearheaded charitable giving initiatives that increased both community impact and employee engagement. Her leadership has improved retention, elevated morale, and reinforced a values-driven culture that empowers people to drive positive change across the organization.

Laura Christiansen

VTech Electronics, North America

SVP, Human Resources

As SVP of HR, Laura champions a people-first culture by prioritizing internal mobility, actively mentoring talent, and creating clear pathways for employees to grow within the organization. Leading HR across multiple locations, she has strengthened consistency in employee experience while maintaining a strong local culture. She led strategic benefits negotiations to enhance employee well-being while managing costs, and spearheaded charitable giving initiatives that increased both community impact and employee engagement. Her leadership has improved retention, elevated morale, and reinforced a values-driven culture that empowers people to drive positive change across the organization.

Savannah Tarpey

The LEGO Group

Sr. Manager, Retail Sustainability Strategy Lead

Savannah leads retail sustainability for LEGO Brand Retail and has been a catalyst for embedding sustainability into daily operations. She formalized the partnership between stores and LEGO Replay, creating a process to collect and donate store element waste. Through this initiative, 47,500 children globally have benefited from donated bricks. Savannah also introduced green leasing clauses for the first time, ensuring 80% of new leases and renewals in North America included sustainability commitments. These clauses define shared responsibilities between landlords and tenants across energy efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainable practices, setting a new standard for environmentally responsible retail operations.

Shelby is redefining how sustainability shows up in the toy/game industry. At Hasbro, she led the rollout of the first Climate & Nature Transition Plan, translating complex climate and regulatory challenges into an actionable roadmap. She forged Hasbro’s partnership with Playing for the Planet—an alliance mobilizing the gaming industry on environmental action—and serves as Vice Chair, Global Advisory Council. In coordination with the alliance, she integrated the Green Game Jam into Magic: The Gathering Arena, reaching global players through mission-aligned gameplay. Shelby’s partnerships with Oceana and Rainforest Alliance demonstrate that sustainability, creativity, and business success can advance together.

Shelby Iapoce-Lintz

Hasbro, Inc.

Manager Corporate Sustainability

Shelby is redefining how sustainability shows up in the toy/game industry. At Hasbro, she led the rollout of the first Climate & Nature Transition Plan, translating complex climate and regulatory challenges into an actionable roadmap. She forged Hasbro’s partnership with Playing for the Planet—an alliance mobilizing the gaming industry on environmental action—and serves as Vice Chair, Global Advisory Council. In coordination with the alliance, she integrated the Green Game Jam into Magic: The Gathering Arena, reaching global players through mission-aligned gameplay. Shelby’s partnerships with Oceana and Rainforest Alliance demonstrate that sustainability, creativity, and business success can advance together.

Sophia Hu

ZURU

HR Director

Global HR Master Plan: Addressed fragmented global HR processes by defining CoE/local hub roles/KPIs, setting 24-hour CoE response standards, and launching issue logs/feedback loops for alignment.Talent Acquisition Transformation: Solved high-volume hiring needs with 91% onboarding (443/488 via social recruitment) and 139 campus hires; optimized sourcing via job mapping.ZURU Digital Branding: Boosted employer brand with 22K+ RED, 165K TikTok, 88K+ WeChat followers; drove 53.28M TikTok views, 1.18M RED impressions, and launched a charity logo competition.