(Part 2) What happens When Someone Believes: The Social Innovation Journey of Aya Fernandez (Winner of the Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award 2024)
From Between the East and the West by Meenu Gupta
January 30, 2026 · 28 min
About this episode
Aya Fernandez shares her journey as a young Filipina entrepreneur and discusses the unique leadership qualities of women in business.
A story of how belief, support and inner strength helped a young Filipina entrepreneur transform her vision — and her local impact — into a model for global sustainability. In this second part of the conversation with the host Meenu Gupta, Aya Fernandez- the founder of Eco-Uling shares how women lead differently than men and how she maintains equanimity in her life with journaling. She speaks about ethical business norms and about what it means to be truly validated and how different generations can learn from one another. Keywords Empowerment, sustainability, belief, validation, gender equality, social innovation, entrepreneurship, metrics, women leaders Soundbites “Women leaders are more intuitive” “We should not be glorifying hustle” “Data only tells a certain part of the story. It takes a human to complete the story” Chapters -Intuitive leadership of women -Leading with empathy can lead to profit -Intergenerational learning -Navigating life´s journey with journaling -Maintaining equanimity in multiple roles -Impact of Eco-Uling -Ethics of business -Impact of validation
People in this episode
Host: Meenu Gupta
Guest: Aya Fernandez
Topics covered
- social innovation
- women leadership
- sustainability
- entrepreneurship
- intergenerational learning
- ethical business
Keywords
- Empowerment
- sustainability
- belief
- validation
- gender equality
- social innovation
- entrepreneurship
- women leaders
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Bayer Foundation, Eco-Uling
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