Kitty
SEM Domain Partner
Q: Where you are from?
Hong Kong — born, raised, and deeply rooted here. Though I spent my university years in the United States, studying hotel management at the University of Houston, Hong Kong has always been where my work and my heart are.
Q: If you knew it was going to be your last meal, what would you eat?
A proper Hong Kong-style dim sum spread — with the whole family around the table. The food matters, but the people matter more.
Q: What led you to pursue a career in your current field, and how has your professional journey evolved over time?
I spent over twenty years in the fashion accessories manufacturing industry as Managing Director, leading a team of more than a thousand people across production, marketing, design and merchandising. My brand, Tiff & Tiffy, built a strong presence in Europe and the United States. But after years in the commercial world, I realised that what I truly wanted to do with my experience — in leadership, in building organisations, in understanding how people perform in different environments — was something that went beyond business.
I founded LoveXpress Foundation in 2013 because I saw a gap that no one was filling: the neurodiverse young people I had watched growing up around me were being overlooked and marginalised the moment they stepped into the workforce. Their strengths were real. The systems to support them simply weren’t. That became my full-time mission.
Q: What was the most challenging project you worked on in your career? How did you overcome any obstacles to achieve a successful outcome?
Building LoveXpress from the ground up — while simultaneously learning everything there is to know about autism, special education, social enterprise, and frontline service delivery — was the most demanding thing I have ever done. Nothing in manufacturing prepared me for navigating the intersection of charity, community, government policy, and individual human need.
What kept me going was the same conviction I brought to every challenge in business: clarity of purpose. If you know exactly what you are trying to build and who you are building it for, most obstacles become logistics, not roadblocks. The families and young people we serve reminded me every day why the work was worth doing.
Q: What motivates you to come to work every day, and how do you stay engaged and enthusiastic about your job?
Every time I see one of our young people step confidently into a job that actually fits them — that moment never gets old. After more than a decade of work, I still find it remarkable and deeply moving. That is what keeps me going.
I also genuinely believe we are at the beginning of something much larger. The combination of gamification, AI, and a proper scientific framework for understanding human capability is going to change how the world thinks about hiring, training, and supporting neurodiverse talent. Being part of building that, alongside partners like Almas, is energising in a way I did not expect at this stage of my career.
Q: Can you share a defining moment in your life or career that has shaped who you are as a person (rather than a worker)?
There was a workshop early in LoveXpress’s journey where we invited a group of autistic teenagers to take part in a jelly art activity — and at the end, I handed each of them a small cheque for their work. The amount was modest. But the look on their faces when they held something they had earned — that said everything. They did not need charity. They needed the right environment, the right structure, and someone who believed in them.
That moment permanently changed how I think about what it means to support someone. It is not about giving people things. It is about building systems that let people give their best.
Q: How do you maintain a work-life balance, and what activities or hobbies do you enjoy outside of work?
I am not sure I have fully cracked that one. The work has a way of becoming the life when you care about it this much. But I do believe deeply in the energy that comes from connection — time with family, with the community, with the young people we serve. Those moments refill the tank in a way that rest alone cannot.
Q: What do you hope the future of work looks like? (Please give an example of a challenge you see today, and what a solution might look like, or a specific thing you hope for in the future workplace)?
I hope the future of work is one where neurodiverse individuals are not an afterthought in hiring — they are sought after for the genuine, distinctive capabilities they bring. Where a company’s first question is not “can this person adapt to our environment?” but “how do we build an environment that lets this person thrive?.
Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in your field or looking to grow to their utmost potential?
Go to the frontline. Sit with the families. Watch the young people. Read every piece of research you can find, and then go back to the frontline and compare what you read with what you actually see.
The most dangerous thing in this field is being guided by assumptions about what neurodiverse individuals can and cannot do. The most important thing is being genuinely curious about who each person actually is. That curiosity — sustained over time — is what builds the kind of understanding that makes real impact possible.
Q: Where you are from?
Lorrach, West Germany
Q: If you knew it was going to be your last meal, what would you eat?
Japanese Kaiseki dinner preferable in Kyoto, Japan.
Q: What led you to pursue a career in your current field, and how has your professional journey evolved over time?
My professional journey started in M&E (Media & Entertainment). I started a small video game development company called The Redmersoft Group coming out of college with a handful of computer lab buddies. Through a series of unplanned events, we ended up sponsored by Lucasfilm, Ltd. and were given office space and equipment at Skywalker Ranch. My career stayed in M&E at Lucasfilm, Nintendo and Microsoft as well. My journey to using gamulation in education, training and human assessment came about as a result of changes in the business model in consumer entertainment. I could not personally accept the premise around what is called Free-To-Play gaming with microtransactions. This led my passion in entertainment to shift to academics originally.
Q: What was the most challenging project you worked on in your career? How did you overcome any obstacles to achieve a successful outcome?
This is a tough question because there are several examples I can point to. If I had to choose one, I would say the challenge of winning the second console generation war for Microsoft vs Sony. I had previously played a key role in the launch of the original Xbox, and among other things I had been tasked to beat Sony’s Gran Turismo racing title which would be a flagship for PlayStation 2. After successfully launching Project Gotham Racing and Forza Motorsport on the Xbox, I was tasked with beating Sony with Xbox360 vs PlayStation 3. In early 2003, I was given one sheet of paper that said three things. Launch Xbox 360 during the 2005 holiday season (thus shortening Sony’s PS2 lifespan), get Xbox360 to 10 million units installed before Sony does with PS3 and make one billion dollars.
I was one of three people that were assigned to start on this task. At the time, the most daunting task was to avoid being “Dreamcasted”. In the previous console generation Sega launched the Dreamcast one year before Sony’s PS2. Sony basically countered by saying that the new console era doesn’t start until they launch PS2. Sega left the market shortly thereafter. We were tasked with launching Xbox360 one year before PS3.
The challenge was to make sure Xbox360 could not be sloughed off as old news when Sony would launch its PS3 one year later.
The plan I came up with was to exploit the recent release of what was called High-Definition TV screens. They were more rectangular letter box type of display as opposed to the current more squarish TV displays at the time. The term High Definition was not well defined, and consumers did not understand what it really meant. Most of the original Hi Definition TV’s were not higher resolution, but instead just had the letter box shaped viewing area. I decided to leverage the confusion and make the Xbox360 the first high-definition gaming console in the gaming industry. I forced all games to be developed in the letter box screen shape so that everything on the console would appear high definition. This planned worked in that the Xbox360 was universally accepted as a next generation console when it launched. What is ironic in hindsight is that the PS3 is actually the first true high-definition console to come out. It supported true 1080p display mode natively. Also of note is that we did achieve all three goals on that one sheet of paper.
Q: What motivates you to come to work every day, and how do you stay engaged and enthusiastic about your job?
I have had the privilege of being able to define my job based on my passion. I live the life of “do what you love and you will never work a day in your life”. My passion has been to apply my deep experience in consumer entertainment in areas where it can really make a difference like higher education academics, employee assessment and training, and developing communication, living and employability skills for intellectually challenged individuals.
Q: Can you share a defining moment in your life or career that has shaped who you are as a person (rather than a worker)?
The birth of my first child. Everything that was important to me before that day no longer mattered. I have lived for my children ever since.
Q: How do you maintain a work-life balance, and what activities or hobbies do you enjoy outside of work?
I have the privilege of owning and running a lifestyle business. There are eight Redmers involved in the business. Work and life have blended for me in the most positive way. “Work” actually feels a lot like family for all of us.
For most of my adult life, my biggest outside of work activity has been global travel. My personal hobbies are running, swimming, and speed walking. My family group hobbies are video gaming, board gaming, group sports and watching and routing for our favorite sports teams.
Q: What do you hope the future of work looks like? (Please give an example of a challenge you see today, and what a solution might look like, or a specific thing you hope for in the future workplace)?
Today I see big challenges of how work will be performed in our post-pandemic era. Remote work is here to stay, no matter what large companies try to mandate. For any company that has a large workforce, they will not be able to retain their highest performing employees if they require them to work at the office. They also won’t be able to hire replacements at that level. The solution is in accepting that remote work will be your source of your most important output and that you should fully focus on optimizing for that model. Use situations that truly benefit from interpersonal team interaction as events that are held at locations that are desirable for those employees.
Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in your field or looking to grow to their utmost potential?
My advice is to do what you love. If you can do that, you will have an advantage over others in similar positions. You will also be most likely to do your best work, which in turn should yield the best career growth path for you. I have lived my life this way and have no regrets.
