Country Ambassadors

WiD ambassador for Western Europe and Germany

Angelika Steinacker has extensive Security and Identity & Access Management experience, with 30 years in security, and 20 years with a focus on IAM.
In her current role as CTO for IAM with IBM Security Europe, she is working on strategic topics like IAM for IoT and IAM with and for Blockchain as well as a trusted advisor for clients.

Angelika is a regular speaker and writer sharing her expertise and experience on Security and IAM. She is a member of WiD, and a member and mentor of IBM Women in Security Excelling (WISE).

She earned a diploma in Mathematics with a minor in Physics and she holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a topic in Cryptography from J. Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.

In her free time, she likes hiking in the Alps, cycling and cross-country skiing.

WiD ambassador for Canada

Chanda Jackson, Sr. Manager – Identity and Access Management Planning, provides oversight of key activities across the Royal Bank of Canada’s IAM group to enable effective operations of the team. Her professional responsibilities include group management, operational risk oversight, governance and reporting.

WiD ambassador for Singapore

Helen Chua is Senior Sales Director with NEC Asia Pacific. She is an expert in the field of biometric technologies, specialising in the areas of fingerprint, face and iris. Since she joined the core NEC biometrics team in 1995, she has been involved in multiple projects, many of which are security-related and involving governments and nation-wide deployment. These projects include building systems for passport and national identity, border control and immigration, law enforcement, and finance.

Helen holds a double degree in Computer Science and accountancy from the Indiana University Bloomington.   Her interest in identity management using biometrics started when she pioneered the automated border control gates with Singapore immigration. Working closely with the Singapore government, the fingerprint system she helped to deploy at the checkpoints allows for automation, accuracy, consistency and speed, all for one goal, to correctly identify the person crossing the border at the shortest time.

WiD ambassador for USA

Currently the president of Chopard Consulting based in Northern Virginia, Ms. Chopard has more than 35 years’ experience in executive leadership in business and nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C.  She has a reputation as a transformative leader who has led organizations through launch, transition, and sustainability to deliver aggressive results.  She is committed to achieving success through courageous management practices by leveraging organizational strategy, structure, and culture to reach goals and optimize results.  Ms. Chopard excels at building networks and collaborations and is accustomed to getting a seat at the table where she is known to “lean in” with clarity of thought, vision, and enthusiasm. Ms. Chopard has recently accepted the position of U.S. Ambassador for the Women in Identity organization and brings her devotion and expertise to the leadership team to further encourage women in the identity field and the broader tech industry. Ms. Chopard is also an attorney and has practiced at the local, state, and national levels of government before leading several international nonprofit organizations as executive director.

Hi, I'm Mei-Lin and I support the Singapore chapter of Women in Identity. My background is in IT system implementation and risk management, although I started my career as a Chartered Accountant.
My interest in digital identity started from the compliance world but after a few years, I packed my bags and left Melbourne and ended up in London to get a more hands-on approach to technology projects. After many travels around the world, I am now in Singapore and working on projects across the South-east Asia region. I enjoy mentoring university students and encouraging more women to get involved in STEM careers.
You can reach out to me via mei-lin@womeninidentity.org

WiD ambassador for Canada

As the Senior Director of Identity & Access Management (IAM) Operations, Analytics & Governance, Rola leads a global team consisting of various pillars with respective responsibilities supporting Lines of business across RBC & its subsidiaries through the administration of internal user access, user account configuration in CyberArk, management of Access Manager one of RBC’s key IAM Systems and driving a clear Identity Governance model based on data & analytics designed to reduce risk and increase compliance.

With over 15 years of work experience, she found her passion early on for problem solving & assisting technology users with various challenges and saw first-hand the critical role technology & innovation plays in transforming end user experiences in a positive & meaningful way.

Prior to her current role, Rola served as Senior Director, Enterprise Security Access Management where she drove automation of existing manual procedures leading to a reduction in manual cycles spent on redundant tasks enabling her to create new opportunities for more important work for her team building on their existing skillset & supporting their career growth. She then took on an expanded role as the Senior Director, On-boarding & Access Request Provisioning partnering with various stakeholders across the enterprise to initiate IAM Service Integration for RBC applications while supporting various lines of business through granting user access to select applications.

Rola is an advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She strongly believes that a high performing team can only be accomplished by establishing a diverse & inclusive work environment where each team member feels comfortable and safe to bring their different thinking styles and perspectives to the table. Only then can we, as a team, function at our optimum and be ready for what the future brings.

Rola is known for her commitment to developing others and is active in various Women in Technology & Operations circles. She loves a challenge, has the ability to adapt quickly & identify and zoom in on the positive each change brings while always finding ways to learn and grow.
She is results oriented, values trust & integrity, aspires to make a difference through paying it forward & supporting others every chance she gets.
When not at work, Rola leads a busy, healthy & active lifestyle including a passion for books, podcasts & sketching.

A business-focused leader in identity and access management. I partner strategically with stakeholders to develop common vision and strategy and excel at leading teams to deliver high-value, vision-aligned, business-enabling capabilities.

I am passionate about continuous improvement that enables services to perform optimally, reducing risk and improving customer experience, through the creation and championing the delivery of business-value-outcome organizational change