About

Hi! I am Athena. 👋

I wear a few different hats, but currently I am most interested in building low-footprint solutions that create more healthy relationships between people with each other and the planet.

Most recently I built a sustainability programme for a global energy and financial company. I’ve worked in B2B presentation software, identity verification (for KYC and AMLD), market research, ecommerce, and consumer app companies. These have been located in Germany, Hong Kong, China, and Japan, amongst other locations.

I manage multiple websites and knowledge databases. You can find some of them in the projects section of this site. For the formal work CV, you can go to LinkedIn.

What I do

I’ve done event organizing (TEDx since its first licensing year), programme development, project management, product management, social media marketing, and content creation. I’ve also funded and joined founding teams that have been sold, funded, or are revenue-sustained.

Some initiatives that I am proud to help start and lead include TEDxYouth@HongKong (2010-2019), MakerBay, and Yarrow Society’s 2021 first online-only fundraising campaign. Examples of ones I am happy to fund include Voda (LGBTQ mental health app), AORTA Films.

Technical things

• Am passionate about web accessibility
• Believe in lightweight footprints and digital independence, beginning with static sites built with Jekyll and Hugo, and hosted on renewable energy, or ideally with permacomputing and feminist server principles (2014 manifesto here), or maybe the transfeminist one would speak more to you
• Can use Git, but prefer Codeberg.org
• Prefer open-source solutions like the headlessCMS Ghost

Marketing

• Setting up editorial for new teams, including processes, content strategy, tracking, conversion funnels
• Localisation management (English into Chinese, Japanese, German)
• No, I will not create content for agents, although strategically that’s the way to go.

I have helped teams set up their CMS, editorial processes, and marketing stack. I also build sites for creators and communities I support.

I like working with teams that have great people, well-built products, that fulfill a concrete purpose. I am available for:

• Content strategy: workshop, training, or projects
• Content marketing: website and blog setup, SEO
• Events: speaking and moderation

The best way to reach me for work-related topics is on LinkedIn. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you at our community tech conferences.

Additional

Some projects I’ve done:

• Asian Eats Directory: Developed with illustrator Jason Li during the early days of Covid-19 to support local Asian communities around the world
• Berlin Asian Food Map because immigrants need to survive
• Zebra Crossing: digital safety checklist
• LGBTQ Glassdoor: an MVP anonymous submission web platform for LGBTQ-relevant workplace information. Open-source and you can find the Github Repo here. Won The Economist #WorkWithPride 2018 Asia Pacific competition and presented at The Economist’s Pride and Prejudice LGBTQ Conference the same year.

I putt opinions out once in a blue moon:

• On Abundance and Additionality to Address the Climate Crisis in The BEAM (2020)
• Women in Tech: Opinion: Why women are leaving Hong Kong tech companies in NüVoices (2019)
• The grassroots LGBT+ activists behind the celebrities and headlines in Hong Kong Free Press (2018)

Occasionally, I talk to people:

• Cybersecurity: Pride 2020: Wie geht ein digitaler CSD? in SIEGESSÄULE.de
• Tech: German COVID-19 Hackathon delivers more than 800 projects in EURACTIV.de
• Careers: Success Across Boundaries Podcast Interview (2020)