Evelyn Yonathan, 39, Chief People Officer, Lazada Indonesia

Our “Humans of Lazada” series takes a look at the professional and personal lives of the more than 9,000 people who work at Lazada. Click here for more stories from this series.

“I majored in psychology and spent a year and a half after university as a child therapist, working primarily with children with autism. Those were challenging but fulfilling days. I felt the parents’ angst and frustrations when they could not understand their child, but I also experienced their joy when they finally learned how to read the child’s cues and trigger points and could communicate with him or her.

Curiosity then got the better of me. I wondered what it would be like to work in a corporate environment and ended up in a sales and marketing job that eventually led me to join Lazada in 2016 as a category director. One of my jobs at the time was to train owners of micro, small and medium enterprises and to help them expand their businesses online. At times, I could sense the frustrations and feelings of uncertainty from these business owners who were selling online for the first time. But when they shared with me stories of how they were now able to send their kids to better schools and have a better quality of life, I also shared in their happiness and delight.

I realised that whether as a child therapist or a sales person, one can have the ability, and I would even say power, to change other people’s lives for the better. Putting people at the centre of what we do gives more meaning to whatever it is that we are doing. Now in my role as chief people officer, where I’m responsible for hundreds of Lazada Indonesia employees, this philosophy resonates even more. Working remotely during the pandemic has been tough for many colleagues. I can understand their frustrations. My team sent out care packages with juice and vitamins to everyone, from the office boy to the board of directors, so that everyone can stay healthy and also share in the relief that we are not alone in this situation.”

This profile was compiled by Jessica Horsan from the Lazada PR team in Indonesia.