Building Connections Across Borders: Meet WIN APAC Regional Ambassador Silvi Siddhu
Silvi Siddhu, WIN APAC Regional Ambassador
WIN: Could you tell us a little about your current role and the work you do in the nutraceutical industry? What aspects of your work are you most passionate about?
Silvi Siddhu: I have spent around 17 years in this industry, working across functional foods and beverages and nutraceuticals. I have done product development and R&D, business development, marketing, and sales, with brands, private label and ingredient companies. That breadth has given me a 360-degree perspective, from innovation through to commercialization.
Today, I bring that perspective to emerging and established companies, helping them navigate innovation, go to market strategy, partnerships, and execution. I am proud to work alongside companies pushing consumer health forward.
What I am most passionate about goes beyond any one function. Across markets, companies, countries and roles, the consistent thread has been connecting people, ideas, and opportunities, translating across disciplines, and helping good ideas move from concept to reality. We are not just building products or businesses; we are helping shape the future of consumer health. It’s a big responsibility and I want to leave the industry stronger and more navigable for those coming next.
The Impact
WIN: Is there a particular initiative, achievement, project, or contribution you're especially proud of that you'd like to highlight?
Silvi: Every role, project, and colleague has taught me something that has shaped how I think and work. But there is one project from early in my career, about 15 years ago, still feels particularly relevant.
There was an opportunity to take an indulgent category and make it functional, creating a treat consumers could enjoy with a little less guilt. That led to the idea of exploring probiotics in frozen yogurt, with the technical challenge of finding cultures that could remain viable through freezing. Collaborating with academic and industry experts, we ultimately developed a probiotic frozen yogurt, one of the first of its kind in North America at the time. I remained closely connected to those probiotics for many years, and the experience shaped my appreciation for the intersection of science, consumer needs, and commercialization.
What makes me proud is seeing how far the industry has come, with greater scientific understanding, an abundance of functional products, and a shrinking gap between industry knowledge and consumer understanding. For me, that is the real impact: making better health solutions more accessible and relevant.
The WIN Connection
WIN: What does being part of WIN's APAC community — and stepping into the role of APAC Regional Ambassador — mean to you? What opportunities do you see for WIN in the region?
Silvi: I have lived and worked across different countries and value being immersed in different cultures, markets, and ways of thinking. I have chosen to make South East Asia home for this next chapter, so the APAC Regional Ambassador role feels particularly meaningful. After years of volunteering with WIN, this feels like a natural, if humbling, next step. I am still relatively new to the region, so I am not coming with all the answers. I have the opportunity to learn alongside my peers in the region and the people I hope to support.
What excites me about APAC is its diversity: distinct cultures, consumer behaviours, and regulatory environments. I see an opportunity for WIN to help people learn across those differences, so lessons, mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities can travel across borders.
I am grateful to the WIN leaders who created the APAC foundation. There are big shoes to fill, and I feel fortunate to be joining such a talented and passionate group. For me, the opportunity is to make WIN an even stronger network for those shaping consumer health across APAC.
The Perspective
WIN: What do you believe are some of the most important opportunities or challenges facing women in the nutraceutical industry today, particularly across the APAC region?
One of the biggest opportunities for WIN is ensuring that talent and leadership potential are not limited by geography, culture, or access to the right network.
APAC is not a single market, so there is no single model for women in APAC. Women’s experiences and challenges can look very different across the region. The opportunity is to create a network where women can learn from one another while bringing their own context and definition of success.
WIN can help create a community where knowledge travels, relationships grow, and women do not have to navigate the industry alone.
We all have seen how transformative that one introduction, one piece of advice, or one person willing to advocate for you can be. Creating more of those moments across borders is a meaningful opportunity.
WIN: Is there a woman who has influenced, inspired, or supported you during your career? We'd love to hear a little about her and the impact she had on you.
Silvi: I have been fortunate to be surrounded by strong women (and men) who have made difficult moments easier, opened doors, and helped me find my footing. One woman in particular shaped how I show up in this industry- Dawn Guay!
She pushed me to speak up in rooms where I might otherwise have stayed quiet. She taught me the ways of the boardroom and leadership table and challenged me to trust my knowledge, perspective, and voice.
She pushed me just beyond what I thought I was ready for. It was uncomfortable at times, and she knew it would be, but looking back, those were some of the moments when I grew the most, and the fastest.
She taught me that growth rarely happens within what is comfortable or familiar. Sometimes someone else sees your potential before you are ready to see it yourself. May we all be fortunate enough to have someone like that in our lives.
That experience has shaped how I show up for others. I am conscious of the responsibility to create space, share what we know, pass along our superpowers, and give someone an opportunity before they feel completely ready. After all, being ready is not always a feeling. Sometimes it is a decision.
What’s Next?
WIN: As you look ahead, what are you most excited about — either in your own work or in your role as a WIN APAC Regional Ambassador? What do you hope to help build or accomplish?
Silvi: What I am most excited about now is the learning phase I am in, experiencing Southeast Asia not simply as someone working in the region, but as someone making it home. Living and traveling in different countries has challenged my assumptions and expanded my perspective. I am approaching APAC with that same openness: listening first, learning, and allowing the region to shape my understanding.
WIN already has incredible leaders and communities across APAC, and I see my role as bringing people and ideas together, creating opportunities for knowledge to move across borders, and building on what is already there.
Longer term, I hope to help build a more connected industry where the people, especially women, coming after us have a clearer path than we did: where knowledge is shared generously, relationships open doors, and access to mentors, sponsors, and opportunities is not dependent on who you know or where you live.
Women are central to consumer health as caregivers, decision makers, scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders, and consumers themselves, yet significant gaps remain in how women’s health is understood, researched, and served. McKinsey estimates that women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, and that closing the women’s health gap could add more than $1 trillion to the global economy annually by 2040. For WIN, and for me personally, that makes women’s leadership in consumer health about more than representation. It is about bringing more perspectives into decisions that shape population health
Ultimately, I hope to leave the community more connected and easier to navigate than our generation found it.
