Malaysia’s legal, regulatory and corporate landscape is being reshaped by forces that were barely on the agenda a few years ago: artificial intelligence making consequential decisions, cybersecurity escalating from an IT concern to a board-level duty, and a tightening data-protection regime under the amended Personal Data Protection Act. Yet as these pressures mount, women remain underrepresented in the senior seats where the response is being decided.
She Leads. She Defends: Law, Risk & Governance Forum 2026, organised by WomenAtlas, sets out to change that conversation. Taking place on 05 September 2026 at Four Points by Sheraton, Puchong, the forum brings together women from the bench, regulation, private practice, corporate counsel and the technology sector, including voices from Bursa Malaysia, the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia and various sectors, for a full day built around four pillars: Law & Justice, Policy & Governance, Business & Leadership, and AI, Cyber & Digital Trust.
Beyond keynotes and panels, the forum features a hands-on leadership masterclass, The Lawyer’s AI Playbook, giving legal professionals a practical, structured route into AI adoption, complete with a 90-day plan, a vetted toolkit, and clear guardrails around confidentiality, privilege, verification and the amended PDPA.
More than a leadership event, She Leads. She Defends. is positioned as a working forum for the professionals now expected to govern technology, manage risk and lead through regulatory change, and a deliberate step toward closing the gender gap at the senior levels of these fields.
Kuala Lumpur, 05 September 2026 — For most of the last decade, the big questions in Malaysian law and governance were, broadly, familiar ones. That is no longer the case. Artificial intelligence is now embedded in the systems businesses rely on. Cyber incidents have moved from technical footnotes to boardroom crises and data-protection obligations, sharpened by the amended Personal Data Protection Act, have raised the stakes for every organisation that handles personal information.
These shifts have created a new and demanding frontier, one where law, technology, regulation and corporate governance collide. They have exposed an uncomfortable gap: the senior tables where these issues are decided, in courtrooms, regulators, boardrooms and C-suites, still do not reflect the depth of women’s expertise across these fields.
She Leads. She Defends: Law, Risk & Governance Forum 2026 is designed to meet that moment. Organised by WomenAtlas, powered by Laurea People’s Signature, founded by Nisha Meng Mingg Li and taking place on 05 September 2026 at Four Points by Sheraton, Puchong, the forum convenes women who lead in and around the law, lawyers, general counsels, judges, regulators, board directors and the next generation of legal talent, for a full day of keynotes, expert panels and honest conversation, followed by a practical leadership masterclass.
Four Pillars, One Connected Reality
The forum’s programme is organised around four pillars that, increasingly, cannot be separated in practice:
Law & Justice examines the future of legal practice, leadership, ethics and reform, the evolving expectations placed on those who practise and lead across the profession.
Policy & Governance turns to public policy, regulation and board leadership, the machinery through which the most consequential decisions are made.
Business & Leadership addresses executive leadership, entrepreneurship and board appointments, where legal and commercial judgment meet.
AI, Cyber & Digital Trust confronts the newest frontier head-on: AI governance, digital transformation, data privacy and the wave of new regulation reshaping how organisations must operate.
The design is deliberate. A regulator, a general counsel, a cybersecurity founder and a High Court advocate may find themselves on the same panel, because the problems now under discussion do not respect professional boundaries.
The forum’s credibility rests on the seniority of its faculty, drawn from institutions at the centre of Malaysia’s legal, regulatory and corporate systems.
Setting the tone for the day, the forum will be officiated by Dalvin Kaur, Head of Legal, Group Global Banking at Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) and Council Member of the Corporate Governance Institute, Malaysia (CGIM), alongside Rita Irina Wahab, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Naza Corporation Holdings Sdn Bhd. Dalvin Kaur’s Opening Address, Beyond Participation: Women as Architects of the Digital Economy, frames the central ambition of the forum: that women should not merely take part in the digital economy, but actively design and build it.
From the enforcement side, Raihanah Abd Razak, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, brings the perspective of prosecution in an increasingly digital environment. From the capital markets regulator, Azreena Askalani, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic and Sustainability Risk Management at Bursa Malaysia, offers a front-line view of how risk and governance expectations are evolving for listed companies. From private practice, Syafiqah Abdul Razak of Atiqah Syafiqah & Associates, Advocates & Solicitors, represents the advocacy perspective before the High Court of Malaya. The public sector is further represented by Dr. Diyana Hassim, Head of Corporate Communications at Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA).
They are joined by leaders working at the sharp end of technology and cyber risk. Jane Teh, Founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm VortiQ[x], and Dr. Salasiah Abbas, CEO of SOVA Intelligence, bring the practitioner’s understanding of how threats actually materialise and how organisations should respond. Dr. Vinesha Selvarajah, Industry Liaison and Head of Technology and Cybersecurity at Asia Pacific University (APU) and Founder of ASIGWISE, adds an academic and industry lens to the discussion.
The programme also features Jiwantti G., Senior Manager for Regulatory and Compliance at YTL Communications; Wendy Lim, Founder of Wei Ling Chambers; Farah Jaafar, Global Advisor at Straits Investment Bank; Cally Yau, Chief Executive Officer of PEOPLElogy Berhad; Dr. Pin Lean Lau, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ReGenTech; Norliana Aida Ramli, Principal at Luminar Consulting Services; and Pn. Hjh. Mastura, Chief Executive Officer of Scubatex Holding Berhad, among others.
Proceedings will be moderated by Moyra Ibrahim, Co-Founder and Executive Director of ECS Malaysia.
Cybersecurity as a Boardroom Responsibility
A recurring theme running through the forum is a shift in how organisations must think about cyber risk. For years, cybersecurity was treated as a technical matter, delegated downward and rarely scrutinised at board level. That posture is no longer defensible.
Sessions across the day reframe the issue directly, treating cybersecurity as a boardroom responsibility rather than an IT problem, and examining what directors are now expected to have done in advance of an incident, not merely after one. Related discussions address data protection in practice under the amended PDPA, the expanding mandate of the modern legal leader, and the enforcement of law in a cyber-enabled world, where digital evidence can determine whether a case holds or collapses.
The message is consistent: the professionals expected to manage these risks are increasingly legal and governance leaders, and they need fluency in domains that were never part of the traditional brief.
A Practical Masterclass, Not Just A Stage
Where many forums end with aspiration, She Leads. She Defends. ends with application. Anchoring the day is a hands-on leadership masterclass, AI You Can Actually Use: A 90-Day Starting Plan, led by Dr. Vinesha Selvarajah, Industry Liaison and Head of Technology and Cybersecurity at Asia Pacific University (APU) and Founder of ASIGWISE, and built to take legal professionals from “stuck to started” on artificial intelligence.
Rather than a lecture on future trends, it is a working session. Participants map where AI genuinely fits their own practice, work through a real task, and leave with three concrete outputs: a 90-day adoption plan, a vetted toolkit of tools worth using, and a clear set of guardrails covering the issues that matter most in legal work, confidentiality, privilege, verification, and compliance with the amended PDPA. Places are limited, and participants receive a certificate of completion.
It is a practical response to a real anxiety: many capable professionals know they should be engaging with AI, but lack a safe, structured way to begin.
Built for the Whole Ecosystem, Including Those Coming Next
The forum is aimed at women across the legal and corporate landscape, judges, arbitrators, general counsels, lawyers and legal academics, alongside board directors, compliance and risk leaders, regulators, policymakers and government legal officers. Crucially, it also opens its doors to the next generation, reserving places for young lawyers, law graduates and selected students, so that those beginning their careers can learn directly from leaders who have walked the path before them.
WomenAtlas is positioning the event not as a one-day occasion but as the launch of an ongoing legal leadership network, extending the relationships formed on 5 September well beyond the day itself.
An Intentional Step Toward Representation
Underlying the entire programme is a clear conviction: that the rules now shaping Malaysian business, on AI, on data, on cyber accountability, are being written in real time, and that women across law, regulation and technology should be central to writing them, not on the margins of the conversation.
She Leads. She Defends. is a deliberate move in that direction, bringing senior women together with those rising behind them, and giving both the substance, the network and the practical tools to lead.
She Leads. She Defends: Law, Risk & Governance Forum 2026 is organised by WomenAtlas and powered by Laurea People’s Signature.
Event Details
Date: Saturday, 5th September 2026
Venue: Four Points by Sheraton, Puchong, Kuala Lumpur
Registration and full programme: https://womenatlas.com/she-leads-she-defends
This press release has also been published on VRITIMES