In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Eva Chen MNZM sits down with host Ivan Yeo to reflect on her journey — including the moment she was told she would receive the MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) in 2024. Eva speaks openly about her upbringing, the absence of her parents during her early years, and how those experiences shaped her strength and independence. She looks back on her arrival in New Zealand as a young international student — an experience she describes as formative but not defining. The real turning point, she shares, came later — through motherhood, and the sense of isolation she felt as both a new mother and a migrant. It was in those quiet, often lonely spaces that she began to discover her voice. Eva talks about how the New Zealand environment, grounded in egalitarian values, gave her the freedom to grow into her true self. In a society that doesn’t privilege one gender over another, she found the space to lead on her own terms, without fitting into anyone else’s expectations.