Page 15 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 120 - March-April 2024

Otoha Hyashi-Hunt – VP Membership

Otoha is originally from Tokyo, Japan where she had also been an
active member of the local BPW Federation prior to joining BPW UK.

Born and raised in Tokyo, with Unilateral Microtia, Otoha and her
family faced a great deal of inequality when trying to attend local
schools instead of a deaf school – start of Otoha’s curiosity towards
equality in society! At the age of 14, Otoha left home to learn English
at a boarding school in New Zealand, then moved to Oxford to further
her education at Oxford Brookes University (BSc Anthropology).
After her graduation, Otoha furthered her professional experiences both in the UK and Japan, across
diverse industries and roles, from customer services/relationships to sales, project management,
consultancy to operation specialist/management in her current job:
(1) Otoha (林ハント乙羽) Hayashi-Hunt | LinkedIn
She started her first volunteering activities in university, when Japan was hit by the 2011 Tōhoku
earthquake and tsunami. As the President of the Japanese Society at the time, she led a team to
conduct a series of successful fundraiser events within the city in a span of 3months
(https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8917266.city-responds-japan-crisis/).

Otoha first joined the BPW Japan as one of the interns to participate in the Commission on the Sta-
tus of Women 58 in 2014. Upon attending BPW International’s Jeju Congress in the same year, she
was appointed as the Young BPW Asia-Pacific Regional Representative for the operational instinct
and leadership skills shown during the congress despite being asked to project manage on the spot.
She has been a member of the BPW UK (SEW) since 2021 and officially moved back to the country
in 2023.

Roles held within BPW:
Young BPW Asia-Pacific Regional Representative (2014 – 2017)
Young BPW Japan Representative/Chair of Young BPW Committee for BPW Japan(2015 – 2019)
Chair of Organization Committee for BPW Japan (2019 – 2021)
Chair of International Committee for BPW Japan( 2021 – 2023)
Young BPW Raffle Project Organizer/Presenter (Jeju Congress 2014, Cairo Congress 2017)
Young BPW Asia-Pacific Symposium Organizer (Singapore 2017, Tokyo 2019)
BPW UK Conference Taskforce member (2022 - )
Occasional appearances on the Webinar series organized by Dr Anne Hilty and
Dr Yasmin Dar wich (2020-202

Lynne Robinson—VP International

Lynne qualified as a psychologist in 1986 and is still practicing as such. She
worked in Banking , manufacturing, service industry and ran her own private
practice for more than 24 years. She is also a mother and a grandmother, a
daughter, sister and a friend.

She is the author of a self help book ‘The wise women from Tekoa’.

She has appeared on National Television and Radio in South Africa talking about psychological
issues. She wrote several short articles on relationship topics and has published some poetry.
In addition to her Psychology qualifications, she also has an advanced degree in Philosophy.
She is passionate about making a difference in the lives of others, in particular women and chil-
dren. Her involvement with BPW started in 1986. She has worked her way through club level FEC
positions and then on National level in South Africa. She was national president for 2 terms.
Her international roles serving under PIP Sylvia Perry and the late Dr Pat Harrison include :

. International Chair for training development and employment conditions; .
. Regional Director FOR BPWINTL Africa;
. UN Rep for BPWintl for Africa with specific task to prepare a paper on poverty;
. International Judge for leadership awards BPWINTL working with the late Dr Chonchanok Viravan.
She has been a member of BPW UK ( LASE) since 2016 and officially moved to the UK in 2020.