The Team.

Hester Aba

Director and Co-Founder

Hester Aba

Director and Co-Founder

Hester is originally from the incredibly glamorous city of Bristol, in England. Determined to escape her West-Country roots (though a love of good scrumpy should never be lost) she packed off for uni at Oxford to waste several years on a degree in Philosophy and never looked back… Following a stint in Switzerland eating too much fondue and meeting her future husband, they jumped at the chance to follow their dream of heading to Asia, and landed in Hong Kong in 2008. Along with partners-in-crime and fellow Tai-Tais, Maura Thompson and Natalie Firestone, she founded Sassy in 2009 and then Sassy Mama in 2011 after the birth of her daughter Elodie. Number 2 daughter Margot arrived in August 2012 and then two months later it was off to her new home in Singapore with tinies in tow. Hester is discovering the Lion City one shophouse at a time with a love for seeking out Singapore’s hidden secrets!

Maura Thompson

Director and Co-Founder

Maura Thompson

Director and Co-Founder

Maura Thompson spent 6 years working in the US in the Pharmaceutical Industry specializing in the analysis of market data. In 2008 Maura moved to Hong Kong and in 2010 she co-founded the Sassy brand and became Director of Sales for the Hong Kong websites. In 2014 Maura transitioned to a new role as Managing Director of the Hong Kong team to further develop Sassy’s overall growth at the country level. Maura has also worked closely to launch the licensee site in Manila. In her current role as Director, she is responsible alongside fellow partners Hester Aba and Sofia Berman for the overall strategy and growth of Sassy Media Group.

Sofia Berman

Director and Co-Founder

Sofia Berman

Director and Co-Founder

With a degree in Media and Communications from Stockholm University Sofia has spent the past 15 years working with advertising and marketing in Stockholm, London and Hong Kong. In 2012 Sofia moved to Singapore and opened up the Singapore chapter of Sassy Mama together with Hester Aba. It’s been a busy six years since she arrived in Asia, but as a workaholic- gone- mama, Sofia loves spending her days looking after the Singapore business development as well as her two sons.


Cindy Jeffery

Co-Founder

Cindy Jeffery

Co-Founder

Cindy’s interest in Asia began when she was sent to Hong Kong with Mary Kay Cosmetics to manage the company’s China market entry, and she has never looked back! Having lived In Hong Kong since 1993, Cindy now calls Hong Kong home with her husband Paul and their three children. Cindy was born in New York, completed her Bachelors Degree in Finance from the University of South Florida in Tampa and her Master of Business Administration in International Studies at the University of Texas in Dallas while working at Mary Kay. Before leaving the corporate world in 2006, Cindy held a number of senior corporate positions at Thomson Financial and The Financial Times and also engaged her entrepreneurial zeal with two start ups. It is from this base that Cindy leapt at the chance to become a Sassy Mama and help other mummies across Asia find the best information and resources for their families.


Claire Melwani

Co-Founder

Claire Melwani

Co-Founder

Claire Breen Melwani is the CMO for PAKT and the Asia Director for Murphy & Partners international art advisory. Prior to this Claire held senior roles at Art Basel, Tatler Hong Kong, Financial Times, Asia Pacific and at Condé Nast, Britain. Having co- founded Sassy Media Group in 2010 to produce digital content for women in Asia and the UAE, Claire maintains board positions that include: FilmAid Asia Ltd, BAFTA Hong Kong Advisory Board and is a founder member of the British Fashion Council, Fashion Trust Hong Kong. Claire is actively involved in philanthropic fundraising as co chair of the annual Power of Film Gala to benefit FilmAid Asia, and previously for Room To Read where she helped to raise more than US$25 million for their programmes. Claire was born in London, raised in Hong Kong and started her career at Saatchi and Saatchi Rowland Company. She holds a BA in Public Relations and Marketing.

Jamie Rose

Co-Founder

Jamie Rose

Co-Founder

Jaime Rose hails from London, England where she graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Politics. Deciding to branch out from the corporate path she followed her passion and immersed herself in the world of startups. Her career started in the health food sector, before she went on to set up her own UK private tuition company, Rose Okin and eventually she has found her true calling in the world wide web. Having moved to Hong Kong in 2011 she has since launched a UK hotel site, The Escape List, and heads up strategy and marketing for the Sassy Hong Kong website.


Kate Malin

Co-Founder

Kate Malin

Co-Founder

Originally from the coast of Maine, Kate went to Middlebury College and graduated with a B.A. in International Politics and Economics. She began her career in New York City at one of the country’s most prestigious law firms before joining American Express Publishing, where she spent several years in the company’s Public Relations office working on luxury magazine titles such as Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. In 2005 she joined the Public Relations team at Christie’s auction house where she went on to handle the media campaigns for sales of some of the world’s most iconic works of art. Always up for an adventure, Kate and her husband transferred to Hong Kong in 2008. Despite being the ‘trailing spouse’, she transfered her job as well, and joined the Press Office at Christie’s Hong Kong where she oversaw press and public relations for the company’s biannual sales series. During the maternity leave for her first child, Kate started a blog on the joys and difficulties of being a new mom in Hong Kong. Along with a super team of seven talented women, her personal blog turned into the popular full-service parenting resource website, Yummy Mummy Asia, which merged with the Sassy group in Spring 2012. Now based in the United States, Kate and her husband Ian have two children.


Kelly Grave

Co-Founder

Kelly Grave

Co-Founder

Kelly Creel Gave was born and raised in Bartlesville, Oklahoma before leaving to study Economics and History at Vanderbilt University. After university, she spent ten years in New York and London, working in investment banking for Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. Since 2003, Kelly has lived in Hong Kong with her husband Louis-Vincent and their four children (aged two, four, six and eight). Kelly now spends most of her free time on philanthropy, founding the GaveKal Endowment to advise and fund Asian charities in the child/education space. She first became interested in the needs of children in developing Asia through her work with Room to Read, where she chairs events which have raised over US$10mm to build schools and libraries throughout the region. Kelly is on the board of Pathfinders, an HK charity which aids the marginalized pregnant and undocumented migrant women and babies in Hong Kong. She is also on the Hong Kong board of the Nepal Youth Foundation, a charity which aids impoverished Nepalese children by providing them vital healthcare, education and a safe environment In addition to her work with various NGOs, she is a co-founder of Sassy Mama, a regional website addressing the needs and interests of moms.


Levina Li-Cadman

Co-Founder

Levina Li-Cadman

Co-Founder

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Levina has over 15 years of experience in strategic business development, marketing and brand management, as well as direct sales in the media and luxury goods sector in Asia. In 2007, she was appointed as Christie’s Vice-President, Director of Business Development for Asia managing daily business development activities for the region, including identifying and developing new relationships, partnerships and alliances and refining private client development strategies in the region. Levina joins Christie’s from Financial Times where she has been Partnership & Alliances Director, Asia Pacific since 2003 where she helped developed the luxury strategy for the FT and managed promotional campaigns and events in the region, working with a range of blue-chip brands and private banks. She was also primarily responsible for conceiving and executing the FT’s inaugural Business of Luxury Summit in Shanghai in 2005. Previously, she was Marketing & Communications Director, Asia Pacific at Lanvin. From 1997-2001, she was Director and Vice President at Turner Entertainment Networks Asia Pacific and prior to this, she was Asia Regional Director for Elite Model Management.
Levina earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Pepperdine University. Besides her work for Sassy Media Group, Levina is also a business development consultant for clients in art, design, and luxury goods industries. In terms of charitable board appointments, Levina serves as a board of director for FilmAid Asia and The Sovereign Art Foundation.


Sooni Shroff-Gander

Co-Founder

Sooni Shroff-Gander

Co-Founder

Sooni Shroff-Gander is a graduate of Oxford University who ran her own publishing company in Hong Kong. She is currently Contributing Editor for the Financial Times, writing on a wide variety of subjects including celebrity interviews, travel, hotels, lifestyle, fashion, investments and banking and environmental energy issues. Her work has appeared in regional newspapers, international glossies and in-flight magazines and she has worked for both the Conde Nast Group and the Time Warner Group. Her freelance work has clients as diverse as HSBC and Audi to Krug Champagne and Air Mauritius. She is fluent in English, French and Cantonese.