Asia Game Changer Awards

The Asia Game Changer Awards is an annual award ceremony held in recognition of individuals and organizations within and connected to the Asian community that have made positive contributions to the development and improvement of Asia and society.

Asia Game Changer Awards
Awarded for	Outstanding achievements in policy and business, arts and culture, and education
Country	United States
Presented by	Asia Society, Citi
First award	October 16, 2014; 11 years ago (2014-10-16)
Website	asiasociety.org/gamechangers

Inaugurated in 2014 by New York-based non-profit organization the Asia Society, in partnership with Citibank, the first ceremony was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.^[1] A total of thirteen honorees were awarded, including Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, who was honoured as the first ever Game Changer of the Year.^[1] Nominees are selected from individuals and institutions nominated from the Asia Society's global network,^[1] which then embarks on a three-month long process of feedback and voting that results in the final awardees.^[2] While recipients are usually from varying diverse backgrounds, the 2019 ceremony marked the first time that all awardees for the year were women only.^[3]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the 2020 and 2021 ceremonies were held online.^[4]

Ceremonies

Edition	Date	Venue	City	Ref.
1st	October 16, 2014	United Nations	New York, New York	[1]
2nd	October 13, 2015			[5]
3rd	October 27, 2016			[6]
4th	November 1, 2017	The Great Hall	Lower Manhattan, New York
5th	October 9, 2018
6th	October 24, 2019			[3]
7th	October 22, 2020	Online broadcast		[7]
8th	October 28, 2021			[8]
9th	October 27, 2022	The Great Hall	Lower Manhattan, New York	[9]
10th	October 26, 2023			[10]

Honorees

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was awarded for his work designing disaster relief shelters in Rwanda, Haiti, Japan etc. using recyclable materials.

Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was awarded for her worldwide advocacy work for girls education.

Pakistani cricketer Sana Mir was awarded in 2019 for her success in the traditionally male-dominated sport and for advocating for women's rights, both inside and outside of sports.

South Korean music group BTS was awarded at the 2020 ceremony for standing against discrimination and inspiring their global fanbase to do the same.

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka was also honored at the 2020 ceremony for using her global platform to bring attention to racial injustice and supporting social change.

Year	Recipient	Occupation	Nationality	Ref.
2014	Shigeru Ban	Architect	Japan	[11][12]
	Madhav Chavan	Social activist and entrepreneur philanthropist	India
	Illac Diaz	Social entrepreneur	Philippines
	Fashion Girls for Humanity	Non-profit charity organization	United States
	Kuntoro Mangkusubroto	Head government minister	Indonesia
	Saad Mohseni	Entrepreneur CEO	Afghanistan
	Jacqueline Novogratz	Businesswoman CEO	United States
	Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy	Journalist filmmaker activist	Pakistan
	Playing for Change	Non-profit global music project	United States
	Pawan Sinha	Scientist professor
	Malala Yousafzai	Activist	Pakistan
2015	Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura	Physicist engineer inventor	Japan	[5][13]
	Li Cunxin	Artistic director philanthropist	China
	Lei Jun	Entrepreneur CEO philanthropist
	Chanda Kochhar	ICICI managing director and CEO	India
	Aasif Mandvi	Actor comedian writer
	Mariam al-Mansouri	UAEAF Fighter Pilot	United Arab Emirates
	Kiran Bir Sethi	Designer educator	India
2016	Joey Alexander	Pianist	Indonesia	[6][14]
	Muzoon Almellehan	Activist	Syria
	Marita Cheng	Entrepreneur CEO	Australia
	Soo-man Lee	Record producer and executive	South Korea
	Dr. Sanduk Ruit	Ophthalmologist eye surgeon	Nepal
	Ahmad Sarmast	Ethnomusicologist director	Afghanistan
	Durreen Shahnaz	Entrepreneur professor speaker	Bangladesh
	Karim Wasfi	Conductor cellist	Iraq
	Zhang Yimou	Film director and producer	China
2017	Sonita Alizadeh	Rapper activist	Afghanistan	[15][16]
	Jean Liu	Business executive	China
	Aisholpan Nurgaiv	Eagle hunter	Mongolia
	Leng Ouch	Environmental activist	Cambodia
	Dev Patel	Actor philanthropist	United Kingdom
	Sesame Workshop	Non-profit organization	United States
	Wu Tong	Businessman CEO	China
	Tadashi Yanai	Businessman CEO	Japan
2018	The Afghan Girls Robotics Team	Students	Afghanistan	[17]
	Dr. Munjed Al Muderis	Doctor orthopedic surgeon human rights activist and humanitarian professor and lecturer	Iraq
	The Founders of Koolulam	Social musical initiative	Israel
	The Heroes of Fukushima	Plant workers first responders volunteers	Japan
	Mira Rai	Sportswoman	Nepal
	Raed Saleh and the Syrian White Helmets	Volunteer and civil defence organization	Syria
	The Rescue Team at the Tham Luang Caves		Thailand
	Wang Shi	Entrepreneur environmentalist	China
2019	Hoor Al Qasimi	SAF director curator artist	United Arab Emirates	[18]
	Yuriko Koike	Governor of Tokyo	Japan
	Kung Fu Nuns	Social activist humanitarian	Nepal
	Sana Mir	Sportswoman	Pakistan
	Faiza Saeed	Attorney	United States
	Chhaya Sharma	NHRC Deputy Inspector General former Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner of Police	India
	Jane Jie Sun	Businesswoman CEO	China
2020	BTS	Musician philanthropist	South Korea	[19]
	Vikas Khanna	Chef humanitarian	India
	Miky Lee	Film producer businesswoman	South Korea
	Yo-Yo Ma	Cellist humanitarian	France United States
	Naomi Osaka	Sportswoman	Japan
	Joseph Tsai and Clara Tsai	Businessman philanthropist	Taiwan
2021	Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl	Rabbi	United States	[20]
	Dr. Morris Chang	Businessman	Taiwan / United States
	Dr. David Ho	Doctor scientist medical researcher
	Sal Khan	Educator	United States
	Sunisa Lee	Gymnast
	Kim Ng	Baseball executive and general manager
	Sundar Pichai	CEO	India / United States
2022	Michael Bloomberg	Entrepreneur philanthropist former Mayor of New York City	United States	[9]
	Arunabha Ghosh	Founder-CEO of Council On Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)	India
	Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner	Poet climate change activist	Marshall Islands
	Kristin Kagetsu	Co-founder-CEO of Saathi social entrepreneur	India
	Navina Khanna	Co-founder of the HEAL Food Alliance	United States
	Ma Jun	Environmentalist	China
	Nanette Medved-Po	Philanthropist businesswoman	Philippines
	Dr. Rajiv J. Shah	President of the Rockefeller Foundation	United States
	Alok Sharma	Politician President for COP26	United Kingdom
	Janet Yang	Film producer President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences	United States
2023	Shabana Basij-Rasikh	Educator co-founder of the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA)	Afghanistan	[10][21]
	Yayoi Kusama	Contemporary artist	Japan
	Josie Natori	Fashion designer entrepreneur pianist	Philippines / United States
	The Philadelphia Orchestra	Diplomacy (U.S.-China relations)	United States
	Yao Chen	Actress producer philanthropist	China
	Dr. Stephen Riady	Philanthropist businessman	Singapore
	Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki	Co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Philanthropist patron of the arts	United States Costa Rica / Japan

Special awards

Chinese entrepreneur, and co-founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, is the first ever Asia Game Changer of the Year award recipient.

Indra Nooyi, Ceo of PepsiCo, is the first woman to be awarded the Asia Game Changer of the Year.

Year	Award	Recipient	Occupation(s)	Nationality	Ref.
2014	Asia Game Changer of the Year	Jack Ma	Businessman philanthropist	China	[22][23]
2015		Manny Pacquiao	Senator	Philippines	[24]
2018		Indra Nooyi	CEO	India	[17]
2016	Lifetime Achievement Award	I. M. Pei	Architect	China	[25][26]
2017		The Aga Khan	Imam philanthropist businessman	Switzerland	[15]