Olivia Cotes-James is an award-winning entrepreneur and passionate advocate for menstrual equity. For nearly a decade, she has worked to ensure menstruation is never a barrier to gender equality—first as a grassroots community leader, then as the founder and CEO of LUÜNA, a B Corp–certified social enterprise based in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Through a new initiative launching soon in 2025, Olivia is scaling that mission—uniting businesses to tackle urban period poverty at scale through collective action, starting in Hong Kong.
A Mission Rooted in Purpose
LUÜNA began as a response to the stigma, silence and misinformation surrounding menstruation—particularly in the workplace. Founder Olivia Cotes-James saw how these gaps were holding women and girls back in both their careers and education, and believed that organisations could—and should—play a transformative role in changing that.
Since their launch in 2019, LUÜNA has helped reshape workplace norms by installing period care dispensers in office and school washrooms, providing free access to LUÜNA’s organic cotton products in spaces where menstrual health has previously not been supported. Today, the company’s dispenser system reaches over half a million people daily, offering sustainable pads and tampons in partnership with leading organisations across Asia.
As a social enterprise with an impact-driven business model, LUÜNA has always reinvested a portion of its revenue to provide free menstrual products and education to underserved communities in Hong Kong and across Asia—delivering measurable impact.
For example, in partnership with The Zubin Foundation, LUÜNA’s Red Box Project led to a 27% reduction in school days missed due to menstruation among low-income girls in Hong Kong. In their most recent program supporting migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, over 50% of program participants adopted LUÜNA’s reusable period care as a more sustainable and cost-saving long-term solution for menstrual health management after 12 months.
Redefining Leadership
Olivia has become a leading voice in the menstrual equity space. In 2025, she was named to the prestigious EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Asia-Pacific Class of 2025, and won the Cartier Women’s Initiative Grant for impact entrepreneurship in 2023. She has recognition from Forbes 30 Under 30, Vogue, and Harpers Bazaar Visionary Woman of the Year 2024, among others. But her ambition goes beyond visibility—it’s about rewriting the script for how we address periods in society, in business, and in policy.
Whether she’s advising policy changes around periods, providing mentorship for youth-led social entrepreneurship programs, or speaking at international forums, Olivia is reframing menstrual equity as a critical issue tied to gender equality:
“Menstrual equity isn’t just about product access—it’s about increasing power and improving participation for women, girls, and all people who menstruate,” she says. “When we ensure everyone can manage their periods safely, confidently, and sustainably, we don’t just improve lives—we unlock opportunity and drive real systemic change. I believe businesses have a crucial role to play in making that change possible. Our work has been dedicated to activating organizations of all kinds as changemakers in a space that was once considered ‘inappropriate’ for the workplace—but no longer can be.”
A New Chapter in Collective Impact
As an AVPN Gender Equality Ambassador, Olivia brings her lived experience and entrepreneurial lens to an issue often excluded from global agendas. Through LUÜNA, she’s proven how business can be a force for good.
Learn more about Olivia’s work and how you can support AVPN’s Gender Equality Platform to drive menstrual equity forward across Asia.
