Family Portraits: Stella Liu

Family Portraits is an employee spotlight series, highlighting the incredible people at GoPro around the globe. In this series, you'll meet employees working on teams ranging from Product and Engineering to Legal and Operations, all of whom we're stoked to call our GoPro Family.

In this edition of Family Portraits, we'd like to introduce you to Stella Liu (she/her/hers). Stella Liu is based in GoPro's Shenzhen office and is Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC) Workplace Services. Her Chinese name is LiuYingXia. Liu is her family name and YingXia meaning she was born in the early morning.

When we caught up with Stella, she was making her way to her family's hometown for the Spring Festival. Naturally, she was very excited to spend time with family and celebrate the beginning of a new year.

As Stella tells it, it was the answer of a fateful phone call from a friend that ultimately introduced Stella to the world of GoPro-or is it the world of Stella to GoPro? In 2014, Stella took a career break as her son was entering the first grade. A project at her previous company had ended and it felt like a good time to spend some extra time with her son as he transitioned into school. A few months into this break, and unexpectedly, she received a phone call from a friend with an interview opportunity at GoPro. She figured it wouldn't hurt to take an interview and, spoiler, it went REALLY well. That interview led Stella to where she is today.

Stella laughs as she reflects You cannot imagine that I can stay such a long time? I truly love GoPro, the working culture, and the relationships with my team.

When she initially joined GoPro, her first responsibilities were to ensure the wellbeing, safety and overall office and employee experience for the Shenzhen office. Over time, her role expanded to look after the Hong Kong and Shanghai offices, and today, she manages all the APAC office locations, including a large office in Manila. Due to her role, she's been able to travel to Hong Kong, Tokyo and Manila for work and says she loves meeting people from different locations and cultures.

One project she was deeply involved in was the renovation of the Shenzhen office. Rumors floated around the property management company that there's a place in the office that you can host a party, sing songs and play games, to which Stella adds, We even joke that there is a corner of the office that is the perfect location for a GoPro Max.

Stella strongly embodies one of GoPro's core values above all: Make Friends. She loves building relationships with colleagues, helping employees of GoPro find a sense of belonging at work and being a bridge between different functions within the company. The relationships are one of the best parts for her, but her favorite part of her job is seeing people smile and making their lives easier.

Because of her role, Stella has a connection and a role to play in events across the organization put on by the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) team, internal Spirit Squad and GoPro Give Back Days. The latter is a special highlight for Stella, as she loves to give back to the community. One can count on seeing Stella at every GoPro Give Back Day event, from planting trees in mangroves to knitting small caps for water bottles as a fundraiser for a seniors group. Every year the give back days feel special, it's hard to find a favorite!

When GoPro released HERO6 Black, Stella made it a personal goal to get more familiar with using her GoPro. She used the previous GoPro Live It program (a dedicated two hour break during the week for employees to step away from the computer, explore and document their passions using GoPro) to learn how to film and edit her videos. Her first produced edit was a collection of videos and photos from her son's outdoor team building event. She was quickly designated as one of the class historians, collecting photos, videos and creating edits along the way. Her shiniest moment-and production-would come together at her son's primary school graduation, where she was able to share 6 years worth of memories with his classmates and their parents. What a gift!

Its also rare for Stella to travel anywhere without a GoPro or two on her thee days. Before I joined GoPro, I was generally a quiet person. I didn't like to share or post, but using a GoPro has helped me branch out and share things proactively, encouraging others to share their life and passions. It's a conversation starter everywhere she goes.

Stella reiterated how lucky she felt to have picked up her friend's phone call 8 years ago. She's had such a happy time at GoPro.

Stella, we're so lucky you picked up too!

Interested in joining GoPro or learning more about our work culture? Check out our Careers Page here.

LINK:	https://gopro.com/en/gb/news/family-portrait-series-stella-liu...
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