The Steward Leadership Advantage - Sep 2024

Mr Rajeev Peshawaria

CEO, Stewardship Asia Centre

Rejecting platitudes and theoretical models, Rajeev combines 22 years of global Fortune 100 experience with research-based insights to provide unique and practical approaches to personal leadership, ethics, governance, sustainable business growth, and stewardship. A sought-after speaker and consultant, he is the CEO of Stewardship Asia Center, Singapore, and President of Leadership Energy Consulting, Seattle, WA, USA.

Author of the Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller Open Source Leadership (McGraw Hill), Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders (Simon & Schuster), Sustainable Sustainability (Penguin Random House), co-author of Be the Change (McGraw Hill) and a regular contributor for Forbes, he constantly challenges conventional wisdom on leadership, management, stewardship, sustainability, and corporate governance.  He has pioneered unique practical concepts such as Leadership Energy and Emotional Integrity for personal growth, the Brains-Bones-Nerves model for enterprise leadership, and the Steward Leadership model for driving sustainable business growth in the 21st century.

Rajeev is a high-energy, inspirational speaker who provides coaching, consulting and advisory services to corporate and public sector clients globally. He also serves as guest faculty at leading US, Europe and Asia business schools.  He has been widely featured in international media such as CNN, Bloomberg TV & Radio, National Public Radio, Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Fast Company, Leader to Leader, American Management Association magazine, Leadership Excellence magazine, The Times of India, The Straits Times, Business Times, and many more.

Before joining SAC and starting LEC, he was the CEO of the Iclif Leadership & Governance Centre.  He was formerly the Chief Learning Officer of Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley and has also held senior positions at American Express, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs. At Goldman, Rajeev helped found Pine Street − the firm’s acclaimed leadership academy − and headed Pine Street for Europe and Asia. In his early career, he was a banker and currency trader.

In 2014 and 2017, he was named one of the Top 100 Global Thought Leaders for Trustworthy Business by ‘Trust Across America.’  

A few of Rajeev’s videos and articles can be found on the links below:

1. CNBC Interview
2. Overview
3. Interview on CNN’s Quest Means Business
4. Forbes Article: Will G Save Us from E and S Challenges
5. TED Talk
6. TED Talk

Dr Flocy Joseph

Programme Director and Head Commercial, SMU Executive Development, Singapore Management University

Dr. Flocy Joseph leads her team of Client Directors and Business Development Managers at SMU Executive Development. As a leadership researcher, she has designed and delivered bespoke learning journeys for her clients across business sectors and geographies – focusing on senior leaders in the public and private sectors in Asia. Through her professional and academic experiences, she has successfully forged business partnerships with several overseas business schools in Europe, the Americas,
and Asia, and maintained through uniquely curated Singapore-basedbimmersion programmes for the executives from these partner schools.

Flocy has authored and published several case studies on leadership and remains an active participant in the ecosystem. Her work has won awards and recognition – most recently earning the Runner-Up award for her case on Bold and Responsible Leadership at the FT Awards in 2021. She has also won the inaugural ‘Dissertation Impact Award’ from SMU which assesses the impact of the thesis of Doctoral students in real life. She has co-authored the book “Living the Corporate Purpose: Insights from Companies in Asia” which is a collection of case studies of purpose-led organisations operating in Asia.

Prof Arnoud De Meyer

Chairman, Stewardship Asia Centre

Professor De Meyer is a global academic leader with more than 35 years of experience in top academic institutions in Europe and Asia. Until December 2018, he served as President of Singapore Management University (SMU). Before joining SMU, Professor De Meyer was from 2006 until 2010 Director (Dean) of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

Earlier on he was a faculty member at INSEAD and assumed several management positions, among others as founding dean of INSEAD’s Asia campus in Singapore. He has additionally been an Independent Director of various international companies and non-profit organisations. He is currently Independent Director of Viva Energy Pty Ltd, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited and upGrad Tech Pte Ltd.

Professor De Meyer is an internationally recognised researcher in the areas of Research & Development and Innovation Management, Manufacturing Strategy and International Management. He has published more than 100 academic articles and 12 books. His most recent books are “Ecosystem Edge: Sustaining Competitiveness in the Face of Disruption” (Stanford Business Press) and “Building Excellence in Higher Education: Singapore’s Experience” (Routledge).

Professor Lim Sun Sun

Professor of Communication and Technology; Vice President (Partnerships and Engagement); Lee Kong Chian Fellow​

Professor Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Professor of Communication and Technology at the Singapore Management University. She has extensively researched the social impact of technology, focusing on technology domestication by families, workplace digital disruptions and public perceptions of smart city technologies. She authored Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society (Oxford University Press, 2020). She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and serves on thirteen journal editorial boards and Social Science Research Council, Media Literacy Council and Singapore Environment Council. From 2018-2020, she was Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore, raising issues such as governance of the use of big data, priorities in digital literacy education, improvement in data sharing, regulatory overreach in eradicating online falsehoods, support for gender diversity in the technology sector, and digital rights for children. She is an honoree of the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech list in 2020 and was elected Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2022. She frequently offers her expert commentary in international outlets including Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Nature, Scientific American, Channel NewsAsia and writes a monthly TechTalk column in The Straits Times. She has won eight awards for excellent teaching. See www.sunsunlim.com ​

Dr Hao Liang

Programme Faculty and Associate Professor of Finance & Lee Kong Chian Fellow, Singapore Management University

Dr. Hao Liang is an associate professor of finance at Singapore Management University (SMU), where he also holds the BNP Paribas Fellowship, DBS Sustainability Fellowship, and Lee Kong Chian Fellowship. He also services as the Co-Director of Singapore Green Finance Centre. He is a research member of European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an extramural fellow of Tilburg University. His research interests include sustainable finance, impact investing, corporate finance and governance. He has published on prestigious academic journals such as Journal of Finance. He is the Section Editor (Finance & Business Ethics) of Journal of Business Ethics (a FT50 top business journal), and is on the editorial boards of Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, British Accounting Review, Journal of Industrial and Business Economics and Strategic Management Journal.

Hao is the recipient of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Emerging Scholar Award in 2020, and two-time winner of the prestigious Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing (2014 & 2019). At SMU, he teaches Sustainable Finance and Entrepreneurial Finance at undergraduate, masters, DBA and PhD levels. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Law School Forum of Corporate Governance and Oxford Business Law Blog among many other media. He is a member of the China ESG 30 Forum nominated by Caixin Magazine.

Mr Sunil Puri

Senior Vice President, Research & Engagement

Sunil leads the Research and Engagement team. He is responsible for research and thought leadership, and he designs educational programmes, events, toolkits and frameworks.

Prior to joining SAC, Sunil was a Senior Director, Research, Innovation and Product Development with Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in Singapore and India, where he led the development of new products (events, programs, tools) based on research, partner with clients as a leadership subject-matter expert and develop annual research agenda with global stakeholders to execute research initiatives. Between 2014 and 2016, he was the Head of Research & Insights with Human Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI), where he led Pan-Asia research initiatives on “Asian leader development”, facilitate programs for senior business and HR leaders. He also worked as an Independent Consultant in India for a few years and was with CEB India (now Gartner) in India and USA for 8 years. 

Sunil graduated with a Master of Technology in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He also has an Executive MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has authored several research studies and wrote articles for Economic Times, The Business Times and Harvard Business Review.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping

Founder & Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels; Executive Chairman, Thai Wah Public Company