The Thinkfluencers

Allan Ang is currently the Regional Head of Talent & Leadership at Yum! Brands. Prior to this, he was the Director, Head of Talent UK & Ireland at Estee Leader Companies. In this role he was responsible for all facets of the talent lifecycle (acquisition, learning and development, talent management, employee engagement, performance management and employer brand).  He is a senior HR and Talent Executive with 15+ years HR experience working across multiple industries including Technology, Consumer & Beauty and Financial Services. 

He is experienced in driving innovative HR & Talent interventions that deliver commercial impact.  He is adept at aligning Talent strategies with business needs and has a track record of building and developing high-performing and diverse teams across multi-regional (Europe, Middle-East, Asia-Pacific) markets having worked and lived in several countries including Japan, China and Singapore. 

Allan values and operates with a strong sense of partnership, trust, humility, transparency and empowerment. 

Helen Webb is currently the Chief People Officer at WHSmith. Before, she’d joined the executive team at Co-op in April 2017 having previously been the HR Director for Food. 

 Prior to joining the Co-op, Helen held a variety of senior roles for FTSE 100 companies including Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Aviva.  

She’s passionate about diversity and is a strong women’s advocate, winning an ‘Everywoman Retail Ambassador’ award in 2015. 

Hsern-Wei is a Partner at PwC Malaysia and has over 13 years experience in the areas of leadership development, organisational development and talent management.  

In PwC, he drove "Future Skills" (an upskilling initiative), covering both digital skills and essential skills. He also led the transformation of the career journey framework, putting in place a new performance management framework, a new people value proposition and fostering a culture of continuous learning. Amongst other recognitions, PwC Malaysia has been awarded an HR Excellence Award in Learning & Development and in Leadership Development in 2018.  

Hsern-Wei is a frequent speaker and thought leader in the field of learning & development and was selected as one of the "30 under 30" learning leaders at Elliott Masie's Learning 2011, a programme aimed at developing and spotlighting the next generation of learning leadership.  

He holds a Master’s of Science in Occupational Psychology from University of Surrey, United Kingdom and is a member of the British Psychological Society. Before PwC, Hsern-Wei spent his working career in consulting and leadership development in London. 

Sarah Cant is currently the Change Partner at Asos.com. Previous to this, in her role as Lead Associate at Willis Towers Watson, Sarah worked within the Communication and Change Management team where they provided expertise to clients in change management and organisational effectiveness to drive employee engagement and help align behaviour with business results. 

Sarah is an ambitious Organizational Psychology graduate, passionate about developing organisations, prioritising people and wellbeing; and a skilled project manager, taking a personable approach with clients.  

Alvin Ng is currently the Chief Operating Officer, Smart Cities, APAC for Aboitiz Data Innovation. Previous to this, Alvin was the regional VP & General Manager of Johnson Control, responsible for JCI’s Digital Solution across Asia Pacific & Japan. JCI Digital creates self-conscious, self-healing and occupant-driven building that unlocks new possibilities of how enterprises discover new insights, find efficiencies, and create other sources of value and sustainability. 

Prior to JCI, Alvin was the General Manager of GE Digital chartered to lead GE Digital’s industrial software solutions and services that bring together brilliant machines, data, insights, and people to drive real-time connectivity and data intelligence through a digital thread in Asia. 

He has over 20 years experience in sales management, business and market development, and has held a series of global leadership roles. Three of those years were spent in Europe. 

With his extensive experience and passion for Digital Transformation and Advance Technologies (IOT and AI), he serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at NTU Nanyang Business School and as a founding member of World Economic Forum’s Digital ASEAN Skills Task Force. He is also a Senior Career Fellow and plays the role of an executive coach Global Executive MBA and Full-Time MBA programme at Nanyang Business School. 

Before joining Johnson Control and GE Digital, Alvin Ng was the Regional Vice President, Banking Products & Solutions, for Wincor Nixdorf.  He leads the Software Business Unit for Asia Pacific & Japan and have the overall P&L responsibility for sales, consulting and professional services.   

Alvin began his leadership journey in Cisco Systems as the Managing Director of Cisco Systems Global Enterprise Sales with responsibility over Cisco Systems’ largest Global Enterprise customers.  

Julia Harvie-Liddel is Global Head of Recruitment at The Access Group. She was previously Director, Talent Acquisition, EMEA at AWS, and Group Head of Talent Acquisition (TA) at BP.  For the latter role, her responsibilities included developing and overseeing the implementation of BP’s resourcing strategy in service of the capabilities required to deliver the long term BP strategy. This included all recruitment at BP globally from school leaver to board room level. 

Julia joined BP in 2011 as the Global Vice President for Upstream Resourcing, with a focus on driving standardization, modernization and quality of global hiring. This role expanded over time to cover all businesses and levels. Julia is based in London but travels for large parts of the year. 

Julia spent the early part of her career working at Accenture. There she held a variety of resourcing and HR generalist roles – with both local and global remits. 

Sanjeev Gupta is Africa Finance Corporation’s ('AFC') Executive Director for Financial Services and a Member of the Board of Directors. His overall responsibility in AFC includes Treasury, Trade Finance, Debt Syndication, Country Relations and Financial Advisory.  

Sanjeev has 30 years of experience in Investment and Fund Management, Private Equity and Corporate Finance. His forte has been to blend together global and indigenous corporates, financial investors and governments to develop commercially viable business and development models that leave a sustainable impact on emerging market economies.  

Prior to joining AFC, Sanjeev was the Managing Partner of Emerging Markets Mergers and Acquisitions Center of Excellence at Ernst and Young. He has also been the Chief Executive Officer of Sanlam Investment Management Emerging Markets operations and was a Founder & Managing Partner of Emerging Opportunity Consulting, a boutique advisory firm specializing in SME financing.  

Sanjeev holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Calcutta, India and is an Alumnus of the Said Business School, University of Oxford, England and also an alumnus of the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India (FCA).  

Driven by the conviction that no child should ever have to live or die in pain, compassion was the underlying foundation of Rachel House and equitable access its reason for being. The outcome has been the flowering of this fountain of compassion, not just in the care that it provides, but extends far and beyond into the communities. 

Lynna has since embarked on a new journey in search of an equitable humane healthcare model to ensure compassionate and excellent care is available and accessible for all, in an economically sustainable way. 

Amelia is a technology professional with over three years’ experience both domestically and internationally at Westpac. She is a Change Manager in the Chief Operating Officer’s office at Westpac Banking Corporation, as well as being the Project Lead for the Westpac Young Technologist’s Scholarship.  

Amelia is passionate about promoting the importance of diversity in the STEM and particularly Young Technologists. 

Iffath Mansoor is passionate about digital marketing and social selling. She loves to help organizations effectively use social media as a strategic platform to grow their online presence and use this as part of their social selling activities. 

Iffath is motivated to help companies make the most out of their content through the use of social media and digital platforms as a strategic platform to tell their brand’s story. Her experience at Google India as a part of the YouTube team, and now at Facebook UK, has cultivated in her a strong understanding & foundation in digital marketing and technology, while Iffath's experience at L'Oréal Denmark has helped her understand the reality and opportunities from a brand perceptive. This helps Iffath in her day to day as she works with FMCG companies in the UK. 

Iffath is passionate about social issues and has actively led major CSR initiatives throughout her career.

Dalisu Waiyaki Jwara is currently an Associate at TLcom Capital. Previous to this, he was a Senior Acceleration Associate at MFS Africa, where he accelerates strategic initiatives and processes for the Emerging Enterprise Division.  

Prior to joining MFS Africa, he worked as an investment banker at Investec's Structured Property Finance team. He began his career as an Analyst at The Weir Group Plc in the UK, where he worked on strategy, M&A and investor relations and has work experience in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.   

He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a Business Science (Finance) Honours degree from the University of Cape Town.  

Shveta Sarin joined Shell Foundation (SF) in April 2020 to develop and implement a refreshed clean cooking strategy and integrate demand stimulation efforts within the off-grid utility portfolio. She also leads on developing an integrated China strategy at SF. 

Prior to joining SF, Shveta worked in New York for a young and fast-growing solar light company where she built their international business. She also worked in India for The Energy and Resources Institute developing rural entrepreneurship-based solutions to improve access to energy through solar technologies. She started her career in the sector with Ashoka analysing business models that address under-served markets with affordable products and services. 

An entrepreneur at heart, Shveta enjoys finding opportunities that don't seem obvious. With a background in establishing innovative partnerships in challenging low-income markets and driving positive social impact through business, she understands various aspects of the value chain. Shveta is driven by product innovation and committed to customer success, and plans to leverage her entrepreneurial energy to make large scale industry level impact within global organizations by uncovering exciting new market opportunities. 

Shveta holds an MBA from HEC Paris, an MA International Political Economy from University of Warwick and a Bachelors of Commerce (Hons) from University of Delhi. 

James Goh Jia Hao is an experienced organisational development specialist, and is currently the Organisation Development Lead at the Halogen Foundation Singapore. A management consultant by profession, he has worked alongside people from the corporate, non-profit and public spheres, collaborating with them to uplift their organisational strategies in human resources, learning and development and talent management. He has also previously worked with an international leadership development non-profit Common Purpose as Programmes Director, running leadership development programmes for universities around the world. 

James has a Bachelor of Arts Psychology (Summa Cum Laude) from the University at Buffalo, a Masters of Science (Hons) in Organizational Psychology from the Singapore Management University, as well as a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. 

In addition, James is highly active in the field of civic engagement, serving as the Chairman of the PAYM Central Youth Council, one of the largest youth networks in Singapore. James is also an appointed member of the National Youth Council, the official government youth body of Singapore. James was awarded the PAYM Youth Excellence Award in 2014, and the prestigious Public Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat) by the President of Singapore in 2015. At the time of the award, he was the youngest recipient in the history of the award. 

Lauren Le Franc runs an organic coffee farm and has been named Forbes Top 10 Women in Sustainability. She is passionate about social impact and the empowerment of women in the coffee supply chain.  

Lauren is also a Barrister, before commencing pupillage, Lauren read law as an undergraduate, attaining several distinctions and the highest overall performance across commercial law subjects. She worked as a County Court Advocate for 2 years, appearing on behalf of clients in debt recovery and landlord and tenant matters. 

Representing clients across several practice areas in courts across the country, Lauren has gained experience of law in a practical setting and built up a varied practice. During her first six pupillage, Lauren assisted with various matters, including a defamation case in the High Court, as well as injunctions, discrimination, family law, insurance claims and advisory in relation to insolvency. 

In her free time she also enjoys horse riding, tennis, and charitable work. 

Dr. Patel is a Purpose-Driven Leader and Social Entrepreneur who is passionate about Global Justice, Social Change and the Power of Leading Beyond Authority. 

Currently, he is the Head of Transformation at National Zakat Foundation. Prior to this, he co-founded Quantum5, a Global Sustainability Consultancy that mobilises business leaders around the UN Global Goals through SDGme, an ESG/SDGs assessment tool and serves on a number of International Leadership Boards. 

His multifarious career in the private, public and third sectors have enabled him to work and live in India, Tanzania, Ghana, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Cambodia, Pakistan, Nepal, Brazil and the United States, enabling him to develop Cultural Intelligence and see things through new perspectives and lenses. 

Javad is a multi-award winning social entrepreneur, early stage impact investor, systems leader and diversity pioneer from Norway. He works with startup generations, impact investments and on the development of innovation ecosystems in Africa, Asia (Pakistan) and Europe. Javad also works with impact organizations to make systemic impact towards 2030. 

He is Founder and CEO of several social enterprises in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, Education and Lifelong learning and Youth and Entrepreneurship; a leader of Global Shapers Oslo, part of GSC, an initiative by World Economic Forum; and part of several boards of directors, board of advisors and mentor for several startups. 

Javad's awards and honors include Kapital 40 under 40, 2019 Global Impact Award, 2019 Performance Award handed out by the Minister of Digitalization, Coca Cola Hero of the Year - Highly Commended, BI Young Alumni Award - on their 75 year anniversary, Norway's top leadership talents 2019 and 2018 (E24), Norway's top leader talents 2017; top 2 in the category of "Social Entrepreneur of the Year", nominated as Name of the year by VG in 2011, selected as one of "100 male role models" by Utrop, most ambitious person by Blend, Business Student of the Year in Norway, award for best Master's Thesis of Oslo themes across all schools and disciplines, Alarga Scholarship, BIs Presidential / Student Ambassador Scholarship, A. Wilhelmsen Scholarship, and part of the winning team of Harvard Business School MOC project competition. 
 
Javad's areas of interest and experience include strategy, (social) entrepreneurship, emerging markets, education for all and lifelong learning, diversity leadership, organizational development, sustainability, technology, and humanitarian work. 

His focus is to wake up daily to strive for excellence and to create a difference in the world.  

Cassidy Clark is currently Marketing and Community Manager for GROW, a Singapore-based agrifoodtech accelerator that works with innovative startups to advance sustainability and resilience in our global food systems. In her previous role, Cassidy was the Programme and Marketing Associate, where she helped GROW scale its impact and build the local agrifoodtech ecosystem by developing and delivering new programmes, sharpening brand and marketing strategy, and coordinating external communications & events.   

Cassidy has taken a diverse, meandering path through her education and career. Originally from Colorado, USA, she was inspired by her high school Spanish language teacher to be more curious about the world. This curiosity sparked a passion for language learning and prompted her to pursue her undergraduate degree at Yale-NUS College, a liberal arts college in Singapore. Over the course of her interdisciplinary studies there, she had the opportunity to live, travel, study, and work around the world, including doing two internships in Berlin and Bangalore.  

Previous to her current role she worked for Common Purpose, a global not-for-profit leadership development organization dedicated to empowering cross-boundary leaders. That philosophy of cross-boundary leadership certainly resonated with Cassidy's experiences and has shaped her worldview, and she is now driven to live it out by contributing to the wider intersectional environmental movement for climate action and sustainability! 

us that a way to live a fulfilling life is to find your deeper purpose: the purpose that goes beyond your own goals and desires. Once this purpose is surfaced the magic of inner alignment will happen. 

Joana has helped hundreds of leaders to collaborate with a clear purpose. At Clear Purpose, they accelerate communities to clear ideas that enable purposeful and actionable strategies allowing meaningful solutions for change to be envisioned. 
 
Over 16 years of experience in business and for the last years, Joana has been dedicated to understanding how design enables innovation in community as she works for change and prosperity. As a design strategist and creative facilitator Joana researches methods in design to drive change and remove barriers for clear thinking. In 2018, Joana developed the CLEARING PURPOSE FRAMEWORK to enable solutions for equality, rearrangement of resources, and structures that can make potentials grow and organizations change.  
 
Joana holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Management from the University of Sao Paulo (‘09), Strategic Planning at the Miami Ad School/ SP (‘14), Innovation & Service Design at Hivelab (‘17), and Joana is certified as Design Sprint Facilitator by AJ&Smart, Professional Scrum Master and PO by Scrum.org (‘18). Also, Joana graduated in Enterprising Leadership program at Kaospilot (‘22) in Aarhus, Denmark.