“I am Group Chief Strategy & Innovation for Sime Darby, a $13B conglomerate based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that spans many industries, from automotive to palm oil. I guide strategy, innovation and M&A to fuel future growth for the company. I also lead a team that builds our innovation capabilities.”
Before joining Sime Darby, I led Kimberly-Clark’s global innovation center, in Seoul, South Korea, where I worked with a team of more than 100 researchers, marketers, and designers developing the next breakthrough innovations. One of the exciting areas we focused on is active seniors, as the population around the developed world is aging and needs new consumer-centric innovation. We had multiple pilots on new types of products and services targeting this growing demographic.
My years at Innosight gave me the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and gave me a unique set of skills I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere. Perhaps most important, it trained me how to look at innovation through an entrepreneurial lens. I was part of the team that helped to set up our Asia practice and was part of the team that launched the ChotuKool fridge, which was a transformative initiative for Godrej & Boyce, because it was the start of an organization-wide commitment to innovating the company’s future. I also worked on Medtronic’s Healthy Heart for All initiative, which brought affordable pacemakers and cardiovascular care to India through a very unique business model. I take a lot of pride in that project. It has saved lives and has given me an appreciation of the power of innovation to have a real impact on important problems.”