Global Executive MBA
Class of 2014
Europe campus
Asia campus
Abu Dhabi campus
Asia
GEMBA Programme
The INSEAD Global Executive MBA programme is designed for experienced managers, executives
and professionals who seek to enhance their knowledge, develop their leadership skills and
expand their international networks to accelerate their career progress even further. The
programme is delivered in a modular format and takes place on three fully integrated campuses:
Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and the Middle East (Abu Dhabi).
Previous experience
Class profile GEMBA 2014
13
years
average work
experience
80% range for
work experience:
8 to 19 years
57%
living outside
home country
6%
2%
4%
Manufacturing
26%
8%
37
average age
of participants
80% range for age
of participants:
32 to 43 years
47
Construction
nationalities
High Tech
Consumer Goods
9%
Edu/Non-profit
Transportation
9%
160
participants
24% women
38
Finance
Consulting
21%
Medical
Recreational-Arts
work
countries
Nationalities by region
5%
10%
Work countries by region
24%
Asia/Asia Pacific
Central/Eastern Europe
Americas
Middle East/Africa
Western Europe
41%
11%
6%
18%
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GEMBA Class of 2014
Each GEMBA class has an unparalleled diversity of nationalities and professional backgrounds, enabling
participants to learn from each other and build a close-knit yet globally distributed network. Regardless of which
section they start in, the whole class comes together and continues the journey as one towards the later parts of
the programme. Below is a selection of 30 profiles out of a total class size of 160 participants.
LEGEND: Europe section
Asia section
Middle East section
Linsen C. ABDON
Swedish
Entrepreneur
Private in Public – Sweden, The Netherlands
Linsen is CEO and founder of PiP (Private in Public), a company started in 2012 to bring sustainable disposables, most notably a new tampon model, to the market. Her responsibilities as CEO include everything a
start-up requires. She is also preparing for her role as a next generation owner of a family business in grain
procurement based in the US.
Martin J. BONHARD
Czech/Austrian
International Accounts and Global Carrier Relations Manager
Liberty Global Operations BV, Amsterdam/UPC Ceska republika s.r.o., Prague – Czech Republic
UPC Czech Republic belongs to Liberty Global, a leading international cable company with operations in 13
countries. As International Accounts and Global Carrier Relations Manager, Martin is responsible for driving
the company’s B2B growth. His main responsibility is business development, where he lays the ground for
acquiring and maintaining new accounts and revenue. He is also responsible for the coordination of international accounts in 12 European countries.
Koffi HOLONOU
Togolese / French
Senior Project Manager
Société Générale, La Défense, Paris – France
As senior project manager, Koffi is currently leading a project on “Referential Data” in a banking
environment, where the business team is based in Paris, the development team is based in Bangalore, the
software vendor is based in San Francisco and the end-users are based all over the world (Paris, Bucharest,
London, New York, Hong Kong, etc). His career to date has primarily focused on IT projects management
within various financial institutions where he’s held various positions such as Global Application Manager
and Business Analysts team leader.
Christian G. JOHNSEN
Norwegian
Consultant
Shell Global Solutions International, Amsterdam – Netherlands
Christian’s primary responsibility is to manage a portfolio of 10 sites and a total of 30 hydro-processing
units in the EMEA region. His task is to improve the performance of Shell and 3rd party units in short term
(troubleshooting & optimisation) and long term (projects). For internal projects, he is working on contributing to Shell’s Continuous Improvement journey and to that effect, he is leading a number of organisational efficiency projects as Lean Practitioner. Christian has previously worked in Sweden, Qatar and Japan.
Emmy Mdumba KUMWENDA
Zambian
Director and Head Local Corporates
Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Plc – Zambia
Emmy’s responsibility is to grow the local corporate portfolio through product and solution mix, whilst
having a keen understanding of global and local market trends, regulation and client requirements. Her
role involves interaction with peers and product partners globally across the Group, to facilitate the growth
of local corporate banking business. She has 12 years of experience in the banking industry, across
operations and corporate banking, with experience in two other African markets on short assignments.
Katalin POLUS
Hungarian
Senior Sales Specialist
Rio Tinto Alcan, Singapore
Katalin contributes to the business in the areas of development and implementation of product strategy;
product and sales assessment and resolution of supply chain problems. The regions under her
responsibility include Korea, Taiwan, Europe and South America, accounting for a sales value of approximately US$850 million per annum. Her career to date largely focused on the mining industry, specifically
diamonds and aluminium, and she has held roles throughout Belgium, the UK, New Zealand and Singapore.
Marc Schiltz
Luxembourg
Executive Head
National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche - FNR), Luxembourg
Marc manages the organisation as a whole and reports to the non-executive board. The National Research
Fund of Luxembourg is an autonomous non-governmental public body entrusted with an annual budget
of about 60 MEUR. Under Marc’s supervision are the 26 employees of the agency, a majority of whom are
highly qualified experts. He has been an active researcher and academic for more than 18 years and holds
positions at Universities and research centres in France, Switzerland and the UK.
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Yulia Stepina
Russian
Managing Director
RATIONAL International AG, Heerbrugg – Switzerland
As Managing Director, Yulia is responsible for the Area of Finance and Administration, in particular for the
International Controlling, Customer Service and International Human Resources. The company’s focus is
to develop international, so called “non-established markets”. Yulia’s career to date has primarily focused
on the business administration area in the industrial manufacturer’s companies, where she has held
various international and corporate positions (Switzerland, Russia and Germany).
Kazunori (Kazu) YANAGISHITA
Japanese
Corporate Planning Manager/BOD
LOTTE Wedel Sp. z o.o., Warsaw - Poland
Kazunori manages operational and financial tasks which mainly includes financial analysis, internal control
and handling cross border acquisitions of chocolate manufacturers in Switzerland, France and Germany.
He leads a team of more than 50 internal and external members and is currently responsible for general
operations in LOTTE Wedel and business expansion in Europe. He previously worked for numerous international companies, such as Texas Instruments and Deloitte and has also started a business in the US. He is
a certified public accountant and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Jennifer WATKINS
Filipino/American
Vice President, Marketing & Customer Experience
Wells Fargo, New York City - USA
Jennifer leads and builds broad scale strategies utilising multiple marketing disciplines designed to improve the customer experience. She employs varied online and offline marketing tactics to increase crosssell, decrease attrition and improve return on customer. She has spent almost 15 years in marketing,
with 8 years in banking and prior roles in healthcare, energy, and in an advertising/public relations firm.
Jennifer was raised and educated in Asia before moving to San Francisco, Chicago, and then New York.
Joseph Dajani
Australian
Senior Vice President
Citibank, Singapore
Joseph is responsible for developing and managing the Agriculture commodities trading desk at Citibank
in Singapore, including the full trading cycle from idea generation to implementation, risk management
and profitability. He has lived in the Middle East, Europe and Australia.
Gregory de Richemont
French/British
Internal Audit Manager Asia
Faurecia, China – Shanghai
Gregory’s major responsibility is to improve the internal control level within Faurecia entities in China,
South Korea, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Iran (52 plants, 7 R&D centres - 11,300 employees).
The assignments are related to compliance to Group standard processes, internal consulting, and fraud
investigation. He is located in Shanghai and reports to the Group Internal Audit VP located in the Paris
Headquarters.
Se-Hsieng Eng
Singaporean
Global Client Partner
Vodafone Global Enterprise , Singapore
Se-Hsieng had extensive commercial and investment experience in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions before transferring to a global client-facing role within Vodafone Global Enterprise in 2013. She is
now accountable for a portfolio worth over EUR 15m annually and is responsible for developing new business opportunities with top multinational clients of Vodafone Global Enterprise and maintaining C-suite
relationships within these accounts. She studied engineering in France and is passionate about promoting
women in leadership.
Hiroto Ihara
Japanese
Chief Executive Officer
Magicstone Co Ltd., Fukuoka – Japan
As CEO, Hiroto is responsible for all operations of his newly set up company, a Japanese curry restaurant
and IT business with 5 employees which aims to expand its businesses across Asia. His previous career
was mainly focused on commercial banking (5 years in Corporate Finance in Tokyo, 6 years in International Finance in London, Turkey and the Middle East) at Mizuho Bank and investment banking (6 years
M&A and Private Equity) at CLSA Capital Partners. In his last role he was Executive Vice President and
CFO of Everlife Co., Ltd., a direct seller of health supplements.
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Soo Yeun Kim
Korean
AVP Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Product & Service Marketing
HSBC, Korea – Seoul
As Senior Marketing Manager Soo Yeun is responsible for all wealth management product and service
marketing in HSBC Korea. Her career focus is integrated marketing strategy and communications based on
12 years of professional experience in both consumer product and financial industry at L’Oreal and HSBC
where she had intensive multinational assignments (Asia-Pacific and European countries).
Hosea Lai
Singaporean
Head, Volunteerism Division
National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, Singapore
Hosea manages all aspects of volunteer division, from encouraging more volunteers, to ensuring non-profits in Singapore are better organised to engage volunteers meaningfully. His prior work includes Habitat for
Humanity International, looking after Northeast Asian countries such as China, Korea and Japan. His
career in the non-profit industry spans over 20 years and has taken him to various places, including overseeing the Sichuan earthquake reconstruction in China, teaching child soldiers in Myanmar, building homes
for victims of tsunami, earthquakes and other disasters.
Clarinda Lui
Singaporean
Head of Finance
FOX International Channels, Singapore
Clarinda manages the post-acquisition transitions including restructuring, implementing financial systems
and policy, supporting the new office build-out and other integration activities. She is also responsible for
the accurate and timely delivery of accounting close, forecast and budget and supports the APAC CFO in
the planning and execution of strategies for Singapore and the region. She began her career with a Big
Four accounting firm before moving into internal audit. Just prior to this role, she was the Controller for
the India business for The AES Corporation, a US MNC in the energy sector.
Rajeev Mantri
Indian
Head, Balance Sheet Management & Regulatory Reporting
Standard Chartered Bank, India
Rajeev’s role is to provide leadership and direction to Balance Sheet Management and Regulatory Reporting teams (30 members) within the finance function for Standard Chartered Bank Singapore. His focus
areas include driving strategic priorities to enable robust liquidity & capital management, governance on
effective implementation of related policies and ensuring accuracy and timeliness in providing variety of
financial reporting to local regulator, and his work involves interaction with various external and internal
stakeholders across different nationalities and cultural backgrounds, and travel across South East Asia
region. He has a total of 15 years experience in various roles within Finance spanned across India, Dubai
and Singapore.
Christine Racle
French
Regional Group CFO
HIGH-TECH LUBRICANTS (MOTUL Asia Pacific), Singapore
After 20 years spent in audit, Christine joined MOTUL Group four years ago as its Regional CFO for Asia
Pacific. MOTUL operates in about 90 countries all over the word. In Asia, the business covers 16 countries.
Christine leads the back office functions with her main responsibility being all finance-related matters in
Asia, overseeing the administrative and compliance functions, developing financial policies and internal
control procedures and supporting all departments on their legal queries, as well as leading the HR and
Customer Service Departments.
Charmaine Tham
Australian
Veterinary Operations Manager, Australia
Zoetis (formerly Pfizer Animal Health), Sydney – Australia
Charmaine is the companion animal technical lead for Zoetis Australia, working closely with local and international colleagues on brand management strategies for sales and marketing in Australia. As probono
President on the Board of Directors for Vets Beyond Borders (Australian not-for-profit), Charmaine is also
involved with international development aid projects in India, China and Vanuatu. Originally from Singapore, her background is in veterinary clinical practice and pharmacology.
Rania Abou Mosleh
Lebanese
Managing Director
AMB, Beirut, Lebanon
Rania is responsible for all aspects of business development and also manages the project teams and
budgets. The company was established in 2008 and they launched its environmental contracting arm in
2011. Their work in Environmental consulting is focused in the Gulf and the Middle East and they also
work in South East Asia.
Bassam Alaujan
Saudi Arabian
Regional Director – Central region of Saudi Arabia
Almuhaidib Contracting Company – Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
Bassam is responsible for business development including current clients and prospective clients. He
oversees and is directly involved in the projects that are managed through the Riyadh office. Bassam has
recently developed a passion for Social Entrepreneurship and has extensive international exposure after
having lived in Kuwait for 13 years, Japan for 6 years, and Australia for 2 years.
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Rishaad Currimjee
Mauritian
Co-founder and Managing Director
CIDP, India
Rishaad co-founded CIDP in 2010. The Delhi-based company conducts specialised R&D for the cosmetic
and dermatology industry. Prior to that, Rishaad worked in the finance industry in New York and in telecom companies across India. In 2014, he will be taking up a senior management position with Currimjee Ltd in Mauritius, which is a 4th generation owned and managed family business with investments in
mobile telecommunication, media, hospitality, manufacturing and energy.
Sedef Gunsur
Turkish
Executive Director
National Bank of Abu Dhabi - UAE
Sedef is responsible for expanding the DCM business outside the UAE and to build the bank’s presence in
the coverage countries. As a senior originator in the DCM team, she is actively involved in all aspects of
business development to secure new transactions across all international markets in EMEA and Americas,
with a particular focus on the Middle East and Turkey.
Philippe Infante
French
Managing Director
JCDecaux ATA, Jeddah - Saudi Arabia
As Managing Director and Board Member, Philippe is responsible for many activities, including: Development, Sales and Marketing, Legal matters and Finance. He joined JCDecaux France’s Sales Department in
2004 before gaining a promotion as Managing Director of the newly opened JCDecaux in Qatar (2008 –
2011) and then KSA (2011 till today).
Darrell McGraw
American
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lagos - Nigeria
Darrell is a partner within PwC’s Energy Practice, currently leading a number of audit, consulting, and
capital raising projects in the Oil and Gas Sector in Nigeria. In addition to these responsibilities, Darrell
helps drive the Firm’s Oil and Gas industry agenda in Africa, finding ways to help multinationals
streamline their approach to the continent, as well as advising local companies on world class finance and
controls issues.
Antonio Rivas
Spanish
Senior Architect/ Project Co-ordinator
BDP Consulting Engineers, Abu Dhabi - UAE
Antonio has extensive international experience in project design and construction implementation,
client-contractor liaison and cross-functional, multicultural team management. His current responsibilities
include leading and managing a team of ten architects to tender packages for construction and on-site
management for a multimillion award-winning concept design project in Abu Dhabi.
Natalie Sleiman
Lebanese
Regional Insurance Services Manager
Audi Volkswagen Middle East, Dubai - UAE
Natalie is responsible for setting up, developing and managing the captive insurance business provided by
Volkswagen Financial Services to automotive brands of the Volkswagen Group, which are marketed to end
customers through the respective authorised dealerships in the Middle East. She credits her
international exposure to working for multinationals across various industries and handling strategic
projects that required cross-cultural exchange and business travel across the globe.
Katarina Uherova Hasbani
Slovak
Senior Energy Analyst
Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, UAE
Katarina is responsible for advising the Dubai government on policies required to secure stable and reliable supply of energy to fuel sustainable development of the city. This entails designing a framework capable of delivering an estimated saving of $20 Billion USD based on improved energy efficiency by 2030.
She has a strong energy background in the public sector in Europe and Middle East.
Meera Sundareshan
Indian
Operations leader
IBM, India
Meera is responsible for performance optimisation and driving efficiencies across the growth market
teams. She also drives capacity/financial planning and execution for IBM’s consulting business across
eight critical markets including India, South Asia, Middle-East and China with a clear focus on improving
bottom line performance. Over the past 18 years as an IT professional, she has held various leadership
roles that span across operations, client and program management and sales. Outside India, Meera has
worked and held client facing positions in Australia, USA and UK.
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