Swati Mathur

Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Common Purpose

Swati’s journey into Common Purpose happened in 2015 after spending a decade in the corporate sector – in a different part of Asia - where she led leadership development on the other side. She brings that experience to her role in Common Purpose where she is responsible for the operations in Asia Pacific, including South East Asia, Hong Kong and Australia. She is passionate about leadership development and in the past has led organisations to realise their leadership aspirations.

At Common Purpose, Swati has helped build the flagship programme, The ASEAN Leaders Programme, which helps senior leaders across sectors cross boundaries to tackle real problems effectively. She also leads on the programme design for bespoke interventions with organizational partners and manages key relationships for the organization in the wider Asia Pacific region.

Human connection is what drives Swati, with collaboration sitting at the core. It is only when we engage with difference we are truly able to solve for issues and generate new ideas.

As part of her role, Swati has travelled across Asia Pacific to introduce Common Purpose’s unique pedagogy of cultural intelligence leadership to organisations in the government, business and social sectors. She has also delivered programmes in Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Melbourne and various cities in India.

Prior to joining Common Purpose, Swati was Vice President and Leadership Development Lead for Edelweiss Financial Services. She also worked with Cisco Systems and 3Global Systems prior to that.

Swati holds a Masters in Arts in Social Work, which was awarded by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. Born in India, she now lives in Singapore with her family.

Arun Sudhaman

CEO & Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media

Arun Sudhaman is CEO and editor-in-chief at PRovoke Media. He also serves as APACD editor, following PRovoke Media's partnership with the Asia-Pacific Association of Communication Directors.

In this role Arun oversees PRovoke Media's global content offering, including its analysis and insight into reputation, public relations and communications trends and issues. Since joining PRovoke Media in 2010, Arun has comprehensively redefined the title’s content platform, which includes its digital presence and new products such as the Influence 100 compendium of key global influencers, the Global PR Agency Rankings, the Global Creative Index, and the PRovoke Media podcast. He also led the rebrand of the Holmes Report to PRovoke Media in 2020.

Arun has also played a pivotal role expanding PRovoke Media's coverage into Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets, and has helped steer the company’s international events programme, particularly the Global Public Relations Summit — which has featured such luminaries as Sir Martin Sorrell, P&G’s Marc Pritchard, Chuck Porter and IBM’s Jon Iwata.

He brings to the position more than a decade’s experience as a journalist and digital content specialist, most of which has been spent analysing the media, marketing and communications industries. His career has encompassed coverage and analysis of reputation and leadership issues in numerous countries across the world, including the US and UK, Russia, China, India and South Africa.

Prior to joining the Holmes Report, Arun spent more than seven years with Haymarket Media in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. He joined Haymarket title PRWeek UK in January 2009, after covering Asia’s media and marketing landscape at sister Haymarket title Campaign Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Before Haymarket, Arun spent one year at public relations firm Weber Shandwick during its tumultuous mergers with Weber and BSMG. During his career as a journalist he has appeared on BBC News and has also contributed to The Guardian and the South China Morning Post, where he began his career as a business reporter.

In 2015, Arun became the youngest-ever inductee into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Speakers

Swati Mathur

Kabir Nath

Alan Soon

Arun Sudhaman

Azmar Sukandar