Sue Adams, MBA'00D

Executive Coach

Former Managing Director, Fremantle Productions Asia

Sue is a certified business coach who specializes in career transition and transformation.

Sue has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1994 and is an alum from the INSEAD ‘Asian Pioneer’ MBA promotion of December 2000.

After beginning her career in advertising and charity marketing, Sue attended Law School and for 5 years was a corporate lawyer in the City of London, specializing in Media Law. In 1996 she moved in-house to become Head of Legal and Business Affairs for a TV production company owned by media conglomerate Pearson plc and in 1998 moved to Asia as the General Manager for Pearson Television Asia. After the acquisition of Pearson Television by Bertelsmann AG, Sue became MD for Asia of the group’s TV business, re-named FremantleMedia.

Sue was responsible for growing the Asian business across Asia, establishing new offices in India, Thailand, Philippines, Japan and China. Sue left FremantleMedia in 2006 to start a family and her own business in the field of ‘people development’.

Sue is an accredited Associate Mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre, a founding member of the Centre for Positive Psychology in the UK and currently pursuing a diploma in business psychology accredited by the UK’s National Council of Psychotherapists,

Her past and present coaching clients include larger corporations such as the BBC, INSEAD and Microsoft plus  a variety of small business owners, largely  in the media industry.

J. Frank Brown

J. Frank Brown is Dean of INSEAD, the leading international business school with campuses in Europe and Asia. He is the second American Dean since the foundation of the school in 1957. His appointment in 2006 – on the basis of business rather than academic credentials – made INSEAD history.

Prior to joining INSEAD, Brown had a distinguished 26-year career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, including leadership of the $3.5 billion Advisory Services practice. During this time, he developed leadership programmes within the firm and was a guest speaker on the subject at various universities and business schools.

Brown is the author of The Global Business Leader: Practical Advice for Success in a Transcultural Marketplace. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut State Societies of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a member of the Bridgepoint Capital Ltd Board, the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) Board, the European Executive Council (EEC), the Conseil Stratégique at PricewaterhouseCoopers, France, the International Advisory Board (IAB) of British American Business (BAB), and the Transparency International Business Advisory Board.

James Copinger-Symes, MBA'02D

Director, John Manners & Co (Malaya)

President, INSEAD Alumni Association - Singapore

James Copinger-Symes is the Director of John Manners & Co (Malaya). Actively involved with INSEAD, he has been the President of the INSEAD International Alumni Association (IAA) Singapore since 2007.

Fabrice Desmarescaux, MBA'92J

Director, Spencer Stuart Singapore

Fabrice Desmarescaux is based in the Singapore office of Spencer Stuart and leads the firm's Financial Services Practice for the Asia Pacific region. He also is actively serving several clients in the Middle East. Fabrice's clients include international private equity and real estate investment firms; asset and wealth managers; and consumer, corporate and investment banks.

Fabrice has more than 18 years of consulting experience. He started his consulting career at Booz Allen & Hamilton before joining McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, Fabrice was a partner and the leader of the Southeast Asian financial services practice. More recently, Fabrice worked with Fullerton Financial Holdings, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, on the restructuring and development of two banks in the Temasek portfolio.

Throughout his consulting and operational career, Fabrice has worked with local, regional and multinational institutions in Europe and Asia, including banks, insurance companies and private equity firms on topics such strategy, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, risk management and operations. He is a frequent speaker at industry forums, a contributor to the book Banking in Asia: Acquiring a profit mindset, and has taught banking in the MBA programme at INSEAD.

Fabrice holds an MBA from INSEAD and a master's degree in civil engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris. He is a permanent resident of Singapore and fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Daniel Labrecque, MBA'81

CEO, DNA Capital

President, INSEAD Alumni Association

Daniel Labrecque is CEO of DNA Capital, a Canadian based investment bank since May 2009. He was previously CEO of Rothschild Canada from 2002 to May 2009. Rothschild, a family-owned international investment bank, provides Canadian clients with financial advisory services in mergers and acquisitions, balance-sheet restructurings and private debt placements.

Previously, he was Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Lazard Canada, Managing Director of Schroder Canada and was Co-Head of Lévesque Beaubien Geoffrion’s Corporate Finance and Merger and Acquisition activities.

Daniel holds an MBA from INSEAD (1981), a Diploma in Public Accountancy and Business Administration from École des Hautes Études Commerciales, University of Montréal (1977). He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators.

Daniel has been actively involved with INSEAD for the last 25 years, starting with the INSEAD Alumni Association in Canada from 1981 to 1985. In 1986, he became Secretary of the Canadian INSEAD Foundation, which has been acting as the Canadian Council. He subsequently held the position of President of the Foundation, and is currently its Chairman. The Foundation has given over C$ 1 million in scholarships to over 100 Canadian INSEAD students during the last 20 years. He was co-chair of his 25 year reunion which took place in Fontainebleau in October 2006. He has been President of the INSEAD Alumni Association and member of the INSEAD Board since 2007.

Daniel is also a Board Member of Alpine Canada Alpin (Canadian Alpine Ski Team).

Jean-Claude Larréché, MBA'70

Professor of Marketing, The Alfred H. Heineken Chaired Professor of Marketing, INSEAD

Jean-Claude Larréché is Professor at INSEAD and holder of the Alfred H. Heineken Chair. His latest book The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth has been published in May 2008 by Wharton School Publishing and translated in several languages. Amazon USA named The Momentum Effect “4th Best Book of 2008” in the Business and Investing category.

In addition to his MBA from INSEAD, Jean-Claude received an MSc in Computer Sciences from the University of London and a PhD in Business from Stanford University. It was as a student at Stanford that he was first nicknamed “JC” by his friends.

Jean-Claude has always combined his academic career with business activities. He is a renowned consultant with leading global corporations, most of them listed in the global Fortune 500. Aged just 35 he was appointed a non-executive director of the multinational firm ReckittBenckiser, and he kept that position for the exceptionally long tenure of 18 years. He has also been on the INSEAD Board for 14 years. He is the Founding Chairman of StratX a strategic development consultancy with offices in Paris and Boston.

His academic work concentrates on fostering the fundamental capabilities that influence a company’s ability to deliver growth, especially through marketing excellence, customer focus and innovation. His publications have appeared in numerous international journals. He is the author or co-author of many books, including Markstrat, the leading strategic marketing simulation used by more than a million executives worldwide. From 1998 to 2002, he has been the author of five annual reports on Measuring the Competitive Fitness of Global Firms.

He has won many awards for his research and his teaching and was selected as one of the top 12 marketing masters in the world by Mazur and Miles in their book Conversations with Marketing Masters.

Ilian Mihov
The Novartis Chaired Professor of Management and Environment, Professor of Economics, INSEAD

Ilian holds a PhD degree from Princeton University. He teaches macroeconomics and econometrics at INSEAD. He has taught in the MBA, EMBA, PhD and various EDP programs as well as at the Global Leadership Fellows Program of the World Economic Forum. His areas of teaching include business cycles, monetary and fiscal policy, long-term economic growth, financial crises and exchange rate determination. For his teaching Ilian has been nominated several times as one of the best teachers in the MBA and EMBA programs and he has won the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2006, 2008, and 2009.

His research is primarily in the fields of monetary and fiscal policies, economic growth and political economy. Ilian's papers have appeared in many academic journals such as American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, etc. His work has been presented and discussed at many policy-making institutions such as the Fed, ECB, the World Bank and the IMF. He has given interviews for BBC, CNBC Asia, Agence France Press, Dow Jones Newswire and others. He has participated as a lecturer or panelist at events organized by KPMG, Hewlett Packard, Bloomberg, PwC, Swiss Re and other companies.

Ilian is also a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (London, UK). He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Banque de France's Research Foundation and of the Advisory Board of the Bulgarian National Bank. In 2008, he was also a visiting research consultant at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In 2006 he was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus award by the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

Guillaume de Saint-Bon, EMBA'04Dec

Director of Transport Operations - Asia Pacific International SOS

Guillaume de Saint-Bon is Director of Transport Operations, Asia Pacific for International SOS, the world’s leading provider of medical assistance, international healthcare, security services and outsourced customer care.

As the leader of the Asia Region Crisis Management Team, Guillaume takes the lead whenever a medical or security major crisis occurs in his region (Sichuan earthquake, Mumbai terrorist attack) and orchestrates International SOS across several departments to ensure the quickest and most adapted response to his company’s members.  He also has dual responsibility as Aviation Director for APAC to select, contract and maintain relationships with plane operators for missions. 

Before this, Guillaume co-founded Helit Air and Aero Solutions, a private helicopter company and a multi-services aviation consulting company based in Singapore.

He spent 15 years in the French Army in operational roles starting out as a combat helicopter pilot.  Later as the Second-in-command of a helicopter squadron and the Logistics Company Commander of his battalion, he was in charge of crew training and flight safety. He also managed specialised technical teams to support all air-base logistics.

He was sent three times to former Yugoslavia, as the leader of a helicopter platoon in Sarajevo, as Operations Officer of a multinational paratrooper and helicopter task force in the Republic of Macedonia, and as Logistics Commander, supporting a multinational helicopter task-force in Kosovo.

Guillaume graduated from Saint-Cyr Military Academy (1990-1993), and completed an EMBA from INSEAD (2004) at the Singapore campus.

Peter Schindler, MBA '93J

Managing Director, Luxury Driving Experience Limited

Pity the customs official who needs to deal with Peter when he crosses a border by car. His documents can be rather confusing, if not downright suspicious: his car has an Austrian license plate; he holds a Swiss passport, but it shows that his residence is in Hong Kong; as for his driving license, take your pick: two from China, one from the U.S., or several others; and his miniature laminated marriage certificate says that his Malaysian-Chinese wife is Australian.

When he was a lot younger, he raced automobiles in Europe – Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Super-V and Renault Elf – for four years.

He then entered what he calls the ‘dark years’ of his life during which he studied I.T. at M.I.T. and business at INSEAD.  Painfully, he heaved himself up to become an associate partner in Accenture’s China practice.  Then it was time to move on. 

His passion for driving has never left him, however.  In 2005, it resulted in a book that BBC Radio called a love letter to the pleasures of being on an open road: On the Road – Driving Adventures, Pleasures and Discoveries (See www.ontheroadeditions.com for more.)

In 2007 he realized a dream – Nokia sponsored him on a 21,000km journey through China in the grand-daughter of the famed 1950s Lotus 7.   From Shanghai, China’s hippest city, to the Tibetan highlands where all he saw was a yak.    If you’ve ever sat and imagined what it would be like to 'give it all up' and live your dream, follow him down the byways of China to see what he discovered about life on and off the roads: http://blog.sina.com.cn/project95 and www.ontheroadinchina.com/nokiadiscoverchina.   Upon his return the car was auctioned off and the proceeds donated by Nokia to the China Youth Development Foundation.

Having driven over the years a million-plus kilometers on roads in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, he now quenches his thirst for driving on the roads of China.  The upshot is www.ontheroadinchina.com, a company that offers unique driving journeys in China’s South-West and neighboring countries.  In partnership with Avis, Peter’s company offers itineraries that allow travelers not only to enjoy driving on open roads (motoring at its best…), but also to see a side of China that very few tourists ever see and combines a driving journey with leisure activities such as golf on some of Asia’s best golf courses. 

More about Peter on www.peterschindler.com and www.mybluechinablog.com.

Winnie So, MBA '98D

Chief Experience Officer, Wanlilu Play Ltd

Life is a journey, and Winnie So '98D enjoys travelling with just a compass rather than a detailed map. In 2002, Winnie founded WANLILU Play Ltd (www.wanliluplay.com), a bespoke luxury travel planner and the publisher of Little Cream Book (www.littlecreambook.com), a series of travel gift books on various travel themes ranging from architecture to scenic drives around the world. Winnie considers her vocation to be that of a story-teller, whether it be through words or travel experiences. She believes the best travel experiences (and stories) are filled with the wonder of discovery, possibilities for transformation and moments of inter-connectedness that underscore our common humanity. Little Cream Life is where she blogs and twits regularly about her work, play and travels. She is a regular contributor to travel & lifestyle-focused media including CNNGo.com, CNN's soon-to-be-launched Asian cities-focused travel and lifestyle site as well as project edit bespoke lifestyle publications for corporate clients. Prior to starting WANLILU Play, Winnie had 7 years of publishing experience in roles that encompassed writing, translating, print and online editorial creation and management, business development and management.

In 2007, she was selected as one of 35 female entrepreneurs under 35 from around the world by World Business magazine. She has served on the jury panels of several restaurant lists such as The S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants and The Miele Guide as well as the advisory committee of HSBC's Young Entrepreneur's Award. She is a founding member of Hong Kong's Ambassadors of Design and currently serves on its membership committee.

Winnie's other interests include philanthropic travel and sustainable tourism projects; she is currently researching the feasibility of developing a tourist route of experience-focused retreats in China's Sichuan province. She is interested in how microfinance, mobile and social networking technologies can be used to develop tourism, and is always on the lookout for social enterprises to add to her Goodwill Shopping twine. Winnie is also working on a book, No Clue Yet, an account of her personal journey to answer the question: what does it mean to be human and happy?

Winnie has a BA from Bryn Mawr College in the US.