INSEAD does not simply teach governance, it teaches presence. It equips leaders to navigate complexity with intellectual precision and emotional intelligence.
What inspired you to join this programme, and what did you hope to achieve?
When I joined INSEAD’s Value Creation for Owners and Directors programme, I was seeking more than a governance framework. I wanted to merge psychology with strategy and understand the invisible architecture that shapes value creation at the ownership and board levels. As a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of PEN Consultancy, the first standalone DHA-licensed and EIAC-accredited telehealth facility in Dubai, I wanted to explore how value is generated not only through structures and capital but also through leadership energy, culture and alignment.
My goal was to move beyond therapy rooms and boardrooms as separate worlds, and instead to understand the psychodynamics of decision-making: how owners, directors, chairs and CEOs interact, project and sometimes collide. INSEAD offered the perfect environment to observe these dynamics within a living system, surrounded by global leaders, investors and directors navigating complex realities.
In what ways has the programme shifted your perspective or influenced your approach to work?
Throughout the week, I found myself not only learning from the frameworks but also studying the personalities and group dynamics that unfolded in real time. I was deeply intrigued by the psychological profiling of leadership archetypes, how a chairperson embodies containment and process, how a CEO channels drive and execution, and how their interaction defines the emotional temperature of an organisation. Watching these patterns emerge within diverse teams was like witnessing the boardroom as a living organism and observing how it is shaped by projection, transference and systemic energy.
The programme was intellectually and emotionally expansive. It reframed how I see corporate governance not as hierarchy but as a dialogue between roles, values and processes. This shift in perspective was transformational.
Which aspects of the experience stood out most for you (faculty, peers, content, format)?
What stood out most for me was the diversity and texture of the peer experience. The classroom became a living ecosystem of leadership styles. Some of the participants were quietly observant, others highly assertive, and a few were openly curious, even slightly intrigued, by my presence as a psychologist among investors, owners and directors. This mix created a rare and meaningful learning space, where intellect met vulnerability. Engaging in discussions with individuals who approached governance from such varied cultural and professional angles taught me as much about human dynamics and interactions in group settings as about strategy. Each exchange revealed how differently people hold authority, manage uncertainty or seek alignment, and it reminded me that leadership, whether in a family business or a multinational boardroom, is truly as much about emotional intelligence as it is about decision-making.
Can you describe a moment or insight that particularly resonated with you?
Translating psychological insight into boardroom language was a powerful moment. It clarified for me that organisations, much like individuals, require both structure and emotional containment to thrive. This realisation directly inspired the development of PEN’s new service, Boardroom & Leadership Dynamics Consulting, a strategic offering that helps boards and executive teams strengthen self-awareness, alignment and psychological safety as drivers of performance.
Equally unforgettable was the atmosphere in the classroom. The environment was governed by Chatham House rules, intellectual humility and genuine curiosity. The diversity of perspectives, from family business owners to industrial investors, transformed discussions into cross-cultural laboratories of governance and leadership. Every dialogue revealed that value creation is deeply human: driven by courage, fairness and moral clarity as much as by profit.
INSEAD reawakened in me a conviction that leadership is a psychological act, an interplay between self-awareness, emotional intelligence and systemic alignment. It reminded me that sustainable value is created when boards and executives operate not from ego but from coherence, when governance becomes a reflection of both moral and organisational maturity.
Would you recommend this programme to others? If so, what makes it meaningful to you?
Would I recommend this programme? Absolutely. INSEAD does not simply teach governance, it teaches presence. It equips leaders to navigate complexity with intellectual precision and emotional intelligence. It showed me that owners and directors are, in their own way, therapists of their organisations, holding tension, facilitating growth and ensuring fair process.
For me, Value Creation for Owners and Directors was not just a course. It was an intellectual immersion and a psychological mirror. It refined how I think, lead and design systems that are both profitable and profoundly human.
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