GIFT’s Global Advisory Council is a select group of business and academic leaders from around the world committed to supporting GIFT with its mission of advancing a deeper understanding of global issues through its unique approach to executive learning and development.
By advising GIFT’s management team and by engaging in its leadership programmes as keynote speakers and mentors, Council members enhance GIFT’s profile, resources, and effectiveness to support the organisation with its next stage of strategic development.
DAVID ELDON | FORMER CHAIRMAN, HSBC ASIA PACIFIC NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, HSBC BANK MIDDLE EAST LIMITED
David Eldon retired as Chairman of HSBC Asia Pacific and a main board Director of HSBC Holdings in 2005 after 37 years with the HSBC Group in the Middle and Far East. In 2011 he returned to banking as Non-Executive Chairman of HSBC Bank Middle East. He is Vice Chairman of Noble Group, member of the Dubai International Financial Centre Higher Board, and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB). David was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Government of Hong Kong SAR (2004) and an Honorary Citizen of Seoul in recognition of his work for the city.
PROF. HIDEAKE 'HIDEH' TAKAHASHI | PROFESSOR, KEIO UNIVERSITY
Hideaki Takahashi has been teaching Internet Business Design and Global Business Management at Keio University Graduate School since 2006. Prior to his teaching career, he served in multiple executive positions at Fuji Xerox, FX Palo Alto Laboratory, AT&T and NCR Corporation. He currently serves on the boards of ORIX Corporation and Fukuoka Financial Group in Japan. Prof. Takahashi also serves in multiple non-executive, non-profit capacities including the National Science Museum of Japan and the Tangible Earth Society.
His interest is in supporting and coaching young people starting IT ventures and social businesses. Prof. Takahashi is a senior mentor on the GIFT programme, joining over 20 programmes since 2011.
DR. MARTIN BRUDERMÜLLER | VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, BASF SE
Martin Brudermüller was born in Stuttgart in 1961. From 1980 onwards he studied Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, where received his degree in 1985. After earning his doctorate in Karlsruhe in 1987, he did a post doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, US.
Martin joined BASF in Ludwigshafen in 1988, being appointed member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF responsible for the Asia Pacific region in 2008. Today he serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors and Chief Technology Officer. Martin also sits on the steering committee of the National Platform for Electric Mobility (NEP), is a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Chemical Industry Association and is German Chairman for the Sino-German Dialogue Forum.
PROF. JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN | EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY, IMD | FOUNDER OF THE EVIAN GROUP@IMD, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND | VISITING PROFESSOR, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY & NIIT UNIVERSITY, NEEMRANA, RAJASTHAN, INDIA
Jean-Pierre Lehmann is Emeritus Professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was appointed to the Chair of International Political Economy in 1997. He is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Hong Kong University and a visiting professor at NIIT University, Neemrana, Rajasthan, India. Dr Lehmann founded the Evian Group in 1995, an international coalition of corporate, government, and opinion leaders, united by a common vision of enhancing global prosperity by fostering an open and inclusive global market economy in a rules-based multilateral framework.
Jean-Pierre acts in various capacities in several global public policy forums, as an adviser to governments and corporations, on the editorial board of a number of journals, and as a frequent commentator in the international media. His latest book, co-edited with his son Fabrice Lehmann, is Peace and Prosperity through World Trade: Meeting the 2019 Challenge (2010). He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) from Georgetown University and his Doctorate from Oxford University.
RACHEL RENUCCI-TAN | CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, TAN EU CAPITAL
Rachel Renucci-Tan is an entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in international business with expertise in real estate and agriculture investment management in Europe and Asia. Rachel founded TAN-EU Capital in 2009 – a real estate funds management platform based in Asia to provide access to global capital across Europe and Asia. TAN-EU successfully raised US$400 million from blue-chip institutional investors to invest in a special situations fund in China and continues to manage a troubled China real estate fund that has been the largest China-dedicated fund ever raised.
In 1994, Rachel founded one of the largest entertainment companies in the Philippines. She then worked as a corporate finance specialist in London and Paris. Rachel founded Chen Yi Agventures in 2014, a rice production and operating company in the Philippines aimed at transforming the way rice is produced to support the country’s goals of self-sufficiency, while uplifting its farmers out of poverty through intervention in sustainable farming techniques.
Rachel was educated in the Philippines, the United states and France and holds an MBA from INSEAD University.
SANDIAGA SALAHUDDIN UNO | FOUNDING PARTNER, SARATOGA CAPITAL
Sandiaga S. Uno, is one of Indonesia’s most prominent young entrepreneurs and is active in the Indonesian business community. He is the co-founder of PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya Tbk and served as a President Director 2004 - 2015. He has led the investment firm to have a solid track record of profitable investments across key sectors of the Indonesian economy.
Sandiaga is a Chairman of the Indonesia Forum Foundation, Chairman ofIndonesia Swimming Federation and Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Public Listed Company Association. He served Indonesian Economic Committee as a member (2010-2014). He was also the Vice President of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2008 – 2010) and the Chairman of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (2005-2008).
Sandiaga holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Summa Cum Laude) from the Wichita State University and an MBA from George Washington University. He is married with three children.
PRITI DEVI
Priti Devi has been a Business Strategy, Government & External Affairs and Sustainable Development specialist for over two decades. She has strong international experience working on environmental, social and developmental issues in a number of countries across the globe. She spent a decade with the international oil major Shell International, in various assignments across the globe that focused on Business Strategy, Government Relations, Environmental Management, Sustainable Development and Community Relations. More recently, she headed the successful growth of a global foundation, for a private investor based in Singapore that focused on the use of Arts as a tool to drive social change, encouraging greater inclusiveness and building social equity for some of the poorest communities in a number of the most challenging countries in the world.
Priti Devi brings to philanthropic endeavors, corporate accountability and structure to deliver results based projects. Her philosophy is that for sustained social change, all development and social investment projects need to focus in equal measures on the need to build human, economic and social capital, essential for a more balanced and equitable world.
