Zoe Sinclair
Co-Founder
Zoe is one of the founders of This Can Happen. She is also the founder of Employees Matter, the largest provider of employee engagement seminars and webinars in the UK.
In the opening keynote of the APAC conference, Professor Hiroshi Ono, Professor of Human Resources Management at Hitotsubashi University Business School, will highlight the connection between happiness, productivity and working hours, ultimately showing how to increase happiness and motivation in the workplace.
Professor Hiroshi Ono
Professor of Human Resource Management | Affiliated Professor of Sociology
Hiroshi Ono (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Professor of Human Resource Management at Hitotsubashi University Business School and Affiliated Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. His work focuses on the relationships among motivation, happiness, and productivity in the workplace. He is especially interested in demographic change and labor market dynamics in Japan, and the role of higher education in sorting individuals into higher status jobs. He is a frequent contributor for Japanese and global news media, both print and broadcast. He is the author of Human Capital and the Economic Analysis of Human Behavior (in Japanese from Nikkei Press, 2024), Redistributing Happiness: How Social Policies Shape Life Satisfaction (with K.S. Lee, Praeger, 2016). His work has been published in American Behavioral Scientist, American Sociological Review, Oxford Economic Papers, Social Forces and Social Science Quarterly, among others.
In this panel session, we'll bring awareness to neurodiversity in the workplace, highlighting what exactly it means to be neurodiverse, the mental wellbeing challenges that this can encompass, and how employers in APAC can build a supportive and solutions-focused environment for neurodiverse team members.
Kavita Chandradhas
Founder
Kavita is the founder of Undivided, a boutique DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) coaching, training and advisory practice based in Singapore. Her 15+ years working in multinational corporations in finance, pharma and media & entertainment in business and HR leadership roles led her to believe that the corporate world is, in general, a highly disabling environment for people like her who are ‘different’. She draws from her work and lived experience to advocate for greater inclusion, accessibility and psychological safety at the workplace. Kavita is passionate about increasing awareness and acceptance around neurodiversity, mental health and invisible disabilities. She holds an MBA, is certified on DEI by Cambridge and is a certified Mental Health First Aider (MHFA). Furthering her passion to work in the field of mental health, she is currently studying to qualify as a counselling psychologist. Originally from India, Kavita now lives in Singapore with her husband and their rescue dog, Tara.
Harnesh Kaur
SEA Health & Wellbeing Manager
Hailing from Sarawak, Malaysia, Harnesh is a health professional and a proud mother to 8 years old Jay and 6-years-old Jesleen. Armed with a public health postgraduate degree from International Medical University (IMU), she has held key roles driving initiatives and collaborating with senior leadership to ensure strategic alignment on the execution of health and wellbeing priorities in corporate organisations. She has vast experience working in health across clinical settings, community health, and corporate health. She is passionate about empowering people to be the best version of themselves and strongly advocates on topics relating to wellbeing, mental health & inclusion. Balancing work and a family are no easy feat, but Harnesh shares that her kids have been her biggest teachers in life and continue to inspire her to do her best in every arena. She shares that stepping into motherhood, has evolved her to be a more empathetic, kinder and inclusive person.
We talk lots about celebrating success in workplace mental health, but what key learnings can we take from the challenges and potential barriers that exist in this area in APAC? This keynote session will focus on exactly this, understanding how we can take learnings from current challenges to grow and develop robust mental health strategies for the workplace.
Sunita Wazir
Head of Transformation, Global Health and Wellbeing
Sunita Wazir is a Mumbai-based Human Resources and Leadership Development professional with 26 years of Industry experience. Sunita is deeply passionate about enabling Mental Health, building Psychological Safety and landing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and is especially committed to building equitable workspaces for women, the LGBTQI+ community and Persons with Disabilities. She enjoys mentoring leaders and is supportive of gender balance initiatives in every sphere of life. She is a trained mindfulness and mental health champion and a Korn Ferry certified coach. She is living her purpose of helping people become the best version of themselves through her role leading the Global Wellbeing agenda at Unilever.
In our next panel of the day, we'll be sharing learnings from leadership teams about what has and hasn't worked when it comes to supporting mental wellbeing at work, sharing tangible learnings for everyone in attendance and building an engaging and successful mental wellbeing strategy.
Faisal Shujrah
Regional Health Promotion Lead - Asia
Faisal is health promotion lead for Asia. He holds a medical degree with postgraduation in occupational health & medical education. His experience revolves around 20 years in the pharma industry, working in various roles in commercial & medical departments. In his job role, he works with cross-cultural teams with special interest in cultural intelligence and behavioural sciences. Mental health is his area of expertise. He loves networking and is an active vlogger.
Emmy-Lou Quirke
APAC Consulting Managing Director
Emmy-Lou Quirke is a leading expert in organisational design, wellbeing, and experience design. She has a keen interest in the intersection of people, place, and technology, and is the APAC Consulting Managing Director at JLL, a Fortune 500 Real Estate organisation where she leads People Strategy and advises companies, cities and governments on how best to design from a human-centred perspective.
Emmy-Lou has over 20 years of experience in both corporate consulting and industry, and started her career as a mental health clinician. Her unique blend of skills and experience make her a sought-after consultant and her insights and strategies have helped many organisations achieve greater success and fulfillment. With a passion for empowering teams and individuals to reach their full potential, Emmy-Lou is dedicated to helping organisations become better places to work and thrive.
Claire Brockington
Senior HR Manager
Claire is a Senior HR Manager in Allen & Overy’s Singapore office. She has worked in HR for over 23 years and in law firms for 28 years. Claire is a HR generalist with a passion for wellbeing and reward. She has been living and working in Singapore for the past 9 years.
Adrian Warr
CEO, South Asia-Pacific
Adrian Warr leads Burson’s South Asia-Pacific operations, including India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand and is on the company’s global leadership team. He is a communications consultant whose work in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore with some
of the world’s best consultancies has given him unique experience in corporate reputation, crisis management, marcomms, employee experience, public affairs and digital marketing. His strategic thinking and ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments have put him at the center of some of the most iconic campaigns and high-profile issues of the last two and a half decades. His clients have included Samsung, Tencent, Google, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, AZ, Pfizer, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Shangri-La, Sino Land, CLP, The UN, UNHCR, KFC, Starbucks, EY, GE, American Express, and Nissan. Adrian has been lucky enough to work with remarkable leaders, including the CEOs and Chairpersons of companies like Mars, HSBC, Cathay and Swire as well as individuals such as Kofi Annan, Cherie Blair and Princess Christina of Spain. Adrian is committed to addressing gender inequality, both personally and professionally. He was Co-Chair and a founding member of The Male Allies, and regularly speaks & writes on gender equality. An Oxford graduate in modern languages and literature, Adrian has both a BA and MA in French and Italian.
This session will focus upon the high rates of workplace stress within the APAC region, and understand how employers can step in to support their staff in this space before reaching a crunch point of burnout.
Dr Lalitaa Suglani
Psychologist
Award-winning Psychologist, Dr. Lalitaa is committed to helping support individuals to achieve emotional and psychological wellbeing. Lalitaa believes that the key to achieving real lasting success and happiness in all areas of our lives lies within our own mind. Through her own experience she has seen how through personal growth and self-awareness, we learn to harness our thought patterns, gain control of the voice in our heads, cultivate a positive mindset and create the life and career of our dreams.
Lalitaa is culturally sensitive and helps clients with a range of issues such as anxiety, depression, low self- esteem, family and relationship issues, phobias, sexual abuse, bullying, anger and other emotional issues. Above all else, she has a passion for helping people and uses a caring integrative approach to tailor her advice.
Sudawan Kumar
Senior Manager, Well-Being & Resiliency
Sudawan Kumar currently holds the position as Senior Well-being & ResiliencyManager at TDCX Thailand. She has 8 years of experience in the workplace mental health. As a Senior Manager, Well-being & Resiliency Department. She manages a team of 14 Psychologist & Counselors from 7 nationalities supporting 1200 employees. She works with her team of professionals to design, implement and measure the effectiveness of well-being programs using preventative framework. To create a happy workplace, she and team incorporate innovations such as virtual reality, use digital transformation and gamification to engage interest of employees in the workplace.
Her achievements include:
- Employees in the project maintained Global wellness Index at above 98%
- Projected Attrition were 30% lowers than Industry average
- Improving retention up to 24 months and maintaining quality scores above 90.
2023 - The amazing work done by the Well-being & Resiliency Team at TDCX received "The Best Human Care Awards- Gold Medal for contact center industry in Thailand
2023 - She also received Manager of the Year awards - Gold Medal
2022 - She was awarded #BeMore #Be Happier Awards for empowering people celebrating cultures and diversity encouraging happiness.
Prior to working at TDCX she founded a private Practice working with various population such as Addiction population, LGBTQIA++, Trauma, Anxiety & Depression, Couples & Relationships Issues, collaborated with Employee Assistance Program (EAP) providers to conduct workshops and support mental health of corporate employees.
Susie Bates
Chief People Officer - Asia Pacific
Chief People Officer for the Weber Shandwick Collective in Asia, Susie has been living and working across the Asia Pacific region for over 25 years, holding people and HR leadership roles in multinational organisations.
Based in Hong Kong, Susie has been a part of the IPG network since April 2013 having worked across multiple brands during her tenure, overseeing People initiatives across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India. In addition to her HR responsibilities, Susie actively developed Weber Shandwick's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Asia Pacific strategy and has been leading the initiative for the region since early 2021.
Susie is a seasoned and accomplished practitioner in a variety of HR areas, including strategic manpower planning, employee relations management, dispute resolution, rewards & recognition, innovation, diversity, equity & inclusion, and employer branding, with the ability to align strategic talent initiatives to business goals, often within the context of complex cultural dynamics. Through her career Susie has developed People strategy in a number of industries including healthcare, tech and auto, as well as being hands-on in strategic people initiatives with mergers and acquisitions.
Susie is passionate about creating an environment that encourages employees to grow and develop, whilst staying true to their authentic selves in the workplace. She is a strong advocate for empowerment at all levels with organisations and believes that employees' true potential is realised when organisational culture supports a bottoms-up "I want to learn from you" leadership mentality. She is a strong advocate of servant leadership in all its many facets and has a strong and highly contagious "can do" attitude.
High performance is often mistaken for dominance, aggression and control. True high performers, however, blend ambition with empathy to support mental health and prevent burnout. This panel will share practical strategies for excelling in your career while upholding your values and maintaining a healthy work-life balance - whilst taking into account relevant cultural and identity-based nuances.
Serina Tan
Founder & Managing Partner
Serina Tan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Brewer, an award-winning strategic communications advisory firm headquartered in Singapore. An established leader and trainer in public relations, Serina has a proven track record in leading award-winning communication programmes across the Asia Pacific. She was recognised by Campaign Asia’s 40 under 40 for her impressive achievements. Committed to promoting a culture of mental-well-being in the PR industry, she regularly conducts mental well-being workshops for both in house and agency practitioners.
Nina Devouge
Founder
Nina Devouge is a High Performance Leadership coach, committed to enabling women to take charge and lead on their own terms.
With close to 20 years of experience in identifying high performers and top talent for organisations across Big Tech, Retail, Media and Luxury industries, and having managed teams, Nina combines her challenging personal growth experiences and courageous leadership breakthroughs to her coaching practice.
She has worked with women at various stages of their career journeys, from emerging leaders to seasoned executives, helping them navigate their paths using a holistic personal and professional development approach, that has been described to be life-changing.
In our next panel of the day, we will be spotlighting the menopause, understanding the mental wellbeing challenges that the menopause can cause, and showing how organisations across APAC can support staff and tackle the taboo in speaking about this.
Ewan Qian
Senior, Financial Services
Ewan is a dedicated staff member in EY Financial Services, specializing in audit and advisory services. His role involves working on pivotal projects, including the IPO of a major Chinese insurance group in Hong Kong and assisting companies with the adoption of IFRS17 and IFRS9 standards. These experiences have sharpened his skills in navigating complex financial landscapes and delivering impactful solutions.
Ewan is deeply inspired by the potential of integrating sustainability into business practices. This inspiration drives him to bring a values-based approach to his work, aiming to contribute positively to both his local community and the broader financial sector.
Outside of his professional life, Ewan is an avid adventurer and sports enthusiast. He enjoys mountaineering, swimming, and playing volleyball. His love for pets and dedication to charitable causes reflect his compassionate and empathetic nature.
Ewan's career journey is marked by continuous learning and personal growth. With a laptop in his backpack and a heart full of passion, he is committed to making a meaningful impact while enjoying the adventures life has to offer.
Lisa Tarquini
Licensed Menopause Champion, Founder
Lisa Tarquini is a Licensed Menopause Champion, and founder of The Menopause Space. A space for anyone impacted by menopause to access resources and support for a positive and healthy transition. Lisa is on a mission to raise awareness, educate and empower anyone impacted by menopause.
In our final session of the day, we will end on a future-facing note with a keynote from This Can Happen's very own Head of Research and Insights, Kathryn Courtenay-Evans, who will be looking ahead to the future of mental wellbeing in the workplace for APAC.
Kathryn Courtenay-Evans
Insight & Strategy Director
Kathryn oversees This Can Happen's new initiative - Research & Insights, which is helping companies to measure and benchmark the success of their mental health strategies.
Delegate pricing
All prices are per delegate
- Single Pass to one half-day conference - £295 +VAT
