In this edition: 8 leadership appointments reveal where companies across Asia are placing greater responsibility for regional growth, technology, talent, and business execution.
A bigger market does not automatically mean a stronger business. As companies expand across Asia, the challenge is increasingly about connecting their ambitions with the people and capabilities needed to deliver them.
These eight appointments show different responses to that challenge. Some executives are taking charge of wider regional operations. Others are bringing technology, talent, commercial strategy and local market leadership closer to business priorities.
Across insurance, cybersecurity, healthcare technology, FMCG and more, the question is not simply who is taking charge, but what companies are preparing their leaders to deliver.
Highlights
Ronak Shah
Regional Chief Executive Officer, MSIG Asia
Ronak Shah assumed the role of Regional CEO at MSIG Asia on 1 October 2026, succeeding Clemens Philippi. He brings more than 20 years of experience leading insurance businesses across Asia and North America, including nine years at QBE Insurance.
His responsibilities cover MSIG’s established operations across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, India and Oceania, with additional oversight of Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea. The expanded regional structure is intended to strengthen strategic alignment and collaboration across the insurer’s Asia-Pacific operations.
NIA Insight: MSIG is expanding the reach of its regional leadership, not simply changing its CEO. Bringing additional markets under Shah’s responsibility suggests the insurer sees greater value in coordinating strategy and execution across Asia-Pacific. The challenge will be maintaining local market responsiveness while building a more connected regional business.
Urmi Chatterjee
Head HR – Asia, Middle East & Africa, Siemens Healthineers
Urmi Chatterjee has been elevated to Head HR for Asia, the Middle East and Africa at Siemens Healthineers, expanding her responsibility beyond her previous remit covering India and Asia-Pacific and Japan.
She brings more than 23 years of HR experience across healthcare technology, engineering and industrial businesses. Before joining Siemens Healthineers, she spent more than 13 years at Honeywell, including senior regional HR leadership responsibilities.
NIA Insight: Siemens Healthineers is extending its people leadership across three regions with very different workforce environments. Chatterjee’s expanded remit suggests that aligning talent strategy across markets is becoming a larger leadership priority. The test will be creating regional consistency without overlooking the local capabilities and workforce needs that each market demands.
Sanjay Yadave
Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Zscaler
Sanjay Yadave has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan at Zscaler, expanding his leadership responsibility from Greater Asia to the wider APJ region.
He will oversee regional business strategy, investment and team growth across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and Greater Asia. Since joining Zscaler in 2024, Yadave has helped expand the company’s presence across several Asian markets, supporting organisations on their zero-trust transformation journeys.
NIA Insight: Zscaler’s regional expansion comes as AI adoption creates a more complex security challenge for enterprises. Yadave is moving from leading Greater Asia to overseeing APJ at a time when organisations are beginning to deploy AI agents across business systems. His appointment suggests Zscaler sees regional growth and AI security adoption as increasingly connected commercial priorities.
Heather Li
Country Manager, Australia, FORTÉ
Heather Li has rejoined FORTÉ as Country Manager, Australia, effective 1 October 2026, taking responsibility for the company’s Australian operations.
She previously held leadership positions within the organisation, including Regional Business Unit Leader for Southeast Asia and Head of New Global Account Development. Her appointment forms part of a wider APAC leadership initiative, alongside country management changes in Singapore and the Philippines, as FORTÉ strengthens its workplace technology business.
NIA Insight: FORTÉ is strengthening country leadership across three APAC markets rather than relying on regional expansion alone. Li’s return to lead Australia suggests the company values leaders who understand both local customers and cross-border business development. As workplace technology becomes more closely tied to how organisations collaborate and operate, translating regional capabilities into local customer solutions may become a competitive advantage.
Babur Rauf
Chief Operating Officer, Hilal Foods
Babur Rauf has been appointed Chief Operating Officer at Hilal Foods, a Pakistan-based food and FMCG company.
His background includes commercial leadership at Hilal Foods, with experience spanning marketing, sales, go-to-market (GTM) strategy and organisational management. His transition into the COO position brings these commercial perspectives closer to the company’s day-to-day operations.
NIA Insight: Moving from commercial leadership into operations changes the questions an executive is expected to answer. For Hilal Foods, Rauf’s transition presents an opportunity to connect market-facing priorities more closely with operational performance. In FMCG, growth depends not only on generating demand, but also on whether the business can deliver efficiently and consistently. His experience across marketing, sales and GTM strategy could help strengthen that connection and support the company’s next stage of growth.
Prerna Mehrotra
Chief Client Officer, APAC and CEO, Singapore, dentsu
Prerna Mehrotra has taken on the additional role of CEO for dentsu Singapore alongside her existing responsibility as Chief Client Officer for APAC.
Having spent a decade at dentsu, she has held senior regional leadership roles spanning client relationships, media and business growth. Her expanded mandate combines responsibility for the Singapore market with a continuing focus on client outcomes and commercial opportunities across the wider region.
NIA Insight: For dentsu, Singapore leadership is becoming more closely connected to its APAC client agenda. Mehrotra is not leaving her regional client mandate to lead Singapore; she is doing both. That combination suggests dentsu sees the Singapore business as a place where local execution and regional client priorities increasingly overlap.
Derek Heng
Chief Executive Officer, Marsh ASEAN
Derek Heng has been appointed CEO of Marsh ASEAN while continuing as CEO of Marsh Thailand, a position he has held since June 2022.
His expanded remit covers Marsh’s operations across Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Heng joined Marsh in 2015 and has held several leadership roles across Asia. In his new position, he will work with regional leaders to strengthen collaboration across the firm’s risk, strategy and people-related capabilities.
NIA Insight: Marsh is combining ASEAN oversight with existing country leadership under one executive. Heng’s dual responsibility suggests the firm wants stronger regional coordination without separating leadership from local market experience. As businesses face risks that cross borders, connecting market-specific expertise with broader advisory capabilities becomes an increasingly important commercial challenge.
Megawaty Khie
Vice President & Managing Director, ASEAN & Korea, Kyndryl
Megawaty Khie has joined Kyndryl as Vice President and Managing Director for ASEAN and Korea, taking responsibility for the company’s business and customer relationships across these markets.
She brings more than 25 years of enterprise technology leadership experience, including her previous role as Regional Managing Director for Southeast Asia at Avanade. Her career also includes senior positions at Google Cloud, IBM, SAP, HP, Dell and Microsoft.
NIA Insight: Kyndryl’s ASEAN–Korea leadership mandate comes as enterprises face growing pressure to modernise the technology systems that support their operations. Khie’s background across cloud, partnerships and enterprise technology suggests the company is placing commercial leadership close to its modernisation agenda. The opportunity is not simply selling new technology, but helping businesses connect existing infrastructure with their ambitions for AI and digital transformation.
Final Thoughts: Growth Needs More Than a Bigger Market
Across these eight appointments, a common challenge emerges: regional ambition is becoming harder to separate from execution.
For some companies, that means bringing more markets under coordinated leadership. For others, it means strengthening country operations or connecting technology, talent and commercial priorities more closely with business strategy.
These are different leadership decisions, not evidence of one universal corporate model. But together, they suggest that where companies place leadership responsibility can be as revealing as where they plan to grow.
Asia Leadership Moves will continue tracking the executives behind these decisions and what their appointments reveal about the direction of business across the region.
Highlights
Read the Chinese article here.
