I am a Principal Lecturer of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where I design, direct, and teach Executive Education programs for senior leaders on corporate strategy and  entrepreneurship. I also teach entrepreneurship in degree programs. My research has been published in Management Science and recognized with the Strategic Management Society’s 2021 SRF Dissertation Scholar Award.

My research addresses central questions in corporate strategy and firm scope: how do firms decide which innovative ideas should become part of the firm, and then how do they mobilize the capital, talent, incentives, and organizational structures needed to build and scale them? Established firms rarely lack promising ideas or capable people. The harder problem is securing commitment to opportunities whose value is still uncertain, especially when the routines and priorities of the core business favor what is already proven. Prior research explains why organizational inertia arises and why leadership support or structural separation can help, but we know less about how firms attract the investors and talent needed to turn uncertain opportunities into new businesses. 

I examine this puzzle through two complementary streams. My qualitative research focuses on firm scope: how managers and investors influence which opportunities firms pursue, how those opportunities become embedded in the firm, and how scope is later revised. My current study traces this process in Grab’s evolution from a taxi-hailing startup into a publicly listed, multi-industry platform. A second stream uses field experiments embedded in live hiring processes to examine how strategic positioning, employee ownership, incentives, and the design of work shape who is willing to join uncertain ventures and on what terms. Together, these studies examine how firms secure the capital and talent needed to turn promising but unproven opportunities into strategic commitments and new businesses. 

This agenda is informed by my experience building teams and scaling new ventures in Southeast Asia. Before entering academia, I joined Grab (NASDAQ: GRAB) shortly after its Series A financing as its first regional executive and helped scale the company beyond its initial market. I went on to serve as Founding Vice President of Public Affairs, Founding Country Head for Grab Thailand and Grab Vietnam, and Regional General Manager of GrabCar. Across these roles, I built and scaled teams of more than 200 employees and worked across strategy, operations, fundraising, government relations, and market expansion.

My work remains closely connected to practice. I co-authored the 2024 State of ESOPs in Asia report with Saison Capital, XA Network, and Carta, examining equity compensation practices across 160 startups in India and Southeast Asia. I remain engaged with entrepreneurial ecosystems as an investor and advisor through CSVE Ventures and previously served on the Extended Leadership Team and Startup Review Committee of XA Network and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.

I hold a PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from London Business School and a PhD in Transport Studies from the University of Oxford; as well as a MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania.