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 entrepreneurship, strategic renewal, and venture scaling. I also teach entrepreneurship and innovation 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 a central question in corporate strategy: how do firms decide which innovative ideas should become part of the firm, and how do they mobilize the capital, talent, incentives, and organizational structures needed to build and scale them? These ideas may involve new markets, business models, or technologies whose demand, economics, and fit with the existing organization are not yet proven. Established firms rarely lack promising ideas or capable people. The harder problem is that the routines, incentives, and resource-allocation systems built for the core business tend to favor activities with proven returns. Prior research explains why organizational inertia arises and why leadership support or structural separation can help, but we know less about how firms secure commitment to uncertain opportunities, especially from the capital providers and people needed to build them. I address this gap through complementary studies of corporate scope and human capital. My qualitative research examines how managers and capital-market actors shape which opportunities firms select, enact, and revise, including a current study of Grab’s evolution from a taxi-hailing startup into a publicly listed, multi-industry platform. My field experiments, embedded in live hiring processes, 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, this work explains how innovative ideas move from promising possibilities to strategic commitments and scalable new businesses. 

This agenda is informed by my experience building teams and scaling 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.