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 a central question in corporate strategy: How do firms decide which innovative opportunities, such as new markets, business models, or technologies, to pursue, and mobilize the talent, capital, 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.

I study this puzzle primarily through field experiments embedded in live hiring processes. My current work examines how disruptive and collaborative strategic positioning shape firms’ ability to attract and afford the talent needed to pursue innovation. Related studies examine how employee ownership, incentives, and the design of work affect who is willing to join uncertain ventures and on what terms. Complementing this work, my qualitative research examines how managers and investors shape firm scope, including a study of Grab’s evolution from a taxi-hailing startup into a publicly listed, multi-industry platform. Together, these studies examine how firms secure the talent and capital needed to turn promising opportunities into 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.