Chandran Nair has a diverse professional career spanning over 30 years across Europe, Africa, and Asia, including China and India. His expertise covers business, development issues, environmental and sustainability challenges, leadership development, and executive education. He is also a prominent author and thought leader. In 2004, Chandran founded the Global... Read more
Chandran Nair has a diverse professional career spanning over 30 years across Europe, Africa, and Asia, including China and India. His expertise covers business, development issues, environmental and sustainability challenges, leadership development, and executive education. He is also a prominent author and thought leader.
In 2004, Chandran founded the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) to help organisations navigate global complexities and adapt to the forces reshaping the world. As Founder and CEO, he has focused on advancing a deeper understanding of critical global issues, including the shift of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, the evolving relationship between business and society, and the transformation of global capitalism. Under his leadership, GIFT has pioneered an internationally recognised approach to executive education. This has been presented in a report to the United Nations on Innovations in Leadership Development and featured in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal.
Prior to GIFT, he was Chairman of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in Asia-Pacific for over a decade, leading its expansion from a small office of 10 people in Hong Kong in 1991 to a regional powerhouse of 500 professionals across 12 countries by 2004. He was also instrumental in establishing one of the first environmental consulting firms in China in the mid-1990s.
Chandran has held academic roles, serving as an Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He is a frequent guest lecturer at leading global business schools, including INSEAD, Duke CE, and London Business School.
Chandran sits on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome, the world’s premier scientific think tank. He is also a member of the Global Steering Committee for the Business and Sustainability Programme at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and the Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability and Experts Forum at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Chandran’s various expertise leads to frequent publishing of his articles, on topics ranging from economic policy to education. His work has appeared in leading publications such as the Financial Times, TIME, The Guardian, Huffington Post, The New York Times, China Daily and The Edge. He has also been interviewed on many leading global media networks including BBC (including being interviewed on Hard Talk), CNN, Al Jazeera, NHK, Bloomberg, CNBC, CCTV, Channel News Asia and Deutsche Welle.