Jamshed Wadia – Marketing Leader, Futurist, Change Agent, Advisor to Startups

With over 25 years of experience, I have a proven track record as a Business Leader and an Innovator. My career journey is a story of reinvention, leading change and navigating disruptive business environments. My need for reinvention has led me to have a diverse experience of roles across industries, audiences, and various sales and marketing disciplines.

As an agile and adaptable professional, I have thrived, succeeded, and accomplished many milestones during my career. I have established Marketing Centres of Excellence, Led Digital Transformation and Digital Marketing, Managed Global Sales Accounts, Executed Product management and Pre-Sales functions.

I head up the digital practice for Asia at Edelman, which entails owning the business unit PnL, creating digital products/ solutions for our clients, leading and managing our digital talent, building and scaling our digital capabilities and providing a point of view to the industry at large on digital trends.

I am also a mentor at TASMU Accelerator, an initiative of Smart Qatar, and a mentor at Eduspaze, Singapore’s first EdTech accelerator. As a futurist and innovator, my advisory areas are best aligned to five functions— advising product development, user experience, advertising, revenue partnerships, and creating a global brand.

While I consider myself grounded, I often seek to be a change agent and futurist. My ethos is driving innovation with business outcomes in my sights. I believe my strength lies in challenging the status quo and predicting business needs. I am energised by taking people along the business transformation process in operationalising a new vision. My leaders, peers, and colleagues view me as a natural intrapreneur.

My leadership philosophy has always been one of inclusion and transparency. I am a leader who encourages diverse viewpoints, which is the path for personal and professional growth. My tenants for leading a high-performance team are shared vision, passion, transparency, integrity, empathy, and a growth mindset. Inspiration comes in all forms. Individuals have most inspired me with a curious nature and a passion for innovation.

I am a guest lecturer at many prestigious Universities and Management Institutes. And a well-respected and requested speaker on Marketing, Digital Transformation and Leadership.

Using my experience and expertise, I am passionate about giving back. I am currently an Advisory Board Member on the Asia CMO Council. And was the Chair of the Chief Digital Officer Forum (Asia Pacific) for the World Federation of Advertisers from 2015 to 2018.