THE HEIST TEAM

Kajal is Principal and Founder at Heist. Based in Singapore, she leads Heist’s business in the region and works with global and local clients to uncover the fundamental insights needed to keep up with the rapid pace of change in Asia.

Formerly Insights Lead for emerging markets at frog, Kajal leads the design of products, services, and experiences that help businesses establish footholds in new markets, remain relevant across generations, and gain the clarity and confidence needed to create products that deeply connect with consumer needs. She has practiced her craft in more than 23 countries over 15 years. Her extensive client list includes many of the world’s best-known brands, including 3M, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Nestle, P&G, Tata, DBS, and Standard Chartered.

Amran is a senior business leader with more than 20 years of experience across financial services, consulting and government policy. Across his career, he has delivered insight, strategy, creativity and execution for the meaningful transformation, growth and change in experiences, people, systems and organisations.

He has led Asia-wide digital transformation programs, enabling enterprise technology change alongside being a catalyst for transformative employee capabilities in digital leadership, empathic discovery and human-centredness.

As a strategist, he has been involved in defining organisational future-states, Mergers and Acquisitions for strategic partnerships, and the imagination of future-of- business scenarios leveraging customer-focused innovation and design futures.

Having worked across Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, and with project delivery in more than 20 countries globally, Amran is adept with cross-cultural leadership and is sensitive of effective partnership and collaboration.

In Heist, Amran serves as a fractional executive, leading strategy for business growth and client innovation.

Prior to Heist, he was the practice leader for Experience Delivery and Change Management as well as an Asia Management Team member for an insurance multinational, governing eight Asia markets for the insurance business. Outside of financial services, Amran has worked on national design policy and international partnerships whilst in the Singapore government and had stints in consulting and marketing roles supporting the growth ambitions of financial services, technology, healthcare, pharmaceutical, FMCG, telecommunications and entertainment sector clients.

His professional and intellectual interests currently include business innovation, organisational transformation, leadership identities and entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Sociology from the National University of Singapore and is currently an Executive Master’s candidate in Change and Organisational Behaviour from INSEAD.

Selma is originally from Morocco where she grew up before moving to Paris for her Masters at the ESCP Business School. After that, she built an international career between Europe & Asia – specializing in Strategy, Branding, Experience Design & Customer Experience, Value Proposition & Human-Centered Change Management.  She is passionate about bringing these disciplines together for higher human outcomes and business impact.

Her track record includes increasing the AXA brand value by 49% in 3 years (AXA entered in the global top 50 Interbrand ranking). She was a critical contributor to the global brand repositioning to drive distinctiveness & customer relevance.  At Sun Life Asia she championed & embedded human centred design across the region. This involved comprehensive strategies from experience redesign to capability enhancement and cultural transformation.

At Home Credit International, she led the brand and media practice globally to better leverage brand as a growth driver, and strengthen brand & insight capabilities in the local countries.  

Selma specializes in driving both business strategies and mindset evolution to support growth trajectories. She is passionate about strategy, branding and value proposition building. Her Industry Experience includes Insurance, Consumer Finance, Luxury Goods as well as Health & Wellness.

Kenneth is a design researcher passionate about building better worlds with empathy. He helps organisations understand the cultural context and unspoken needs of the people they impact, using mixed-methods research and sharp storytelling. His industry experience includes social change projects on mental health communications and sustainable behaviour, as well as innovation and strategy projects in FMCG.
 
Kenneth has a background in research-driven storytelling as an editor, data storyteller, and content strategist. He holds a Master’s degree in Digital Management (Hyper Island, UK) and a Bachelor’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies (Grinnell College, US). Having lived and worked a few years in the United States, he now splits time between Singapore (his country of origin) and cities such as Belgrade, Berlin, and Chiang Mai.
 
He is currently training in developmental coaching and futures thinking, as he believes that combining design research, strategic foresight, and self-development has much to offer individuals and organisations looking to create desirable futures for themselves.

Heist. Reflected in our name is our approach to design challenges. We swiftly assemble a team of experts – each chosen for skill sets and experiences relevant to your project. Our goal is to set up a team in the local market we are studying, to use a set of design research methodologies to gain valuable insights. And then with a blend of creative strategy, business design and technology, we help clients launch their next phase of innovation – creative concepts, new product development, or experiences.

Here is a selection of some of the experts in the Heist network, across Singapore and the region.

Chris started his career at a digital agency in the UK – early 2000, not long before the dotcom bubble burst. From there, he moved into recruitment and worked for 2 companies within the marketing and design space, before starting his own firm Cogs in 2004.

Cogs is an executive search and recruitment company focused on digital transformation working with digital agencies, design firms and management consultancies, as well as businesses of all sizes, across a variety of sectors: from tech-first players to more traditional companies looking to evolve.

The company specializes in design, content, marketing, tech, CX and development and today employs over 60 people, with 5 offices across Europe and Asia. Chris’ role in the past 6 years is growing Cogs’ business in Asia; working with clients and talent across South East Asia, Hong Kong, Greater China and Japan.

The mission of Cogs, as well as Chris’ own personal aspirations, is to help people and businesses reach their full potential. Chris has always had an interest and passion for education, how it develops the grassroots talent and professional development needed for the digital and creative industries to thrive.

Maria has been the Chief Client Experience & Digital Officer at Sun Life in Hong Kong since 2016 where she is shaping and delivering the digital transformation agenda of the organization that firmly anchors on putting clients in the centre. Maria has over 22 years of corporate and consulting experience in digital transformation and marketing management.

She spent 10 years at HeathWallace, a leading international digital design firm, where she founded in 2006 their user experience design business for Asia Pacific. Prior to joining HeathWallace, Maria spent six years at AXA Investment Managers in London, Paris and Hong Kong where she was responsible for developing the asset manager’s global online strategy and marketing capabilities as their Head of Change Management for Global Marketing & eBusiness.

Sanjay is currently a Leadership Consultant with Egon Zehnder with a focus on Banking, FinTech, Digital and Enterprise Solutions. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Digital Business Transformation with UBS Bank Management. Before that, he was a management consultant with Accenture and worked in Business Intelligence at Oracle. He has also worked with other financial organizations including Merrill Lynch and ANZ Bank.

In the past 17 years, he has been involved in driving customer-focused business transformation in multinational organizations in different countries.

Sanjay is a Design Integrator. Despite no formal training or experience in design, Sanjay saw the importance of the value of design in helping businesses to be competitive. He took on the leadership role in integrating design in UBS. In the past 15 months, he has been advocating the use of design thinking as a strategic vehicle for digital transformation and innovation. His goal is to turn “great thinkers into great designers” and enable a sustainable culture of innovation across the enterprise.