Wong Mei Wai
Founder, CEO & Chief Change Advisor
APAC Global Advisory
Mei Wai is a strategic business and brands transformation leader and entrepreneur who founded our end-to-end Change Management consultancy - APAC Global Advisory with the purpose of Building Legacy through Change. She later co-founded APAC Change Institute with the objective to Transform Lives of Individuals through Change.
Aside from being our CEO, she is also a Senior Strategic Advisor for iconic global and regional brands and businesses with over 30 years of experience consulting, leading and transforming award-winning global, regional, and local brands and businesses across diverse industries including FMCG, Food & Beverage, Retail, luxury, Hospitality, Property, Banking, Technology, Attractions, Building Infrastructure, Agriculture, Trade and Commodities with multinationals and large family businesses. This includes the likes of companies like Unilever, Cargill, Heineken, Citibank, Centurion Corporation and Aspial.
Mei Wai brings a unique intersection of strategy, end-to-end Global business, brands, technology transformation and Change Management through deep evidence & insights based, psychodynamic approach to Change (orchestrating communities of Change Catalysts, facilitation and stakeholder management).
Mei Wai also partners and strategically advises C-suites and Boards on global strategy, transformation, brand transformation and growth, M&A integration, governance and sustainability. She has a strong multicultural and multi-geographic experience. Having lived, worked and consulted in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, the UK, amongst others, and led teams in Asia Pacific and Global Markets in her leadership and consulting assignments, she brings strong multicultural and multi-geography operational experience that translates into actionable execution and results/change across complex environments.
Her specialty is transformation of portfolio through growing brands and businesses and taking them global, having led iconic regional brands aside from Tiger Beer and the portfolio of regional Asia Pacific Breweries brands through their strongest growth, F&N brands, Aspial brands, Centurion Corporation brands to name a few. She has also brought Western brands into Asia and Asian brands into the West. She has led the market and category entry, rejuvenation of brands, integration of brands for mergers & acquisition, stewardship of Global brands in leadership, challenger and/or "to be sold" positions. She is actively involved in Family Business and Succession to build legacies and has championed multiple strategic planning roadmaps to define the next stage of growth for businesses, brands and categories for large multinational and listed companies globally.
She pioneered the bespoke approach of building legacy through end-to-end Change Management, bringing the unique approach of both “outside-in” and “inside-out” Change management to deliver sustainable growth to branded businesses globally, with key publication: Wong, M. W. & Vongswasdi, P. (2024). Building Legacy through Brand Change: Insights from Multigenerational Family Businesses. Organizational Dynamics.
Passionate about the next generation of business and brand leaders, she serves as a Mentor for National University of Singapore (NUS) and INSEAD Business School Women in Business. She was also the Vice President of Institute of Advertising Singapore. She has been a frequent speaker, Chairperson, Judge and/or Moderator in cross-industry global and regional forums on the topics related to Change.
Mei Wai has received awards for Top Change Management Consulting Companies (HRTech) in APAC, Pioneering Women Leadership Award (from CMO Asia and World Women Leadership Congress), Woman Super Achiever Award (Women Leadership Congress), Asia’s Top Marketeer (Campaign Magazine), Most Influential Brand Leaders (World Brand Congress) and other awards she has won for the brands she worked and consulted for.
Mei Wai holds a BSc (Hon) Economics from University of Bristol (UK), MSc International Marketing from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (UK), EMBA from California State University (USA), Executive Masters in Change from INSEAD Business School (Asia Campus). She also holds the Financial Times Non-Executive Board Director Diploma (Pearson SRF BTEC Level 7)(UK), the Advanced Management Program certification from INSEAD Business School (France), Advanced Certificate of Management- Digital from Shenzhen University(China) and Advanced Certification in Learning and Performance from Singapore University of Social Sciences and IAL (Singapore).
