Global Advisory Board
Mike Perlis
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Vice Chairman and Strategic Advisory to the Board of Forbes Media. From 2010-2017, Mike Perlis was CEO and Executive Chairman of Forbes Media, the first non-family member to run the company. While there, he spearheaded an innovative strategy that dramatically shifted toward digital and branded products, and which resulted in the sale of majority ownership in the company to Hong Kong-based investors in 2014. Prior to this, Perlis served as general partner at SoftBank Capital, specialising in digital content start-ups and working with Beliefnet, Huffington Post, Associated Content and Buzzfeed. His previous posts include as president and CEO of Ziff-Davis Publishing, publisher of GQ, president of Playboy Publishing, president of TVSM, publisher of Runner's World and Men's Health, and chairman and CEO of IDG Peterborough. Perlis began his career as co-founder of New England Publications in Maine and served on the boards of Beliefnet, Buzzfeed and GSI Commerce. He was also chairman of Associated Content before its sale to Yahoo. He is on the board of advisors of the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and is a trustee of Outward Bound International.
Dr. Claude Béglé
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Dr. Claude Béglé, Founder and Executive Chairman of Symbioswiss, began his international career in South-East Asia with the Swiss Development Agency and later as delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Lebanon and Zimbabwe.
Holding a Ph. D. in Economics and Business Administration and a Master degree in Law and International Relations, he then held various management positions for Nestlé in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and at the company Head Quarters in Switzerland. Later he moved on as Managing Director for Poland with Philip Morris and Vice-President of TNT Europe, responsible for 56 countries. In 1999 Dr. Béglé joined the French Post in Paris as Executive Vice-President of Geopost and Chairman of the DPD, a group of over 20’000 employees. In 2005 he became the Divisional CEO of DHL Germany and Central Europe at the German Post. In 2009 he was appointed by the Swiss Government to the Chairman of the Board of the Swiss Post, an entity with over 40’000 employees.
Dr. Béglé is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and Ambassador of Arnold Schwarzen-egger R20 as well as Chairman and Board member of various international companies.
On the political side Claude Béglé was a member of the Swiss Parliament in the National Council till 2019, in particular a member of the Foreign Policy Commission.
Philippe Paillart
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Philippe Paillart is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. He is a Managing Partner of the Centre for Performance Management, an Advisory and Investment firm located in Dubai, Paris, Singapore and Sydney and a Partner and Senior Faculty Member of the Banking Academy. He is also Chairman of Link Financial Services (Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Rome & Madrid) and of OneEmpower, a technology provider for financial services and retail organisations based in Ho Chi Minh, Mumbai and Singapore. He is a Board Member of 21 Centrale Partners (Paris) an investment and fund management firm. Philippe Paillart is a former Board Member of Citibank Germany, Diners Club France, Standard Chartered Bank and Group, Ford Financial Services, DBS Bank (Singapore), Kwon On Bank (Hong Kong) and BPI (The Philippines). He has been the CEO of Citibank International Personal Banking (Europe, Middle East & Africa), Ford Financial Services and Ford Credit (Worldwide), DBS Bank and Motet Financial Services. Philippe is a graduate of the Paris Business School and holds degrees in Law and Economics from the University of Paris, and a PMD from Harvard Business School.
Professor Rob McCusker
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Professor Rob McCusker is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners and a Senior Advisor for Compliance. He is currently the Transnational Crime Director at Global Risk Alliance Ltd in the UK and an independent Transnational Crime Consultant, was the former Transnational Crime Analyst at the Australian Institute of Criminology (part of the Attorney-General’s Department), a designated expert in terrorist finance for NATO’s Centre of Excellence - Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT) and was an Academic Expert for the European Parliament on ‘Institutional and Legal Affairs’, ‘Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs’ and ‘Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence’. Rob is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Statecraft (Governance and Integrity Group) in London, a Fellow of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime in Geneva, a Research Fellow at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies in Amsterdam and a member of the Advisory Board of the Rutgers Institute on Corruption Studies, Rutgers University, New York.. Rob has provided strategic and policy advice on transnational crime threats (including human trafficking, organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering) to a range of organisations including AUSTRAC (Australia’s Financial Intelligence Unit), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (for whom he was a consultant to, and Contributing Author of, its report on ‘Illicit Financial Flows - The Economy of Illicit Trade in West Africa’),the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (for whom he was the Research and Evaluation Consultant for its review of challenges in the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption). In addition, Rob has provided policy advice to government departments in the UK, USA, Thailand, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Australia and anti-corruption training (as part of the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies in London) to delegates from a number of countries including Nigeria, PRC, Gambia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Singapore and Denmark.
Tan Sri Rainer Alhoff
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Strategic Swiss Partners is pleased to welcome Tan Sri Rainer Alhoff to its Global Advisory Board
Tan Sri Rainer Althoff was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Petaling Jaya for more than eleven (11) years until 2009 and the spokesperson (Board Member) of Siemens AG for all Siemens operations and its affiliated companies in Malaysia (Osram & Infineon). He was the Non-Executive Chairman of Total Sports Asia Sdn. Bhd. from 2019 to 2020 and the (Non-Administrative) Honorary Chairman of the Brand Laureate World Foundation, Petaling Jaya from 2016 to 2020. He was also an Independent Director of Proton Holdings Berhad, Subang Jaya from 2009 to 2014, a Member of Board of Directors Group Lotus PLC from 2010 to 2011, the Chairman of Nokia Solutions and Networks Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur for six years and Chairman of Coriant Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur. He was member of the International Advisory Panel to the Board of CIMB Bank for six years. He was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lauda Interactive AG, Darmstadt/Germany from 2016 to 2019 and Senior Advisor for Digitalization to T-Systems Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Cyberjaya. He served as a Trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation for nine (9) years until 2019 and the Executive Chairman of RaceRoom Entertainment Sdn. Bhd for four (4) years. Master’s Degree (Diploma) in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Bergische University of Wuppertal, Germany, 1968.
Tan Sri Rainer is a Permanent Resident of Malaysia since 2003 and he received the Honorable Tan Sri ship of the King of Malaysia in 2007. MBA General Management from Duke University, United States of America, 2000 He was a regular speaker and guest lecturer of University St Gallen, SWZ at Singapore Management University SMU for 6 years until 2009.
Tan Sri Rainer received the Honorable Cross of Merits from the President of Germany in 2003.
Felix Sutter
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Felix Sutter serves as the President of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) since 2015. Prior, Board Member at Swiss Business Association in Singapore, Vice President of Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. Mr. Sutter was a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland for more than 19 years. As a Partner for PwC he spent 5 years in Beijing and 2 years in Singapore. During this period Felix had the opportunity to work with domestic and international clients from the fastest growing economies, giving him an in-depth understanding of some of the most prominent emerging markets in Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and most of all, China. Felix continues as external Business Consultant for PWC, supporting their Asia Business Group activities. Felix was nominated as one of only three “Visiting Leaders” at the China European International Business School (CEIBS) Shanghai Campus in November 2017, lecturing on the topic “Consulting skills” for MBA and EMBA students. He joined SUCCEED AG as CEO in January 2019 and is active in consulting as well as being a x-culture mentor for business executives active in Asian and European Markets. In February 2019 Felix joined China Construction Bank Trust’s “Global Family Wealth Strategy Advisory Committee”.
Marc André Sola
Member of the Global Advisory Board & Associate Partner (1291)
Mr. Marc-André Sola is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. He is also the founder and president of the 1291 Group - a boutique financial services group which is licensed in over 20 countries worldwide and offers mainly wealth planning and financial consulting services, insurance brokerage and asset management. Mr. Sola holds a Master of Law degree awarded by the University of Zurich and serves on the board of several companies. He is also recognized as a highly sought-after speaker for international investment topics, estate planning and asset protection solutions worldwide. Furthermore, Mr. Sola has published a variety of professional articles and co-authored the book "The Insured Portfolio", published by John Wiley & Sons (2010). He is a member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization), Zurich Chapter.
Tan Sri Dr. Michael O.K. Yeoh
Member of the Global Advisory Board
He is a public intellectual, social entrepreneur and thought leader, Chairman of the World Chinese Economic Summit (WCES). Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI), recently ranked as one of the worlds and regions top think tank. With over 30 year’s corporate experience, Dr. Yeoh sits on the Board of Directors of Pan Malaysia Corporation, Malaysia- China Business Council and MUI Properties and was a Director of Star Publications and the National Heart Institute. He graduated in Economics and Accountancy from Australia’s Monash University and has undertaken senior executive programmes at Harvard Business School and Aresty Institute of Wharton School. He was conferred a Doctorate in Laws (honoraris causa) by the University of Nottingham. He is a sought after speaker at international conferences and has authored several books on leadership, management and politics. Dr. Yeoh is also a member of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies London, the UK Institute of Directors and Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of Management.
Dr. Sham Bathija
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Dr. Sham L. Bathija is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. He is a noted development Asian economist and diplomat with a vast academic and practical experience of economic development who is serves since number of years as Senior Economic Adviser to the President of Afghanistan, Ambassador and Special Envoy. He deals with development economic issues of the Least Developed, Landlocked Developing Countries in particular, Afghanistan. He possesses decades of professional, technical and substantive experience in the Economic Diplomacy of the developing countries at the multilateral level including Asia and Pacific regions. Dr. Bathija’s academic credentials link him to New York University for PhD, Stanford University, and JFK School of Government at Harvard University and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. He has received numerous awards, Gold Medals and has been a keynote speaker, chair, panellist and contributor at numerous United Nations and Think Tanks organized global conferences, Heads of States Summits, on economic and investment issues. In view of his global experience, Dr. Bathija was elected as Vice President of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held in Istanbul on May 9-13, 2011.
Islamic Finance
Datuk Dr. Mohd Daud Bakar
Member of the Global Advisory Board and Associate Partner for Islamic Finance
Dr. Mohd Daud Bakar is Founder & Chairman of Amanie Group (Global Islamic Finance Advisors) and Executive Chairman of Amanie Group that deals with many facets of global Islamic finance from Shariah advisory to structured training to media and to Big Data Analytics. Amanie Advisors, one of the companies under the Group, has presence in ten major cities in the world. He currently sits as a Chairman of the Shariah Advisory Council at the Central Bank of Malaysia, the Securities Commission of Malaysia, the Labuan Financial Services Authority and the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM). He is also a Shariah board member of various financial institutions, including the National Bank of Oman (Oman), Noor Islamic Bank (Dubai), Amundi Asset Management (France), Morgan Stanley (Dubai), Bank of London and Middle East (London), BNP Paribas (Bahrain), Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (New York), First Gulf Bank (UAE), amongst many others.
Mohammed Al-Hassan
Member of the Global Advisory Board & Associate Partner (GII)
Mr. Mohammed Al-Hassan is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. He is also the co-founder, co-CEO, GCC and director of Gulf Islamic Investment, which is an Associated Partner of SSP. Mr. Al-Hassan has over12 years of experience in Islamic Investment Banking across the GCC region. His investment expertise spans across several verticals, including Private Equity, Venture Capital, Infrastructure and Real Estate. Mr. Al-Hassan is an extremely well-networked individual with close ties to family offices, and government and executive circles, including prominent members of the corporate, banking, financial institutions, and sovereign funds community in the GCC region. In addition to the GII board, he sits on the board of various companies, including International Foods Corporation, Limited, and More / Intelligent Foods, Inc. Since founding Gulf Islamic Investments, Mohammed developed leading sharia compliant investment company with a diversified investment strategy and investment portfolio. Prior to founding GII, Mr. Al-Hassan held the position of Vice President of Investments with EJ Capital. Prior to that he worked as a Team Leader (Director – Investment Placement, KSA & Kuwait) in Gulf Finance House where he played a stellar role in raising several hundred millions of dollars of capital for various investment opportunities. His domain strengths include: strategic management, structuring investment opportunities, investment management, merger and acquisitions, deal sourcing, capital raising, and advising high net worth individuals. Previously, he was also the Board Member of Energy City Mumbai and Board Member of Al-Areen Holding. Mr. Al-Hassan holds a Business Administration degree, specializing in Marketing, from NYIT, Bahrain.
Pankaj Gupta
Member of the Global Advisory Board & Associate Partner (GII)
Mr. Pankaj Gupta is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. He is also the co-founder and CEO, UAE of Gulf Islamic Investment, which is an associated partner of SSP; Mr. Gupta is a financial service professional with over 17 years of rich investment banking and asset management experience in the United Arab Emirates in various leadership roles. Prior to joining GII, he was Head of Investment Business Development at Allied Investment Partners, a UAE-based investment banking company he contributed to build from inception in 2007, to manage the assets of number of prominent business people and leading members of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. Together with Terence Allen, Mr. Gupta was also instrumental in starting Union National Financial Consultancy in 2004, an investment advisory company (which changed its name to Gulf Islamic Investments in 2014) dedicated to assist prominent members of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family in managing their assets. During his time at AIP and UNFC, he was responsible, among other things, of the management of a $2.5 billion investment portfolio, in addition to a number of advisory mandates, which included well in excess of $4 billion in successful debt and equity syndication. Prior to AIP and UNFC, Mr. Gupta was a part of Investment Banking Division of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, where he successfully introduced Indian investment opportunities to NBAD’s investors. Mr. Gupta has been involved in many project and company start-ups, and sits on Management Board & Advisory Board of many companies. He is also Ambassador & Strategic Advisor to Horasis (leading emerging market forum). Pankaj is actively involved in social & philanthropic work too.Pankaj holds BSc (Maths) and an MBA Degree. He is also a Certified Private Equity Specialist (CPES).
Energy
YBhg. Datuk’ Benjamin Reynauld
President of SSP Global Energy Solutions Ltd
and Member of the Global Advisory Board Strategic Swiss Partners AG
YBhg. Datuk' Benjamin Reynauld President of SSP Global Energy Solutions Ltd and Member of the Global Advisor Board Strategic Swiss Partners AG. Datuk Benjamin Reynauld, a Mechanical Engineer with 50 years hands-on experience in upstream broad based engineering projects in the oil, gas and energy sector, was a senior member on the Board of Camper Marine Pte Ltd, where he headed its operation of over 3000 multidiscipline employees, including 600 senior technical expatriates involved in the successful completion of several major oil and gas engineering projects. He was instrumental in the implementation of latest innovations and technologies in several international oil and gas companies. Datuk Benjamin is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of Management. He founded SPR Energy (M) Sdn Bhd, in 1992 and was its Managing Director until 31 December 2017. SPR Energy started as a foremost engineering company in the energy sector. In the late nineties, it concentrated solely on power generation as an independent power producer. Currently, Datuk Benjamin is actively involved in infrastructure and engineering projects that utilises green technology with artificial intelligence to protect the environment and its inhabitants, both offshore and onshore. Datuk Benjamin was recently awarded the prestigious "Asia Pacific Excellent Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award", by KSI Strategic Institute Asia Pacific.
Health Care
Prof. Dr. Hans U. Baer
Honorary President of Health Care & Life Science
and Member of the Global Advisory Board Strategic Swiss Partners AG
Dr. Baer is professor titularis of surgery with a Master in Applied Ethics, and a member on the Global Advisory Board of Strategic Swiss Partners. Professor Baer is an HPB surgeon, scientist and entrepreneur, and founder of Baermed Bauchmedizin AG (Abdominal Medicine Ltd). Baermed is a well-established independent private medical provider offering services with a special interest in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. The company was founded in 1999 and offers its clinical services as a surgical centre of excellence at the Hirslanden Hospital in Zürich, one of the leading Swiss Private Hospital Groups. In 2018, Professor Baer joined a prestigious group of abdominal surgeons of excellence at Surgical Centre Zurich. He has performed over 16,000 surgical procedures in complex hepatobiliary, as well as oncological and minimal invasive surgery. Professor Baer has published over 120 original scientific, surgical and ethical papers. In 2010, he became international director of the Tarumanagara Human Cell Technologies laboratory, a modern research laboratory specialising in tissue engineering, cell processing, material sciences and matrix development. It is a joint venture with Tarumanagara University in Jakarta, the Gading Pluit Private Hospital Group in Jakarta and Baermed, Zürich, Switzerland. Professor Baer has successfully written clinical trials and investigators' brochures for preclinical laboratory investigations, animal investigations and phase I and II clinical studies in the field of tissue engineering technology. Professor Baer and Baermed hold the intellectual property rights and Standard Operational Procedures of various cell matrix projects.
Sheila Menon, FBSCH FBAMH
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Sheila is the Principal for the London College of Clinical Hypnosis (Asia-Australia). She has over 20 years experience as a clinical hypnotherapist and is a Fellow of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Secretary of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Hypnosis. She is also a founding Director of the LCCH Therapy Centre at Pantai Hospital KL. In Malaysia, she introduced clinical hypnosis through a ten year MOU with the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia and in Singapore she collaborated with Tan Tock Seng Hospital in a three year MOU designed to introduce clinical hypnosis to the medical profession. A very hands on Principal, Sheila lectures in Asia and UK and runs a busy private practice. She has been a consultant hypnotherapist at University Hospital and is often found at University Malaya during the weekends visiting the on-going training programmes. Sheila and her team have led the way in a number of research projects in clinical hypnosis in Malaysia including the role of clinical hypnosis in pain management, surgery, obstetrics, cancer care and stress management.
Dato’ Pahlawan Dr. Ramasamy Mohanadas
Member of the Global Advisory Board
Dr. Mohanadas Ramasamy Major General Dato Pahlawan (Rtd) is a member of Strategic Swiss Partners Health Care - Global Advisory Board. In his 30 years of military service, he had served in many parts of the country including as Chief Medical Officer of the United Nations Operations in Somalia in 1998. He holds a Masters in Health Planning (MHP) from the University of New South Wales, Australia, Diploma in Industrial Health from the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of England (DIH) & Society of Apothecaries (DIHSA), and Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (DTM&H) from Mahidol University, Bangkok. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (FFOM) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (FAMM). He is currently the Deputy Chairman, Board of Governors of the Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS) and a Director of CUCMS Education Sdn Bhd. He is a Member of the Board of Governors of the Asia Metropolitan University (AMU) and a Non Independent Non-Executive Director of Asiamet Education Group. He is a Member of the Preliminary Investigations Committee (PIC 4) of the Malaysian Medical Council. In recognition of his contributions to the profession, he was awarded the “Most Outstanding Alumnus” of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University in 2011, the Outstanding Achievement Award of SOMGRIM 2012 (Society of Medical Graduates from India Malaysia) and the MMA Gold Medal in 2013. For his services to the Nation, he has received several state and federal awards amongst them being the Dato Pahlawan Taming Sari (DPTS) from HRH the Sultan of Perak and the Panglima Setia Angkatan Tentera (PSAT), the second highest military award from SPB Yang Di Pertuan Agong and the United Nations Peacekeeping Medal.