Chandran Nair is the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent pan-Asian think tank based in Hong Kong focused on advancing a deeper understanding of global issues including the shift of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, the dynamic relationship between business and society, and the reshaping of the rules of global capitalism. GIFT has pioneered an internationally recognised approach to executive education that 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.
Chandran is a biochemical engineer by training and was chairman of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia’s leading environmental consultancy. For more than a decade he has strongly advocated a more sustainable approach to development in Asia, advising governments and multi-national corporations to instil these principles into their policies and key decision-making processes.
In addition to his work with GIFT, Chandran Nair continues to provide strategic management advice to business leaders. In this regard, he has been invited to speak to and advise global management teams at companies including HSBC, BASF, Bosch and PwC among others.
Chandran Nair is a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum (WEF), APEC Summits, OECD events and various UN conferences. He is a member of WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability. His articles on topics ranging from economic policy to education frequently appear in leading publications such as the Financial Times, TIME, The Guardian, Huffington Post and The New York Times. He has also been interviewed on many leading global media networks including BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNBC, CCTV, Channel News Asia and Deutsche Welle.
Chandran has served as 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 Member of The Club of Rome and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Chandran Nair is the author of Consumptionomics: Asia’s Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet which was ranked as one of the top-fifty breakout capitalism books by The Guardian and has been translated into Chinese, German and Bahasa. He is currently working on his second book The Sustainable State: The Future of Government, Economy and Society. He is also the creator of The Other Hundred, a non-profit book project which serves as a counterpoint to the Forbes 100 and other media-rich lists. The Other Hundred aims to highlight the lives of those who are not famous or wealthy, but who deserve to have their story told. The second edition has a focus on entrepreneurs and the third looks at educators from a non-conventional standpoint. The fourth edition will examine the very contemporary yet age-old topic of migrants.
A keen sportsman, Chandran managed the Hong Kong hockey team for seven years, taking it to the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea. He plays the saxophone and used to head a band in Africa where he lived and worked as a volunteer in the field of water supply, sanitation and public health. He has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and Africa
