Archives: Authors

One of the leading practitioners in China e-commerce, Frank Lavin is the founder and CEO of Export Now, a U.S. company that helps brands with China market entry and operating e-commerce stores. Export Now has worked with over one hundred brands from around the world in areas from market research, to strategy formulation, to e-commerce store operations.

Frank Lavin previously served as Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, and in other senior-level positions in government and banking. He has spent most of his life helping companies succeed in China and other overseas markets.

An alumna of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Ruchira Chaudhary straddles the corporate and academic worlds-she is a leading executive coach, adjunct faculty at several top tier business schools and runs a boutique consulting firm focused on organizational strategy solutions. Ruchira’s diverse and eclectic background in mergers & acquisitions, organizational effectiveness and strategy execution, coupled with two decades of experience in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, helps her grasp challenging people issues.
During her corporate career, Ruchira held leadership roles in Medtronic and AIG in Singapore, Qatar Telecom (now Oredoo) in Qatar and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. Her consulting repertoire spans multinationals, government agencies and leading local businesses across industries. Ruchira teaches and frequently coaches MBA students, and senior business executives as affiliate faculty at several business schools—-SMU, NUS and IMD in Singapore, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Asia and most recently, London Business School. Ruchira frequently gets featured in and writes for leading business journals. She has authored a series of highly acclaimed leadership and coaching articles for the Mint and also writes a regular column for them. Ruchira earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics (Honours) from the University of Delhi, a master’s in communications management and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a concentration in strategy. She divides her time between Singapore and India.

William James was born in the United States in 1956. His father worked as an engineer for the phone company; his mother was a homemaker. After graduating from high school, James enrolled at Rutgers University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English. Following his undergraduate studies, he taught literature and creative writing for a number of years before entering Columbia University where he earned a Master of Education degree from the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership. A passion for travel and adventure took James to Switzerland and eventually on to Indonesia, where his writing career began in earnest. His debut novel, Song of the Sacred Mountain, published by Penguin Random House SEA in 2021, is acclaimed for its unique narrative style, colorful depictions, and unflinching portrayal of a young woman at odds with her heart. The Midwest Book Review called the novel ‘an enchanting, gifted tale that asks the most compelling questions of our time’. Tom Flynn of the Council for Secular Humanism wrote that, ‘like the protagonist in William James’s novel, increasing numbers of young people are asking hard questions about the role of religion in society and finding answers in a more secular approach. Song is a book that speaks eloquently to and about them.’ A Canadian citizen, he splits his time between Montreal and Jakarta.

Noeleen Heyzer was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the highest ranking Singaporean in the United Nations (2007-2015). She was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific since its founding in 1947. Under her leadership (2007-2014), the commission focused on regional cooperation for a more resilient Asia-Pacific, founded on shared prosperity, social equity, and sustainable development. She was at the forefront of many innovations including for regional disaster preparedness, inclusive socio-economic policies, sustainable agriculture and urbanization, energy security and regional connectivity.
She was the first Executive Director from outside North America to lead the United Nations Development Fund for Women (1994-2007). She was widely recognized for her pivotal role in the Security Council’s formulation and implementation of the landmark Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, and undertook extensive missions to conflict-affected countries worldwide. She was also the UNSG’s Special Adviser for Timor-Leste, working to support peace-building, state-building, and sustainable development.
She holds a BA (Upper Hons) and a MSc from Singapore University, a PhD from Cambridge University, and has received numerous international awards for leadership including the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal (2004).

Malaysia-born and Singapore-based, Daryl Kho works in the regional TV industry, where he basically sells other people’s stories and ideas for a living.

He was a prolific creator during his student days: composing songs, poems, plays and even a kung-fu musical! However, after Daryl joined the rat race, corporate emails became his sole literary output. Gradually, his creative tank dried up.

Then in 2009 – shortly before the birth of Daryl’s only child, Alexis – Daryl’s father was felled by two strokes, which also caused vascular dementia. The strokes took away his dad’s mobility and independence, whilst dementia robbed him of many of his memories and much of his personality. Both Daryl and his sister live abroad. So, Daryl’s mum – a finance professional – had to assume the additional burden of being her husband’s primary (and often only) caregiver.

Deeply affected by his dad’s illness, Daryl was equally moved by his mother’s otherworldly love, superhuman strength and unswerving devotion to her husband. All this, combined with guilt and an immense regret that Alexis and her Grandpa never got to truly “meet” each other before the mists moved into his mind, rekindled Daryl’s long-buried itch to put pen to paper.

This was how his debut “family novel”, Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa, was born. The story was also a chance for Alexis to have an adventure with her Grandma, since they live in different countries and rarely see each other.

Sadly, Daryl’s father’s condition continued to decline. He passed away before the book could be completed and read to him. Subsequently, Daryl nearly abandoned the project, but finally decided to see it through. For Daryl, each time that a child reads the story is a chance for Grandpa to be “saved”, over and over, and over again.

In terms of past works, one of Daryl’s short stories that was written as a high school student in Ontario, Canada, was published in INCITE, an annual anthology featuring the best student works from the province. That same year, Daryl was also awarded the Reginald A. Finney Award for Proficiency in Senior English. At his alma mater, the University of Chicago, his plays and kung-fu performances (all co-written, co-directed and co-acted with his landlord, no less!) were the highlight and backbone of the annual Chinese New Year Shows that were performed to paying audiences of close to a thousand.

Idayu Maarof graduated with an M.D. from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia medical school. She then served in several hospitals before starting her own general practice. Her interest in health care through patient education has resulted in her writing for magazines and her personal blog on healthcare issues such as how patients can make the best use of the medical infrastructure to their
maximum benefit.
Dr Idayu Maarof is passionate about empowering the public with the knowledge to better enable them to cope with their health issues, believing that doctors should also teach and help patients manage their health, especially to prevent the onset of disease. She has given lectures and talks on a diverse range of healthcare issues, medical education and public engagement through medical writing. Her
first book, The Doctor is Sick, won an Anugerah Buku Negara (National Book Award, Malaysia) in 2017.

Mohd Firdaus Raih is a bioinformatician and computational biologist by profession. He has published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books of high standing in the scientific community. He has also written widely on science and technology as well as higher-education issues in various newspapers and magazines.

Nidhi Upadhyay is the bestselling author of That Night and I Hear You, and in her spare time—if you squint hard enough—you might find her as an engineer and headhunter. But her greatest interests are her children, her husband—who is disillusioned that her writing career is his retirement plan, and a puppy who thinks he owns her. She is often found hiding her current search history from her boys. If not busy researching a way to kill, drown or dispose of bodies, Nidhi can be found reading thrillers or screaming at her children.

Chris Mabey is an Emeritus Professor of Leadership at Middlesex University Business School and became a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society in 2002.
He has held a career-long interest in how organizations develop their leaders. More recently his research and writing have turned to leading ethical leadership and the enigma of cultural leadership in Myanmar. He recently led an ESRC-funded Seminar Series on Ethical Leadership: Philosophical and Spiritual Approaches.
Chris has 11 academic books to his name (and 20 or more refereed papers), each subject to critical peer-review. One text he authored in Human Resource Management has sales of 21,500 to date.

Danny Jalil majored in Multimedia Arts and studied Creative Writing and Screenwriting at LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, during which time he wrote numerous short stories and film scripts.
His short film comedy “Spun” was nominated the merit prize at the National University of Singapore Student’s Union (NUSSU) Inter-Tertiary Video Festival.
He has also written movie reviews and conducted interviews for First Magazine and has had his works published in Singapore’s Greatest Comics (Nice One Entertainment) and ACTOR (A Commitment To Our Roots).
His novel The Machine Boy was a winner of NAC’s Beyond Words: Young and Younger Award and published by Straits Times Press and he has also written the graphic novel Lieutenant Adnan and The Last Regiment, illustrated by artist Zaki Ragman, published by Asiapac Books.