Thomas Chen
Senior Executive Coach
Master in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Bachelor in Mathematics from University of San Francisco, USA
Thomas understands what it is like to be at the top. As the former Chief General Manager of Gulf Bank, and COO of RHB bank, he capitalizes on his C Suite experiences to coach Senior Management from various industries to make a profound difference.
His ontological coaching approach is holistic and effective to help his clients discover all that is within themselves and open their view to new ideas and possibilities. It taps deeply into their inner awareness and helps them to develop new ways of seeing situations. This is extremely important as Thomas believes that Leaders not only change their behaviour, they create the mind-set needed to sustain that change and Executive coaching helps transform Leaders, enabling them to produce and accelerate positive business outcomes.
As a Coach, Thomas brings a global perspective with over thirty years of multi-national experience, having worked with leaders in both well-known MNCs and local organizations from the US, Middle East and Asia.
As background, Thomas is raised in Shanghai, educated in Hong Kong, England and United States. He speaks fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin, and has the unique combination of both a Western management style/philosophy with an Asian heritage.
Selected Senior Executive Roles
- Chief Operating Officer for RHB bank (4th largest in Malaysia) managing over 6000 people.
- Chief General Manager for Gulf Bank (2nd largest bank in Kuwait) with 1200 people and net profit of over US$200 million in 2002.
- Regional Asia Consumer Head for National Australia Bank (the largest Australian bank) and AIG (largest US Insurance Company).
- Retail Banking Bank for Riyad Bank (2nd largest bank in Saudi Arabia) managing over 2000 people and over 200 branches.
- Vice President for Citibank US over a 10-year period.
Selected Coaching Assignments
- Coaching of senior executives of multinational companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, BP Chemical, Bayer, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GE Healthcare, Estee Lauder, Standard Chartered Bank, SPE. Heidelberg Cement, TM, Maxis, Maybank, Technip & ICLIF.
- Chairing and mentoring SME CEOs – members of Vistage Malaysia
- IT directors from major companies that outsourced some of their services
In addition to his practical experience, Thomas has impressive credentials including:
- Industrial Engineering from Columbia University, NY, USA
- PCC (Professional Certified Coach) from International Coaching Federation (ICF)