Anastasia Kurniadi (Associate)
Anastasia is a Climate Associate in APC. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Yale-NUS College, with interests in environmental anthropology, sustainable development, and intersectionality. Her experiences include roles in research, communications, and partnership in community-based environmental work. She is a firm believer in the power of collective action and contributes to local and international climate initiatives. The ocean and music are two things close to her heart as she fills her free time SCUBA diving, playing the piano, and appreciating the local art scene. Resonating deeply with APC’s ethos of collaboration and community building, Anastasia is excited to start her social impact journey with APC and explore the enabling role philanthropy has in driving change and conversations in the climate space.
Anushia Kandasamy (Malaysia Country Representative)
Anushia is a management consultant and senior leadership facilitator based in Malaysia, with over 15 years of experience in strategic planning and transformation. Her expertise includes structuring culture transformation programmes, leadership development, and unlocking team effectiveness. She is also a strategic thinker, supporting organisations to draft policy/strategic plans while building stakeholder engagement capabilities to ensure inclusivity. Anushia works with clients across the public and private sector, and dedicates her own time to support non-profits as well. She is especially keen on building women leaders and social entrepreneurs. Previously, Anushia was a Junior Partner with McKinsey & Company, working especially with government and state-owned enterprises in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Anushia holds an MSc in Development Administration & Planning from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Accounting & Finance awarded by the University of London (External Programme).
Christina Gan (Senior Finance Manager)
Christina joined APC as Senior Finance Manager in July 2025. She is a Chartered Accountant with ISCA, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy awarded by National University of Singapore. Christina has over 30 years of work experience mostly in small businesses, start-ups and non-profit organisations. During her career, she has helped organisations to digitalise, implement and streamline processes, as well as help make data and numbers easier to understand. She is excited to further her understanding of philanthropy and be part of team that makes a practical social impact for the region and beyond. Christina enjoys gardening, pop-culture, reading and travelling.
Clarissa Lee (Operations Executive)
Clarissa Lee is an Operations Executive with a strong passion for driving impactful change. She has gained expertise in office management, secretarial and administrative support, and event coordination over her working experiences.
Clarissa holds an MSc in Digital Transformation, an MBA from Nexford University, and a BSc in Business from SIM-UOL. She blends her academic expertise with practical experience to streamline processes, drive initiatives and foster collaboration. She is excited to join APC, where she will contribute to meaningful philanthropic initiatives while learning from like-minded professionals. Her passion for learning, innovation and collaboration aligns with APC’s mission to make a positive social impact.
Outside of work, Clarissa finds joy in hiking, long walks, reading, and connecting with others over meaningful conversations.
Eileen Chong (Lead, Insights & Innovation)
Eileen joined Asia Philanthropy Circle in June 2024. A former Singapore diplomat, Eileen is passionate about advocacy and change-making. Her foreign service career spanned a three-year posting in Beijing and headquarters stints covering Singapore’s bilateral relationships with China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Laos. She hopes to leverage her skills honed as a diplomat to amplify the voices of underserved/overlooked communities and causes across the region.
Eileen holds an M.A. in Global Affairs and Policy from Yonsei University and a B.A. in International Politics from Peking University. In her free time, she volunteers with organisations dedicated to improving the welfare of migrant workers in Singapore. She also enjoys trying out new cooking recipes and going on long walks with her dog, Henri.
Esther Chang (CEO)
Esther is driven by the belief that collaboration is essential to achieving system-level change. This conviction drew her to APC, where she brings together Asia-focused funders to learn, connect, and co-create solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges.
She has two decades of experience in philanthropy and sustainability. Before APC, she spent six years leading the UN Global Compact Network Singapore, driving enterprise capabilities and cross-sector partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier, she held advancement roles in education and healthcare across Asia and North America.
Esther holds an EMBA from ESSEC & Mannheim Business Schools and a BSc in Life Sciences from Queen’s University, with further postgraduate studies in sustainability at the University of Cambridge.
Beyond work, she enjoys the outdoors—whether in the mountains or underwater—and mentoring those seeking to pivot their careers toward impact.
Gersende de Pontbriand (Senior Advisor, Strategy & Engagement)
Gersende is a philanthropy advisor with over 15 years of international experience supporting ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families, corporate leaders, and foundations.
After leading a corporate foundation in the field of education for a decade, Gersende founded Mécène Invest – one of the first consultancies in France dedicated to providing strategic, organizational, and implementation support to impact-focused donors.
Her areas of expertise include foundation design and structuring, identifying high-impact projects, forging partnerships with non-profits, advising on governance and strategic communications, and developing employee engagement strategies for corporate foundations.
Gersende has advised leading philanthropists and prominent giving families across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Prior to relocating to Indonesia, she led Women United in Virginia, a regional chapter of a global network of women philanthropists advancing community-led change.
Gersende has been collaborating with APC since 2024, with a focus on strategy, member engagement, and communications.
Jasmine Khin (Senior Associate)
Jasmine Khin is a Senior Associate at APC. She began her journey in social impact at APC as she started exploring how to bridge the gap between theory and practice. She cares deeply about human rights, climate action, and sustainable development in Asia. Previously, she was a teaching assistant in Philosophy, where she taught classes in ethics, classics, and political philosophy. She has an MA in philosophy from Northwestern University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English Literature from Kalamazoo College in 2018. During her free time, she is a facilitator for Climate Fresk, a pedagogical card game based on the climate science in the IPCC reports, a yogi, runner, and climber. While she was based in the US, she tutored refugee children in Chicago and worked on a pro bono consulting project for a digital financial literacy platform geared towards first generation studen
Koon Peng Ooi (Senior Manager)
Koon Peng is a Senior Manager at Asia Philanthropy Circle. He joins us from Social Finance UK where he was advising donors, investors and social enterprises on structuring innovative financing models to improve social outcomes. Koon Peng has worked on the scoping and design of several Social Impact Bonds in a range of issue areas, including access to basic services, employment and modern slavery. He previously worked in the debt syndication team at Morgan Stanley UK and was an ODI Fellow at the Ministry of Finance in eSwatini.
Koon Peng is originally from Penang, Malaysia. He holds an MSc in Development Economics from Oxford University and a BA in Economics from the University of British Columbia.
Li Nan (Director, New Markets & Services)
Nan is thrilled to lead the Mandarin Collective, with the ambition of evolving the Chinese philanthropic ecosystem alongside our members and partners. Nan joins APC from Bridgewater Associates, where she advised global institutional clients and helped to launch the Singapore operations. She started her career at PwC’s New York office, where she advised financial services institutions on strategy, operations, and organizational challenges. Nan holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Lafayette College. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and reading.
Rebecca Lim (Project Lead)
Rebecca is the Project Lead for APC’s Assisted Living Facility project. She started off with over a decade in international destination marketing and tourism development. After a significant season in Mumbai, she moved into the social impact space, applying her skills for social good. With over a decade in this sector where she pioneered a digital storytelling platform that advocated for social causes in the region, she grew as a leader who passionately shaped authentic culture for meaningful impact.
In this season of her life, she combines her hopeful disposition and eye for opportunities, with her love for people by journeying alongside others in human flourishing – one on one, in teams, communities and ecosystems. Alongside her current training as a clinical counsellor, she is concurrently working in roles that are at the intersections of senior care innovations, intergenerational community living and community-led movements, as she reimagines cradle-to-grave ecosystem builds.
Sarah Tam (Senior Manager)
Sarah Tam is the Climate Lead at Asia Philanthropy Circle, a platform for Asia-based philanthropists to learn, exchange, and collaborate on projects in the region. Since October 2021, Sarah has been overseeing the work of the APC Climate Collective for philanthropists to build their capacity for strategic climate action and engage in collaborative efforts to address climate change causes and impacts in Southeast Asia. Prior to APC, Sarah spent over two years with a Singapore-based impact investing firm managing the company’s education arm and digital impact measurement platform.
Suyin Liu Lee (Philippines Country Representative)
Suyin is the Country Head for 88tuition Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based enterprise that provides video-based learning with the social objective of helping every child achieve their full potential. She spent almost 20 years in the finance industry in the US and Singapore focusing on data analytics and product development for Charles Schwab and Franklin Templeton. Suyin engaged in community development activities including managing a Community Reinvestment Act loan portfolio, volunteering as a Loan Committee Member for the Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment (WISE) and establishing a scholarship fund for Filipino college students. Upon returning to the Philippines, Suyin was appointed Executive Director for Asia Society. Her team pioneered cutting edge programmes in governance, economy, education, and culture to foster cooperation and impact across the public and private sectors. Suyin holds a BA in Management Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University and obtained certificates in International Monetary Policy from the University of Vienna and Finance from UC Berkeley.
Swati Agarwal (Director, Climate)
Swati is the Climate Director at APC, shaping strategies for philanthropies in complex settings and across interdisciplinary areas connected to climate change. Adept at building trust-based relationships across cultures, communities, and sectors, she is most drawn to shaping collaborative approaches to giving that deliver impact for the most vulnerable communities.
Prior to joining APC, Swati was the Programme Officer at Oak Foundation, a family philanthropic foundation based in Switzerland. For about 4 years, she led their climate giving in India and global programs at the intersection of climate, health, and livelihoods.
Swati is an economist by training. Earlier in her career with UNDP, she served as the lead analyst for the Ministry of Finance in India, driving meaningful engagements with the Asian Infrastructure Development bank (AIIB). She is a Nuffic Fellow on Climate Policy and Clean Energy and a foresight scholar with the University of Geneva. She serves as an Advisor on several philanthropic pooled funds.
Her journey across different institutions including philanthropies, government, industry, and civil society organisations has deepened her vision for delivering systems change through reimagining our relationship with nature, food, and energy. In her personal time, she enjoys reading with her son, deepening her practice for yoga, and playing the sitar.
Theresa Cua (Senior Manager, Communications)
Theresa is a communications strategist passionate about shaping narratives that drive purpose and connect people across borders. She joined Asia Philanthropy Circle in 2021 as Manager for Communications and Programmes, bringing over a decade of experience in international, non-profit, and impact-driven spaces.
Before APC, she led communications for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) at the Asia-Europe Foundation, and previously headed branding, communications, and marketing at charities and impact investing firms. At the Singapore International Foundation, she developed engagement strategies for its Cultural Exchange team in its formative years.
Theresa began her career at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Manila), supporting work in local governance, political reform, and the Mindanao peace process.
She holds a BA in European Studies (cum laude), majoring in International Relations with a minor in French Studies from Ateneo de Manila University. She speaks (with varying levels of fluency) English, Filipino, Mandarin, Hokkien, German, and French—with a smattering of Japanese and Italian.