IMD Board Community

Christiane Kuehne has been a board member and Chair of the Sustainability and Ethics Committee at Stora Enso Oyj since 2017. She is also a non-executive director of James Finlays Ltd. From 2012 to 2016, she served on the board and audit committee of L’Oréal SA.

Prior to her board nominations, Kuehne had a long career with Nestlé in operative and strategic roles in Switzerland and abroad. Her last role was Head of the Strategic Business Unit Food, with strategic responsibility for Nestlé’s global food business.

Sustainability- and ethics-based management are her key interests. Having been brought up in Brazil, she lived and worked mostly in Europe and Asia but with regular business trips to Africa and the rest of the world. Because of her broad international exposure, she believes that diversity of gender, culture, and exposure is a plus for any organization.

Kuehne holds a Master of Legal Letters from the University of St Gallen and a Bachelor of Economics from HEC Lausanne. She completed her Board Certification from IMD in 2019.

VA George Antony Vadakkekara is Executive Chairman of Thejo Engineering Limited, Chennai, a leading engineering solutions provider in India and abroad, where he is responsible for the overall direction and performance of the company and has overseen the company’s growth and expansion into new markets and segments. 

Leveraging on his skills in new business development, strategy, and management consulting, he has helped identify and pursue new opportunities, partnerships, and innovations that have enhanced the company’s competitive edge and reputation and has led the implementation of best practices and policies in corporate governance, risk management, compliance, and sustainability.

He has more than four decades of experience in the corporate world (both in the public and private sectors) of which more than 25 years have been in senior management positions and he is a fellow of All India Management Association and the Institute of Directors.

A director on multiple boards, Vadakkekara has served as the Chairman of the Equipment Leasing Association of India and has been an adjunct/visiting faculty at several management Institutes, including XLRI, Jamshedpur, and the Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai. He was also a resource person for two IMD programs, namely High Performance Boards Training for IFC Staff Nominee Directors and Strategy for Boards in 2022.

A mechanical engineer with a postgraduate diploma in management, Vadakkekara holds a Board Director Diploma with distinction from IMD, a Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School (USA), an Advanced Certificate in Corporate Governance, and a Certificate in Global Management from INSEAD (Paris).

Irfan Wahab Khan is a seasoned CEO and board member with expertise in fintech, telecoms, governance, and digital transformation.  He is the SVP Head of Portfolio Development at Telenor Asia, based out of Singapore, and Chairman of TMB/EasyPaisa Digital Bank (a JV between Ant Financial and Telenor).

Khan is a board member of Grameenphone, Bangladesh, and a member of the finance committee of CellcomDigi, Malaysia. He has held numerous leadership roles in the USA, the UK, Norway, Thailand, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Singapore, where he served in various leadership roles at T-Mobile, Orange, and Telcordia Technologies.

He holds a master’s degree in mobile and personal communications from the University of Westminster. London. He also holds qualifications in financial management from Harvard Business School, an Executive Diploma in marketing from London Business School, an Advanced Management Diploma from INSEAD, and a board qualification from IMD and the Singapore Institute of Directors.

Juliet Ehimuan is the founder of Beyond Limits and the immediate past Director of Google West Africa where, during her 12-year tenure, she played a pivotal role in growing the country’s digital ecosystem.

With over 25 years of experience in the technology, oil & gas, and new media industries across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Ehimuan is a leading voice on innovation, transformation, and leadership and serves on multiple boards across finance, FMCG, oil & gas, and education sectors.

She is focused on growing the African technology and creative ecosystems, enabling digital transformation, developing leaders, and facilitating deal flow between global and African businesses.

Named by Forbes as one of the top 20 power women in Africa, Ehimuan was also featured in the BBC Africa Power Women series, and on CNN Innovate Africa, and the London Business School named her as one of 30 people changing the world and as one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD).

She holds a DBA from Walden University in Minneapolis, US, an Executive MBA from the London Business School, and a postgraduate degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Waleed K Al Hashar is the Chief Executive Officer of Bank Muscat. He joined Bank Muscat in 2004 and went on to hold various senior executive positions before becoming CEO in 2019.

With over 30 years of experience in the banking and oil & gas sectors, Al Hashar has also held senior executive positions in leading corporates including Petroleum Development Oman and HSBC Bank Middle East as well as board memberships in the hospitality, logistics, and education sectors.

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the College of Banking and Financial Studies, Oman Banks Association, Securities and Investment Company (SICO) B.S.C, Bahrain and is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Academy of Management in Oman.

Al Hashar holds a postgraduate diploma in general management from Harvard Business School and both a BSc and a Master’s in business administration from California State University, Sacramento, USA.

Sophie Coughlan is an experienced governance researcher, writer, and consultant, with a strong interest in stewardship, sustainability, and leadership. As the Global Board Center’s Associate Director, she is responsible for the Board Director Diploma and the Board-Readiness diploma, as well as IMD’s board community.

In addition to conducting board reviews with a number of privately and publicly held companies in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, Coughlan has been the lead researcher on governance reviews for the International Olympic Committee and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, among others. She also contributed to a number of publications on governance, including High Performance Boards and Inspiring Stewardship, and the 2018 IBE Ethics at Work Switzerland report.

She began her career in the area of environmental policy analysis at the International Academy of the Environment in Geneva (focused on climate change) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. As the associate director of the Aditya V. Birla India Centre and the Centre for Marketing at London Business School, she developed and managed donor relations and outreach activities and subsequently directed a European-wide project on integrating corporate sustainability into the business school curriculum for the Academy of Business in Society (ABIS).

As a coach, Coughlan has facilitated board strategy retreats and coached board members on self-awareness and board dynamics, using psychometric instruments and 360 feedback. She is also certified as a group facilitator with the Tavistock Institute and certified by the British Psychological Society to administer the NEO Personality Inventory. Coughlan is currently on the Governance & Compliance Commission of the World Squash Federation.

She holds a Master’s in education from the University of Nottingham (UK), an MA in environmental studies from Macquarie University (Australia), and a BA in political science from Swarthmore College (USA) with a concentration in women’s studies.