Vivek Kumar, President & CEO, JA Asia Pacific

Vivek Kumar is a transformational leader who builds and empowers high-performing teams to drive systemic change at the intersection of business, sustainability, and community empowerment. As President & CEO of JA Asia Pacific, he leads the organization’s mission to inspire and prepare young people for employment, financial independence, and entrepreneurship across the region.

Vivek brings over 20 years of experience building and leading diverse teams across multinational corporations, large public sector entities, and international nonprofit organizations, with a consistent focus on youth development, education, and capacity building. 

Most recently as CEO of WWF-Singapore and a member of WWF’s Stakeholder Executive for 30 countries across the region, he led a passionate team of conservation and community engagement professionals who created and scaled innovative programs with measurable regional impact. In partnership with the Temasek Foundation, WWF-Singapore’s #WeGotThis youth sustainability incubator engaged over 20 million young people online across four editions, building the knowledge, confidence, and storytelling skills of youth leaders from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. 

During his tenure at WWF, Vivek led the team to build transformative partnerships with global corporations and government agencies to advance conservation and community development at scale. For example, the team developed a multi-year collaboration with Agoda (part of Booking Holdings) that mobilized $1.5 million in 2025 alone for conservation projects across 10 Asian markets and a Sustainable Tourism Impact Fund. The WWF-Singapore team also launched Blue Catalyst with Hatch Blue and the Singapore Economic Development Board - a first-of-its-kind open innovation challenge to unlock technological solutions for high-integrity blue carbon projects across Asia.

Prior to WWF, Vivek served as Assistant Director-General at the Singapore Labour Movement, expanding its membership at twice the rate of the country’s workforce growth, year after year. Together with colleagues across the Labor Movement, he introduced youth development and workforce readiness initiatives, including the Young Engineers Leadership (YEL) Programme in partnership with the Institution of Engineers Singapore, which equipped thousands of young engineers, each with over 100 hours of professional development in leadership skills and technology management. His team also collaborated with the UN Global Compact Network Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association to develop talent pipelines for the growing sustainability & fintech sectors. 

Through these engagements, he has witnessed firsthand how young innovators - from primary school students designing devices to reduce food waste to university students launching sustainability movements - can drive meaningful change regardless of age or resources.

Vivek works collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to create platforms for collective action. He launched the WWF Earth Summit as a global convening platform, bringing together over 700 policymakers, diplomats, climate scientists, business leaders, and academia every year to drive meaningful commitments for nature and climate. He also co-chaired the Southeast Asia Climate and Nature-based Solutions (SCeNe) Coalition, working with leaders from nine international NGOs to shape high-integrity carbon markets and nature-based solutions. 

This ability to mobilize diverse stakeholders is rooted in his extensive multi-sector leadership experience. As the Regional Head of Retail Brand & Customer Value Proposition at Shell Oil, he led a large team of marketing professionals across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Oman to manage top line responsibility for $6 billion in fuels, loyalty programs, co-branded credit cards with Citibank, and convenience retail. 

Vivek was credited with recruiting or developing internal talent into high-potential leaders for Shell. He was also voted by colleagues across the Singapore Labour Movement to win the coveted People Builder Award. 

Vivek has served as a Board Member of statutory & government-linked organisations, including Enterprise Singapore, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), NTUC Link, and Assurity Trusted Solutions (a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Government Technology Agency), contributing to national strategies in digital identity, trade, and public sector innovation. 

Vivek is an angel investor with TiE India Angels and currently serves as an Advisory Board Member of technology companies such as Heliware, a leading geospatial platform, and the Global South Leadership Institute (GloSLI). 

As a thought leader on sustainability, youth development, and systems change, Vivek's views are widely featured in The Economist, FinanceAsia, Channel NewsAsia, Business Times, The Edge, and The Peak. He serves as an Adjunct Professor and is honorary Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Advisory Board of the Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. An alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, he is recognized as a Lifelong Fellow of the Institute of Directors in India (F.IOD).

Vivek is passionate about empowering teams and young people to build a resilient, sustainable, and people-positive world, and believes deeply in the transformative power of education and entrepreneurship to unlock human potential across Asia Pacific.