About Us
MARIA CHOW SIU-LAN
FOUNDER / EXECUTIVE COACH
B. SOC SC (HONS), MBA
Maria is a professional in the field of leadership development & organisational development. The last twelve of her 25 years of working experience in HRM and Training & Development have been regional and multi-cultural. Having lived and worked extensively in China/Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, Maria assists multinationals with leadership development across borders. Her passion is to advance leadership in Asia.
Prior to setting up Spark Asia Leadership Practice, Maria was Custom Solutions Director/Faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. CCL is consistently ranked by the Financial Times (FT) as the Top 10 executive education providers worldwide. Her clients include mostly Fortune 500 companies, industry leaders and non-profit/educational institutes. She has helped clients develop teams across cultures, manage innovation & change and nurture women leadership. She has facilitated the Center’s flagship open-enrolment programmes – LDP (Leadership Development Program) and Women LDP. She has also designed and delivered the Center’s first programme in Chinese.
Maria joined CCL from a French tyre manufacturer, where she was the first director of training & development for the Asia-Pacific Operations. During her tenure of 6 years there, she developed her team of training managers (from China, Japan to Australia and many more countries in between) and equipped them with skills to function as strategic partners to the business units at the country level. She was also actively involved in the selection and development of high-potential managers across the region, notably in China and Thailand. Her focuses include leadership development, talent management and such OD initiatives as post-merger & acquisition integration.
Capitalising on her first-hand knowledge of leadership needs/issues in Asia and drawing from her own success with careers in American and European corporations, Maria is skilled in designing and delivering training & development solutions that help shape leadership of our businesses today. Her consulting experience with KMPG Peat Marwick, her lecturing experience in various universities and the industrial relations role that she played in the Hong Kong and Singapore Governments (during the early years of her career), all serve to facilitate her connections with people, industries and businesses. Her perspective is therefore broad and her experiences are expansive.
Maria also shares her experiences with business leaders through coaching, a service that she delivers regionally, in various languages and dialects. She speaks English, Chinese, French, Japanese and a few Chinese dialects including Cantonese and Shanghainese.
Spark Asia serves clients with regional needs through a network of experienced associates based in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Thailand and more locations.
Maria lives in Singapore with her husband and two teenage children.