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Leadership

Practitioners first.
Educators by conviction.

Meet our partners in leadership, transformation, technology and AI. Their full profiles and credentials are presented below.

Indonesia · Singapore

Partner & Lead Expert

Michael Romero Virga

SE Ak, MBA, CA Indonesia, CPA Indonesia, CPA Australia, CMA United States, CPMA, CACP, C-PM, C-KPI, C-BSC, C-SBP, C-OKR, CFM, FMVA, CBCA, MCE, MOS Expert

Michael is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of multifaceted experience across diverse industries, including Food & Beverage FMCG, Cement & Building Materials, Mining & Energy, Information & Communications Technology, and Education. His expertise spans leadership and managerial roles in Finance & Control, Project Management, Procurement, and Logistics, driving operational excellence and strategic value creation. He has previously held executive positions, including Director at a consulting firm with a global brand and General Manager (GM) at a mining company.

In addition to his corporate roles, Michael is a lecturer in the Master's Degree Program in Accounting at Universitas Indonesia (UI). A dedicated educator, he has more than 15 years of experience designing and delivering public and corporate in-house training programs. As an international trainer, he has conducted training and facilitated courses in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and countries in the Middle East.

Michael earned his Bachelor's Degree in Economics with a major in Accounting from Universitas Indonesia (UI) and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) with dual focus areas in Business Analytics (BA) and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) from Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), U.S. Recognized for his academic excellence, he was exclusively invited to join The International Business Honor Society of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) — two of the most prestigious honor societies for top business schools and graduate programs.

United States · Philippines

Partner & Technology Lead

Michael A. Makabali

MBA, M.S. Software Engineering, B.S. Computer Engineering, ServiceNow Certified (CSA, GRC, Application Developer, HR, Discovery), ITIL v3

Michael is a technology leader with more than three decades of experience spanning enterprise architecture, software engineering, and IT service management across the financial markets, insurance, technology, consulting, and public sectors. Since beginning his career in 1990, he has progressed from software quality assurance and development roles at Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Centerline into senior leadership positions delivering mission-critical systems at scale. At the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), the technology arm of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), he advanced from Developer to Lead Developer, Development Director, and ultimately Managing Director, leading major programs including data distribution systems, broker management, enterprise ITIL/ITSM adoption, operations, and organizational process improvement.

Michael's expertise deepened on Liberty Mutual's Enterprise Architecture team, where he drove server modernization, distributed server provisioning, and rapid web application development using Ruby on Rails, and modernized ITIL, CMDB, and asset management processes — alongside pioneering work in data warehousing, blockchain, and chatbot solutions. As a ServiceNow architect and implementation leader at Cask, he delivered solutions for multiple U.S. government agencies, including security-focused products for identity management and cyber vulnerability management. He later served as Vice President of the ServiceNow Practice at Accenture, overseeing a team that implemented ServiceNow for clients across industries while leading proposals and bids for new business. Today he is the founder and principal of Maka Consulting LLC, providing IT architecture and strategy consulting, and leads Equip Mantra's growth across the United States and the Philippines.

A dedicated educator as well as a practitioner, Michael serves as an Associate Professor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where he teaches information technology and programming. He earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, his Master of Science in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University, and his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Boston University. He holds ServiceNow certifications spanning System Administration (CSA), Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), Application Development, HR Service Delivery, and Discovery, along with ITIL v3 certification — combining deep technical mastery with the strategic and instructional experience to help organizations and professionals raise their capabilities worldwide.

India · Australia

Partner & Transformation Lead

Dr. Ishpinder Kailey

PhD, MBA, MEng, MSc (Hons), PMP®, PfMP®, RMP®, ACP®, DASSM®, DAVSC®, DAC®, CMQ/OE®, CSSBB®, FMVA®, CBCA™, FPWM™, CMSA™, ESG, Prosci® Certified

Ishpinder is a globally recognized transformation leader with over 20 years of experience driving strategic change, operational excellence, and sustainable innovation across multiple industries, including advanced manufacturing, energy, oil & gas, mining, clean tech, finance, education, agriculture, forestry, health, government, not-for-profit, and environmental sectors.

Renowned for her ability to bridge deep technical expertise with strategic business acumen, Ishpinder excels in Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Project Management Office (PMO), change management, enterprise risk, continuous improvement, and data-informed decision-making. Her leadership style emphasizes agility, collaboration, and high-impact execution, empowering organizations to scale, thrive, and unlock lasting value.

Ishpinder holds an MBA from the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with dual specializations in Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship. She also earned a Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from the University of Calgary and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Guru Nanak Dev University. Recognized by the Australian Government's Global Talent Program for exceptional international contributions in innovation and transformation, and honored by Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS), the prestigious international business honor society, for being the best in business. She is also an accomplished mentor and international trainer who has designed and delivered high-impact programs across Canada, Australia, India, and the United States.

India

Partner — Project & Program Management

Kailash D. Upadhyay

PfMP, PgMP, PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, MCP (EPM), MCT, IIBA-CBAP, ITIL

Kailash brings more than 20 years of professional experience with global and Indian multinationals, and is one of the most prolific project management trainers in the region. PMP certified since 2007, he holds an exceptional breadth of credentials — including Portfolio (PfMP) and Program (PgMP) Management Professional, Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP), IIBA-CBAP, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for MS Project and Enterprise Project Management — and is Train-the-Trainer (T3) certified by Dale Carnegie.

As a trainer, Kailash has more than 14 years of project management experience and has personally trained over 10,000 aspirants. He has delivered more than 30 PMI-ACP batches, over 100 PgMP batches, more than 75 PfMP batches, over 35 CBAP corporate and open workshops, and more than 20 PMI-RMP batches — consistently with outstanding results — alongside extensive MS Project training both in the classroom and online.

His consulting work includes EPMO (Enterprise Project Management Office) implementation for pharmaceutical clients, Agile project management consulting for financial-domain organizations, business analysis engagements for leading global publishing houses, and risk management consultancy for banking and telecom clients. Kailash holds a Master of Business Administration in Systems from the Institute of Technology and Management (ITM), Mumbai, India.

Australia

Partner — AI & Emerging Technology

Omila Herath

AI Enablement & Training Specialist, Monash University · AI & Machine Learning Lead, Monash DeepNeuron

Omila is an AI practitioner and educator specialising in translating cutting-edge AI tools into practical, hands-on skills for real-world teams. As an AI Enablement and Training Specialist at Monash University, he designs and delivers training that takes staff and students from AI-curious to AI-capable.

He serves as the AI and Machine Learning Lead for Monash DeepNeuron, the University's Engineering Team specialising in AI/ML, and has run public webinars on AI-assisted workflows.

His work has been recognised with first-place wins at MedHack and the Cognizant x AMF1 hackathons, reflecting a track record of building and shipping under pressure. Omila brings a native fluency in the tools reshaping how organisations work, and a talent for making them click for people at every level of technical skill.

Australia

Partner & AI Adoption Lead

Dr Sophie Fenton

PhD (Monash University) · Founder, HumanLed AI · Creator of Human-centred Learning (HcL) · ASG NEiTA Australian Teacher of the Year (2013) · Monash Distinguished Alumni (2016)

Sophie works on the human side of AI adoption. Across more than twenty years, she has led organisational development, change management, learning strategy and capability design in corporations, schools and universities. She now runs HumanLed AI, a consultancy built on one idea: human agency belongs at the centre of AI-enabled work. She is also Chief Innovation and Research Officer and a Founding Partner at Purple Spark Advisory, where she leads behavioural intelligence, psychometrics and the development of AI-enabled leadership tools. Her organising concept is the superhuman workplace, meaning a workplace that uses AI to extend what people can do while protecting judgement, agency, trust and human connection. She prepares people to lead, work, decide and teach in environments AI is changing.

Through HumanLed AI, she delivers three learning pathways: leading in a superhuman workplace, for boards, executives and managers; working in a superhuman workplace, for employees and cross-functional teams; and leading, working and teaching in a superhuman school or university. Two themes run through all of them. The first is human capability: covering judgement, critical thinking, ethical decision-making, creativity, collaboration, adaptability and accountability. The second is human-centred AI governance: decision rights, clear boundaries between human and AI responsibility, and policies that arrive with protocols people can actually follow. Her diagnostic work reads organisational readiness and behaviour before a program is designed. She runs delivery using agile methods, working in short cycles with real teams so the design is tested and corrected before it scales. Clients move through four stages: understand, shape, deliver, then apply and embed.

Sophie's practice sits on academic and system leadership. She holds a PhD in human-centred design for an AI world from Monash University, where she developed and validated Human-centred Learning (HcL) through Design-Based Implementation Research. As Associate Dean of the Urban School in RMIT University's School of Education, Sophie led academic operations and curriculum innovation, directing the Urban School program to be validated in the top 5 of the national Review into Vocational and Applied Learning Pathways. She cofounded an innovative school that was recognised in the top 100 schools in its second year of operation. Sophie began her teaching career at Australian Catholic University, lecturing in initial teacher education, and her wider education leadership spans school and system roles. She was named ASG NEiTA Australian Teacher of the Year in 2013 and a Monash Distinguished Alumni in 2016. She works with corporate, university and school clients in Australia and internationally.

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Practitioners first.Educators by conviction.