About

15 YEARS | 10+ COUNTRIES | 30+ PARTNERS | 30,000+ STUDENTS

We help you accelerate your people and culture into industry 4.0 by transforming managers into leadapreneurs. Leadapreneurs are agile digital innovators who can rapidly deliver solutions that grow the business in VUCA realities. If you’re looking to develop hundreds of leadapreneurs & build an innovation ecosystem that can produce digital innovation at scale, then we can help you.

We are certified by the ‘Institute of Leadership & Management’ based in London, and we are the creators of the world’s largest online leadership course with 30,000+ students.

Leadapreneur Sdn. Bhd.
1086234-K
Suite 8.01, Level 8, Menara IGB,
Mid Valley City 59200, Kuala Lumpur

Jess@Leadapreneur.com
+60 (0)17 230 4809

MEET THE TEAM

The cofounders, Jessica Macias and Jan Bartscht, have ten years of global experience building leadership and innovation capabilities in global and local companies, education institutions, NGOs and government entities across Europe and Asia at the graduate, middle and senior management level. Together, Jessica and Jan have built their own programmes based on their research into complexity science resulting in the development of tens of thousands of students in the USA, UK, France, Bulgaria, Brazil, Turkey, Pakistan, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. Their programs are certified by the London based Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and have been delivered to Fortune 500s, SMEs, NGOs, and Education Institutions. They are the creators of the world’s largest leadership online course with 30,000+ participants. They have published cutting-edge research in respected, peer-reviewed journals, and have spoken at numerous international conferences, TEDx events, Forums and Business Schools.

"Innovate or die"

Jan Bartscht, MSc & BA

CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, INNOVATION & FUTURIST

Described as "a bold and visionary disruptor", Jan has built a compelling vision that clearly describes how organisations can shift from traditional management thinking to the advanced leading agile innovation methodology.

Grounded in rigorous science, Jan’s passion and area of expertise is in systems thinking, making complex and advanced leadership, management and entrepreneurship theory practical and useful. Jan has published his own research in peer-reviewed papers such as Why systems must be open to Survive in a VUCA World (2015) and The Cybernetics of Authenticity and is one of the first people in the world to have earned an MSc in Systems Science. He has created and delivered high-standard competitions including The Leadership Tournament at Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and LSE, The 1,000 Global Leaders Programme with Coca-Cola, Smart AXIATA and RMA Group as well as MBA-level programmes such as the Corporate Innovation Accelerator in Malaysia. He has trained and coached junior, middle and senior managers at top corporations such as GSK, ANZ Royal Bank and Unilever. He has spoken at TEDx, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Lean In Malaysia Summit and other global platforms and been engaged as an adjunct lecturer for social entrepreneurship at INTI and Puthisastra Universities.

Jan is also an avid fitness enthusiast, rugby player, kite-surfer and an IRONMAN triathlete.

Ms Jessica Macias, Mba & Bsc

CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, ENTREPRENEURSHIP & WOMEN IN BUSINESS

#Jessica has co-founded 3 successful organisations in London, Cambodia and Malaysia. These businesses were started from scratch, became profitable within 20 months, resulting in the development of tens of thousands of individuals around the world.

Over the decade, Jessica has acquired a unique international experience across 4 continents. She has consulted with a wide range of international clients from local Government entities in rural China to rapidly growing start-ups in New York. She managed the world’s largest leadership congress in Brazil, and has chaired and moderated international conferences of up to 1,000 delegates in Singapore, Islamabad, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and New York, focused on the sphere of entrepreneurship, innovation and women in business. Jessica is also a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner.

Jessica is passionate about advancing women’s leadership. She is the Development Director at Lean In Malaysia and has championed the Lean In Career Programme which empowers women to accelerate their careers. She helps companies to identify and block unconscious gender bias and is an advocate on gender pay gap (watch her TEDx talk). As a One Girl International Ambassador, she helps raise awareness by leading campaigns that raise funds to send girls back to school. She is an avid fitness enthusiast, and in her free time she trains for trail races and IRONMAN triathlons.

Educated in Switzerland and Spain, she then earned a BSc. with Honours in Economics and Politics at the University of Southampton, UK, followed by an MBA at Thunderbird School of Global Management, “the world’s #1 B-School in International Business” (FT, 2013) in the US.

“You are defined by the challenge you set yourself; the greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity to grow”

HEAD OF SALES

MS MARY LOPEZ, CPT & MSC

A marketing and business development professional and a certified Professional Trainer (CPT) with over 30 years of work experience, Mary is highly competent in enhancing marketing strategies, managing corporate projects and brilliantly improving PR and sales to generate leads that grow businesses.

With a Master’s degree in Technology Management from Griffith University, Australia, Mary has applied her knowledge and skills in Marketing and Business Development in myriad industries both in the private sector and government. As the Science & Technology / Country Representative for a Canadian government funded agency for more than 10 years she promoted technologies and engaged with Malaysian government and private sector stakeholders to identify needs and match solutions in the fields of Women in Development, Education, and Science & Technology. Using her unique networking and PR skills, she then took the role of Business Development Consultant for an IT start-up, helping to promote the company and identify business opportunities especially with MNCs seeking systems integration solutions. For almost a decade, she was the Membership Manager with the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce & Industry and was instrumental in making the Chamber a force to be reckoned with.

She spends her free time volunteering for causes close to her heart especially issues related to the environment and women in need.

KHOO SIM CHOO, ICF

Khoo Sim Choo is an International Coach Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach. Over the last 30 years, Sim Choo has acquired a wealth of experience across different corporations including IBM, Texas Instruments and British
American Tobacco where she was consistently recognized for her professional drive, tenacity and strategic perspective, especially when engaging at the C-suite level.

As an Executive Coach and passionate mentor, Sim Choo has led change and transformation projects for her clients. For example, she led the strategic transformation for clients in the airline and banking industries by coaching the staff through transition to embrace a 'growth mindset'. Her powerful skill lies in helping individuals reflect deeply, gain new insights and create bright solutions through the power of coaching. As a Leadapreneur Innovation Coach, she's been recognised for empowering and stimulating over 100 managers at Citibank, Eco World and United Overseas Bank towards turbocharging real, tangible innovation that grows business forward.

Sim Choo currently performs assessments for a ICF Accredited Coach certification program, and also serves as an International Consultant Coach of MoovOne. She is part of a thriving global community looking into subject matter content around Narrative Coaching and Coaching Supervision, whilst conducting supervision of coaches from Amsterdam, US and Hong Kong among others. Sim Choo is a Conversational Intelligence® practitioner and a Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Certified Coach. She is accredited in DISC personality profiling, She serves on the ICF Malaysia Board (2016-2018). She has a Master’s in Engineering Science from University Malaya.

INNOVATION COACH

Being In the Moment | Inspired to Inspire!

HEAD OF PROJECTS

Elaine Leaw, PMP & BE

A firm believer of Kaizen, Elaine is always on the lookout to improve processes and optimize growth. With over 17 years of corporate experience, she has been constantly involved in improvement initiatives. Amongst her notable efforts were championing of work-life balance for her team, inspiring her team to deliver beyond the call of duty and developing a solution for KPI measurement and analytics, which was adopted as the benchmark for global testing teams.

Her willingness to help others saw her taking on coaching and training roles within her team as well as across teams.

One of her success stories is improving her team’s performance by 20% within 4 months through comprehensive review and improvement of processes, competencies gap analysis, skills development training and mentoring team members.

Elaine’s resourcefulness and tenacity in solving problems and delivering results were recognized by her management team, who trusted her with highly complex global projects to lead. She is very adept in dealing with people from diverse cultures and managing high pressure environments.

NUR AZRE ABDUL AZIZ, BA

Nur Azre is an aspiring serial entrepreneur who cares for the youth and has always been driven by a purpose to succeed in creating change that is dynamic and sustainable.

She came from a public high school where there’s a huge wall of separation for the access of quality learning, hence, she is inspired to engage and transform the dimension of the education system through individualization and technology. She is very passionate about innovation and is highly tenacious and resilient in building her startups. After joining Leadapreneur’s Accelerator at INTI International University, she founded her first merchandising company and was able to gain big clients like EMKAY Land, UM Land and Bank Rakyat in just 6 months time when she was still an undergraduate of 21 years old. She currently now focuses on education technology -- her current startup, Note-Ster (incorporated in Tennessee, USA) received seed funding from a few chambers, was accepted into Malaysian Global Innovation Centre for Creativity Go-to-Market program and is certified by Stanford Graduate Business School Design Thinking Program. Powered by her incredible enthusiasm in entrepreneurship, she has been invited to mentor Startup Weekend at Google and deliver keynote speeches at local universities like University Malaya, UITM and Unitar among others as well as moderate international student conferences.

Azre aspires to be the catalyst in breaking barriers for students from different socio-economic status to reach their maximum potentials and believes that great journeys and stories are worth sharing. With Leadapreneur, she continues to grow by curating and sharing powerful Leadapreneur journey stories like hers.

HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY

Azre aspires to be the catalyst in breaking barriers for students from different socio-economic status to reach their maximum potentials and believes that great journeys and stories are worth sharing. With Leadapreneur, she continues to grow by curating and sharing powerful Leadapreneur journey stories like hers.

HEAD OF STORIES

"Don't wait for 'someone' to do something about the world's problems. Be that someone!"

SHAMMA ESOOF, BA

With a mosaic of skills and interests, Shamma mission in life is to build bridges between people in creative ways. She is a communicator, humanitarian, educator, activist and photographer. Her vision for the world is for people to nurture tolerance and understanding towards each other and towards the environment. She has been a successful fine art photographer for a decade. Passionate about photography and writing, Shamma hopes to craft engaging, impactful and moving stories.

Her work has been widely published in local international media such as BBC Nature, The Sun Magazine, FStoppers Magazine, The Star Newspaper and many others. Among her many awards is a prestigious Smithsonian Photography Award. Her aim as an educator is to use creative and innovative ways to engage people in conversation. In her humanitarian work, Shamma seeks to contribute to the highest level of health and well-being to the global population. As an educator, she believes in the power of learning smart versus studying hard. Her main areas of concern is social justice, women's empowerment and animal welfare.

Shamma has called Malaysia her home for the past 12 years. She holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication.