Commercial and operational leadership across Asia, Europe, and the US. Twenty-five years building and scaling organisations, leading cross-functional teams, and taking strategy through to execution.
I've spent 25 years building and running commercial and operating organisations across Asia, Europe, and the US. The last five have been about one question. Why do most organisations adopt AI like they are buying stationery, then act surprised when nothing compounds?
I built EDGE to answer that question for the teams I lead, and to give boards a working language for AI capability that does not collapse the first time someone asks "but what did it actually do?". I'm SVP Commercial Operations and Governance at SQREEM Technologies, where I sourced and led the TotallyAwesome integration in 2024. I also publish AIinASIA.com (25,000 readers, no paid distribution) and built PromptAndGo.ai. These all sit under democratising.ai, a wider effort to make AI accessible and practical across every market I work in.
I'm always glad to talk with people building at the intersection of product, AI, and operations, whether that's a specific problem, a partnership, or just comparing notes on what is actually working.
Three named engagements where the public record speaks for itself. The longer list, with anonymised cases, sits on the work page.
I sourced the target, helped broker the deal, and led the go-to-market and operational integration. Two commercial stacks became one, with governance controls in place from day one. The internal lessons sit in the EDGE Govern pillar.
I founded and publish AIinASIA, an editorial brief on how artificial intelligence is actually being adopted across Asia-Pacific, and I have since extended the format into AIinArabia and AIinEurope. Around 25,000 readers a month on AIinASIA alone, zero paid distribution, written for operators rather than tourists.
Advisor on growth, transformation, and AI adoption for BlackStorm's Asia-Pacific portfolio of founders and scale-ups. Workshops, board prep, and the harder conversations about which AI initiatives to stop.
Four things that show up in most of the work, whatever the room is.
I do not stop at the slide deck. I have sourced deals, integrated teams, and shipped products, then owned the P&L that followed.
Product, commercial, and governance under one roof. I build teams that ship without a translator sitting between strategy and delivery.
Twenty-five years turning AI and data capability into something a board can actually read, not a slide that collapses under one question.
Non-executive and start up advisory roles that complement the day job, not compete with it. A handful of relationships a year, geography-open, selected in both directions.
A practical structure for applied intelligence. Four pillars. Used by founders, operators, and boards.
Artificial intelligence is widely accessible.
Structured capability is not.
Where you actually are. Capability, exposure, and the gap between what your AI tools do and what your teams say they do.
What "good" looks like for your organisation. The specific outcomes AI is allowed to chase, and the ones it is not.
The decisions, controls, and review cadence that turn AI activity into AI capability. Board-legible. Not theatre.
What changes about your people, your operating model, and your competitive position when the first three are in place.
Tools and diagnostic live on democratising.ai. Built on the EDGE Framework.
What I am working on this quarter. Updated monthly. Borrowed from Derek Sivers.
Q3 2026. SDG Open Hack 2026 NP Edition mentorship is underway. Moderating Ortus Club executive roundtables on a rolling basis. Standing panellist work continues across business strategy, operational implementation, and AI. Reading: Rory Sutherland for fun, and the EU AI Act to work out its global impact.
Leading commercial operations and governance day to day at SQREEM Technologies. Building out the AIinASIA family: AIinASIA.com, AIinArabia, and AIinEurope. Spending real time this quarter on what comes next.
Last updated 25 August 2026.
Five places to go deeper.
A 200-500 word frame on what I noticed this week. Operators, governance, Asia, Europe, and the US. Cross-posted to LinkedIn, archived here.
Read the archiveFive books a quarter, one line each. The Patrick Collison move. Current: Levinson, Slouka, Tett, McGilchrist, Sutherland.
Read the listThe canonical executive writing. LinkedIn Pulse essays archived here, plus AIinASIA cross-posts that earn a longer read.
Read the essaysWhat I am working on this quarter. Updated monthly. Borrowed from Derek Sivers and the nownownow.com convention.
See what is currentRecent and upcoming keynotes, panels, and moderation. Selected engagements across Asia-Pacific and beyond.
See the calendarA longer conversation on the craft behind the work.
Ortus Club sat down with Adrian on the craft of executive moderation: preparation, reading the room, and giving the quietest person at the table a way in.
"My job is not to be the smartest person in the room. It is to make sure the table's intelligence is evenly distributed, and that everybody who wants to have a say has a say."
Selected engagements. Full calendar on the speaking page.
Mentor on the Ngee Ann Polytechnic edition of SDG Open Hack 2026. Running across the hack window and beyond.
Mentor. Coaching and discussion sessions across the NTU Campus edition. Feedback and guidance to help student teams strengthen their solution and business pitches, working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Panel with Victor Chan, Mark Gaynor and Paddy Tan, moderated by Darius Chang. My seat: moving AI initiatives out of scattered pilots and into disciplined, embedded decision-making.
Guest of Taipei City Government. Opened the event with "Democratising Intelligence for a Sustainable Future" and moderated the startup panel. Post-event reflection on LinkedIn Pulse.
Whether it is product, AI, or where this all goes next, I would rather have a real conversation than a cold pitch.
I typically respond within two business days. Singapore-based, available across Asia-Pacific time zones.