“Growing up in the US, I was one of only two Chinese students in my school. Later, working for the US Air Force in a male-dominated environment, I experienced firsthand the impact of being ‘different’. That journey shaped my belief in fairness, belonging, and the responsibility we each carry in shaping the cultures we are part of. It also taught me that our future is not defined by circumstance, but by the choices we make.”
Cynthia Chan is the Managing Director of Catalyse Consulting, where she leads the business with responsibility for strategy, growth, partnerships, and the quality of its advisory, training and coaching work. She brings three decades of experience spanning business leadership, organisational culture and the transformation of workplaces, beginning her career in the United States before building much of her executive career across Asia.
Cynthia began her career in workplace design and strategy, studying how organisational culture, human behaviour and the physical environment influence the way people work. That foundation stayed with her as her career moved from shaping workplaces to leading the businesses within them.
Over the following decades, Cynthia rose to senior regional leadership roles including Chief Representative and Regional Managing Director for international firms. She led large, multi-country operations with responsibility for business growth, P&L performance and substantial teams across Greater China, North Asia, Southeast Asia and India. Operating across diverse cultures and highly competitive markets, she was responsible not only for commercial results, but for building businesses, developing leadership teams and navigating the complex people dynamics that come with growth, change and organisational pressure.
Today, Cynthia brings that experience to Catalyse, helping organisations and leaders build fairer, healthier and more effective workplace cultures. Her perspective on workplace fairness extends beyond policy and compliance to what happens when principles meet practice: how power is exercised, how people respond when boundaries are crossed, and how leaders create cultures in which dignity, accountability and performance can coexist.
Alongside her executive role, Cynthia works directly with senior leaders through organisational coaching, particularly where the work requires deeper reflection on behaviour, impact and accountability. Her experience led to a growing interest in why insight and good intentions alone do not always create lasting behavioural change.
Cynthia holds a Master of Counselling from Monash University and an IECL Certification in Organisational Coaching. Drawing on counselling and psychotherapy-informed skills alongside decades of executive experience, she works with leaders to explore the beliefs, patterns and interpersonal dynamics that can sit beneath behaviour, supporting deeper reflection and more sustained change.
Her work today brings together business, leadership, workplace culture and human behaviour, helping leaders and organisations translate the principles of fair and healthy workplaces into meaningful change in practice.