Educator Bio: Hari Nair

Hari Nair is an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University and a leading practitioner of innovation and corporate transformation. He has more than 25 years of operational experience applying innovation approaches across multiple sectors and markets.

His most recent role was Group Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer for Sime Darby, a $13 Billion USD conglomerate and diversified multinational, with businesses in key growth sectors namely, plantations, industrial equipment, motors, property and energy & utilities with operations in more than 20 countries.

Hari led the Group’s Strategy, Innovation, M&A, and Corporate Finance teams and created Sime Darby’s long term value creation agenda. The strategy and transformation culminated in the creation of 3 standalone pure play listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange in late 2017 (the largest demerger in Malaysian corporate history) and created a $6 Billion USD increase enterprise value which has been sustained.

Prior to joining Sime Darby, Hari served as the Global Managing Director for Kimberly Clark’s Global Innovation Center (GIC) based in Seoul, South Korea. In this role, Hari had all site-wide responsibilities for the GIC, including the leadership of several global programs. During his tenure, Hari established a multidisciplinary global innovation center that is helping in fuelling KC’s innovation pipeline.

From 2006-2012, Hari was Partner and VP at Innosight, a firm founded by Clayton Christensen, the leading authority on disruptive innovation, collaborating with companies to devise growth strategies, building innovation capabilities, and creating products and services that improve people’s lives. Hari is a thought leader and expert in applying various innovation and new business models in emerging markets having advised several Fortune 500 companies.

Hari began his career with Procter & Gamble, where he spent 14 years, serving various senior leadership roles in US and China. Hari also serves as a faculty member for strategy & innovation for Duke Corporate Education, Carlson School of Management and Tuck School of Business Executive Education programs. Hari is Chairman Emeritus of the Edison Awards and serves on several boards including, the Chairman of the Global Procter & Gamble Alumni Foundation.