Elaine Yew is a Senior Partner in Egon Zehnder. She joined the firm in 2000 and spent the first ten years in the London office developing the Private Equity Practice in Europe. She moved to Singapore to lead the office here as Managing Partner until 2016. She was also a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee for eight years. Elaine is currently Global Head for our Family Business and Family Office Practice. She is also the Asia lead of our Global Board Practice and a founding leader of our Global Leadership Advisory Practice. She serves private and public companies on succession planning for CEO, other C-level positions and Non-Executive positions and advises clients on CEO development, top team effectiveness, organizational culture and board effectiveness. Elaine is a trained Coach and Fellow of the Institute of Coaching, McLean, affiliated to the Harvard Medical School. She is also a certified Mediator and uses some of the principles in helping people work better together.
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Before joining the firm, Elaine helped to lead an industry change program while at Global Freight Exchange in London, the world's first Internet-based global marketplace for air cargo. Prior to that, she was Executive Director with Goldman Sachs in the European Equities Division, also based in London. Earlier, she was a Consultant with Monitor Company, working across Europe with clients in diverse sectors. She started her career with the Singapore Economic Development Board, where she was at the center of early regionalization work, helping Singapore companies develop their presence in Indochina and Myanmar in the early 1990s.
Elaine's first passion was the Theatre, and she has a BA with Honours in English and Drama from the University of Kent and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. English is her first language and she speaks French and Mandarin.
Elaine is an independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of SPH Media Holdings; and is also on the Board of MOH Holdings, the holding company of Singapore’s public healthcare clusters, and she chairs the MOH Holdings Human Resource Committee. She is on the independent Nominating Committees of BW Offshore, BW Energy, BW LPG, Hafnia and Cadeler AS, listed on the Norwegian Stock Exchange. She is a board member of the Singapore International Mediation Centre and is a Justice of the Peace. She also sits on the board of The Majurity Trust, a philanthropic foundation, and on the board of Wild Rice Ltd, a not-for-profit theatre company, and Capella Hotel Group, a privately-held luxury hotel owner and manager.
