Alex Nicolaus has worked at some of the fastest-growing startups in one of the most dynamic regions of the world. His experience in these hypergrowth businesses, together with the leadership lessons he learned in corporates beforehand (Accenture, Jaguar Land Rover, Barclays, Willis, and Korn Ferry), have given him a fascination with the power of culture. He has experienced first-hand how building a strong culture can give any startup an enormous competitive advantage, and he is a regular speaker on how culture can make or break growing organisations.

Alex was a People and Culture Leader at Circles.Life, one of Singapore's fastest-growing tech startups. He helped the business attract and keep its talent, build high-performing teams, and develop leadership capacity, while creating and protecting a culture that helped the company to thrive through hypergrowth and expansion. Before Circles.Life, Alex was Head of Talent at Grab Financial Group, South East Asia's leading tech company. Alex worked to discover, attract, and develop the best global talent to help Grab to pioneer the development of new technologies that would deepen financial inclusion and increase access to mobile payments across Asia.

Born in Germany, brought up in France, and having worked in the UK, France, China, and Singapore, Alex is no stranger to living outside his comfort zone. This is an approach he puts to use in his embracing of risk in all areas of his life, including his dedication to ultra-marathon running.