What They’re Made Of: Secrets and Stories of Leaders on the Edge
A Series on Courageous Leadership presented by Harvard Business School Professor Ranjay Gulati

Piyush Gupta
CEO and Director, DBS Bank

Piyush Gupta has led a turnaround of DBS, which was named the “world’s best bank” by Euromoney in 2021 and is the largest Southeast Asian bank by assets. We will discuss the dramatic digital transformation of the bank, along with some of the tough choices Gupta has had to make during the pandemic.
Piyush Gupta Bio
Mr. Piyush Gupta has been Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group since 2009. Prior to joining DBS, Piyush had a 27 year career at Citigroup, where his last position was Chief Executive Officer for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, he is a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, Singapore’s Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data, and the McKinsey Advisory Council.
Summary and Recorded Talk
In my first interview, I sat down with Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, who discussed how the bank’s employees helped him find the soul of the company, informing its mission to become “the best bank for a better world.” Throughout the exchange, Gupta provides riveting insights into the challenges that will face DBS in the next decade, including defining the role of the company in society, the importance of using big data responsibly, and how to convince corporate boards and shareholders to focus on the long-term. Gupta explains how he repositioned DBS, a previously underperforming company, to a customer-obsessed technology-driven organization that was not only named “world’s best bank” but also make banking more “joyful” and equitable along the way.
For those of you who are interested, I have posted this hour-long conversation on my YouTube channel.

Mona Ataya
CEO and Founder, Mumzworld

Mona Ataya has built one of the most successful e-commerce companies in the Middle East by finding new ways to empower women. She explains how she’s been able to accomplish that in an industry — and a region — known for wide gender disparities.
Mona Ataya Bio
Summary and Recorded Talk
In the second installment of my series of CEO interviews, titled, “What They’re Made of: Secrets and Stories of Leaders on the Edge,” I sat down with Mona Ataya, Founder and CEO of Mumzworld, the first and largest online baby store in the Middle East. Ataya, who describes herself as an entrepreneur “at a cellular level,” explores why brands won’t survive without establishing their purpose and how Mumzworld’s ultimate mission is not only to serve its customers’ needs, but to empower women throughout the Middle East by becoming an indispensable extension of a mother’s life. Ataya also discusses the challenges she faced as a founder of a start-up, the importance of finding talent that aligns with your values, and how to inspire employees during tough times like the pandemic.
For those of you who are interested, I have posted this hour-long conversation on my YouTube channel.


Anand Mahindra Bio


David Velez Bio


Roz Brewer Bio


Simpiwe Tshabalala Bio


Dilhan Pillay Bio


Alan Jope Bio
Alan was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. As CEO of Unilever, Alan is responsible for leading one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse consumer goods businesses, with presence in 190 countries, serving 2.5 billion people every day. Alan is Chair of the Board of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited, Vice Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum, and Vice Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Executive Committee.


Ralph Mupita Bio
Ralph Mupita became CEO of MTN in August of 2020 after previously serving as its chief financial officer. MTN, founded in 1994 and based in Johannesburg, is one of the largest telecommunications providers in Africa and the Middle East. It has more than 280 million mobile subscribers in 20 countries, along with more than 45 million mobile money subscribers. Before joining MTN, Mupita worked for the financial company Old Mutual South Africa, rising to become chief executive of emerging markets there.

Mudassir Sheikh talks about the challenges and responsibilities that Careem faces as it continues its transformation into a “super app.” He also assesses Careem’s future now that Uber is an owner of the company rather than a competitor.

Mudassir Sheikha Bio
Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of Careem, which started out as a ride-sharing company and has expanded to deliver a range of services to customers in the Middle East. In January of 2020, Careem was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion. Before starting Careem, Sheikha was an associate partner for McKinsey & Co. A native of Pakistan, he has a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford and spent a decade after graduation working on start-ups in Silicon Valley.


Woods Staton Bio
Ranjay Gulati
Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration and the former Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Ranjay is an expert on leadership in turbulent times, having studied and written about the topic for the past twenty-five years. The former head of the organizational behavior unit at Harvard Business School, Gulati served for almost a decade as chair of the Advanced Management Program, HBS’s premier leadership development program. He has taught senior leaders around the world via a socratic, case-study method and interviewed over 150 CEOs in classroom settings.
His latest work, Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies (Harper Collins, February 2022) shows how companies can embed purpose much more deeply than they currently do, delivering impressive performance benefits that reward customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and communities alike. Deep Purpose has already been selected as among the top handful of Books to Read in 2022 by The Next Big Idea, curated by the likes of Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dan Pink.”
