14 Charity CEOs Worth Knowing Across Asia Pacific

Last updated 8 August 2026.

Charity CEOs across Asia Pacific lead organisations that work where public need, community trust and practical delivery meet. Their work includes disaster response, education, conservation, child wellbeing, housing, poverty reduction and human rights.

This recognition directory brings together 14 current leaders whose organisations confirm their roles. It is not a ranking. Each person is included because their work gives leaders a useful way to think about purpose, scale, partnership and service.

Why these charity CEOs are worth knowing

The strongest charity leadership is rarely only about a good idea. It is about turning a clear mission into trusted systems, useful partnerships and consistent decisions when the conditions keep changing.

The people below work in different countries and causes, but they share a practical challenge: make an organisation easier for communities to trust and easier for staff and partners to act through.

1. Asif Saleh

Executive Director, BRAC

Asif Saleh is the Executive Director of BRAC, one of the region's most influential development organisations. The role places him close to a large operating system that spans education, health, financial inclusion and livelihoods across Bangladesh and beyond.

A useful detail is the scale recorded in BRAC's 2025 annual report: about 26 million people in Bangladesh received services. That makes Saleh's work a practical case study in keeping purpose, reach and day-to-day execution connected.

2. Laurel Miller

President and CEO, The Asia Foundation

Laurel Miller is President and CEO of The Asia Foundation. Her work sits at the intersection of country partnerships, policy and practical development, with the organisation working across Asia on issues that affect institutions, communities and opportunity.

A 2026 meeting with the ASEAN Secretary-General is a useful window into that brief. It covered the digital economy, cybersecurity, energy resilience and youth leadership, showing how a modern charity leader must connect social purpose with changing regional systems.

3. Benjamin William

Secretary General and CEO, Singapore Red Cross

Benjamin William is the Secretary General and CEO of the Singapore Red Cross. He leads a national humanitarian organisation whose work includes emergency response, community care, blood donation support and international relief.

One distinctive signal is the organisation's recognition in the Charity Transparency Awards in both 2023 and 2024. For leaders in public-serving organisations, that combination of urgent response and visible stewardship is worth paying attention to.

4. Eleanor Lam

CEO and Secretary General, Hong Kong Red Cross

Eleanor Lam is the CEO and Secretary General of the Hong Kong Red Cross. She joined the organisation in 1998 and has held senior operational roles across humanitarian work, giving her a long view of how a charity earns trust over time.

Her experience includes leading the Sichuan earthquake relief operation and overseas missions. That background links executive responsibility with the practical realities of responding well when needs are immediate, complex and highly visible.

5. Herbert Carpio

National Director, World Vision Philippines

Herbert Carpio is the National Director of World Vision Philippines. His brief combines national leadership with the work of a child-focused organisation that operates through programmes, partnerships and local communities.

Carpio is also a founding member of the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians. That public-health foundation gives his charity leadership a distinctive link between child wellbeing, community systems and the professional disciplines that support long-term change.

6. Chew Sutat

Chief Executive Officer, WWF-Singapore

Chew Sutat is the Chief Executive Officer of WWF-Singapore. He brings more than two decades of corporate and financial experience to a conservation organisation working through public engagement, partnerships and action on environmental challenges.

A distinctive part of his background is his former role as chairman of Community Chest. WWF-Singapore also marked its 20th anniversary in 2026, making this a useful example of how a charity leader can carry trust and partnership experience into a changing mission.

7. Shaheen Mistri

Founder and CEO, Teach For India

Shaheen Mistri is the Founder and CEO of Teach For India. The organisation works to strengthen educational opportunity through a fellowship model, alumni community and wider movement for educational equity.

Mistri also founded the Akanksha Foundation. That two-organisation journey makes her relevant to leaders thinking about how an idea becomes a durable institution, and how a founder keeps the original purpose visible while the operating model grows.

8. Runa Khan

Founder and Executive Director, Friendship Bangladesh

Runa Khan is the Founder and Executive Director of Friendship Bangladesh. The organisation works with communities facing poverty, climate pressure and limited access to services in some of the country's hardest-to-reach areas.

Friendship began with one floating hospital and now says it has impacted more than 7.5 million people. That story gives Khan's leadership a clear lesson in designing services around the geography and lived reality of the people they are meant to reach.

9. Andrew Colvin

Chief Executive Officer, Australian Red Cross

Andrew Colvin AO APM is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Red Cross. His role covers a national humanitarian organisation supporting people through disasters, emergencies, migration and community services.

Before joining Australian Red Cross, Colvin led the National Bushfire Recovery Agency following the Black Summer fires. That experience makes his work relevant to leaders who need to coordinate recovery, public trust and practical support across many partners.

10. Doug Taylor

Chief Executive Officer, The Smith Family

Doug Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer of The Smith Family, a national charity focused on helping young people overcome educational disadvantage. The organisation works through community programmes, partnerships and support that extends beyond a single moment of crisis.

Taylor has a 30-year social-sector career and has led The Smith Family since August 2021. The charity's shift from emergency relief towards education work shows how leaders can protect a founding purpose while responding to the deeper causes of disadvantage.

11. Mat Tinkler

Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children Australia

Mat Tinkler is the Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Australia. His work combines public advocacy for children with the leadership of international and domestic programmes that respond to poverty, disaster and unequal access to opportunity.

Tinkler became CEO in June 2022 and has visited teams in Fiji and Australia as part of the role. That field connection is a useful reminder that large charity leadership still depends on listening closely to the people closest to the work.

12. Sharon Callister

Chief Executive Officer, Mission Australia

Sharon Callister is the Chief Executive Officer of Mission Australia. The organisation works across homelessness, housing, employment, education and community services, so the role requires a close connection between strategy, frontline delivery and public accountability.

Mission Australia's 2025 annual report recorded 141,552 people supported, 494 community services and 4,876 social and affordable homes. Those figures make the scale of Callister's operating brief easier to see without reducing the work to numbers alone.

13. Jennifer Tierney

Chief Executive Officer, Oxfam Australia

Jennifer Tierney is the Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam Australia. She leads an organisation working on inequality, humanitarian response, climate justice and long-term partnerships with communities and movements across the region.

Tierney brought more than 20 years in the international humanitarian sector to the role and previously led MSF Australia. That experience gives her leadership a distinctive connection to emergency response, advocacy and the systems that shape vulnerability.

14. Susan Glasgow

Chief Executive, UNICEF Aotearoa New Zealand

Susan Glasgow is the Chief Executive of UNICEF Aotearoa New Zealand. Her role connects public fundraising, child rights advocacy and the practical work of supporting children through a large international movement.

Glasgow became Chief Executive in March 2026 after leading Variety and directing a 20 million dollar University of Auckland endowment campaign. That mix of charity leadership and institution-building is useful for leaders balancing immediate needs with long-term funding.

Patterns across the list

First, scale only matters when it stays connected to the people a charity exists to serve. BRAC, Mission Australia and Friendship show different ways of holding reach and human detail together.

Second, many of these leaders carry experience across sectors. Humanitarian response, public health, education, finance, conservation and community services all bring useful habits to the executive role.

Third, trust is built through visible stewardship. Transparent reporting, long-term partnerships and a willingness to stay close to frontline work are not side tasks. They are part of the leadership job.

How to use this directory

Use the list as a starting point for better questions. Notice how each organisation defines its work, where it operates, which partnerships it relies on and what evidence it shares about progress.

If you lead a charity or social-impact organisation, choose one pattern that fits your context. Then ask your team what would make that pattern more visible in the next month of work.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a ranking?

No. It is a recognition directory, not a ranking or a judgement of who is the best leader.

What does this directory cover?

This directory focuses on charity and social-impact CEOs whose current roles sit with their own organisations, across Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Conclusion

Charity CEOs do some of the most demanding leadership work in the region. They carry purpose into budgets, partnerships, services and decisions that affect people who may have very little room for error.

The useful lesson is practical: make the mission clear, stay close to the people affected by the work and build systems that help good judgement travel through the organisation.

Related reading

If you want to go deeper on the themes above, see this related thinking on nonprofit thought leadership, on choosing a nonprofit leadership retreat facilitator, and on the Working Genius implementation guide for turning a team's strengths into clearer delivery.

A practical next step

If you want help turning leadership ideas into a clear plan your team can use, email jonno@consultclarity.org with the context. I will reply in writing with a practical next step.

About Jonno White

Jonno White helps leaders build organisations people would move cities to work at. His work is practical rather than motivational: something people can use on Monday morning, not a feeling that fades by Friday.