The Future of Farming, Tech and Sustainability: Olam’s Journey

How does one transform a company from millions to billions? In this episode of TiE Talks, we chat with Suresh Sundararajan from Olam International, who has been with the company since 1996, witnessing its growth from a $50 million business to a $50 billion giant. We delve into his background in finance, his role in making Olam public, and his leadership in the company’s digital transformation since 2017. Suresh shares his insights on the importance of digital innovation for sustainability and talent acquisition.

Discussion Points: The Future of Farming, Tech and Sustainability

• Beginning of the journey
• Scaling from a $50 million to a $50 billion business
• Attracting the right talent for digital transformation
• How digital transformation drives sustainability at OLAM
• Exciting technology trends to watch
• Advancing Olam’s ESG goals with technology
• Advice for ESG professionals

Our Guest: Suresh Sundararajan

Suresh is Olam’s Chief Digital Officer, a member of Olam International and Olam Global Agri’s Executive Committee and a key architect of Jiva.

He joined Olam in 1996 as Finance Manager in Cameroon before moving to Singapore in 1998 to head the Corporate Affairs function, which oversees Financial Accounting, Tax, Secretarial, Audit as well as the equity capital raising activities of the Group. In 2016 Suresh assumed the lead role for several corporate functions, including Digital, Tax, Legal, IT, Global Business Services and Strategic Investments. 

Manisha Seewal

Manisha is the President of the world’s second fastest-growing PR agency – Redhill, where she focuses on doubling down their existing strong foothold in the Southeast Asia market while supporting the ongoing global expansion efforts in the USA, UK, Australia, and the Middle East. 

Before that, she was at eBay Australia (Sydney) as the CMO of Gumtree, Carsguide and Autotrader brands. One of her career highlights is being the first Group CMO of Carro where she led all aspects of growth marketing in 4 countries in Southeast Asia – Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. 

Rebecca Martin

As the Head of Strategy at Elevandi, a non-profit organisation established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Rebecca plays a pivotal role in fostering an open dialogue between the public and private sectors, to bridge the gap between these sectors and to advance FinTech and the digital economy. Rebecca curates the Singapore FinTech Festival programme as its Head of Programming, bringing to the festival the brightest minds in the industry such as Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai (Alphabet), and Balaji Srinivasan. Rebecca also leads the programming for other Elevandi initiatives such as the Point Zero Forum and Inclusive FinTech Fourm.