Manu Bhaskaran, Founding CEO, Centennial Asia Advisors and Partner of the Centennial Group

Prior to Centennial, Mr Bhaskaran held senior positions at Societe Generale’s Asian investment banking division where he supervised Asian economic and investment strategy analysis and was a member of the Executive Committee, in charge of Asian equity research. In 12 years with the firm, Mr Bhaskaran helped to establish its business presence in Southeast Asia and in South Asia while also helping to develop the firm’s highly-rated equity and economic research. Prior to that, Mr Bhaskaran worked for the Singapore government, supervising a team that prepared strategic political and economic assessments of Asia for senior Singapore government officials. Mr Bhaskaran holds a range of other positions. In terms of public service, he served as Chairman of a high-level government committee reviewing the regulation of moneylenders in Singapore in 2014-2015. He is also Member of the Competition Appeals Board, Singapore. In addition, he is a Member of the Regional Advisory Board for Asia of the International Monetary Fund; Trustee of the Asia Foundation in Asia; Council Member, Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA); and Vice-President, Economics Society of Singapore. 

Mr Bhaskaran also serves on the boards of several companies whose businesses span the ASEAN region including CIMB Investment Bank (a subsidiary of CIMB Bank, Malaysia’s second largest bank and which operates across ASEAN), Japfa Ltd (listed in Singapore) and Luminor Capital. Mr Bhaskaran was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge University where he earned an MA (Cantab) and at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he obtained a Masters in Public Administration. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.