Aesara Partners 

At Aesara Partners, our mission is simple: enable you to be the best version of yourself. We offer a range of focused services that unlock the potential of people, teams and cultures to maximise business performance. 

Collectively our Partners and Associates have decades of experience both in executive coaching and as board level leaders themselves working in multiple sectors across global markets.

Partner & Executive Coach

Doshisha University

Professor of Strategic Management, Global MBA Program

The CFO Coach K.K.

The CFO Coach K.K. is a boutique executive coaching firm specializing in developing High-Performance​ Financial Leaders and Teams.

Founder & Executive Coach

Kansai Gaidai University

•	Awarded President's Global Education Award (Teacher of the Year).

Professor of Leadership & Management

Benesse Holdings, Inc. (USD 4.5B; Tokyo Stock Exchange Code: 9783)

•	Member of the Board of Directors for Berlitz Corporation; Benesse Corporation; and Benesse Style Care.  Chairman of Audit Committee for Berlitz Corporation. Member of Benesse Holdings Pension Committee.
•	Global CFO covering all 40+ Benesse group companies
•	Championed and supported multiple cash generation initiatives including a CFO led "Save to Grow" initiative to improve Company Financial performance and to identify significant savings for business reinvestment
•	Enhanced Finance bench strength and hired a high potential team to start financial business consulting
•	Implemented several process and capability best practices to move group companies towards global standards

Global Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Senior Vice President

McCann Worldgroup Holdings

• Overall Responsibility for Operations (Finance, IT, Legal, and Administration - 10 legal entities) 
• Successfully turned around long term loss making lead agency by delivering double digit margin improvements within two years
• Delivered double digit margin improvements for all six MWG Group companies 
• Built a new Finance team and moved from Scorekeeping to Business Partnership and improved business performance
• Major projects within last two years include: 
  - Shared Service center creation/migration
  - New Financial System Migration
  - Acquisition & Divestiture
  - Business Turnaround
  - Retirement Plan consolidation/change
  - Office relocation/rent reductions

Group Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, and Member of The Board

Becton, Dickinson and Company

• Led Finance, Procurement, General Affairs, and Rebates teams (43 staff) to deliver multi-million dollar cash and profit performance improvement for first year and beyond. Exceeded all budget expectations.
• Engaged Japan Management Team and Global Finance Leadership Team on company objectives to deliver best outcome (Finance Transformation initiative, Sales effectiveness improvement, Key Account Management, Business Continuity plan, and strategy/selection of backup distribution center).  Led process for 2012-16 Business Plan development
• Developed and executed Finance department strategy and vision to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Implemented job rotation program and hired several high potential employees to improve bench strength.
• Championed multiple Finance and Procurement initiatives including definition and implementation of new 401k Retirement Plan; divestiture of non-core business; change of primary banks (reduced bank fees by over 30%); vendor reduction process, and new travel expense management system 
• Taught New Manager Essentials program and selected as leadership trainer for PEPFAR program in South Africa to teach Leadership and Change Management to African Health Ministry officials

Finance and Administration Director

Avon Products Inc.

•	Implementation project leader for Avon Sales Leadership Framework (ASLF) – Highest priority project for the Company to adapt to a new Sales Model.  Completed project implementation in record timing.  Awarded regional award as part of ASLF Team. Only person in Asia recognized for both Top-line and Bottom-line contributions in the same year.
•	Defined and executed new vision and mission and led Sales Support department to complete over 40 initiatives (within a six-month period) as part of Team’s new journey towards field motivational excellence. Incorporated new processes to deliver high impact incentives, and to create Sales energy and momentum for sales turn-around.    
•	Achieved highest employee engagement scores with Sales Support Department significantly exceeding country results in over 95% of categories.  Previously had also led Finance department to highest employee engagement scores.
•	Global Project leader for a high potential, multi-functional, multi-national team to study and recommend actions to improve Global Sales Incentive management/spending process.
•	Oversaw execution of a variety of Company and Public/Media events ranging from Sales Conferences to Philanthropic events including Annual Awards to Women, and Pink Ribbon Campaign support.

Executive Director and Member of the Board

•	Responsible for Financial policy making/implementation and reporting for Avon Japan as a public company (including statutory/public, and Board Meetings). All year-end financial documents audited with no comments/exceptions.
•	Defined and executed new department Vision and Mission, and recruited, trained and developed a completely new Finance team (80% new hires within a six month period) to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Finance team formed core of country high potential list.
•	Consistently over achieved profit performance commitment under adverse conditions of sales decline by aggressively managing strategic business needs with cost cutting; Delivered zero overhead growth during all years; Japan winner of regional awards for best cost management performance, and for boldest transformation strategy.
•	Provided leadership and support for critical decisions and strategy development as Japan Leadership Team Member.  Actively led change management process within company.
•	Consistently achieved best internal control results in Asia-Pacific/Avon over a period of eight audits.  Japan one of only two countries with highest audit rating. Outstanding performance generated support to remove Japan from list of High Coverage countries.
• Co-developed strategic/financial business case, and obtained approval for number of campaign reduction in 2006 making Avon Japan only country ever in Avon to undergo campaign reduction. 
• Independently analyzed and provided strategic direction for Plant study which challenged and reversed previous recommendation by outside consultants on plant closure.
• Provided leadership in several restructuring initiatives by providing an achievable plan to achieve 12% people related cost reduction.  Played lead role in this study representing Finance, Supply Chain and HR 
• Consistently achieved highest performance rating and nominations to several high potential programs
• Elected (and re-elected) to Board of Directors

Executive Director, CFO and Member of the Board of Directors

Delphi

• Prepared Asia-Pacific regional messages / presentations for Delphi Strategy Board, and for Delphi Board of Directors.
• Supported development and implementation of critical Asia-Pacific strategies.  Performed competitive intelligence and other special studies to identify risks / competitive threats and outlined regional / corporate response.
• Provided Miller Heiman strategic selling process training to Asia-Pacific personnel to improve value propositions and increase sales effectiveness.

Director Asia-Pacific Planning

• Management responsibilities for Finance, HR, General Affairs, and Six-Sigma.
• Active member of the Japan Strategy Board and Japan management team.  
• Six-Sigma Deployment Champion for Delphi Japan.

Delphi Japan – CFO & Administration Director

Country Responsibilities:
• Managed all finance functions including accounting, budgeting / forecasting and treasury.
• Lead development of cross-functional and cross-divisional Internal Control Review Board.
• Lead and supported strategic initiatives including venture development support, site enhancement, competitive analysis, transfer pricing, and cost reduction studies.
• Represented Japan in Asia-Pacific Financial Task Team.

Regional Responsibilities:
• Coached country CFO and staff to implement common financial reporting processes.
• Supervised and provided training for engineering / commercial / plant / site analysts.  Coordinated regional financial training programs for the sector in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Coordinated the regional budget, business plan, and capital management process.
• Supported development of common financial practices among ventures including:  Loan monitoring, F/X and cash management, compliance with accounting principles, report submission, etc. Provided regional oversight of venture risk exposure.

Asia-Pacific Senior Finance Mgr.

Executive Coach | MBA Professor | Ex-Global CFO

I help senior leaders master complexity, elevate strategic impact, and lead with authentic authority.

I bring over 25 years of C-level and boardroom experience as a former Global CFO for a $5B publicly traded company, combined with a deep commitment to human-centered leadership development.

Today, I coach global executives, CEOs, and leadership teams — specializing in executive transitions, strategic leadership, high-performance teams, and Asian leadership development.

I am also an MBA Professor of Leadership and Strategic Management, blending research-driven frameworks with boardroom-tested insights to develop transformational leaders.

Based in Kyoto, fluent in English, Urdu, and Japanese.

Connect with me: arif@thecfocoach.jp

Website: www.thecfocoach.jp (please sign up on my mailing list to receive future announcements and newsletters)

Arif Iqball

Helping PE-backed leaders become world-class operators | Creator of the Sands Performance Assessment | Father of 5

Most leadership teams don't have a strategy problem.
They have a leadership problem.

Smart people. Driven. Strong resumes.

And yet — decisions drag. Priorities blur. Execution stalls. Trust erodes quietly, until it doesn't.

Here's why: leadership is still mostly improvisation.

Different leaders. Different standards. Different habits. That variability compounds silently until it becomes expensive — in missed quarters, lost talent, and opportunities that never materialized.

I help founders and CEOs eliminate it.

Over the past 15+ years, I've worked inside founder-led companies, alongside operating partners, and with executive teams under real pressure. The pattern is consistent: strategy isn't the bottleneck. Leadership inconsistency is.

That's why I built the Sands Leadership platform — a Leadership Operating System that gives executive teams a shared framework for how they prioritize, decide, execute, and build trust.

When leadership runs on a system:
→ Decisions accelerate
→ Execution becomes predictable
→ Alignment holds under pressure
→ Performance compounds over time

The five leadership failures quietly eroding your results right now:

- Too many competing priorities with no clear hierarchy
- Commitments made loosely and followed through weakly
- Pressure degrades decision quality at the worst moments
- Trust is tied to personality instead of behavior
- Collaboration dependent on goodwill instead of structure

These aren't talent problems. They aren't strategy problems. They're system problems — and systems can be installed.

Before founding Sands Leadership, I advised senior executives in management consulting. The insight that changed everything: the companies that struggled weren't missing a better plan. They were missing a better way to lead.

Today I work with founders and CEOs in high-growth, high-pressure environments who are ready to stop improvising and start leading by design.

****
Ready to close the gap? Three ways to start:

1️⃣ Subscribe to High Growth Leadership
5,500+ CEOs and senior leaders receive weekly, practical insights on execution, decision quality, and building teams that perform under pressure.

→ sandsleadership.com/newsletter

2️⃣ Take the Executive Health Quiz
A free diagnostic to identify your leadership strengths and the blindspots quietly costing you performance.

→ health.sandsleadership.com/2026

3️⃣ Explore CEO Coaching
For senior leaders ready to build healthier, higher-performing teams — and make their own leadership more predictable, intentional, and sustainable.

→ calendly.com/bensands/consultation

Ben Sands

Lighting someone else's candle doesn't dim your flame.

Instead, you make the whole room brighter.

In fast-growing companies — especially PE-backed environments —
leaders often feel pressure to prove their value.

At a surface level, it can look like strong leadership.

But over time, this pattern quietly turns leaders into bottlenecks.

Trying to carry everything yourself doesn’t increase control.

It increases friction.

Execution slows.
Decision quality drops.
Team confidence erodes.

Eventually, performance becomes constrained by you.

You’ll recognize it in patterns like:

→ Staying deeply involved in every decision
→ Solving problems instead of developing capability
→ Measuring your value by how needed you are
→ Holding on to context instead of sharing it

None of this comes from bad intent.

It usually comes from caring deeply about outcomes.

But high-impact leaders operate differently:

→ They create clarity that reduces dependency
→ They develop capability instead of rescuing problems
→ Their follow-through makes leadership predictable
→ They reinforce progress, not just perfection

That shift raises the bar across the organization.

When leaders focus on lighting others,
results expand beyond what any single executive can produce alone.

That’s not just effective leadership.

It’s scalable leadership.

If some of those bottleneck patterns feel familiar…

It may not be a strategy issue.

It may be an executive health issue. 

Take my new Executive Health Quiz and find out:

👉 bit.ly/ExecutiveQuiz

Have you ever worked for a leader who lit up the whole room?

Let them know you appreciate them in the comments.

--------------------------

♻️ Repost this to help other leaders you know.
➕ Follow Ben Sands for daily advice on business and leadership.
📬 5,000+ CEOs get my newsletter every Saturday. Click here to join them: https://lnkd.in/eXiRx-HZ

I help smart, driven leaders become world-class operators | Author, High Growth Leadership newsletter | Father of 5

High activity.
Low progress.

Your calendar might be the problem.

Thanks to Cicely Simpson for this helpful visual.

Here’s a simple test:

Look at every meeting on your calendar this week.

Can you name the outcome of each one?

Not the agenda.

The actual result.

→ What will be decided?
→ What will be resolved?
→ What will move forward?

If you can’t answer those questions, the meeting probably shouldn’t exist.

And the cost isn’t just time.

It trains your team to:

→ Discuss instead of decide
→ Escalate issues instead of solve them
→ Attend just to listen instead of contribute

The result?

Confusion.
Slow decisions.
And leaders stuck in meetings that produce nothing.

If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting thinking,

“Why was I even there?”

Try this simple diagnostic:

Look at the past 30 days in your calendar.

Circle the meetings that actually moved something forward.

Now ask:

What made those meetings different?

Most of the time, they share three things:

1️⃣ A clear outcome
↳ Everyone knew what decision or result the meeting needed to produce.

2️⃣ A clear decision-maker
↳ One person was accountable for driving the final call.

3️⃣ Only essential people in the room
↳ The people who could contribute to the decision were present. No spectators.

If a meeting doesn’t have those three elements, it’s probably slowing your company down.

Rework it.

Or cancel it.

You’ll instantly reclaim hours of leadership time.

And your team will start solving more problems without you.

This is one of the execution problems CEOs run into as companies scale.

Strong managers understand good meetings.

But they often struggle to build the systems that sustain it.

On March 18 at 12:30pm ET, I’m hosting a free live session where I’ll break down how CEOs build leadership teams that execute at a higher level.

We’ll cover:

The Scaling Trap Most Companies Miss
↳ Why the traditional promotion model creates leadership bottlenecks.

The 5-Step Leadership Upgrade
↳ How high-growth companies intentionally develop leaders.

Why Training Alone Fails
↳ Systems create the structure leaders need.

How to Build a Repeatable Development Path
↳ A clear, scalable framework for developing rising leaders.

The Hidden Leverage Point
↳ The one shift that strengthens culture, engagement, and execution.

📅 March 18 — 12:30pm ET
👉 https://lnkd.in/ggHtpUNn

Quick question:

Was your last meeting productive…or one you’d cut if you'd read this earlier? 

--------------------------

♻️ Repost this to help other leaders organize effective meetings.
➕ Follow Ben Sands for daily advice on business and leadership.
📬 5,800+ CEOs get practical tips every Saturday. 
Click here to join them: https://lnkd.in/eXiRx-HZ

Your leadership problem is costing you more than you think. I build the OS that fixes it. → Book a Strategy Call ↓

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The Battle

Arif Iqball

Ben Sands

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The Battle

Arif Iqball

Ben Sands

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ben Sands's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreBen Sands's LinkedIn Performance