VP Commercial APAC

Business Expert Press

Coming soon! Summer 2025

In today’s hyper-competitive job market, it is no longer enough to navigate the traditional recruitment processes or conventional HR gatekeepers. The key lies in prioritizing direct engagement with hiring decision-makers. Achieving this requires a paradigm shift, embracing the art of self-promotion, developing a personal brand, and strategically networking to uncover and create opportunities. Success in today’s job market belongs to those willing to play a different game than the one presented to us. Those who adapt, innovate, and take charge of their career trajectories with confidence and intentionality will create better results for themselves.

Mastering Networking: Forging Your Own Career Opportunities to Create the Future You Deserve

Bestselling Author of: The Cultural Business Leader: Sustaining People, Attaining Results. Winner of Axiom Business Book Awards 2025. 

"Behaviors Form Culture, Leading to Results."

Coming in 2025: Mastering Networking: Forging Your Own Career Opportunities to Create the Future You Deserve.

Author

Axiom Business Book of the Year 2025 - Gold Medalist, Sales. 
The Cultural Sales Leader is about sales leadership, creating a performance culture, and followership. It is about creating a vision and then building an organization and approach which will make that vision a reality. It’s about building a people-first culture that is bound to the mission you have set out and it is about thinking beyond the present to where you
want to be as an organization in three to five years’ time.

This book is for anyone interested in business, sales, sales leadership, or organizational culture building—no matter the level of experience or seniority. It contains the templates and approaches to help you shape the way you identify, create, analyze, and execute on your people-first strategy, while bringing the entire organization along with you to attain
sustainable, transformational results.

The author outlines a layering process to becoming an expert in your business and identifying the key growth areas to allow you to get beyond the pure focus of your current financial year. It is about how you build a growth engine. The pathway to achieving this most effectively is through your people and culture. Get the people element right and the results will come….

The Cultural Sales Leader: Sustaining People, Attaining Results

Tigerhall

As a ‘Thinkfluencer’ for Tigerhall I’m contributing insights into leadership, sales and transformative mission led culture building. 

Find my Tigerhall profile here; Explore Richard Cogswell's professional insights on Tigerhall! https://app.tigerhall.com/profile/2edf7cbf-f4c0-4cf7-89ff-f9604ec46125

Thinkfluencer

CEOWORLD magazine

Find my articles on CEOWORLD Magazine
Author profile; 
https://ceoworld.biz/author/richard-cogswell/#google_vignette

Executive Council Member =

PayDocker

Leveraging blockchain to solve for B2B cross border frictions in the Travel supply chain. 
- Cross border payments 
- Closed loop payments 
- Supply chain solutions and Cash Management

Commercial Director APAC

Nium

My role at Nium is to develop new business opportunity within the APAC and ME regions focused around our B2B Accounts Payable Virtual Credit Card issuance, (VCC,) core Pay In, Pay Out and Card Issuance capabilities. Enterprise B2B Payments, Accounts Payable, Virtual Credit Cards, Efficient Payments Processes.

•	First hire in APAC building a B2B Travel Payments Business focusing on Virtual Credit Card (VCC) payments & acceptance to Hotels & Airlines 
•	Built a direct business from scratch to US$1bn Total Transactional Volume
•	Directly signed numerous $100m + clients.
•	2022 winner of “Simply better together” award for collaborative selling and team building. 
•	Running Commercial Strategy & Customer approaches across APAC for NIUM Travel’s VCC Business 
•	Building out go to market approach and team in ME, SEA, HK/China, Japan & ANZ
•	Key role in determining and aligning product & license priorities for the APAC region
•	Owning card scheme relationships for APAC – MasterCard, VISA and UATP 
•	Hiring a team within Singapore’s 1st Fintech Unicorn

Vice President Business Development APAC & ME

Commercial General Manager, leading sales and support functions across EMEA & APAC for WEX Corporate Payments.

Products & Services; Virtual Credit Card, B2B Accounts Payable, Merchant of Record, Bank Transfer.

Achievements; Reset APAC team, created commercial agenda focus and culture. Trebled the business in under 3 years to US$3bn TTV. Grew a customer obsessed winning culture. Built APAC & ME go-to-market plan. Contributed to Roadmap. 

Builder of winning teams - Behaviours => Culture => Results

General Manager (EMEA/APAC)

Leading the WEX commercial function across APAC partnering our customers for all things payments related. 

At WEX we are re-inventing the way payments serve you, no matter the industry or the continent. Our unique team of experts is focused on building simple, easy-to-use solutions tailored to helping your business win. Efficiencies, cost savings and reduction of risk to create lasting growth & opportunity.

General Management of APAC region.  
Commercial Leader - Created new culture and results focused commercial agenda. Doubled size of business in under 2 years. 
Entrepreneurial leader of new revenue initiatives.

Commercial Director APAC 

WellteQ

Singaporean Insurtech Startup | Corporate Wellness | Employee Engagement | Integrated Wearables | Employee Data Analytics | Mobile | Digital | App

•	Advised on & executed go to market approach for WellteQ in APAC
•	Set up sales processes, sales collateral, pricing, reporting & sales cadence
•	Delivered analysis, SWOT & recommendations for leadership team

Regional Sales Director

Ballr.com

Head of Partnerships

Randstad Singapore

Leading Regional Global Key Client Team in APAC. Custodian Creator & Champion of new strategic consultative sales approach. Focus on industries of expertise; Banking, FinTech & IT industries 

•	Developing and uncovering new revenue opportunities in Global Key Accounts and Regional Business Development targets
•	Developing approaches to new and existing accounts across Banking, Finance, IT, CPE & Retail, representing some $65mio in revenue
•	APJ Regional Key Account Leadership of Dell, Bayer, Ebay, Cisco and many others
•	Development of ‘TTA’ Total Talent Architecture, a strategic challenger sale approach to developing sales opportunities strategically in order to differentiate and uncover new cross department sales opportunity/revenue
•	Mentoring, developing and coaching Sales teams within country operations to ‘elevate’ client approaches 
•	Developing solutions and sales approaches; providing training, mentoring and thought leadership
•	Supporting and developing reporting and business insights derived from Salesforce.com implementation
•	Created and ran Sales Training Courses (Challenger & Solution Selling, Client Research, Public Speaking)

Global Client Solutions Director - APAC - Key Accounts, SaaS Software & Business process outsourcing

B2B Payments Expert | People First Leader | Builder of Winning Cultures | General Manager | Commercial Leader | Turnaround Specialist | Award Winning Best Selling Author | eInvoicing | Card Issuance | Coach & Mentor

Global payments expert with extensive B2B domestic and cross border payments expertise, including eInvoicing, eBilling and card issuance. A career spent at the nexus of Payments, Data and Technology. 

WEX, Finastra, Bottomline, Barclays, Nium. Deep networks at both Visa and Mastercard. Extensive Banking, Payments & Fintech experience.

Sales team leadership and turnaround specialist. Creator of well aligned, winning go-to-market strategies. Key Account & New Business professional with strong commercial acumen & awareness delivered through P&L management with consistent delivery against set targets. Passionately focused on underpinning client success & strategy through tailored, co-authored solutions. Experienced culture and go to market builder. Skilled in hiring, motivating and guiding cross functional teams. Experienced networker & social seller. Proven in leading diverse & multi-cultural teams. Over 15 year’s experience of APAC markets. 

Award winning, best selling author; “The Cultural Sales Leader; Sustaining People, Attaining Results, and coming soon in 2025, "Mastering Networking: Forging Your Own Career Opportunities to Create the Future You Deserve. Winner of the Axiom Business Book Awards 2025. 

Proven in leading diverse & multi cultural teams delivering exceptional results through driving performance of direct & indirect reports, teams and partners. Multi-national & Start-up experience. 

Specialities:
•	Can build and execute directly on go-to-market plans - a sales practitioner at heart.
•	B2B Enterprise Payments & eInvoicing experience. 
•	Sales leader, consultant & advisor. 
•	Client centric specialist practitioner of solution, challenger, strategic selling approaches.
•	Enterprise level solution specialist – Effective when working with cross functional teams to service clients.
•	Key Account Management & Development of strategic partnerships.
•	Sales Team Management, Motivation & Development to achieve exceptional performance.
•	Coach & mentor - Highly effective at transforming sales environments.
•	Articulate, confident and persuasive communicator & public speaker.
•	Strong networker, global experience, culturally aware, worked across all APJ countries for over 15 years.
•	Created and ran Sales Training at Fundtech/DHL/Randstad (Sales, Cold Calling, How to Differentiate, Solution, Challenger & Value Sales, Social Selling & Client Research, Public Speaking & Presenting.

🚀 Book Launch Announcement

It’s finally here! "Mastering Networking: Forge Your Own Job Opportunities"  is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kinokuniya, Apple Books and Google Books.

This isn’t just another job search book, it’s a wake-up call for anyone stuck in the black hole of online applications. If you’ve been endlessly applying, tweaking your CV, and hearing nothing but silence, you’re not alone. The job market has changed, and your approach needs to change with it.

"Mastering Networking" shows how to take control of your career through visibility, connection, and authentic relationships.

👉 Discover how to stand out and get hired faster.
👉 Find tools and templates to get beyond the job boards and the algorithms. 
👉 Fearful of putting yourself out there or unsure where to begin? Learn how to build confidence step-by-step.
 👉 From reaching out authentically, to starting conversations that feel natural, not forced, discover how to position your story, share your value, and connect with people who can open real opportunities, without feeling like you’re “selling yourself.”
👉 Future proof your career with skills which will sustain you beyond the current moment.
👉 Understand modern recruitment practices and sourcing techniques to get spotted by the right people.
👉 Build your philosophies, identify your value and make your brand identifiable. It's not who you know, it's who knows what you know that counts....

 #CareerGrowth #JobSearch #Networking #MasteringNetworking

Richard Cogswell

Travel Payments, Partnerships, Acceptance and Distribution are all on the table next week at #WTM - reach out, let’s meet! 

#Payments #Travel #AcceptanceSolutions

#ITBAsia is around the corner! 

#iOLPay are bringing new and innovative solutions to #VCC #Issuance in #Travel and #Acquisition 

Let's meet to discuss travel payments, #B2BSupplyChain and #AccountsPayable 

To old friends and new, see you next week! #Singapore

After a super successful #ITBAsia - London and #WTM calls! 🇬🇧

#iOLPay is here for all your #TravelPayments needs - let’s talk! Innovative solutions and supply chain flows all under one roof…

Looking forwards to catching up in London! Reach out and let’s connect 👏

🇬🇧 London is calling! 

We’ll be in full force at World Travel Market (WTM) London from 4-6 November - hosting meetings at the Sunborn London Yacht Hotel (just outside the East Entrance of the Excel London) and also at Travelgate's stand (S3-210).

If you’d like to meet the team, just pick the session(s) that fit you best using the booking link below:

🗓️ https://lnkd.in/gzPdSChe

See you there! 

#WTMLondon #iOL #iOLX #iOLPay #iOLPartnerSolutions #Connectivity #Distribution #Payments #TravelTech

James Burdett, Jeff Karlson, Sami Abdelsalam, Mohsen Kherani, Tahleel Ahmad, Sanket Lalka, Paul Dooner, Richard Cogswell, Sebastian Kuckart, Diego Lofeudo, Kieran Tobin

Meet iOL Team at WTM London

🚀 Honoured and thrilled to be the Keynote Speaker at the Payments Club Leadership Retreat 2025 at Le Méridien Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok Golf Resort & Spa 28th - 30th November 2025! 

Excited to be joining an incredible group of payments innovators, fintech leaders, and industry peers.

As an Author and Payments Practitioner, I’ve spent years studying how sales, connection, culture, and leadership shape business performance. As Payments professionals, we know the devil is in the detail, and it takes a community to help and advise effective solutions to solve for our customer's needs, thereby shaping mutually beneficial outcomes for all sides. That to me is also the very definition of 'sales.' In a world where AI, algorithms, and automation dominate, it’s people and networks that still drive progress.

My keynote will explore:
🔹 The necessity to develop a relationship with and then, in time, a philosophy toward sales, no matter what your expertise or professional focus, and the benefits you and your customers will attain as soon as you do. 
🔹 How to fuse people and behaviours to an aligned go-to-market plan in order to create explosive yet sustainable growth through culture and connection, forging high-performance teams and outcomes. 
🔹 Lessons from my books, "The Cultural Sales Leader" and "Mastering Networking," and how they apply to scaling trust and collaboration across markets as well as contributing to personal growth and the achievement of your desired outcomes. 

With Harvard Business School case sessions, a Payments Career Panel, and the Payments Expert Marketplace launch, this retreat promises a blend of strategic insight, learning, and connection in a relaxed and inspiring setting.
If you’re attending, come say hello, let’s connect, share ideas, and keep pushing this industry forward.

#PaymentsLeadership #Fintech #Networking #CareerGrowth #Leadership #MasteringNetworking #TheCulturalSalesLeader #Keynote

Want to promote yourself but can’t find a room that feels like you?

Welcome to the Bangkok Payments Retreat, your chance to be yourself, share your story, relax and connect with people who actually get what you do.

And here’s the best part: the first 30 registrations are completely free! Which means you're saving $550 on the standard fee. (You just pay a SGD $100 refundable fee, returned when you show up in Bangkok.)

Make sure to register by 31st October to grab your personalized collared polo CV T-shirt.

Start your mornings with Golf, Meditation, Yoga or Tennis and for the rest of the day, here’s what’s in store:

• Keynote by Richard Cogswell - 
Award-winning, best-selling author of “The Cultural Sales Leader: Sustaining People, Attaining Results” - Gold Medal winner, Axiom Business Book of the Year 2025.

• Harvard Business School Case Study - 
A powerful learning model for modern payments leaders, focused on executive learning and decision-making. In today’s fast-moving and fragmented payments world, leaders constantly face tough choices - selecting the right banks, PSPs, and fraud partners, managing regulatory uncertainty, deciding when to scale or consolidate infrastructure, and balancing speed, cost, and security. Our goal is to bring world-class, peer-driven learning to the Payments Club, where practitioners become thinkers, and thinkers become leaders.

• Payments Product Litmus Test - 
A “litmus test scorecard” (Red / Amber / Green or 1-5 rating) that summarizes readiness and next steps - Pilot, Improve, or Park.

• Panel: Building Your Career in Payments

• Launch of the Payments Expert Marketplace - get early access to earn $300–600/hr before it goes public.

And to top it all off, every attendee will receive a complimentary 2nd edition of Payments Censored cards.

📅 28–30 Nov | 📍 Le Meridien Golf Resort & Spa, Bangkok

To complete the registration, please pay the refundable fee through the link in the comments. 

Visit www.paymentsretreat.com for more details!

Vishal Mehta Janet Tan Chee (SheueChee) Beh Kanika Mittal Arvin Singh Marcela Farima Kennie Ong Richard Cogswell

Brilliant segment by Damien Cramer, one of the sharpest minds in #Payments talking about our diverse global payments landscape and innovations and trends in payment innovation. Highly recommend, 15m listen 👏

Experienced, authentic and engaging leader in Payments

Thanks to the team at PhocusWire for the opportunity to share some thoughts. Looking forward to the Phocuswright  event in San Diego in a few weeks time.

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