Management
Enrico Cesenni, Chief Executive Officer
Before founding the Group in 2013, Enrico spent nearly a decade in investment banking, specializing in mergers and acquisitions in London.
He began his career covering financial institutions at Lehman Brothers and Nomura, before focusing on the consumer and retail sectors at Goldman Sachs. With a longstanding interest in entrepreneurial opportunities in Asia, Enrico founded MACAN in 2012, a company established to hold a growing portfolio of operating assets and investments across Europe and the Far East, including Asia Strategic Holdings.
Enrico holds an MBA from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree in Institutions and Financial Markets Management from Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and a Senior Accredited Director with the Singapore Institute of Directors. He has also been conferred the honorific title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (OSI) by the President of the Italian Republic.
Jonathan Kolb, Chief Financial Officer / Investment Director
Jonathan serves as Group CFO and Investment Director. He joined Asia Strategic in 2015, based in Myanmar, where he led the Group’s early efforts to establish its operations in the country. In 2021, he relocated to Vietnam and now spearheads the expansion of the Group’s portfolio into new sectors and geographies.
Prior to joining Asia Strategic, Jonathan spent over eight years in finance, including five years with Center Square Investment Management, a listed real estate fund manager. He worked initially in Philadelphia before moving to Singapore to help establish the firm’s Asian operations. Earlier in his career, he worked as a commercial lending underwriter at Bank of America in Chicago.
Jonathan holds an MBA from INSEAD and bachelor’s degrees in Finance and Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a CFA charterholder and a registered CPA in the state of Illinois. He has also earned a certificate from IMD for completing the High Performance Leadership program.
Alain Thibault, Chief Operating Officer
Before joining Asia Strategic in August 2018 as CEO of Wall Street English and Auston, Alain built over 15 years of expertise in developing and transforming operational capabilities across multiple industries. His focus has been on enabling scale, improving efficiency, and driving insights and transparency.
In 2020, his responsibilities expanded to include the role of CEO of Wall Street English Vietnam, as well as overseeing the development of group-level operational capabilities such as Technology and Marketing.
Based in Asia since 2009, Alain began his regional career with Accenture before moving into senior management roles at organizations including Lazada and AirAsia. In these roles, he applied his passion for people development and digitalization to drive scalability and innovation.
Alain holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal. He has also earned a certificate from IMD for completing the High Performance Leadership program.
Michael Hall, Chief Human Resources Officer
Prior to joining Asia Strategic in 2020, Michael accumulated over 20 years of human resources experience across Southeast Asia, Australia, and the UK. Michael is responsible for leading the HR function across the group. He works closely with the business to ensure effective service delivery and implements group-level HR initiatives that positively impact both the organization and its employees.
After relocating to Myanmar in 2011, Michael held management roles within multinational companies. During this time, he developed HR functions and delivered workforce strategies for a large-scale resources project with leading developer POSCO, as well as for Wave Money, now Myanmar’s most successful fintech company.
Earlier in his career in Australia, Michael worked in the oil and gas industry with BG Group, a ConocoPhillips joint venture, supporting expansion into new markets.
He has also earned a certificate from IMD for completing the High Performance Leadership program.