Asia Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Where Luxury Travel Meets AI – Sean Seah

February 6, 2026February 6, 2026
by Claire

Most conversations about AI implementation come from consultants selling solutions or vendors pitching tools. This one doesn’t.

Sean Seah is SVP of Strategy, Technology and Innovation at Langham Hospitality Group, where he’s leading AI adoption across a global luxury hotel portfolio. With over two decades in digital transformation at Microsoft, HSBC, and Zuji, Sean brings a rare perspective as he’s living inside the messy reality of making it actually work.

What emerges from our conversation is a refreshingly practical playbook for AI implementation. Sean reveals why the “boring stuff” nobody discusses—data infrastructure, change management, measurement frameworks—determines whether AI delivers business value or not. He advocates starting small, proving value in weeks rather than years, and letting success create momentum for long term transformation.

We explore how Sean balances short-term wins with long-term strategic vision, how he thinks about his AI strategy in a global context, and why luxury hospitality, with its complex blend of human service and operational efficiency offers surprisingly universal lessons for AI implementation across industries.

In this episode:

How Sean’s approach to long term tech transformation includes the necessity that it must deliver short term value as well.
Why one of Langham’s first major AI investments is customer facing and how it’s faring
Examples of how they practically trained their AI agents and staff, and
How Sean’s ensured Langhams isn’t reliant on any one large language model

Whatever sector you’re in, Sean’s boots-on-the-ground experience offers a practical roadmap for leaders navigating the gap between AI potential and AI reality.

Enjoy this episode!

Useful Links:

Sean Seah on Linkedin
Langham Hospitality Group

Interview

Mouna Aouri – Supporting Female Entrepreneurs to Realise their…

April 13, 2021June 1, 2021
by Claire

Can you believe it? Almost three years ago we started this podcast and now we’re excited to be releasing this, our 100th episode!

A particular thank you to you if you’ve taken the time to review, subscribe or recommend our show as it really makes all our work that much more worthwhile. And we always love to hear from you, whether it’s guest or show ideas, or any feedback. Just email us here.

This week’s 100th episode features a woman who has a pretty incredible story. Her name is Mouna Aouri and she’s a Tunisian who started out as a bridge engineer, including working for 7 years in Japan. (And Japan is NOT an easy place for women to work!)

After running a successful business in her home country of Tunisia, Mouna now works in Singapore with Beacon Fund which is investing in female entrepreneurs in South East Asia. Not only that, she launched and runs her own online community supporting women entrepreneurs called ‘Woomentum’.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Why Mouna left Tunisia to build bridges in Japan
How her successful business and life was turned upside down by the Arab Spring uprising
How, after losing her identity as a new Mum in a new country, she picked herself up and turned her experience into a business supporting other women; and
The common mistakes female entrepreneurs make and how to overcome them.

Mouna is very open and vulnerable about the difficult time she encountered trying to reinvent herself and her career in a new country and as a new Mum, and her story of how she bounced back is really inspiring.

So why not grab yourself a yummy slice of ‘100th episode cake’ 😂 and enjoy this episode!

Useful Links

Woomentum – community Mouna founded to support female entrepreneurs

Beacon Fund – funding female entrepreneurs in Asia Pacific

Link to the Woomentum Research Mouna mentioned – The Path to Success: How Women-owned Business Transform in the Era of Digitalization

Interview

Claire Hatton – Living Life to the Full

February 2, 2021
by Claire

By popular demand, we’re excited to share a unique episode with you today. We’re pretty excited because we’ve been asked to do this since we launched the podcast nearly 3 years ago.

If you haven’t already guessed, we’ve finally relented and will be sharing our own career stories and journeys with you. Today you get to hear all about Claire’s extraordinary career and journey.

Whilst normally you’d hear both of us asking questions, of course today, only Greta is asking the questions. Claire, of course, will be answering them. (Yippee!)

Greta was blown away by Claire’s remarkable career to date. In this episode you’ll learn how Claire:

Received an award from the UK Prime Minister as one of Britain’s People of the Year at the age of 26
How a tragedy changed the course of her life
What it was like working at Google and why they’re so innovative
And finally, why she left her plum job on the Google Australian leadership team

Without further ado please enjoy this episode getting to know our co-host, the amazing Claire Hatton.

Useful Links

Claire on Linkedin

Don’t Stop Us Now! Website

Full Potential Labs Website

3P Learning Website

APT Travel Group

Episode Photo credit: Mark Rogers

Interview

Michelle Guthrie – Playing the Long Game

December 15, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

We can’t think of a better note to finish 2020 on than this week’s episode with an incredible woman and international leader, Michelle Guthrie.

Michelle may be best known for her time as Managing Director at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation which is Australia’s equivalent to the UK’s BBC). She was dismissed halfway through her contract amidst great public controversy.

Prior to her role with the ABC, Michelle spent much of her career based in Asia where she was CEO of Star TV with more than 4,000 staff; and she also spent 5 years at Google Asia Pacific as a Managing Director there.

Nowadays, Michelle sits on a number of company boards and advises tech companies on scaling globally.

We had a really fascinating and uplifting conversation with Michelle and you’ll hear how:

Michelle transitioned her career from lawyer to global media and technology executive
Joining Google after running Star TV was a bit of a culture shock
She bounced back from her very public end at the ABC and how she thinks of this time;
And, hear her views on women being held to different standards in business.

We really loved this open conversation with Michelle and think you will too. Don’t miss this one!

Holiday Wishes from Us

This is our last episode for 2020 as we take a break and recharge our batteries. The podcast will be back again on 20th January featuring a great conversation with the amazing social entrepreneur Ronni Kahn.

Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful, happy and healthy festive season (if you’re celebrating) and great transition to the New Year.

If you enjoy our podcast and would like to make our year a little brighter then please rate and review our show on your podcasting platform of choice. We’ve heard Santa really rates people who do this too! 😉

Useful Links

Michelle on LinkedIn

Board’s Michelle Sits On:

Michelle Garnaut AO – Fabulous Stories from One of…

December 17, 2019March 19, 2020
by Claire

Our guest this week has taken the road less travelled, and pioneered her industry in Hong Kong and China for more than 30 years. We’re talking about one of Asia’s most celebrated restaurateurs, and a philanthropist as well, Michelle Garnaut AO.

Michelle grew up in Australia but always knew she wanted to travel. The fact she founded and launched her business, the M Restaurant Group, in Hong Kong in the late 1980s makes her one of the first independent restaurateurs to set up shop anywhere in Hong Kong or China.

Time Magazine has even described Michelle as an ‘industry celebrity’ and someone who ‘pioneered the fashionable-dining scene in China’.

Michelle is well known for the upscale restaurants and bars she’s created and launched in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing – including M on the Bund restaurant still delighting diners in Shanghai.

She’s also committed to giving back, and founded the Shanghai International Literary Festival the M Literary Residency, the Village People Project and the women’s initiative, Mentor Walks, which she started in Beijing.

Michelle has won numerous international entrepreneurial awards and accolades, and last year was awarded an Order of Australia for her numerous contributions to business and society.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Michelle became one of the most successful fine-dining restaurateurs in China
Her hard fought lessons about starting and running a business
Why she started out with her cash locked in a fridge, and
How she had to fight to win back control of her business.

We think you’ll just love Michelle’s amazing stories and all-round fabulousness.

Happy listening!

Interesting Links

Michelle’s Restaurant in Shanghai – M on the Bund

M on the Bund on Facebook

M on the Bund on Weibo

Mentor Walks China

Mentor Walks Australia

Scan to Follow M on the Bund on WeChat

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:42 — 36.5MB) | Embed

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Interview

Lindley Edwards – Wisdom to Live & Work By

July 3, 2018April 25, 2020
by admin

We’re super excited to share this conversation with Lindley Edwards with you.

Lindley started her career working for one of Australia’s most renowned investment banks, Macquarie Bank, and then found a love of Asia when she took on a VP role with Citibank.

Today, Lindley runs a corporate advisory business called AFG Venture Group which specialises in cross-border investments and transactions, particularly between Asia & Australia. She’s also Chairperson for two startups and a Non-Executive Director of a Think Tank called AsiaLink.

We love the fact that Lindley is definitely not your normal investment banker… we don’t know anyone else who uses philosophy, poetry, biology, and cross-cultural intelligence as their foundation for thinking about business and disruption.

In this episode you’ll hear Lindley share her wisdom about: