Desmond Chen is People Partner Lead for Southeast Asia (SEA) at Arup, a geography established in 2025 as a critical growth engine for the business. Desmond is playing a critical role in driving the unification of SEA through trust-based, people-first practices that enable purposeful and sustainable performance.
With 18 years of global and regional HR experience across retail, tech, and FMCG, Desmond has led large-scale transformations spanning growth, restructuring, and cultural renewal. Passionate about building humane, high-performance organisations, he balances business outcomes with genuine human connection.
Named one of the Best HR Leaders in Asia 2024, Desmond is recognised for his human-centric leadership and future of work advocacy. He is also a certified leadership development and executive coach.
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