Surabaya, Indonesia - 21 May 2014. Indonesia's Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto opened the Stakeholder Forum for the Indonesia International Water Week in 2015 with a plea to explore innovative approaches to increasing Indonesia's water security in all five key dimensions (household, economic, urban, environmental, and resilience). Among the invited speakers, Wouter T. Lincklaen Arriëns, Leadership Coach at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and TransformationFirst.Asia Pte Ltd prompted the participants to discover investments in leadership development as the least-cost solution to Indonesia's water security challenges, arguing that leaders who have learned to work effectively across boundaries will be able to development partnerships to find and implement the necessary creative solutions more cost-effectively and efficiently. 

Manila, the Philippines - 24 March 2014. Young leaders of the Business Management Society of De La Salle University in Manila, the Philippines, explored how to kindle and sustain their leadership. The workshop was led by Coach Wouter of TransformationFirst.Asia. The young leaders discussed how to embark on the three strides of transformation (aspire, expand, and influence) and expand their worldview and situational awareness through challenging assignments. 

Mumbai, India - 22 March 2014. In his keynote presentation for the International Conference on Water Sanitation and Recycling organized by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA), Coach Wouter highlighted the need for a blue revolution to increase low levels of water security in India and South Asia. Engaging national and city decision-makers to focus on leadership for water security is a new direction - a new paradigm – because water challenges were in the past seen as local, technical, and financial issues. The conference is on the right track with its call for a Blue Revolution – A Paradigm Shift. We need to shift our thinking to go beyond the technology, finance and training mindset to develop leadership that will create the revolution and make it work on the ground, in projects. 

Leadership Coach Jan Willem Kirpestein joined the TransformationFirst.Asia team in March 2014. He is known for helping multinational and local companies boost corporate performance through transformational changes in executives and staff. As a leadership coach, board advisor, and architect of organizational development, he generates breakthroughs in cross-cultural cooperation among leaders, teams and stakeholders. His clients are in the banking, insurance, manufacturing, and service sectors.