Name: Leading Across Cultures – My Biggest Mistakes?
Start: 2026-06-09T10:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-06-09T11:00:00+01:00

Leading Across Cultures – My Biggest Mistakes?

Leading is not ‘one size fits all’. One fixed approach won’t work for every market, region, or team.

Directness in one room can be perceived as bluntness in another. What was collaborative can become unclear. Without adapting to nuance, you can find yourself misunderstanding others, being misunderstood yourself – or both.

Many leaders only recognize this after something has already gone wrong.

In this WeQual Executives Global Insights session, Tulsi Naidu, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific & Group Exco Member at Zurich Insurance, reflects on her experience leading across cultures, and what she’d do differently today.

This is an opportunity to learn from an experienced leader, including where mistakes were made, what was missed, and how to adapt.

You will leave with a clearer view of what to pay attention to, and what to avoid.

Key Takeaways

Where cultural misunderstandings occur and why
How your influence may be misinterpreted
Signals most leaders miss
How to adapt effectively across cultures

Tulsi Naidu

Zurich Insurance

Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific & Group Exco Member

Tulsi Naidu is Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific and Member, and Group Executive for Zurich Insurance Group. She was previously CEO for Zurich’s UK business and held a number of executive roles at Prudential UK and Europe.

Ms Naidu brings over 25 years of global leadership experience across financial services businesses in Europe and APAC, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale business transformation and growth in complex environments. Her focus is on delivering superior outcomes for customers backed by technology, and building teams to deliver meaningful change at scale, consistently raising performance.

Tulsi has been an executive director on regulated Boards in the UK and Australia and presently serves on the Board of Zurich Kotak General Insurance in India. She is an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of Wipro Ltd (NYSE: WIT), where she serves as Chair of the Nomination and Renumeration Committee and is a member of the Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee. In addition, she is a Trustee of the Zurich Foundation.

Emma Hicks

WeQual

SVP, Product & Learning

Emma is an experienced strategic leader specializing in professional development at
C-suite and senior management levels. With over 20 years’ experience across global sectors, she brings deep expertise in leadership education and a genuine passion for continuous professional growth.

A Fellow and Advisory Board Member of the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI), Emma also holds certifications from the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and previously served on the Education Committee of the European Confederation of Directors Associations (ecoDa).

Before joining WeQual, Emma spent nearly a decade with the IoD, shaping the strategic direction of its global executive programs, including the prestigious Chartered Director qualification. She later joined HR technology company Connectr, first as interim COO and then as Chief Commercial Officer, leading its mission to build more inclusive leadership pipelines.

Earlier in her career, Emma held senior roles with Reed Learning, designing and delivering internationally recognized qualifications for more than 100 corporate and academic partners.

At WeQual, Emma leads the global membership and program function. Creating communities where senior leaders connect, reflect, and develop through shared experience. Her work aligns with her core purpose: Helping individuals achieve their career goals and enabling organizations to succeed through inclusive, effective leadership.

Outside of work, Emma has a young family — Joshua (10), Jasmine (7), and Monty the cockapoo (3) — who keep her active, grounded, and grateful.