Pat Dwyer

Founder and Director

Pat is a respected sustainability expert and the founder of The Purpose Business (TPB). She has over two decades of sustainability leadership experience and is passionate about helping leaders and businesses in Asia activate purpose and grow responsibly.  

She serves as a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and sits on the Global Steering Committee of one of its flagship offerings, the Business & Sustainability Programme. She works as faculty and tutor across several Executive Education programmes as well as online offerings including Governance for a Sustainable Future and High Impact Leadership.  

Pat sits on advisory boards including the Shared Care Collective for Sanofi Consumer Healthcare as well as Enrich, a Hong Kong-based charity dedicated to the financial literacy of migrant domestic workers.   

Before TPB, Pat held pioneering roles for Asian conglomerates.  She was the first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability Manager at Ayala Land, the Philippines’ most esteemed land developer. Then, as the first Global Head of CSR & Sustainability for Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, she reached landmark organisational milestones including becoming the first Asian hotel chain to be recognised in the Hang Seng Sustainability and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the first Asian hotel chain to ban the service of shark’s fin, back in 2014.  

A knowledgeable and engaging speaker on purpose and leadership, responsible business, women’s empowerment and inclusion, she regularly hosts and moderates the highest-level panels and events including the Obama Foundation Leaders' summit and sessions at the World Economic Forum.  

She was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2015 and remains a fellow of the Asia Society and the Royal Society of Arts.  

Pat holds an MA in Globalisation & Governance, certificates in Transformational Leadership from the University of Oxford and Global Leadership & Public Policy for the 21st Century from the Harvard Kennedy School.