The Management

Vinod Sekhar is Founder and Chairman of Green Rubber having championed the development, testing and commercialisation of the DeLink process, invented by his late father. Vinod is Chairman and Executive Director with specific focus on overseeing and driving Green Rubber’s ambitious expansion over the next five years, including selection of factory locations, negotiating joint ventures where appropriate and crucial supply contracts with customers.

Vinod is a passionate environmentalist and social capitalist, and founded the Good Capitalism Form which will hold its inaugural meeting later this year in Malaysia. He is the Hon. Consul General to Malaysia for St Vincent and the Grenadines. He is a former winner of Grant Thornton’s CEO of the year and the first Asian to be conferred the Global Green Award by Global Green USA.

Vinod is also Group Chairman of the Petra Group, which is committed to the commercialisation of long term, sustainable solutions to the key challenges facing humanity.

Bruce is Chartered Accountant, a businessman and investor in multiple start-up companies, with a specific focus on ensuring their financial success. Bruce was a founding investor in Green Rubber and with Datuk Vinod Sekhar, drove the research, testing and automated production of Green Rubber paving the way for its expansion to meet global demand.

Bruce is also Chairman of Icon Productions, a company he co-founded with the actor Mel Gibson in 1989, and which progressed to become one of the world’s largest and most successful movie production companies. Bruce is an Academy Award Winner, bagging the prestigious Best Film Oscar for Braveheart in 1999. Bruce has produced over 20 Hollywood movies including Forever Young, Maverick, What Women Want, The Passion of The Christ and most recently Hacksaw Ridge.

George, a Non Executive Director of Green Rubber, is a clinical psychologist, a professor of Leadership and Organisational behaviour at IMD and a Consultant to several multinational corporations including Accenture, Barclays Global Investors, Cisco, Coca Cola, Morgan Stanley and Nokia.

George is Director of the High Performance Leadership (HPL) Program, an intense six-day IMD program for experienced senior leaders and the corresponding Advanced High Performance Leadership (AHPL). He is the author of the international bestseller, Hostage At The Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance, which received the "Best Business Book Award 2007" from DCF (French Association of Business Leaders) and "Best Management Book 2008" in Germany by Managementbuch.de.

He has won numerous awards, including most recently the prestigious BrandLaureate International Brand Personality Award for his contribution in the field of high-performance communication from the Asia Pacific Brand Foundation (2010) and the global ecch Renewable and sustainable energy, technology and development Hot Topic Case Award (2011).

Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC , is a British Labour politician, president of international think tank Policy Network, and Chairman of strategic advisory firm Global Counsel. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004 and held a number of Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the European Commissioner for Trade between 2004 and 2008.

Lord Mandelson was one of several key individuals responsible for the rebranding of the Labour Party as New Labour before its subsequent victory in the 1997 election. He was appointed as a European Commissioner, later re-joining the Cabinet for a third time after being created a Life Peer, sitting on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

Lord Mandelson will take specific responsibility for aiding the expansion of Green Rubber Global into the UK in 2020, the location of Green Rubber’s second global plant after Malaysia.

Ida Beerhalter co-heads IOME, a private investment partnership of women principals from the Gulf region with its head office in Riyadh, KSA.

Additionally, Ida also serves as Member of the Board, Trustee, Advisor, and Expert to various for-profit and not-for-profit organizations around the globe including Auma Obama Foundation Sauti Kuu, Kenya & Germany, Green Sands Equity, USA, Full Span Communications Ltd, UK, Professors Without Borders, UK, and the Jim Button Foundation, Germany. She specializes in social business, entrepreneurship, impact investment, education, leadership, economic development, mental health, gender inclusiveness, women & minority empowerment, financial literacy, family governance and succession planning. 

Ida also manages her own investment portfolio, specialising in emerging and growth markets and was awarded with the TIAW World of Difference Award in 2015.

Andrew Rickards is President of Petra Group and is primarily responsible for new investment and ensuring all business interest within the group complies with its Social Capitalism ethos.

Andrew has had a long and varied career primarily based in Asia. Most recently he was the Deputy Chairman of a Hong Kong based blockchain start up where he was involved in the development of blockchain solutions around Environmental, Social and Governance issues in developing countries. Prior to this role Andrew was the CEO of Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings, a conglomerate with its activities predominantly based in Myanmar. During his four-year tenure as CEO, which coincided with the rapid emergence of this frontier country, Yoma saw its market capitalization increase from US$28m to around US$800m as it became one of the main conduits for investment into the country during this period.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, Andrew had a career in investment banking in Asia where he held senior roles with Goldman Sachs and Rothschild & Co where he was CEO of their Asian business. He previously sat on the board of the largest domestic advertising company in China and is currently Chairman of Bloom Association Hong Kong, a marine conservation charity.

Andrew has a degree in Engineering Science from the University of Exeter and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Steve is a 15-year veteran of the rubber industry, and former VP of Global Sourcing and Business Development at Excel Polymers LLC, the world's largest independent rubber compounder. Steve also led the globalization of the company during a period of rapid expansion into new markets and territories. Previously, Steve spent 23 years with Fortune 500 PPG Industries, where he built up global sales of paints, coatings and specialty materials. 

He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Jack has concentrated on SME and mid-market clients across a wide variety of business sectors. He has acted as Reporting Accountant on Listings and undertaken pre-acquisition / pre-investment due diligence for corporates, banks and PE firms. He has provided strategic advice to companies looking to develop both organically and by acquisition and to PE firms on strategies for their portfolio companies. He has advised on both UK domestic and cross-border acquisitions and disposals and both debt and equity fund raisings.

Returning from Hong Kong in 2014, Jack acted in a consultancy capacity providing M&A, strategic, fundraising and IPO advice to a variety of businesses, before joining an early stage, PE backed, multi-national, health-tech company as Group CFO. Subsequently he acted as interim CFO of a construction engineering company seeking to float on AiM and follow a Buy & Build strategy. Both roles have given him an invaluable insight and hands-on experience of working within developing companies.

Additionally, Jack has held the position of Non-Executive Director to an AIM Listed Healthcare company specialising in Long Term Condition patients.

Clayton is an experienced plant and business manager developing manufacturing facilities for international corporations for over twenty years. At Green Rubber, Clayton will oversee commercial production of Green Rubber compound, managing business operations, budgets, quality control and evaluating employee and vendor performance. 

Clayton was formerly Head of Manufacturing Production at Texas based Excel Polymers, a leading global supplier of elastomeric solutions including rubber and elastomer compounding, roll compounds, and rubber chemicals, with annual sales of $550 million. He received the President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement, after increasing sales at their Shanghai manufacturing facility from $600k to $2.7m in under three years. He also developed facilities in multiple countries overseas and establishing international relations with government officials. 

Clayton holds a Master of Business Administration in Management from the Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.

Andrés Pastrana Arango was President of the Republic of Colombia from 1998 to 2002. Mr Pastrana began his political career in 1982, by gaining a seat on the local Bogotá council. Before becoming President in 1998, he was also President of the City Council of Bogotá; he was the first elected Mayor of Bogotá(1988-1990) President of the Latin American Chapter of IULA (International Union of Local Authorities); Vice President of UCCI (Ibero-American Union of Capital Cities); Founder of the Party Nueva Fuerza Democratica. Senator and Presidential Candidate in 1994.

During his presidency, Mr Pastrana made some important steps in with his negotiations with FARC and ELN. His administration also proposed and initially oversaw the implementation of Plan Colombia aid package and anti-narcoterrorist strategy. Mr Pastrana graduated as a Lawyer from the University of Rosario in Bogotá. He was a fellow at Harvard University Centre for International Affairs.