Damien Duhamel

Damien Duhamel's Biography

Damien Duhamel is the CEO and Managing Partner of Solidiance, an Asia-focused corporate strategy firm with offices in Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, UAE and Vietnam. Solidiance works with Fortune 500s and large pan-Asia conglomerates to find new avenues of growth and profits through organic and M&A means.

Damien Duhamel initiated the ranking of The Most Innovative Cities in Asia Pacific, which aims to identify the optimal cities in the region with ample factors to potentially yield innovation, attracting industry players to plant and grow their businesses. Damien is also the Executive Producer of the above short documentary movie aimed to complement and better capture the idea behind the main factors driving 'innovation' according to the world's business leaders. This ranking has been featured globally by some of the most renowned media publications.

In 1990, at 20 years old he was the first French student admitted to the Hanoi University in Vietnam since the country’s independence in 1954. Damien stayed a year to learn Vietnamese and to understand the Vietnamese culture. He then went to Australia to complete his Bachelor Degree in Business. After university, he rushed back to Vietnam to set up a boutique business-consulting firm helping foreign companies to enter Vietnam. The company was sold early 2000.

In 2000, Damien Duhamel joined the consulting arm of London-listed Aegis Plc. In 2002 he was first promoted to lead the largest office in Singapore and then became Managing Director Asia Pacific in 2004. Damien is credited for quadrupling revenues and profits in three years as well as expanding geographic imprint from 5 offices to 15 across Asia.

 Since 2006 Damien Duhamel is the CEO and Managing Partner of Solidiance. Solidiance has grown from two staff and one office to about 100 full-time staff in ten Asian offices. Solidiance works exclusively with Multinational Corporations and has a client repeat rate averaging 90%. Our above-industry client repeat rate is a clear testimony of the Solid Alliance we are able to establish with our clients.

Solidiance supports clients' Asia growth in the manufacturing, industrial, technology, cleantech and healthcare sectors. Some of Solidiance clients include Siemens, BASF, Caterpillar, Rockwell, Shell, Toyota, Petronas, ExxonMobil, Panasonic, Microsoft, IBM, etc.

Damien Duhamel has worked on hundreds of strategy engagements mostly across ASEAN. He is a recognized Innovation and Competitive Strategy expert and has been numerously interviewed on the subject. In 2006 Damien was listed in the International Who’s Who.  Recently Damien has been working on the old Silk Road revival, helping large Arabic groups in the Middle East to understand East Asia and to grow in Asia.

Damien Duhamel holds a Business Bachelor Degree from the Victoria University, an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is completing a Master at Harvard University in Sustainability and Environmental Management.  He speaks English, French, Vietnamese and 'survival Japanese.

His articles on Asia corporate strategy have been published by CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fast Companies, New York Times, Times Magazine, Les Echos, Bloomberg, and many more local / regional publications in Asia Pacific.

Damien Duhamel is also often invited to be a speaker at key Asia Pacific foreign investment, innovation, and growth strategy conferences.