A Move that Changed Everything
How Azwa Salleh Reclaimed Purpose in an Uncertain World
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What were you doing before you decided to make a change?
There were two major points of change for me after my pivot into the sustainability industry post-grad school. The first came after my role as an account supervisor and advisory team member at a global PR/comms firm in the Bay Area in early 2021. The second major pivot was in mid-2025 after being the lead ESG strategy person at an APAC and emerging markets-focused asset management firm while I was based in Singapore.
What made you realize it was time, and how did you choose what to pivot toward?
I’ll focus on the first major change, which was in early 2021, before I decided to move abroad. The timing was really a combination of several things:
- COVID-19 pandemic,
- becoming a new mom,
- feeling devalued in my current role,
- frustration with the very Western approaches to sustainability, and
- often being one of the few minorities on my teams based on several metrics: racial, ethnic, immigrant, multilingual, etc.
As the world was reconsidering everything, I did the same. With the support of my spouse (we had an 8-month-old, and our benefits were attached to my job), I decided to leave my role on a hunch that something else was on the horizon.
You've had quite the journey since your MBA graduation. What has navigating that been like?
There have been a few peaks and many valleys. I feel like I’ve lost and found myself a few times over.
Coming out of my MBA, sustainability was still seen as CSR and was often shoved under comms, marketing, or operations budgets. Very few companies embedded it strategically, and thus, the roles (especially for a generalist like me) were few, and the pay was low. I didn’t go into this field because of some intended financial ROI. I was certain there would be a need for my skills. So, unlike most of my MBA colleagues, I spent 8 months job hunting post-graduation to little success, and that took an initial toll on me.
During grad school, I had found my voice. I was outspoken, enthusiastic, and confident. I loved the fact that I could ask any question and explore any path. The journey from my post-grad-school self to now has been hard. There have been days that I’ve felt I couldn’t peel myself off the floor—literally. I lost that voice. Imposter syndrome crept in. I even mastered the power cry in office restrooms (think of a power nap). But I also know that I’ve never been someone comfortable with a linear path. I tell myself a lot that the only way is to go through and to trust the process and trust my gut.
How did the aftermath of a global pandemic shape or impact your career?
I can easily say the pandemic greatly shaped my career path. At risk of being insensitive, COVID-19 really opened new professional possibilities for me. By 2021, the pandemic sent a lot of companies into thinking the world was collapsing, and suddenly, my skills in sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues were in high demand—in fact, there weren’t enough of us. It all came at a time when I was frustrated with my role and the very western approaches to sustainability.
The pandemic forced countries to look closely at supply chains, and I recognised how I would only understand these dependencies better in a different role and geography.
What drew you to an overseas opportunity, and what was it like to make such a big, international move with a young family?
After leaving my role and several months of absolutely nothing, I finally landed several second-round interviews. Two roles were based in the U.S., one based in Switzerland, and one based in Singapore. The Singapore opportunity would force me to apply sustainability concepts across a dozen or so countries, while engaging directly with companies in these countries that were making the products and employing locals. It was a role that I had essentially created, and I would be working for a global asset manager for the first time. Despite all the uncertainties, the possibilities are exactly what drew me to it. It sounded like a business student’s dream!
We had no plans to move to Asia, even though my spouse and I are of mixed-Asian heritage. Singapore specifically would expose the family to a lot of similar values, so between the job and personal values, we said yes! I spent 4 months in the U.S. in my role, working on mixed time zones since a majority of the team was in Singapore and Hong Kong. I even gave myself jet lag a few times to prove my commitment.
After the probation period, we waited for the Singapore work visa to come in. When we finally heard, we had exactly 6 weeks to downsize and relocate. We were ready to leave, but integrating into a very different place still under COVID-19 restrictions was a different story. A lot surprised us from the weather, how widely Mandarin is preferred, and how rules-based everything was, among other things. I went into the office full-time two weeks after arriving, leaving my spouse and son to sort things out separately. I wish I could say we enjoyed the process, but every step, while exciting, was also overwhelming.
What did you learn about yourself through this time, both inside and outside of work?
Given everything was so new and I had no blueprint for my role as the first and only dedicated team member working on the ESG program, I learned how entrepreneurial, creative, and persistent I can be. Overtime, I learned to lean on everything I had learned from my non-linear career path. Frankly, I don’t think I would have made it very far otherwise.
I also learned that I still needed a lot of help prioritising and putting things into perspective. I had never been in a role where I was the only point person for an entire subject matter. I was perpetually behind and overwhelmed with the constant bombardment of requests. I began to regret not being a specialist in any one environmental or social topic and started to doubt my own abilities. This also led to long and late hours day-after-day. I missed a lot of my toddler’s growth and was an absent partner to my spouse who was also going through a transition as the trailing spouse in a country where he had no right to work.
Eventually, I learned how my commitment to family, my health, and my values were integral to finding balance. I also recognised how much I should not suffer alone and found new friendships (both long-time expats and locals) with others in the same industry working on entirely different parts of the sustainability puzzle, which helped me grow professionally and ground my own perspectives on life.
Ultimately, these personal learnings would lead to the next big change in 2025!
How do you navigate that change, especially in a foreign country with added uncertainty?
Having an extremely supportive partner helped. But as time went on, we both experienced our own transition struggles, and we couldn’t always be present for each other. The sudden retirement of my supervisor (who sponsored my role) six months after I relocated to Singapore left me in limbo. Adding to that was the sudden loss of a friend around the same time I gave birth to my second child. With no family or strong support network around, all these changes often became too much.
I needed to find a community and my identify outside my work/home life so I started to network as much as I could. That helped immensely and reminded me of how professionally experienced and emotionally sound I was (most of the time). I particularly found it useful to find some women-focused networks. I have made wonderful lifelong friends in the process.
I had never been one of those moms who felt my children were my world the moment they came into my life, but during this period, I realised how much they and my partner were the nucleus of my life. I made a conscious effort to be present while traveling more around the region, which constantly reminded me of how grateful I was for the international experience despite all the challenges.
Have you faced any visa and immigration challenges during this time? How has being an expat affected you?
Yes. Everything changed as I approached my fourth year with my company at the end of 2024. A lot of circumstances led to separating from my employer, which effectively cancelled my work visa and all dependent visas in mid-2025. The cancelling of dependent visas meant my eldest was unable to go to school, which was difficult to explain or watch. We were initially denied student passes (which would allow our children to continue to stay) and permanent residency. As Americans, we had 90-days to leave Singapore.
Being an expat here presents several barriers: work visa sponsorship by a single employer and a high minimum salary requirement. This means company-sponsoredexpat jobs are high-income earning and primarily in the financial sector. In a very uncertain economy, roles were few and far between, and local employers were unable to meet the expat salary requirement.. We again found ourselves on the brink of packing up our entire lives.
Knowing “where next” is a common struggle for expats anywhere in the world. The process has made me more certain about the type of work I want to do, the systems I want to be part of, and the values I have forwork and my family.
At what point did you start to feel like maybe the path forward wasn’t about returning, but about creating something new?
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur someday, but doing it as a foreigner in a very expensive city with a young family was not a risk I was willing to take. My father did the same in Silicon Valley, and I recall how difficult the experience was. I signed my separation agreement in December 2024 and by April 2025, I still had very few job prospects. My friend presented the idea of taking over co-ownership of a company she started a few years ago, which I had long been a fan of, and the light went off. I couldn’t sleep that night and jotted down my plans on my phone. Almost exactly 7 weeks later, I was relived to be granted a two-year working visa as a new co-owner and director of the company.
How did your non-linear, colorful background go from feeling like a question mark to becoming your biggest asset?
I started my career in risk advisory services at a Big 4, dabbled in non-profit fundraising and pipeline management, spent four years in purpose-focused communications serving non-profit and corporate clients from brand positioning to producing ESG/sustainability reports, before pivoting into a responsible investment role in Singapore.
In my entrepreneurial role today, I have used essentially every skill I’ve learned from risk management, marketing, business development, project management, you name it! As an entrepreneur, you need to be capital and time smart. You need to be detailed and see the big picture. Everything is strategic.
What I keep learning as I encounter a new challenge is that while I may not have done the task, I have the skills to sort through it because of my diverse background.
What are you building now, and how is it shaped by everything you’ve learned from the pivots, pauses, and plot twists?
Today, I am building Coral CoLab, a professional collective of experienced, multidisciplinary, sustainability and social impact professionals with deep experience and networks across Asia. We serve impact-driven investors and organisations that want to deliver real impact but lack the capacity or expertise to do it alone. I help to identify fractional professionals who agree to work together under one system because society's challenges must be approached with a systems view.
I have often regretted being a sustainability and social impact generalist. It’s difficult to market an ability to “translate” environmental and social challenges across stakeholders and what the benefits of being able to develop whole systems and procedures around these challenges are. Today, I am learning that all my pivots have made me uniquely capable of bringing together and supporting sustainability topic experts, while simultaneously building a company and a culture with the right values.
What would you say to someone who’s also navigating a path that doesn’t fit in a straight line, especially across borders or industries?
I won’t say to follow your dreams because that is not always possible nor is it always clear what your dreams even are. I’d tell someone to follow their interests and values. Practice pragmatism and preserve and build relationships, because you never know when they come to play. Understand that it’s not possible to take risks all the time. Money does matter to a certain extent. But, if you follow your interests and values, this will shape into what you’re meant to do because you would have and will have remained true to who you are no matter what you decide.
Want to follow Azwa’s next chapter? Follow her on LinkedIn
