RS
Richard Sutherland
Founding Partner
Former CFO and non-executive director with twenty years across financial services and family conglomerates in the Asia-Pacific region. Leads Board Preparation and governance advisory work.
Our Practice
A Practice Built Around Careful Counsel
Meridian Counsel was established to offer senior leaders something genuinely rare — an independent, unhurried space to think clearly about what matters.
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Our Story
How Meridian Counsel Came to Be
Meridian Counsel began from a straightforward observation: many of the most consequential conversations that senior leaders need to have, they have nowhere to have them. Their colleagues are inside the same pressures. Their boards occupy a different role. Their advisors are usually employed by firms with their own interests.
The practice was founded in Bangkok in 2017 by two individuals who had spent their careers working inside organisations — in executive roles, in governance advisory, and in the kind of work that requires sustained, honest engagement with complex problems. They had each experienced, firsthand, how valuable a truly independent interlocutor could be.
From the beginning, the intention was to remain small and focused. We do not seek scale. The value of what we offer depends on the depth of attention we bring to each engagement, and that requires limits on how many clients we work with at any one time.
Our work is based in Bangkok, with clients across Thailand and the wider Southeast Asian region. We work in English and across the professional contexts common to multinational operations, family businesses, and locally rooted organisations alike.
Mission & Values
What We Stand For
Independence, without agenda
Our usefulness depends entirely on having no stake in the outcome of any decision. We protect that independence carefully.
Listening before speaking
The most useful thing we can do, most of the time, is understand the situation more thoroughly before offering any view. We take that step seriously.
Confidentiality as a foundation
Nothing said in our engagements leaves the room. This is not a policy — it is how the work functions.
Clarity over comfort
We will say the honest thing. Gently, and with care — but clearly. Reassurance that isn't earned does nobody any good.
The Team
Who You Work With
Our advisors are practitioners, not academics. Each brings firsthand experience of the pressures and decisions that senior leaders navigate.
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Nattaporn Lertwattana
Senior Advisor
An organisational psychologist and former HR director whose practice focuses on executive transitions and leadership development across Thai and multinational organisations.
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Marcus Willard
Associate Advisor
Strategy practitioner with a background in management consulting and private equity. Works alongside clients on the analytical and structural dimensions of significant decisions.
Standards & Protocols
How We Maintain Quality
The quality of advisory work is hard to codify, but the conditions that allow it are not. These are the commitments we hold ourselves to.
Mutual Confidentiality Agreement
Every engagement begins with a signed confidentiality agreement covering both parties. We do not start substantive work before this is in place.
Conflict of Interest Review
Before accepting any engagement, we check for potential conflicts with current or recent client relationships. If one exists, we disclose it and discuss how to proceed — or decline.
Peer Review Process
Complex engagements — particularly Board Preparation work — are reviewed internally before delivery. We do not rely solely on one advisor's perspective.
Data & Document Security
Client documents are stored in encrypted environments with access limited to the assigned advisor. We do not retain materials beyond the engagement without explicit agreement.
Continued Professional Development
Our advisors maintain active engagement with the fields of governance, leadership psychology, and strategy through reading, peer exchange, and participation in regional professional networks.
End-of-Engagement Reflection
At the close of each project engagement, we invite structured feedback. We use this to adjust our approach — and to understand what we could have done better.
About Our Work
Business Consulting in Bangkok
Meridian Counsel provides senior advisory services to leadership teams, individual executives, and business owners across Bangkok and the broader Southeast Asian region. Our three engagements — Board Preparation, Executive Onboarding Support, and the Standing Conversation — address the most significant points of pressure in senior leadership: the high-stakes board discussion, the difficult first months in a new role, and the sustained need for clear thinking over time.
What distinguishes our work from conventional consulting is the absence of frameworks, reports, and deliverable-heavy engagements. We work through conversation. The value we offer is in the quality of the listening and the thinking — not in documentation volume. Leaders who benefit most from our approach are those who already have access to technical expertise and what they need is someone to think alongside, independently and carefully.
Bangkok's business environment presents a particular set of challenges for senior leaders. The interplay between multinational expectations and local operational realities, the governance structures common to Thai family businesses, and the pace of change across the region all create conditions where careful, independent counsel has real value. We have worked in this context long enough to understand its textures.
Our practice operates under a strict confidentiality framework. Client work is never discussed with third parties, and client names are never used for promotional purposes without explicit written permission. Many of our clients have worked with us for several years. Continuity of the relationship is part of what makes the work useful — an advisor who has accompanied a leader through previous decisions brings a depth of context that cannot be replicated in a short engagement.
Work Together
A conversation costs nothing but time
If you're curious about whether our work might be relevant to your situation, we're happy to talk. No sales process — just a direct conversation.
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