Our Mission
We leverage our global experience in strategy and business development to support organisations in developing their strategy, roadmap and leadership talent, enabling them to grow across borders with Asia. We prepare Asian leaders to have successful and fulfilling global careers
Developing business
We leverage our global experience in strategy and business development to help organisations identify and implement their growth strategy and roadmap to capture value-creating opportunities across borders with Asia. We help them evaluate market opportunities, define aspiration and roadmap, navigate the foreign business culture and relationships, assess and cultivate leadership talent, and develop strategic partnerships.
Developing leaders
We combine our global leadership development experience and executive coaching solutions to support Asian executives to become global leaders. We help them raise aspirations, build confidence, develop professional networks, hone leadership skills, and engage as a high-performing team to succeed in globally ambitious organisations. We do that through tailored individual or group development programs.
The Fortytude story
Fortytude originated from “fortitude”, which means courage. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Patience and fortitude conquer all things.” It's a spirit that underpins growth and leadership.
Forty signifies latitude 40° North. Here lie the great cities of Rome and Beijing, capitals of two very entrepreneurial nations, where Fortytude was conceived. Our ambition, however, goes beyond connecting just two regions. Like latitude 40° North, we want to reach other great cities, such as New York, Istanbul, and more.
Our founder
Eugenia Jingyou Chen grew up at the periphery of Shanghai in a ship-builder’s family. After getting her engineering degree at Shanghai Jiaotong, a leading Chinese university, she pursued an international career in professional services, spending 25 years at two global firms: McKinsey & Company, the leading management consulting firm, and The Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group), a global bank headquartered in the UK.
Her career brought together strategy and management consulting, and corporate and institutional banking in China, Southeast Asia and Europe. As consultant, she advised companies on their market-entry and growth strategy in Europe and Asia; as banker, she managed strategic alliances and commercial relationships between major European, Chinese and Southeast Asian financial institutions. Eugenia is an MBA graduate from INSEAD and a certified Executive Coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Her passion for helping leaders build confidence, develop leadership skills, and cultivate international business relationships to realise their global growth ambitions led her to set up Fortytude Advisory whilst working in Italy. She not only leverages her own insights and experience, but also those of her business partners, to help clients raise aspirations and drive results.