In an effort to ensure that our value propositions remain relevant, reliable and rewarding for the individuals, teams and organizations we serve, we only engage the very best Keynote Speakers, Program Facilitators and Professional Wealth Coaches from around the world to conduct DifferWorld's initiatives.

The following are just some of our faculty who bring with them their unique experiences and diverse sets of expertise to assist you meet your objectives.

Mr. Manoj Sharma ( The Manoj Sharma Blog )

Mr. Manoj Sharma is a Wealth Creator. He is also the Founder, CEO, Head of Faculty of DifferWorld and widely reputed to be one of the world's top professional coaches having working extensively with global senior executives and professionals.

Mr. Sharma specializes in assisting people and organizations boost their profitability, performance and fulfillment levels through a combination of strategic consultations, keynotes, coaching, training & development seminars, workshops, courses, programs and other initiatives.

His initiatives have exponentially benefited some of the global who’s who of organizations having worked with close to 30,000 individuals at varying levels across diverse industries and professionally coaching more than 500 people.

Mr. Sharma is also the creator and developer of DifferWorld’s Professional Technologies, Methodologies and Techniques, DifferWorld’s Individual & Organization True Wealth Models along with at least 30 other initiatives.

His depth of knowledge, wealth of experience, futuristic perspective, high competency levels and passion make him a highly sought after global thought leader.

Prior to founding DifferWorld, Manoj worked and lived across Japan, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia & Australia in the capacity of an Executive Director, Group Business Development Director, Marketing & Communication Director, Content Director, Manager and Consultant with companies ranging from a Fortune 10 company to start-ups. The companies have been across diverse industries such as business consultancy, technology, entertainment, event management, health & beauty and education.

His current work focuses on providing forward looking individuals and organizations with the competitive advantages to move ahead of the curve. His straightforward approach and highly interactive style create a deeply engaging environment that allows leaders of global organizations to have the strategic insights to enhance mind sets, skill sets and business sets for both immediate and future benefit.

He is equally comfortable whether working with highly intelligent, committed and receptive individuals in small strategic settings or sharing keynote platforms with global leaders at international events.

Mr. Sharma has given keynotes and run initiatives for senior and junior leaders on professional wealth coaching, leadership enhancement, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurial mindsets, sales performance, communication effectiveness, wealth creation, strategic visioning, service excellence, correlating them towards increasing financial and non-financial wealth.

While he maintains ongoing research and development into more optimal ways for both people and organizations to boost profitability, performance and fulfillment levels, he also channels some of his time towards encouraging successful leaders at the top of their professions apply themselves not only to lead their own organizations but also assist in solving global challenges.

Simultaneously Mr. Sharma is also working on a project that is synthesizing the wisdom of top leaders having devoted much of his time towards the challenges confronting leaders in today’s rapidly changing hyper-competitive world.

Mr. Robert Panté

Mr. Robert Panté is a world renowned speaker, author and media personality. His peer refer to him as the guru of gurus.

So, when Robert Panté Speaks… people listen!

Robert’s world class skills have been honed by his vast number of group speaking engagements, one-on-one consulting and media experience.

He is also a pioneer of coaching having designed his own Life & Executive Coaching Courses. He has provided his coaching service to thousands of men and women, putting them into the driver’s seat of their life – thus creating personal and business success and circumstances that are truly fulfilling and satisfying.

As a master speaker Robert has conducted over 2,000 keynote speeches, seminars, workshops and symposiums. Robert has the power to set off a depth charge in eager minds and hearts. Robert Panté is a master motivational, inspirational and transformational speaker often referred to by his peers as the guru of gurus. He explodes "everyday people" into extraordinary achievers.

Robert Panté is fearless, confident and compassionate – holding back nothing – for the sake of empowering others. Always enthusiastic, inspired and cheerful, his accessible style of speaking resonates with his sense of mission. Robert's resolve awakens discerning eyes, ears, minds and hearts to the possibility of total success and achievement – by destroying the enemies of the mind and elevating plans of actions participants thrust forward towards greater success, prosperity and fuller self-realization.

John Manzella

John Manzella is a strategic communications consultant and global analyst, as well as an internationally recognized author and speaker on globalization, economic growth and international business. He focuses on shaping opinions, advocating positions to the US Members of Congress, and providing strategic analysis several of the world's largest corporations and associations.

John Manzella combines communications with global analysis to help companies make better decisions, shape opinions and achieve their objectives. He provides public affairs, public relations, custom publishing, speaking engagements and consulting services.

John has written several books and more than 500 articles, been featured on television, radio and in print, including The Wall Street Journal, and his work has appeared in The New York Times. His opinion pieces are distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services to over 450 newspapers and have appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Miami Herald.

Additionally, John has crafted position papers, published newsletters and reports, and managed issue-oriented grassroots campaigns.
John is the president of a strategic communications consultancy that provides public and government affairs, public relations and marketing, custom publishing, speaking engagements, and consulting services. As a member of The District Export Council, a position appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, he serves on the national Legislative Affairs subcommittee. Additionally, John is a founding member of the Board of Directors of The U.S.-China Institute, a non-profit educational organization based in Hawaii. His clients include the Business Roundtable, American International Group, Bank of America, AT&T, Exxon, The Boeing Company, Eastman Kodak, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Small Business Administration, Canadian Government, Jiangsu (China) Provincial Government, Jiangsu (China) Academy of Social Sciences, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Great American Insurance Group, Public Affairs Council, Federal Express, Emery Worldwide, Bankers’ Association for Finance and Trade, SunTrust Bank, KeyBank, Commerce Bank, California Bank & Trust, Zions Bank, Comerica, Vectra Bank Colorado, PNC Bank, Council of State Chambers of Commerce, APCO Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller, Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick, Amherst Police Club, Amherst Highway Employees Association, the custom publishing division of The New York Times, and many world trade centers and state chambers of commerce.

Early in his career, John gained experience on the Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs in Washington, D.C., and held the position of Director of Marketing and Sales fortwo Western New York manufacturers.

Some of Mr. Manzella's most in demand programs include The Global Challenge: Adapt or Perish, The China Policy: Making the Right Decisions in an Age Of Globalization and How To Shape Opinions on Today's Global Economic Issues.

Flip Haagsma

With his 38 years of corporate experience, the last 25 years of which were invested on managing the environmental, health and safety issues for Shell, Flip brings his leadership strengths in diversity, team and cultural development to corporations that are ready for the next level of change and development: whole system change.

During the last 10 years, living and working in Singapore, he realized that perfecting equipment and improving systems and procedures are not the only important elements to guarantee success in health, safety and organizational development. In his search for solutions in developing human capital, in his area of responsibility, he acquired additional skills and knowledge in the fields of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Spiral Dynamics, and Ken Wilber's Four Quadrants. This added even more depth and breadth to his work.

These skills, combined with his global work experience with multicultural groups have given his greater insight into human behaviour and corporate development. He has shared his knowledge through customized workshops and presentations with a variety of groups outside of Shell and at International Conferences.

His exceptional coaching skills have supported change on a personal and professional level. His style is open, frank and enthusiastic, which supports receptivity and creates the ideal environment for change and effective learning.

Flip is a Chemical Engineer (B.Sc.), a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming Consultant and Trainer from the NLP University (USA) as well as a certified practitioner of the Cultural Transformation Tools (CCT). Other qualifications include: NLP Practitioner of Advanced Timeline Therapy and NLP Health Practitioner (NLP-U USA).

Dr. Wirtz is one of the leading authorities in Services Marketing in Asia. He is an Associate Professor of Marketing with the NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, and the Academic Co-Director of the UCLA – NUS Executive MBA Program, and member of the NUS Business School Management Committee.

Dr. Wirtz’s research focuses on service management related topics such as service satisfaction, customer feedback systems, service guarantees, and revenue management. His research has been published in some 60 academic journal papers, incl. in Harvard Business Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Psychology & Marketing. Dr. Wirtz serves on the editorial review boards of eight journals, including the Cornell Quarterly, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Research, and Managing Service Quality. In addition, he has published some 80 conference papers, 10 books, and over 40 book chapters. His book Services Marketing – People, Technology, Strategy, 6th edition, co-authored with Professor Lovelock of Yale University, has become the top services marketing text book globally. In 2005, Dr. Wirtz chaired the American Marketing Association-sponsored SERVSIG (Services Special Interest Group) Research Conference (www.servsig2005.org) at NUS – this was the first time this global conference was held in Asia.

In recognition of his excellence in research, Dr Wirtz received eight research awards, including the ‘Emerald Literati Club 2003 Award for Excellence’ for the ‘Most Outstanding Paper’ of the year in the International Journal of Service Industry Management (IJSIM); the ‘Emerald Literati Club Highly Commended Award for Excellence’ in 2002 for a publication in the IJSIM; the ‘Emerald Literati Club 2006 Highly Commended Award for Excellence’ for a paper in Managing Service Quality; and the Best Paper Award at The Hospitality & Tourism Educators 2001 Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada, and the ‘MCB University Press Literati Club 2000 Award for Excellence’ for a paper in the IJSIM.

In recognition of his excellence in instruction, Dr. Wirtz has received seven teaching awards, including the University-level ‘Outstanding Educator Award 2003.’ This award was given only to two top educators in 2003 out of some 2,500 professors at the National University of Singapore (www.nus.edu.sg/uawards). Furthermore, he won the University Teaching Excellence Award 2006, the Faculty Outstanding Educator Award 2005/06, was the top-ranked instructor of the NUS Business School for the University-level Teaching Award in 2002, and won the Outstanding Educator Award of the Year of the NUS Business School in 2001, the Award for Excellence in Instruction from the MBA Alumni in 1999, and several Commendations for Teaching Excellence from the NUS Business School.

Outside academia, Dr. Wirtz has been an active management consultant working with a number of consulting firms in Asia and Europe, including Accenture, Arthur D.Little, and KPMG. His work has been mainly in the areas of Strategy, Business Development and Service Management (including CRM, Churn Management, and LTV). In Asia, Dr. Wirtz has consulted with blue chip clients such as Allianz, American Express, Citibank, the Defence Science & Technology Agency in Singapore, Jurong Town Corporation, LG Capital, MobileOne, Motorola, PCCW HKT, Philips Customer Care Centres, Shanghai Post and Telephone, Singapore Tourist Board, Shell, SK Telecom, Singapore Airlines, Sony, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Dr. Wirtz received his Ph.D. from the London Business School in Services Marketing, has a BA (Hons) in Marketing and Accounting, and holds a professional certification in banking from Germany. Dr. Wirtz was originally from Germany, and moved to Asia in 1992 after studying and working in London for seven years.

Ms Marion Nicole Teo

Marion Nicole Teo is a well-known Image Building Consultant and holds an Honours degree in Biochemistry from the National University of Singapore. She was Miss Singapore Universe 1987 and represented the nation in the Miss Universe pageant where she did Singapore proud as one of the semi-finalists.

Today, Marion has successfully trained over 10,000 staff, students and individuals from diverse industries in the area of Image Enhancement, service quality and personal effectiveness. Marion has developed a local brand of theory to infuse the Singapore culture, business situations and attitudes to the advantage of everyone. It also focuses on handling people from different countries and cultures, which is very important in today’s very competitive world.

Marion has made a name for herself in the grooming industry with clients such as the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Singapore Airlines (SIA). In these instances, she has provided consulting services in the areas of developing and implementing grooming standards. Other clients trained include Great Eastern Life Assurance Co Ltd, Singapore Retailer’s Association, Civil Service College, Singapore Polytechnic, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Tourism Board, National Library of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

Ms. Tan Lay Kuan

Ms. Tan Lay Kuan is a highly engaging, compassionate and dynamic facilitator.

A former Chief Financial Officer of a public listed company she has also played multiple financial roles for US multi-national companies across the United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand in training, publishing and manufacturing.

As a Certified Professional Coach she is passionate about helping people realize their full potential, find fulfillment in their lives, take pride in themselves and deliver exceptional service.

Lay Kuan brings with her a unique cross-cultural senior management and humanistic perspective to any education, development and coaching environment. Her strengths in being able to relate to people at all levels, communicating powerfully with them and bringing out the best in them makes her initiatives high valuable. Lay Kuan holds a Master of Science degree in Management Studies from Brunel University, UK. She is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) as well as the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA).