01
Governance that supports the business
Build clearer oversight, accountability and decision-making as the business grows.
- Board and committee effectiveness
- Risk oversight and internal controls
- Professionalisation and succession discussions
Boardrooms. Businesses. Life.
Experience is useful only when it is shared.
Board advisor · Governance practitioner · Mentor · Writer
I help business owners, boards and leaders think through finance, governance, risk and growth—with lessons from three decades inside and outside the boardroom.
Three decades of perspectiveAudit, corporate finance and governance
Former CFO, Rio Tinto IndonesiaExperience with complex business decisions
Boards, founders & emerging leadersIndependent oversight and practical mentoring
For boards & business owners
A thoughtful voice
for consequential decisions.
Growth brings decisions that spreadsheets alone cannot answer. I work with owners, boards and CEOs—including family-owned and non-listed businesses—to bring perspective, ask useful questions and connect strategy with financial discipline.
02
Finance with a strategic lens
Look beyond the reporting pack to the choices shaping performance, resilience and value.
- Financial performance and cash flow
- Investment and capital allocation
- Strategy, growth and business risk
03
A sounding board for leadership
Make space for candid conversations before difficult decisions become urgent.
- Independent perspective for owners and CEOs
- Leadership transitions and transformation
- Mentoring finance and business leaders
Engagements can take the form of an advisory relationship, a board or committee appointment, or focused mentoring—depending on the needs of the business.
About Herwan
From checking the numbers
to asking better questions.
A career is a journey.
Mine is still unfolding.
- 1995–2005
Audit and assurance, beginning at Coopers & Lybrand and continuing at PwC
- 2005–2019
CFO, Rio Tinto Indonesia
- 2019–2020
Managing Director, AWR Lloyd
- 2020 onward
A portfolio career in governance, advisory, mentoring and writing
I began my career as an auditor, then spent fourteen years as CFO of Rio Tinto Indonesia. I went on to become Managing Director at AWR Lloyd, a boutique strategy consulting and M&A advisory firm. Those chapters taught me to appreciate both the discipline of numbers and the human judgement behind every decision.
Today, I bring that experience to independent oversight, advisory work and mentoring. My interest is practical: how can better governance help a business make better decisions?
Outside the boardroom, I write about careers, reinvention, family and life. Running has taught me something useful too: progress is not always fast, and occasionally walking is part of getting to the finish line.
I share what I have learned—including the mistakes. They tend to make the better stories.
Connect with me on LinkedIn ↗Ideas worth sharing
Boardroom & beyond.
Reflections on governance, leadership and the less tidy parts of working life. Written from experience, with room for curiosity and a little humour.
Governance & technology
Power needs judgement.
AI can be as useful as fire and water. Its value depends on how we direct it, oversee it and take responsibility for its use.
Boards & business
Beyond the compliance checklist.
The more useful governance question: what changes in the way a business decides, acts and learns?
Careers & reinvention
The next chapter is not always planned.
Lessons from moving out of a corporate role and building a portfolio career—one conversation and one decision at a time.
MentorWithHerwan
A place to share experience, explore ideas and keep learning together.
For curious readers
Some lessons need
a little more room.
Stories about the journeys that shape us: work, reinvention, family, and the things we discover along the way.
Misi: Lima Puluh!
Fifty reflections from a half-century of life, work, travel and learning. First published to mark my fiftieth birthday in 2022.
Setelah: Lima Puluh!
The journey continues after fifty—with new questions about purpose, work, change and sharing what we have learned.
Dari Yushui ke Billiton
A family story tracing Kung-Kung’s journey from his Hakka village in China to a new life in Belitung—and the memories passed to the next generation. The current edition is complete and has been shared on LinkedIn.
Speaking & mentoring
Experience shared.
Conversations opened.
I speak with boards, finance teams and professionals about the choices behind leadership, governance and career reinvention. I also mentor founders and emerging leaders who benefit from a candid, experienced sounding board.
- Governance beyond compliance
- Strategic finance and business judgement
- AI, risk and accountable leadership
- Career reinvention and portfolio careers
- Leadership lessons from inside the boardroom
Endeavor Indonesia mentor since 2022.
Endeavor Mentor of the Year, 2024.