Alison Lester is a Singapore-based consultant specialising communication, presentation, leadership and confidence coaching. She has developed programmes for companies as diverse as CNBC Asia, McDonald’s, IDC, DDB, O2, Goldman Sachs, Coutts, Swarovski and the Young Presidents’ Organisation. In Singapore she has worked as a soft-skills trainer at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research from 2009 to 2010 and as a consultant trainer at Bossard from 2005 to 2008.

A citizen of the world who speaks Mandarin, Japanese and French, she arrived in Singapore in 1999 after spending eight years in Tokyo. In Japan she worked as an editor in the banking industry, performed stand-up and improvised comedy at The Tokyo Comedy Store and published freelance magazine articles.

Before coming to Asia in 1991, she held the position of Desk Officer for Singapore and Malaysia at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

A prolific writer, she has published a collection of short stories entitled “Locked Out: Stories Far from Home” (Monsoon Books, 2006), a book on presentation skills, “Present for Success” (Marshall Cavendish International Asia, 2009), and a collection of essays on communication, “Restroom Reflections: How Communication Changes Everything” (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011).