A career that never followed a straight line.
Professional tennis player. Sustainability executive. Academic. Entrepreneur. Speaker. Author. The titles have changed. The thread running through them has not: curiosity, resilience, purpose and a desire to turn ideas into meaningful action.
Dr Kaushik Sridhar, PhD, FGIA, GAICD, brings more than 22 years of sustainability and ESG experience together with a life shaped by elite sport, education, leadership, entrepreneurship and moments that fundamentally changed his perspective.
The dots make more sense looking backwards.
Born in India and raised in Nigeria, Kaushik left home at 13 to train at the John Newcombe Tennis Academy in Texas. He later competed professionally before a new chapter brought him to Australia, university, a PhD and an entirely different arena: sustainability and ESG.
What followed was a career spanning corporate leadership, Big 4 consulting, academia, boardrooms, executive education, entrepreneurship and international speaking. Each chapter looked different, but each reinforced the same lesson: progress rarely requires a perfect plan. It requires clarity about the next useful step.
Different arenas. The same instinct to keep learning.
From sustainability practitioner to trusted adviser.
Across more than two decades, Kaushik has worked in consulting, Big 4 and corporate environments spanning resources, healthcare, financial services, energy, property, technology and professional services. His work has centred on making sustainability practical: strategy, governance, climate risk, reporting, decarbonisation, social impact, human rights and organisational capability.
Today, through Orka Advisory, he works with boards, executives and teams to connect sustainability ambition with business value, stronger decision-making and implementation.
Teaching has always been part of the work.
Alongside corporate and advisory roles, Kaushik has built a substantial teaching and thought-leadership career. He lectures in leadership, governance, sustainable business and climate reporting, publishes across industry and academic outlets, and designs executive programs that make complex ideas accessible and useful.
For Kaushik, education is not separate from practice. It is how ideas become capability.
Then life changed the question.
In 2023, a journey through the Middle East turned into an abduction. The experience reshaped Kaushik's relationship with fear, uncertainty, success and purpose. Rather than making the event the centre of the story, he has used it as a lens for a bigger question: how do we lead, decide and keep moving when we are not in control?
Those lessons now sit at the heart of his resilience and purpose talks and his memoir, Kidnapped by Hezbollah: Freed by Purpose.
Recognition across sustainability, leadership and impact.
A selected snapshot rather than a wall of trophies. The common thread is practical impact, leadership and the ability to turn sustainability ambition into something organisations can act on.
ESG Consultancy of the Year
Recognition of the advisory platform Kaushik founded to help organisations turn sustainability, climate and ESG ambition into practical action.
ESG Impact Leader of the Year
Recognition for leadership and tangible impact across environmental, social and governance practice.
Green Leader of the Year
Recognised for leadership in sustainability and practical environmental impact.
ESG Thought Leader of the Year
Recognition for helping translate ESG from abstract ambition into decision-useful ideas and action.
40 Under 40: Most Influential Asian-Australians
Recognised among emerging Asian-Australian leaders making an impact across business and community.
#8 in the Top 100 CSR Influence Leaders
Global recognition for influence and thought leadership in corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
Future of Ageing Sustainability Award
Recognition of sustainability leadership and implementation within the aged care sector.
Ideas that travel beyond the room.
Kaushik's writing spans climate risk, ESG, sustainability, leadership, careers and purpose, across industry publications, newspapers, academic journals and book chapters.
100+ industry publications
Published across sustainability, ESG, business and leadership outlets, including Eco-Business, WION News, Pro Bono Australia, The Fifth Estate and other industry platforms.
ESG is fragmenting – how should businesses respond?
A practical look at what changing ESG expectations mean for organisations trying to navigate a more complex global landscape.
AI is becoming the new engine of climate risk assessment – should we be worried?
Exploring the opportunities and limits of artificial intelligence as climate risk analysis becomes more sophisticated.
Climate risk is now a financial risk
Why boards can no longer treat climate as a sustainability-only issue and what that means for governance and decision-making.
20 peer-reviewed journal articles
Research spanning sustainability, reporting, governance, social responsibility and the evolution of the Triple Bottom Line.
3 academic book chapters
Contributions covering sustainability, leadership and environmental reporting alongside two personally authored books for wider audiences.
Writing for the community, not just the boardroom
Guest columns have explored sustainability, resilience, social issues and everyday choices through outlets including the South Sydney Herald and Docklands News.
From ESG complexity to deeply personal stories.
Kaushik speaks across business, universities, conferences and community audiences on sustainability, leadership, resilience, purpose and navigating uncertainty.
Ideas built for the stage
Three TED/TEDx talks exploring sustainability, purpose, impact and the choices that shape how we lead.
The Dot That Changes Everything
A journey through fear, failure and freedom, connecting personal experience with resilience, perspective and purposeful leadership.
Clarity in Chaos
A practical conversation about leading and making decisions when certainty is unavailable.
ESG & Climate Reporting
Making climate reporting and ESG requirements relevant to finance, governance and real business decisions.
From Purpose to Impact
Exploring what it means to build the future you believe in and move from intention to meaningful action.
Elevate Your Career
Career, leadership and self-belief lessons designed to help emerging professionals make more intentional choices.
A different kind of stage.
A visual snapshot of television appearances, from quiz shows to conversations about wellbeing and resilience.
Ideas in print.
A visual archive of columns and newspaper features spanning sustainability, community, careers and social impact.
The details that explain some of the dots.
A career page can tell you what someone has done. These are some of the details that explain how Kaushik sees the world.
One person. Several ways to work together.
Today Kaushik works across speaking, writing, executive education, university teaching and advisory. Through Orka Advisory, he supports organisations on sustainability, climate, governance and ESG. Through his personal work, he speaks and writes about leadership, resilience, purpose and navigating uncertainty.