In the dynamic landscape of Asian business, where innovation and responsibility are increasingly intertwined, certain individuals stand out as catalysts for meaningful change. Esther Chow, the sharp and forward-thinking head of product for Lestar at Mandrill Tech, is undoubtedly one such figure.
As the driving force behind the groundbreaking Lestar ESG platform, Esther is not just navigating the complexities of environmental, social, and governance factors; she’s actively reshaping how businesses in the region approach sustainability, transforming it from a burdensome obligation into a strategic advantage.
Esther’s journey to the helm of Lestar is rooted in a deep-seated commitment to efficiency and growth. “My career has always centred on optimising business operations,” she explains, her pragmatic approach evident even in conversation.
“When Mandrill Tech asked me to seek new efficiency levers, I turned the same lens outward and spotted a bigger hurdle: companies were scrambling to meet sustainability mandates yet struggled to prove any commercial return. Compliance felt like a cost centre, not a value driver.”
This observation sparked a conviction: genuine sustainability and long-term profitability are not mutually exclusive but intrinsically linked. It was this belief that laid the foundation for Lestar, an AI-powered platform designed to convert ESG obligations into tangible business advantages.
The core problem Lestar tackles is one familiar to many organisations: the cumbersome and often inefficient process of ESG disclosure. As Esther elaborates, “Most organisations still wrestle with spreadsheets, siloed systems, and manual consolidation to satisfy ESG disclosure requirements. The process is slow, costly and error-prone, yielding static and quickly outdated reports that add little strategic value.”
Lestar offers a refreshing alternative, streamlining data capture, automatically mapping it to global frameworks, and employing AI to identify anomalies and gaps. The result is a dynamic “single source of ESG truth,” empowering finance, sustainability, and board teams with real-time insights for confident strategic decision-making.
The values underpinning both Mandrill Tech and Lestar are clear: transparency, impact, and perpetual learning. For Esther, Lestar is the tangible embodiment of these principles. The platform provides clients a clear line of sight into their ESG data, fosters accountability, and translates insights into measurable action.
Furthermore, recognising the ever-evolving nature of sustainability standards, Lestar’s architecture is built for continuous enhancement, ensuring clients remain at the forefront of best practice. The overarching mission is ambitious yet clear: to deliver enterprise-grade sustainability analytics affordably to companies of all sizes, across the board.
Bringing such a comprehensive platform to life was not without its challenges. Esther highlights the initial “data heterogeneity” hurdle, with ESG metrics scattered across disparate systems. The solution was a clever library of configurable connectors and mapping templates.
Navigating the “regulatory flux” of ever-changing disclosure requirements was another key challenge, overcome by designing Lestar’s schema with modular building blocks for seamless integration of new metrics.
Finally, addressing “change-management fatigue” within sustainability teams required a focus on simplicity, intuitive dashboards, and dedicated support, transforming initial scepticism into sustained engagement.
Looking to the future, Esther is brimming with exciting developments for Lestar. News Hub Asia readers will get an exclusive glimpse into upcoming features, including fully integrated carbon accounting modules for automated footprint analysis and Lestar Co-Pilot, an LLM-powered assistant that transforms data into compelling narratives for stakeholder engagement. The enhanced analytics engine will feature anomaly detection, identifying hidden risks, while piloting a live monitoring module will keep users ahead of evolving global ESG requirements and highlight disclosure gaps.
Beyond the impressive technical capabilities, Esther’s vision for Lestar’s impact is profound. She hopes to slash the time Malaysian companies spend on ESG disclosures by at least 60 per cent, freeing up valuable resources for strategic initiatives and innovation. This collective efficiency boost, she believes, will elevate national reporting standards and set a benchmark for the wider Asian region.
Ultimately, a reliable and real-time understanding of ESG performance will enable investors and lenders to channel capital towards businesses genuinely committed to climate resilience and social equity, fostering both economic growth and sustainable development.
For those in the tech industry eager to contribute to impactful solutions like Lestar, Esther offers insightful advice. She emphasises the importance of broadening one’s expertise beyond pure technology to gain a genuine understanding of the domain being served. She advocates for a holistic view of systems, focusing on easing friction points across the entire workflow, and stresses the need for a “learner’s mindset” in the rapidly evolving landscape of ESG and AI.
Above all, Esther champions empathy, urging individuals to step into the shoes of their users to create solutions that are not only innovative but also genuinely impactful and sustainable in the long run.
Esther Chow’s dedication and vision are not just shaping Lestar ESG; they are contributing to a more sustainable and responsible future for businesses across Asia. Her journey, driven by a passion for efficiency and a commitment to impactful solutions, serves as an inspiring example of how technology, when guided by a clear purpose, can be a powerful force for good.
As Lestar continues to evolve under her leadership, the platform promises to be a crucial tool in the region’s transition towards a more sustainable and prosperous future. 
