I’m Nathaniel Farouz (高天禮), a French-born operator, strategist, and anthropologist who has spent most of his career in Asia, building businesses at the intersection of care, culture, and commerce.
What I Do Now
I am the CEO of Sindora Living and CEO of Senior Living Asia, Keppel Ltd, based in Singapore. We design and operate senior living communities across Asia: places where older adults can lead active, fulfilling lives on their own terms, supported by personalized care, thoughtful design, and embedded technology.
Before Sindora, I spent nearly nine years as CEO of Orpea China (2013-2021), where I built and led one of the first foreign-operated eldercare networks in mainland China. We grew from a single facility to a portfolio of 4,000+ beds across Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Changsha, and other major cities, through a mix of direct investment, joint ventures (including with China Pacific Insurance, one of the country’s top three insurers), and management contracts. I also co-created a professional education program in elderly care with Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), graduating over 600 healthcare professionals.
I serve as a French Foreign Trade Advisor (Conseiller du Commerce extérieur de la France), appointed by the French Prime Minister.
Earlier Career
Before eldercare, I spent six years in industrial strategy and operations in China:
At Nestlé (Beijing), I led post-merger integration for the Hsu Fu Chi joint venture and served as an in-house strategy consultant to the CEO.
At Lafarge (now LafargeHolcim) (Kunming, Beijing), I rose from Strategy Analyst to Head of Strategy, Marketing & Business Development, managing M&A, cost competitiveness, and growth projects across China’s largest cement subsidiary.
These years gave me a working fluency in joint ventures, cross-cultural management, industrial operations, and large-scale execution in China: skills that directly inform how I build senior living platforms today.
The Anthropological Thread
My academic background spans management, public policy, and the humanities. I hold a Master in Management from HEC Paris and a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po (Paris). I also studied Mandarin Chinese at INALCO Langues O (Paris) and National Chengchi University (Taipei), the foundation for a career built in Asia. In parallel with my operational work, I later pursued a Master of Liberal Arts in Anthropology & Archaeology at Harvard University (2022-2025), studying cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, evolutionary biology, and linguistics.
This isn’t an ornamental credential. Anthropology reshapes how I approach senior living: it forces attention to what people actually do, feel, and need, as opposed to what systems assume. My ethnographic training informs facility design, care protocols, community programming, and the way we engage with families across vastly different cultural contexts.
I also hold certificates from Harvard Business School (Health Care Economics), INSEAD (Strategy & Finance), MIT Sloan (Applied Business Analytics), Stanford (Psychology of Addiction and Recovery), and Johns Hopkins (Dementia Care, Psychological First Aid).
Recognition
Eldercare Tech Innovation of the Year – Ageing Asia, 2025 (for Teresa, Sindora Living’s care management platform)
Senior Living Facility of the Year – Ageing Asia, 2025 (Sindora Living, Nanjing)
iF Design Award – 2024 (Service design: “Transiting into a Joyful Senior Living Journey”)
Nanjing City “Zijin” Friendship Ambassador – Nanjing City Government, 2023
Global Ageing Influencer – Ageing Asia, 2021
China’s Young Manager of the Year – French Chamber of Commerce (CCIFC), 2015
Personal
I speak French and English natively, Mandarin Chinese professionally, and I am trying to find time to improve my German, Hebrew, and Portuguese.
Outside of work, I practice wildlife photography (@balconynbeyond), document communities and rituals through visual anthropology (@natfarouz), and maintain a growing collection of ethnic headgear from across Asia (@hatsofhumanity).
Since 2009, I have supported Couleur de Chine, an organization sponsoring the education of ethnic minority children in southwest China.
For professional inquiries, please visit the Contact page or connect on LinkedIn.