What I Built

Felix Sebastian’s 14-year leadership + operator retrospectiveFrom building systems to steering globally distributed firms, I’ve led with one goal, to make ideas real: fast, ethically, and at scale. The vignettes below go deeper than a traditional résumé while still respecting confidentiality agreements (public info only; no sensitive numbers) with AsiaEdit (GM & MD, 2021-2025) and Wallace (VP Ops, 2015-2019).I've organized this portfolio following Harvard Business School's Organizational Leadership framework, in which the leader serves as Beacon, as Architect, as Catalyst of Change and as Catalyst of Innovation.

How I Work:
My Operating & Leadership Philosophy

What to expect when you work with me.

Work‑Life Integration > Work‑Life Balance

I’ve never loved the “balance” metaphor, especially in a global, remote role where the calendar flexes across time zones, clients, family, and other responsibilities. I run my week in blocks: a morning deep‑work sprint; an afternoon block for calls, ops, and team reviews; hands‑on parenting + hang time with A (first‑time dad to an 11‑month‑old!); then a late‑evening sprint for catch‑up, Executive MBA coursework, or tasks for the orgs I volunteer for. The order shifts, but time‑blocking keeps the important things from cannibalizing each other. Turns out Microsoft’s researchers have a name for this rhythm: the triple peak day.P.S. This whole website was built in 2 time-blocked sprints on the same day!

High‑Trust, Context‑Rich Leadership

I don’t micromanage, and I don’t perform well under managers who do. My job as a leader and colleague: clarify outcomes, give people context, remove blockers, and let them run. I’ll review metrics and decisions, sure, but if I’m checking task checkboxes, something upstream is broken (hiring, training, or trust).

Writing Is Thinking. Sharing Is Empowerment.

I process through writing: strategy memos, FAQs before a launch, “if/then” pathways when risk spikes. Sharing drafts early gives teammates the context to move without waiting for a meeting. I gatekeep only for confidentiality. Otherwise: default open.

Stress Sponge → Productive Pressure

Every leadership role comes with heat: deadlines, turnover risk, industry shock (hello, Gen‑AI), and life events. I aim to absorb that stress and turn it into structure: clearer sprints, reprioritized scope, calm escalation paths. Recent stress test: becoming a new dad while completing an intensive EMBA program during a major industry transition! I’m still (mostly) sane!

Bias for Shipping

Perfect is late; shipped can be iterated. Much of what I’ve built started as a version 0.8 that proved value, earned trust, and justified resourcing the version that scaled.

Felix as Beacon

Strategic direction & external advocacy

Drafted and Revised AsiaEdit’s Strategy Playbook (2022-25)

Following early work with our CEO and COO, I drafted a multi‑year strategy memo/playbook. Five days after it went to managers, ChatGPT launched, and suddenly every founder in academic language services was exploring “Gen AI + human.” A big part of my last two years: testing where Gen‑AI could commoditize the academic LSP stack, where human expertise remained defensible, and revising the strategy accordingly.Impact: Clear north-star for team managers, esp. through the Gen-AI shockwaveRead: AsiaEdit press release referencing my strategic role

Put AsiaEdit on the Global Map

While our client and freelancer relationships were solid our industry presence was thin. I pushed for deliberate outreach: shared webinars, conference meetups, founder‑to‑founder coffees. We built productive relationships with industry peers (special thanks: Avi Staiman (LSP), Daniel Heuman (Software), and Martin Delahunty (consulting)) and sent AsiaEdit’s first delegation to the 2025 London Book Fair (long overdue; catalytic).Impact: New partnership pipeline; faster market intel flow; credibility beyond our home region (Greater China)Read: Representative progressive industry engagement posts: 1 → 2

Brand Overhaul (in roll out)

In final wrap-up project at AsiaEdit, I co-led full brand repositioning—new visual ID, voice, and website (launching soon; announced to clients and mailing list).Impact: Future-proofed brand; strategic repositioning to support growth

Relationship Steward for Key Accounts

Primary exec contact for a UN‑affiliated climate initiative and other high‑value clients; handled escalations, renewals, multi‑stakeholder governance, custom workflows.Impact: Helped secure contract renewals and protect high‑value relationshipsRead: Representative Partnership Announcement

Felix As Architect

Designing systems, services, and enabling tech

De-facto Product Manager, Internal CRM

Before I stepped in, AsiaEdit’s in‑house CRM already powered core editing. What it couldn’t or didn’t handle well: emerging services, configurable add‑ons, packaged pricing, edge cases (non‑Word edits), and increasingly complex routing for layered services.I acted as a de‑facto product manager and led a multi‑release expansion path: scope the smallest new module a service needed, ship, watch usage, then progressively harden (refactor, document, automate, train) once demand proved durable.Impact: Supported launch/scale of new service lines without ripping out the core; reduced manual setup friction; enabled packaged pricing + upsellRead: AsiaEdit social post highlighting overhauled client‑facing CRM

Smart Editor Assignment

I rewrote and extended the CRM’s editor‑assignment logic so jobs routed to the right editor pool, not just first‑available, by scoring variables such as subject fit, internal performance data, commercial factors and turnaround window against each brief. The model surfaces an ordered recommendation; humans can override. Details (full variable set & weights) are proprietary.Impact: Better match quality, stronger margin discipline, more reliable assignment at scale

Designing & Scaling Revenue‑Generating Service Workflows

From the numerous services and service workflows I’ve designed and launched over my 14-year career, my service commercialization playbook is as follows:

We ran that loop repeatedly. A few of the bigger wins:

Gen AI‑Assisted Editing

Built from scratch: led testing, comparison scoring vs traditional editing, editor feedback, client messaging, pilot launch, CRM flagging/quoting. Live for a year+; later withdrawn as brand repositioned to emphasize human expertise front‑and‑center (learning fed into AI strategy refresh).Impact: Faster editing cycles (% improvement confidential); gave curious clients a safe, quality-assured AI on‑rampRead: First-authored publication in an industry journal & AsiaEdit Public Comms featuring AI-assisted editing

Overleaf/LaTeX Editing

Many STEM authors prefer Overleaf. I developed a bespoke workflow that enabled our editors to work within Overleaf without real-time client intervention or edit conflict.Impact: High stickiness in math/physics/engineering accounts; lowered friction → higher repeat submissionsRead: AsiaEdit Public Comms featuring Overleaf editingP.S. I designed that image, and I love it, ha!

Editor Consultation & Other Add‑Ons

Productized what used to be ad‑hoc advice and occasional but repeated requests; included in appropriate packages.Impact: Increased average order value

Tracked‑Change PDF Editing Workflow (Wallace; ~2015)

Before robust in‑app PDF diff tools, I engineered a technical workaround that let clients see edits and comments inline on PDFs, critical for regulated or layout‑locked documents.Impact: Opened doors with compliance‑sensitive customers; reduced friction in production editorial cycles

ISO 9001 Quality System (Wallace; 2017-18)

Architected a quality management system from scratch and led its ISO 9001 certificationImpact: Certified on first audit; QMS foundation still in use today

A‑to‑Z AsiaEdit CRM Guide (65 pp; up to date at departure)

I wrote and organized a full user + admin guide covering end‑to‑end CRM flows: Designed so anyone can step in with minimal handholding.Impact: Accelerated onboarding; protected institutional memory; lowered dependency risk post‑departure

Felix as Catalyst of Change and Innovation

Challenging the status quo & mobilising people (In addition to architect service innovations)

AI Adoption Push: From Skepticism to Live Service (Pilot → 12+ Month Run)

Gen‑AI headlines triggered everything from excitement to “this will destroy quality.” I argued for evidence. We assembled a cross‑functional testing squad, benchmarked multiple AI tools on de‑identified jobs, set quality + rework + client acceptance gates, and launched a limited AI‑assisted editing line using a dual‑vendor stack. Ran ~1 year; findings fed the 2025 strategy update.Impact: Built internal AI literacy; reduced fear‑driven decision cycles; created incremental revenue option; informed long‑term AI posture (vendor names & metrics redacted)

Pricing transformation (2024)

Led shift from à‑la‑carte to tiered bundles + add‑ons; rebuilt CRM config, sales quoting flows, and training.Impact: Higher average order value; offerings aligned with industry standard; improved UX/UI

Early Slack adoption (2015, Wallace)

Back when Slack was still new, advocated replacing 1:1 chat silos + messy email threads with Slack across ops, editors, QA, before it was as common as it is today.Impact: More efficient internal comms; fewer meetings; searchable memory.

Thought Leadership (Example)

My co-author and I reported surveys of primarily Chinese‑speaking multilingual authors’ attitudes toward AI for writing/editing, combined with practical experimentation data, and explored implications for authors and the professionals who support them.Impact: Cited in at least two academic/public research outputs (e.g., Roe et al. 2025; Kim & Danilina 2025) and referenced in multiple industry blogs.Read: Sebastian F, Baron R. Artificial intelligence: what the future holds for multilingual authors and editing professionals. Sci Ed. 2024;47:38-42.

Hands-on Experimentation (Example)

I launched ScholarSOS early this year as a personal sandbox to test platform concepts and hypotheses about the future of scholar support while still offering value to early users.Impact: Low‑cost self-learning; community goodwill.Read: My hypotheses for ScholarSOS.

Leader as Everything-Is-Figureoutable

Working at lean organizations meant that I’ve often had to wear multiple generalist hats, figuring things out along the way if I had no background in those fields. A few hands-on ops and “someone’s-got-to-do-it” moments