Meet the Founder
Boon Pei Ya
Pei Ya started The Shoal Co. with a vision of fostering collaborative leadership and expanding inclusive participation in decision-making to co-create a just and regenerative world.
With over 16 years of experience across the private and non-profit sectors, including environmental consultancy, corporate sustainability and biodiversity conservation, Pei Ya has dedicated her career to advancing solutions at the nexus of nature positivity, climate action, and social justice.
Before establishing The Shoal Co., Pei Ya served as the Regional Conservation Finance Program Lead at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In this role, she spearheaded innovative projects that mobilized public and private capital, driving conservation and social impact throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Her commitment to inclusive, systems-informed strategies led her to explore systems thinking and social arts tools for awareness-based systems change. Today, she applies these approaches to help impact-driven organizations shift mindsets from ego to eco.
Pei Ya’s dedication to transformative change is recognized through her selection as a 2024 Asia Foundation Development Fellow and a 2022 Wilson Trust Natural Allies Environmental Leadership Fellow, the latter awarded by Cambridge Judge Business School, UK. Pei Ya has an MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation from the University of East Anglia, UK and a BSc in Life Sciences from the National University of Singapore. She is also a member of the International Association of Facilitators, collaborating with a global network of experienced practitioners as needed.
Pei Ya lives in Singapore with her husband and two boisterous children.
Foundations and Influences
Systems Practice (The Omidyar Group)
We draw on The Omidyar Group’s Systems Practice as a core foundation for our work, using it to map complex systems, surface dynamics, and identify leverage points for change. This participatory approach helps stakeholders build shared understanding and co-create strategies that are adaptive, systemic, and grounded in real-world complexity.
Theory U
Theory U, developed by Otto Scharmer of Presencing Institute, is an awareness-based systems change framework that guides organizations and leaders through a transformative process of observing, reflecting, and co-creating solutions by shifting from ego-centric to ecosystem-centric thinking to address complex societal challenges.
Social Presencing Theatre
Social Presencing Theatre is an embodied practice that deepens ability of participants to sense and shape the dynamics within complex systems. By engaging the body as a tool for inquiry and transformation, this practice invites individuals and teams to explore the subtle, interconnected layers of experience. It cultivates a heightened awareness of relationships, power dynamics, and hidden patterns—elements often overlooked in conventional strategy development.
Theatre of the Oppressed
Theatre of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal, is a dynamic methodology aimed at societal change through theatrical techniques. It focuses on encouraging critical dialogue, and challenging oppressive systems. By utilizing playful experimentation and physical metaphors to uncover hidden dynamics and reframe social relations, It allows participants to become more conscious of their roles in societal structures through our systems thinking workshop and actively work toward positive change.
Pei Ya's practice is informed by an array of participatory and innovative approaches that continually enrich and inspire her work. Here are a few.
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Embodied practices allow groups to move beyond intellectual problem-solving, tapping into their intuition and a full range of human experiences related to how people connect, collaborate, and lead.
- State of Facilitation 2025 Report