Mandar Apte, a chemical engineer, has worked at Shell for 12 years.

He is part of the energy giant's GameChanger program, whose mission is to provide seed funding and guidance to cutting-edge ideas and foster a culture of innovation.

Apte is also the founder of a staff-led initiative called Empower, which uses breathing and meditation exercises sourced from the International Association for Human Values to nurture personal creativity and inter-personal skills.

So far, some 2,000 employees at Shell offices in the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands and the UAE have gone through modules that are part of the Empower program.

In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Apte discusses the impact that Empower has had on him and his colleagues and his hopes for its future.