Global Speakers

Mei Wai is a leading marketing and business leader turned entrepreneur who has led iconic global, regional and local brands within the FMCG, retail and service industries, including personal care, food & beverage, luxury/jewellery and banking within complex change and competitive environments. She brings in-depth experience of the Asia Pacific markets, where she has led multi-cultural teams to disrupt and drive change as well as in brand innovation for more than 20 years in Unilever, Heineken, Fraser & Neave, Citibank and Aspial. She is passionate about growing and turning around businesses and brands in Asia to take them to the next level and the new generations – essentially preparing and transforming brand businesses to embed change through an end-to-end brand business advisory focusing on Change Architecture, Change Marketing and Change Services. She has a BSc (Hon) Economics, MSc International Marketing, Executive MBA, Advanced Management from INSEAD Business School and currently the Executive Masters in Consulting & Coaching for Change.

Mei Wai will be chairing this summit.

Bharathi has wide experience in Innovation, Business Development, Strategy, Investments and Operational Management across diverse environments in APAC, Europe and United States. In her role at Parkway Pantai Limited, Bharathi drove innovation and transformation initiatives across the group. She has experience helping startups commercialize solutions, evaluating venture investments, and driving collaboration between corporate and startups/technology companies.

Topic: AI-Based Transformation – Healthcare Provider Point of View

Topic: How Microsoft, a Company with 98,000 Employees, Is Partnering with Companies to Innovate Like a Startup

Charlie is an Exponential Keynote Speaker, Business Futurist, Innovation Strategist and Disruption Advisor. As a Business Futurist, Charlie analyzes, imagines and explains the future, especially on how technology will impact, disrupt and empower businesses, industries, professions and economies. As an Innovation Strategist, he inspires, advises and speaks to organisations and leaders to imagine, innovate and transform in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

He is the Founding President of The Innovators Institute, Ambassador of SingularityU Singapore, the local chapter of Singularity University, and Adjunct Advisor at International Data Corporation (IDC).

Topic: Innovation Beyond Disruption – 5 Ways to Innovate and Grow Without Disrupting Anyone

As Founder CEO and Executive Chairman of MindChamps PreSchool Ltd, David Chiem’s approach of always ‘staying ahead of the curve’ has taken the organization from point zero in 2008 to the number one brand position in the highly-competitive Singapore premium preschool space. This was followed by a successful listing on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange in 2017, leading to the creation of a globally-recognized preschool brand.

David’s illustrious business achievements through the years have gained him industry recognition and won him numerous international awards, including Peak Magazine Top 10 CEOs of the Year (2014), CEO Brand Leader of the Year (2016) and Asia’s Greatest Leaders (2019; presented by AsiaOne Magazine & PricewaterhouseCoopers).

MindChamps PreSchool has today expanded into Australia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and very soon China and Malaysia.

David brings to his work in education a rich background in the Arts, which stems from his experience in film, television, theater and literature, notably:

• At the age of 14, David became the first Asian to be cast in a starring role in a mainstream Australian television series, Butterfly Island in 1984.

• He studied theater at Theatre Nepean, University of Western Sydney, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters of Film-making from the world-renowned Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).

• He is the author of 7 books including the bestseller and critically acclaimed novel Only the Heart, now in its 22^nd print run. Only the Heart, was for many years, the English literature set-text for both the New South Wales Higher School Certificate and the Victorian Certificate of Education.

David is also the Chairman of Actors Centre Australia, one of the top acting schools in Australia, with Hugh Jackman as its patron.

David is also a highly sought-after speaker in various circles. He was especially invited by the Australian Institute of Company Directors to address top business leaders at the 6th Annual Fellows’ Dinner on the topic of “Leading the way in innovative business applications”.

Topic: How Will Our Children Compete in a World Where Artificial Intelligence Is Fast Becoming Their Everyday Reality?

Eric Tsui had spent 16 years in industry with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in Australia taking on various capacities including Chief Research Officer and Innovation Manager. During this period, he has made significant contributions to the company’s expert systems products, applied research and innovation programmes.

In 2002, he was appointed Professor of Knowledge Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under the President’s Distinguished Professionals Scheme; he joined the university full time in 2005. His speciality areas are Knowledge technologies including Search Engines, Portals, Personal Knowledge Management, Personal Learning Environments, and Knowledge Cloud services.

A Vice President of the Hong Kong Knowledge Management Society, Professor Tsui is also an honorary advisor of KM to three Hong Kong government departments. In the past decade, he has supervised or involved in more than 200 KM projects in Hong Kong, Asia and Australia.

In 2014 and 2018, he twice received the Global Knowledge Management Leadership Award. With a strong passion in Teaching and Learning, he has also received many awards in his career. He is a KM/CoP honorary advisor to three departments in the HKSARG.

Since August 2015, he has designed and launched two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) -“Knowledge Management and Big Data in Business” and “Industry 4.0: How to revolutionalise your business?” on the MIT edX platform. Together, they have attracted more than 77,000 enrolments and one of them is rated as Top 7 Business MOOCs worldwide (Source: Canadian Business, April, 2018).

Topic: From Learning Management System to 21st Century Learning Environment – Digital Disruption in Tertiary Education

Roundtable Discussion: Disruptions in the Tertiary Education / Future of KM and Collaboration in the Networked Economy

Genady Chybranov is Chief Technology Officer for Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, responsible for driving Financial Service Industry (FSI) strategy in the APAC region.

With more than 15 years’ experience in emerging technologies and innovation science, he is responsible for researching emerging technologies, creating end-to-end FSI solutions, coordinating regional FSI initiatives, and educating internal teams and clients about the company’s efforts in FSI innovation.

He is currently involved in several FinTech projects including applying data analytics to develop 360º customer view and combat fraud, developing data governance and compliance solutions, utilizing technologies like biometrics and blockchain to improve banking efficiency.

Before joining Hitachi Vantara, he held senior positions at Finlync, Barclays Capital and TTI Telecom where he focused on blockchain implementation, electronic trading system creation and innovative performance management technologies development.

Topic: How AI, Deep Learning and Superintelligence Will Challenge the Financial Industry

Founder of MVL Chain, a new incentive-based Blockchain mobility ecosystem, Kay Woo is no stranger to the mobility industry. He is also the founder of easi6, a mobility platform that he led and grew over the last four years to be the platform that is presently connected to over 25,000 vehicles across all Asia. He leads a young and passionate team to provide game-changing digital solutions to the automotive industry regionally. His expertise lies in understanding mobility challenges across various context in Asia and addressing it by developing digital solutions.

Kay Woo comes from a background in engineering and statistics from across leading academic institutions in the United States and South Korea. He holds a master’s degree in Statistics from Ivy League Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from one of South Korea’s leading university, Seoul National University.

Roundtable Discussion: How Blockchain Technology Can Revolutionize and Transform the Mobility Industry

Keren is the Regional Business Lead for Healthcare in Asia Pacific. In this role, Keren drives Microsoft’s initiative in Healthcare across all countries in Asia Pacific. This includes defining and articulating the Microsoft vision for the future of Healthcare, and how Microsoft technologies and partner solutions are making it a reality.

Keren is responsible for driving strategy and go to market campaigns to position the relevance of Microsoft products ( Windows 2010, M365, Azure, Dynamics 365, SQL,) in the Health sector. She oversees business development with international and local partners (ISVs and SIs);  to position the relevance of Microsoft’s value proposition in the domain of public health, social services, providers and payors in the cure and care markets.

Her key areas of focus are AI and Data Protection.

Topic: AI 2020 – A Health Disruptor

Bisheng Liu is heading the Digital Services department within Siemens in Singapore and ASEAN since 2015, pushing out various innovative digitalization solutions to help customers in the industrial segments.

Siemens opened its first ever Digitalization Hub in Singapore in July 2017, with the aim of developing smart digital solutions for companies and universities. One of the solutions, SWYFT, a services management application, was successfully launched by his team in June this year, which promises to help users of the application increase the productivity and transparency of their service operations. Additionally, Mr Liu is currently overseeing more than 10 digital services offerings and working on mulitple digitalization use cases together with his team of experts in the Hub.

Topic: Reimagine the Future of Productivity Through Digital Enterprise

Madhusudan Shekar is Head of Digital Innovation at Amazon Internet Services Private Limited and engages with customers to innovate with Amazon, like Amazon. Over the past 20 years, he has built and scaled technologies around connected vehicles, financial payments, customer engagements that touched millions of consumers. Prior to amazon, he worked at Ezetap, a fintech startup that was awarded #3 on CNBC 2016 Disruptor of the Year globally. And before that, he was the Head of IT Solutions at TATA Motors, where he led their connected vehicle solution for commercial vehicle markets.

Topics:
– How to Create a Culture and Structure for Disruptive Innovation
– Unlocking New Todays With AI

Mark has over 24 years of litigation and corporate experience. He started VanillaLaw LLC as the law firm for small and medium sized businesses, start-ups and Family Businesses. The firm has served local and international clients from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The firm’s expertise includes advisory, formulation, architecture and preparation of legal documents relating to all corporate and company matters. This includes joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, capital restructuring, directors’ roles and liabilities, shareholder interests, corporate insolvency and liquidation. VanillaLaw has developed one of the leading legal document assembly software called “VanillaLaw™ Docs”.

Topic: How Technology Is Disrupting Singapore’s Law Firm

Naushad Oomer manages Virgin Hyperloop One’s operations with a focus on India as part of the Global Projects team at Virgin Hyperloop One. Naushad was an early member of the Business Strategy group which is responsible for driving the company business model, investments and corporate strategy for the implementation of Virgin Hyperloop One technology globally.

Naushad was instrumental in developing Virgin Hyperloop One’s presence in the Middle East and India which has led to engagements with the UAE and States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh in India. He is currently managing the company’s engagement with the Government of Maharashtra and development partners on the Pune-Mumbai project.

A civil engineer by background, Naushad has spent majority of his career on the development and delivery of large-scale transportation infrastructure projects in the UK and North America. He has served as a technical advisor to various public-sector agencies such as the UK Highways Agency, Transport Scotland, Virginia DOT, Texas DOT and Los Angeles MTA on the implementation of innovative finance and delivery methods to develop mega-infrastructure projects. He has also worked in the EPC realm on managing design development, costing and bid proposals for multi-billion-dollar design-build and PPP projects, which included high-speed rail, underground metro, light rail, signature bridge, and highway projects.

Naushad began his career as a consultant working on tender evaluations for the flagship M25 DBFO project in London and then transitioned to auditing performance-based contracts for the operations and maintenance of major bridge assets in Scotland. He then provided strategic advice to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority in the development of program to implement large transit and highway projects using innovative procurement methods.

Most recently, he worked with Samsung Construction & Trading Corporation supporting bid development for design-build and public-private-partnership projects of total values exceeding $12 billion in the United States, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

Naushad is a licensed civil engineer in the State of California and holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is based in Virgin Hyperloop One’s regional headquarters in Dubai.

Keynote: The Future Is Happening – How Hyperloop Will Transform the Transportation Industry

Remco is PAL-V’s Business Development and Investor Relations Vice President for Asia Pacific and is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Remco was born in the Netherlands and has worked abroad since 1995. He graduated from the University of Utrecht (MSc) and Amsterdam, and had worked for many years in the consumer goods and the consultancy industries in Europe and Asia, holding various CEO positions. He joined the PAL-V team in 2016 and is responsible for developing the business in the markets of Asia Pacific, as well as for investor relations.

PAL-V developed the world’s first flying car and its PAL-V Liberty model which is the first to be commercialized, was unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2018. During the 2nd World Disruptive Innovation Summit 2019, Remco will share in his presentation the innovation and cutting-edge technology behind the development of PAL-V’s flying car and how it will revolutionize travel and daily commuting in the very near future.

Topic: Disruptive Flying Cars and Taxis – How PAL-V Commercializes the First Flying Car in the Air and on the Road – The PAL-V Story

Panel Discussion: Reshaping the Future of Businesses in the New Digital Age

With more than 20 years of experience in life sciences, medical technology and business evaluations, Rhenu works with Frost & Sullivan’s Transformational Health analysts in tracking key issues globally related to healthcare access, digital transformation, as well as how market trends and disruptive technologies such as AI, big data analytics, blockchain, mobile health and consumerism are impacting business models and the future of healthcare delivery. Prior to joining Frost & Sullivan, Rhenu held positions at Bayer and has a Degree in Chemistry and a Masters in Finance and International Business.

Topic: The Future Of Smart Healthcare – Why the Healthcare Industry Should Care About Blockchain

Shivaji is a Partner with Frost & Sullivan and is responsible for managing the APAC region.

Shivaji has led several projects in areas such as Corporate Strategy, Entry Strategy, Business Planning and Analysis, Digital Transformation, R&D planning, Government and public policy, and Marketing strategy across USA, Middle East and Asia for both private and public sector clients such as The World Bank, The Economic Planning Unit of Malaysia, Tourism Promotion Board Philippines, and key conglomerates in the region. These assignments covered diverse domains including tourism, logistics, ICT, healthcare, etc.

Shivaji holds a Masters in Business Administration with specialization in Finance and Strategy from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Shivaji is the author of three travel books; his latest work is “Angels by the Murky River”, available worldwide. His photographs have been selected for exhibitions at Singapore, Malaysia, and the USA.

Topic: Advanced Analytics & AI in the New Infrastructure Management Era