Practice Manager, Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, World Bank Group
Abhas Jha leads a global team working on infrastructure lending, technical assistance, and advisory services within the World Bank. He works on cities, infrastructure finance and economics, technology, affordable housing, risk and resilience, and public policy. He has been with the World Bank since 2001, working on policy reform and development finance in a variety of countries including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Jamaica, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, PNG, and Peru. <br><br>Abhas earlier served as Adviser to the World Bank Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka. He was for 12 years a member of the Indian Administrative Service (the national senior civil service of India) in the Government of India (in the Federal Ministry of Finance and earlier in the state of Bihar). <br><br>Abhas is the lead author of “Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstructing after Disasters” (2010) and “Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management” (2012) and has edited/co-edited or contributed chapters to several other publications.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Visiting Senior Fellow, Analytics & Operations, National University of Singapore Business School
More About Speaker
Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs) and Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Wu Alfred Muluan is Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs) and Associate Professor in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore. He earned his PhD from City University of Hong Kong, where he was the recipient of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship and the Outstanding Academic Performance Awards for Research Degree Students. He previously served as an associate professor in the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong, a senior research associate in the Department of Public and Social Administration at City University of Hong Kong, and from 2000-2007 a senior journalist in Mainland China, where he received over a dozen awards and honours for outstanding journalism both from Chinese and overseas organizations.<br><br>His research interests include public sector reform, central-local fiscal relations, corruption and governance, and social protection in Greater China. He has been engaged in funded research projects with support from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and the Central Policy Unit of The Hong Kong SAR Government. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Head of Public Policy & Economics (APAC), LinkedIn
Alvin is LinkedIn’s Head of Public Policy & Economics for the Asia Pacific region. He and his team work with policymakers, non profits and academia to help economies prepare for the rapidly changing nature of work, using LinkedIn analytics and data solutions.<br>Before joinining LinkedIn, Alvin was Head of Public Policy at Facebook, where he worked on preventing violent extremism online, and building safe online spaces across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.<br><br>Alvin has worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, in the United Nations working on tech solutions for the Secretary-General, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence in command and counter-terrorism roles, and in Oxfam Australia on fair trade issues. He has a First Class Honours in Economics from Sydney University and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University.<br><br>He is also passionate about interfaith and socio-economic issues. He helps lead an inter-faith and inter-religious group in Singapore, bringing together people and organizations from across racial and religious lines, and serves vulnerable families and seniors at the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown district.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Knowledge and Research Associate, Samhita Social Ventures
Anjali Shivananda is a Senior Knowledge and Research Associate at Samhita Social Ventures, a social enterprise that collaborates with companies to develop impactful corporate social responsibility initiatives. She graduated with a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in July 2019. She was awarded the Dean’s Leadership award in recognition of her contribution to student initiatives. Prior to MPP, Anjali worked at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bangalore, where she was primarily engaged in policy and legal research related to child rights.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Vice President of Business Development, V3 Group Professor of Family Entrepreneurship
Professor Annie Koh is Vice President of Business Development, V3 Group Professor of Family Entrepreneurship, Professor of Finance (Practice) at Singapore Management University (SMU). She is also the Academic Director for two-university level institutes – the Business Families Institute and International Trading Institute. Her previous portfolios at SMU included positions as Associate Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Dean, Office of Executive & Professional Education.<br><br>A notable conference speaker, panel moderator and commentator, Annie is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on New Education and Work Agenda and, a board member of Keppel Prime US REIT and Prudential Assurance Company Singapore Pte Ltd. In addition, she chairs the finance and investment committee of GovTech Singapore Board, and the Asian Bond Fund 2 Supervisory Committee of Monetary Authority of Singapore. She has been an appointed board member of Singapore’s Central Provident Fund since 2012 and served on the HR Transformation Advisory Panel and chairs the TAFEP Awards Committee. Recently appointed as a member of Customs Advisory Council. Annie is also a lead independent director of Health Management International Ltd and advises a number of startup firms such as Stashaway and Staff-on-Demand and advisor to private firms such as PBA Group and SWAT. Annie previously served on K1 Ventures board from 2013 to 2017.<br><br>A Fulbright scholar, Annie earned her PhD in International Finance from Stern School of Business, New York University (1988). Her research interests are in Family Office and Family Business, Investor Behaviour, Alternative Investments and Enterprise Risk Management. She co-authored Financial Management: Theory and Prac tice, An Asia Edition (2014), and Financing Internationalisation – Growth Stra tegies for Successful Companies (2004), and author of a number of Asian family business cases and survey reports.<br><br>Annie is awarded the Singapore Public Administration Medal, Bronze (2010), Silver (2016), and the Adult Education Prism Award (2017) for her contributions to the education and public sectors.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Dr. Ayesha Khanna is Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm and incubator. She has been a strategic advisor on artificial intelligence, smart cities and fintech to leading corporations and governments. Ayesha also serves on the Board of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Singapore government’s agency that develops its technology sector. In 2017, ADDO AI was featured in Forbes magazine as one of four leading artificial intelligence companies in Asia and Ayesha was named one of South East Asia’s groundbreaking female entrepreneurs by Forbes magazine in 2018. Ayesha has a BA (honors) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and a PhD in Information Systems and Innovation from the London School of Economics.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Executive Director, PM Haze
Benjamin Tay is the executive director at PM Haze (People’s movement to stop haze). He coordinates haze prevention programmes both locally and overseas. PM Haze’s local advocacy programme include reaching out to businesses and consumers to adopt sustainable palm oil. PM Haze also works with the Indonesian community to develop and implement ecological restoration of degraded peatlands and sustainable development of community livelihoods.<br><br>Benjamin first got involved in transboundary haze advocacy in 2015, as he wanted people to go beyond adaptation strategies and find solutions to prevent transboundary haze. He holds a Master of Asia-Pacific Studies with Distinction from the Australian National University. Behind smoke and fires, there are issues of social justice and climate resilience. He aspires to develop research on the socio-cultural and historical perspectives of social justice and climate-related advocacy in the Southeast Asian region.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director (East Asian Institute) and Professor in Practice, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Mr Bert Hofman, a Dutch national, is the director of the East Asian Institute at NUS and Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School. Before joining NUS, he has been working with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which in Asia, and 12 of which on China. Mr Hofman was the World Bank Country Director for China 2014-2019, the country economist 2004-2008, and the Chief Economist for the World Bank in the East Asia and Pacific region 2011-2014. He also worked on Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea and Mongolia. Before coming to the World Bank, Mr Hofman worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, The OECD and NMB Bank (Now ING). Mr Hofman has extensive experience in advising governments around the region on a wide range of development issues, and he has published on fiscal policy, debt issues, and China’s and Indonesia’s recent economic history.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies
Dr Carol Soon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies where she leads the Society and Culture Department. She has a PhD in Communications and New Media from the National University of Singapore. Her research interests are in media regulation, digital inclusion, new media and activism, public engagement, and Singapore as a digital village. Carol led the study on media and Internet use during Singapore’s General Election 2015. She has published her research in books and peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of ComputerMediated Communication, Asian Journal of Communication and Journal of Information Technology and Politics. One of her current projects is on digital inclusion and children from different household types, funded by the Ministry of Social and Family Development.<br><br>Carol is also Associate Director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship which is supported by Temasek Foundation. She convened the Asia Journalism Forum on “Reporting Facts and the Future of Journalism” in 2017. She is a member of Singapore’s Media Literacy Council and the Singapore Press Holdings Chinese Media Resource Panel. She is also currently teaching a course on public policy, public opinion and new media at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.<br><br>In 2015, Carol received the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Research Excellence Award. She was also a recipient of the Australian Endeavour Award in 2012. Her paper on political blogging in Singapore won the Best Paper Award at the Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government in 2013. Prior to joining academia, she worked in the corporate sector where she developed communication campaigns for profit and nonprofit organisations.<br><br><strong>Research Interests<br></strong><br>Media regulation; digital inclusion; social media and politics; digital and public engagement; message design; Singapore as a digital village<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy
Dr. Cecilia Tortajada is Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. The main focus of her work at present is on the future of the world´s water, especially in terms of water, food, energy and environmental securities through coordinated policies.<br><br>She has been an advisor to major international institutions like FAO, UNDP, JICA, ADB, OECD and IDRC, and has worked in countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe on water and environment-related policies. She is a member of the OECD Initiative in Water Governance.<br><br>She is a past President of the International Water Resources Association (2007-2009) and an honorary member of the IWRA. Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Water Resources Development, Associate Editor of Water International, member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, International Journal of Water Governance, Urban Planning and Transport Research Journal, Frontiers in Environmental Science and IWRA (India) Journal, and editor of book series on Water Resources Development and Management of Springer. She is also editor of Springer Briefs on Case Studies on Sustainable Development and on Water Science and Technology; and member of series Advisory Board of Springer Briefs in Earth Sciences, Geography & Earth System Sciences. She is the author and editor of more than 30 books by major international publishers. Her work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish languages.<br>
More About Speaker
Assistant Vice-President (Media Strategy and Analytics), Singapore Press Holdings
Cheow Pong is a bilingual media professional with more than 12 years of experience. He was a journalist at the Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao covering defence, international relations and politics. His last appointment in Zaobao was News Editor where he supervised local and political news reporting. Outside of SPH, he has worked at the Monetary Authority of Singapore and local English community news platform Mothership.sg.
More About Speaker
Co-Director, Executive Education, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Cheryl is the Co-Director of the Executive Education department at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She also heads the School’s Strategic Planning department and together with a team, is building the futures research and teaching capabilities at the School with the “Future Ready Singapore” project. As part of her teaching responsibilities, she curates the Lee Kuan Yew School Course, a core module for new Masters students that asks the big questions of public policy, using Singapore as an illustrative case study. Her interests focus on the intersection of technology, economic and regulatory policy and on capability development in futures thinking for policy makers.<br><br>Before joining the School in 2015, Cheryl worked in the Singapore Government where she led futures projects across several ministry portfolios for 8 years. She entered the world of public policy futures as part of the pioneer team for the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Futures Group. There, she led projects exploring the industry development potential of trends such as big data, and 3D-printing. After MTI, she moved to the Strategic Policy Office, under the Prime Minister’s Office, where she co-led the Emerging Strategic Issues Project v2.0 and led research work on the Evolving Role of the State. She also designed, developed, and delivered their in-house training programme, Futurecraft, focussing on foresight communication. Cheryl’s most recent ministry posting was to the Ministry of Transport where she helped to start the Ministry’s futures team and led the development of their policy framework for Autonomous Vehicles.<br><br>Cheryl is one of the co-founders of Quad Research, a non-partisan collective that believes in expanding the space for data-driven discourse and assisting in better collective decision making for Singapore’s future. She is the Co-Editor of The Birthday Book for 2018.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Author, Motivational Speaker and Screenplay Writer, India
Chetan Bhagat is the author of eleven blockbuster books. These include eight novels—Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014) One Indian Girl (2016) and The Girl in Room 105 (2018) and three non-fiction titles— What Young India Wants (2012) Making India Awesome(2015) and India Positive (2019). Chetan’s books have remained bestsellers since their release. Five out of his eight novels have been already adapted into successful Bollywood films and the others are in process of being adapted as well. The New York Times called him the ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history’. Time magazine named him amongst the ‘100 most influential people in the world’ and Fast Company, USA, listed him as one of the world’s ‘100 most creative people in business’. Chetan writes columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development issues. He is also a motivational speaker and screenplay writer. Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009 to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIM-A, and his twin boys, Shyam and Ishaan. You can email him at
decb64_aW5mb0BjaGV0YW5iaGFnYXQuY29t_decb64 or fill in the Guestbook with your feedback. You can also follow him on twitter (@chetan_bhagat) or like his Facebook fanpage (https://www.facebook.com/chetanbhagat.fanpage) or on Instagram (https://www,instagram.com/chetanbhagat).<br><div><br></div>
Assistant Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Dr Chionh is a Senior Consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, and Associate Chairman, Medical Board (Quality and Patient Safety) at the National University Hospital, Singapore, as well as Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.<br><br>She is currently President of the Osteoporosis Society, Singapore, past President of the Endocrine and Metabolic Society of Singapore, a member of the Women’s Health Committee, Singapore and a member of the ISCD Asia-Pacific Committee.<br><br>Her clinical interests include Osteoporosis and Diabetes Mellitus.
More About Speaker
Director, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, Division of Medicine Senior Consultant, Paediatric Infectious Diseases, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor Chong Chia Yin is the Director of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, Division of Medicine and senior consultant of the Infectious Disease service, Department of Paediatrics at KKH. She is chairman of the Ministry of Health (MOH) Expert Committee on Immunization, and also a member of MOH Expert committee on Bioterrorism threats, pandemic influenza, dengue and member of the Hospital Infection Control Committee. <br><br>She is also appointed adjunct associate professor at the National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and at Duke- NUS Graduate Medical School. She is also clinical teacher at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. She received the Singhealth Residency Outstanding Faculty Award Academic year 2016-2017. Her other awards include: National Day Long service award 2016.<br><br>In research, A/ Prof Chong has published more than 80 infectious disease articles including prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child, hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), adenovirus, Zika virus, pertussis outbreaks, pneumonia, vaccine-preventable infections and invasive pneumococcal disease . Her current research interests include: Influenza, HFMD, prevention of central-line associated bloodstream infections, hand hygiene, pneumonia, tuberculosis, group B streptococcus as well as infectious disease outbreaks.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Student and Social Media Representative in Bridging Gap, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Prior to pursuing the graduate programme, Christy Tsang worked at Civic Exchange, an environmental policy think tank, Oxfam Hong Kong, and the Lands Department of the HKSAR Government as an Executive Officer. Her previous work experiences involve managing and monitoring projects related to urban design, land development, agriculture, technology and sustainable development.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Head of Operations, Gojek Singapore
Min Han is Head of Operations at Gojek Singapore. He joined Gojek in June 2018 to launch the GoCar product in Singapore. As part of the launch, Min Han and his team recruited tens of thousands of driver-partners, launched a vehicle rental programme (GoFleet) and driver benefits programme (GoalBetter), and set up an entire customer and driverpartner support structure within 5 months to support Gojek’s launch of its ride-hailing service in Singapore.<br><br>Prior to Gojek, Min Han headed the retail operations for Uber in Singapore and Malaysia. He also looked after the customer experience for Uber’s rental company, Lion City Rental. Before Uber, Min Han was an awardwinning customer service professional with stints in the Ministry of Social and Family Development, SMRT and CASE.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Director (Policy, Tech & Trustmark), Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore
Chung Sang Hao is Assistant Director (Policy, Tech & Trustmark) from the Personal Data Protection Commission. He leads the AI governance team, which supports 3 key AI governance and ethics initiatives in Singapore, namely, Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data, Research Programme on Governance of AI and Data Use, and the development of the Model AI Governance Framework.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy
As an environmental and urban sociologist, Dr. Corinne Ong takes a keen interest in understanding the environmental impacts of social organization, and on the flipside, how society organizes itself and responds according to the environmental risks it experiences and defines. Of interest to her are urban consumption patterns, as well as waste, water, and energy critical infrastructures. In particular, she is sympathetic to the “soft path” approach to conserving and managing critical environmental resources, where innovations and technology are designed and dedicated to advance both core humanistic/community values and environmental sustainability.<br><br>Dr. Corinne Ong has experience conducting policy and applied, multidisciplinary research on environmental issues, and was a former higher-education educator. She has written and published journal articles and book chapters on topics pertaining to renewable energy infrastructures in developing countries, waste and water recycling in Singapore, as well as transport and mobility issues (with implications for sustainability).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Dean and LI Ka Shing Professor in Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Danny Quah is Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His current research takes an economic approach to world order, studying the supply and demand of world order – on the one hand, what international system the world’s superpowers provide, and on the other, what world order the global community needs.<br><br>Mr. Quah uses this to recast analysis of global power shifts, the rise of the East, regional order, and models of global power relations.<br><br>Mr. Quah is a member of the Spence-Stiglitz Commission on Global Economic Transformation. He is the author of The Global Economy’s Shifting Centre of Gravity . Mr. Quah gave the third LSE-NUS lecture in 2013, and TEDx talks in 2016, 2014, and 2012. Mr. Quah was previously Assistant Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and then Professor of Economics and International Development, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE). He had also served as LSE’s Head of Department for Economics, and Council Member on Malaysia’s National Economic Advisory Council. <br><br>Mr. Quah studied at Princeton, Minnesota, and Harvard.
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Specialisation in Economics and Development, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Prior to graduate school, Diane Fajardo worked for the government of the Philippines, as well as for local and international NGOs. She advocated policies and managed campaigns to improve education outcomes, elevate teaching quality, promote road safety, ensure better fuel emissions, advance efficient road transportation, and protect cities from air pollution. Presently, she is a research assistant at the Institute of Water Policy. With her Development Communication degree from the University of the Philippines, Diane merges the art and science of communication with public policy for sustainable development.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Dash Commander, 2nd People's Defence Force Command, Singapore Ministry of Defence
More About Speaker
Director, London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI)
Eddie is Director of the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), a new organisation established in June 2019 to help London’s boroughs collaborate on projects that bring the best of technology, data and innovation to improve public services and outcomes for Londoners. <br><br>Previously he was Director of Government Innovation at Nesta, the innovation foundation. There, he oversaw the organisation’s work helping governments and public sector organisations improve public services, increase citizen engagement and tackle big social challenges.<br><br>He is the author of five reports on government use of technology and data, and a book on UK think tanks. Eddie is a regular writer and speaker on how government and public sector organisations can innovate to deliver better results.<br><br>He is also a member of the Smart London Board, a group that advises the Mayor of London on how London can harness digital technology and data for the benefit of those who live and work in the capital. In 2018 he was on Apolitical’s list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Associate Professor and Co-Director, Institute of Water Policy , Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Ed is both an academic and a practitioner, trained in politics, economics, institutions and governance. Ed has received numerous international and local awards and recognitions, including fellowships from the research centres of three Nobel laureates (in economics); the Ostrom Prize for the Governance of the Commons, a Fulbright PhD award, and the Pamana ng Lahi Presidential Award (2016) for Overseas Filipinos. He was a finalist for the Best Dissertation Prize awarded by the International Society for New Institutional Economics (now the Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics). He has 34 academic publications including those in top journals such as World Development, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Governance, Policy Sciences, Water Resources Research, among others. His work has been cited by the National University of Singapore President as an example of research that advances knowledge and helps solve important problems for society.<br><br>As a practitioner, Ed has an active portfolio of government advisory, consultancy, executive education and media engagement. He is currently an adviser to the Commission to Review the Philippines Constitution. He has also served as adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Central Bank Governor and the Vice chairman of the Civil Service and Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Ed has undertaken 18 consultancy projects for the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UNDP, local governments and NGOs. He has also lectured in 130 Executive Education Programmes for more than 3,000 government officials from 27 countries in Asia including Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors, City Commissioners and Mayors, NGO leaders, CEOs of multinationals and ranking military officers. He has advised senior government officials in Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, among others. He has served as a resource person for local and international media including BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, China Daily, Al Jazeera, Straits Times, Channel News Asia, Insight, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, Voice of America, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, among others. <br><br>At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), he has served as Vice Dean for Research (June 2015 to December 2017) and Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs (July 2009 to December 2011).<br><br>He represented the Dean at the University Senate, Dean’s Meetings, University Committee on Education Policy and the Board of Graduate Studies. He is Faculty Director for the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Public Policy. He is also a member of three Editorial Boards and a co-editor of two series from the Cambridge University Press and as a peer reviewer for journals.<br><br>At LKYSPP, he has taught eight core courses for the Master in Public Policy (MPP), Master in Public Administration (MPA), Master in Public Management (MPM), and PhD programmes. These include courses on politics and policy, public management, public finance, research methods, programme evaluation, institutional analysis and public policy analysis. He was a faculty associate at the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis (Indiana University Bloomington) and was a visiting researcher at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He is currently a faculty associate with the Coase Institute and the Centre for Asia and Globalisation, Co-director at the Institute of Water Policy and Vice Chairman of the Asia Pacific Water Forum. He is also the principal investigator for the programme on public policy and disruptive technologies at LKYSPP.<br><br>Ed obtained his PhD Degree in Public Policy from Indiana UniversityBloomington on a Fulbright PhD Scholarship with Elinor Ostrom (2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics) as his supervisor.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Advisory Board Member, MAFINDO (Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia)
<p>Eko Juniarto, co-founder of MAFINDO, Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia (Indonesian Anti Hoax Civil Society Organization), which originated from a Facebook Group called FAFHH, Forum Anti Fitnah, Hasut dan Hoax (Anti Libel, Provocation & Hoax Forum). We created the forum on September 2015, as a response to the widespread of hoaxes on social media, benign and not so benign, after the Indonesia Presidential Election at 2014. Founded as organization on 19th November 2016, we have spearheaded many anti hoax initiatives, such as crowdsourced hoax busting, digital literacy education for the public, CekFakta.com, and public campaigns to raise awareness about hoax and its dangers. </p><p>Our vision are:</p><ol><li>An independent and dynamic civil society organization which actively participates to enlighten & develop public’s capability for critical thinking. </li><li>Immunize the public against the hoax plague, also against hate speech and provocations.</li><li>Participates to help realize a civil society that’s active, peaceful, and prosperous.</li></ol><p>To fulfill mentioned vision, our mission are: </p><ol><li>Collaborate with others in the effort to combat hoaxes & hate speech. </li><li>Develop a strong, credible, and accountable organization, to enable it to achieve its goals. </li><li>Integrate all of positive social aspects, to create a society that’s enlightened and immune to the hoax plague.</li></ol>
More About Speaker
Executive Director & General Manager, Amgen South East Asia
Eric Ng is currently Executive Director & General Manager at Amgen Asia based in Hong Kong, responsible for Amgen’s commercial operations in the South East Asia (SEA) Region, Hong Kong and India. <br><br>Eric has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry across broad geographies and business areas in several organizations over his career. Eric worked at Sanofi from 20072016 in multiple country general management, marketing and commercial strategy roles across Singapore, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam/Indochina. Eric began his career at Glaxo in Singapore. He then spent 5 years at Merck and subsequently 6 years at AstraZeneca in various sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility, including a global commercial role based in Europe for a few years.<br><br>Eric is a Singaporean and obtained his Bachelor’s Degree of Science at the National University of Singapore.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Associate Dean, Co-Director (Executive Education) and Associate Professor in Practice, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Professor Francesco Mancini is Associate Dean and Co-Director (Executive Education) and Associate Professor of Practice at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). His work focuses on global governance, United Nations, aanalysis and resolution. He regularly lectures at academic institutions and presents at conferences and to governments on international peace and security issues. He regularly appears on television news as commentator of current international affairs. Francesco is also a Non-resident Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where he was Senior Director of Research before relocating to Singapore in June 2014. Francesco is a member of the Research Committee of the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) in Sydney, Australia, an Honorary Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute (MEI), an Associate Fellow at the Peace Informatics Lab of the Leiden University, Netherlands, and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Peacebuilding.<br><br>Francesco has published extensively. His latest co-edited volume is The Management of UN Peacekeeping: Coordination, Learning, and Leadership in Peace Operations (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2017). He is also the co-editor of the volume Security & Development: Searching for Critical Connections (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010) and he conceived, designed, and edited the first and only Management Handbook for UN Field Missions in 2012. Francesco has published in peer-reviewed journals, including “Partnership – A New Horizon for Peacekeeping?,” a special issue of the journal International Peacekeeping (2011), “New Technology and the Prevention of Violence and Conflict,” in Stability Journal (2013), and “The Company We Keep: Private Contractors in Jamaica,” in Civil Wars (2006). Among his latest policy reports, Francesco has published Lost in Transition: UN Mediation in Libya, Syria and Yemen (IPI, 2016) and Managing Change at the United Nations: Lessons from Recent Initiatives (IPI, 2015).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director, Health Ageing Division, Health Promotion Board, Singapore
Gary Khoo is a senior leader of Health Promotion Board (HPB). He oversees the development and implementation of national preventive health strategies, which enables seniors to remain functionally independent and lead healthier and longer lives. Gary’s special areas of interest include developing healthy ageing programmes for seniors’ physical, mental and functional health, health literacy, as well as peer-led models in health promotion.
More About Speaker
CEO and Founder, better.sg [and formerly of dialectic.sg , confirm.sg, and ex-President of Debate Association (Singapore)]
I do whatever I can to make Singapore a better home. Sometimes that involves flying a helicopter, creating and hosting TV policy debate shows, building websites, hacking, defending our skies against terrorists, teaching kids how to use their voices respectfully/rationally/robustly online and offline, volunteering with minority communities to bridge divides, etc. Sometimes that just involves me gatheri
More About Speaker
Head of Identity, Trustingsocial
Geoffrey See is the Head of Identity at Trustingsocial, an AI startup that provides AI-based credit scoring and identity solutions to promote financial inclusion for over 1B+ customers in emerging markets in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Bangladesh. Geoffrey is also the Founder of Choson Exchange (www.chosonexchange.org), a Singapore- and Vietnam-based NGO that has trained over 2000 North Koreans on entrepreneurship and economic policy. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Korean Peninsula and is an advisor on entrepreneurship to the Gaesong Industrial Park, an interKorean industrial SEZ. His work on Choson Exchange has been written up as a Harvard Business School case study which he helps teach to Harvard MBAs in a class on Global Capitalism. He has survived two neardeath experiences in his work in North Korea. Geoffrey is a Kauffman Fellow in venture capital and is passionate about technologies for financial inclusion and data. He co-founded a co-working space business in Vietnam, and help established a securities exchange built on blockchain technology. Geoffrey graduated from Yale University and the Wharton School and was an exchange student at Tsinghua University.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Deputy Director (Research), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies
Gillian is Deputy Director (Research) at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Senior Research Fellow in the Governance and Economy Department. Her research interests are in the areas of party and electoral politics, the development of civil society, state-society relations, state governance and citizen engagement in Singapore. Among other things, Dr Koh conducts surveys on Singaporeans’ political attitudes, sense of national identity, rootedness and resilience and also helmed several IPS scenario-planning projects. She was part of the team that conducted the IPS Study on Social Capital in Singapore (2017). She has published and copublished articles on civil society and political development in Singapore. She was co-editor of Migration and Integration in Singapore: Policies and Practice (2015) as well as State-Society Relations in Singapore (2000) and Civil Society and the State in Singapore (2017) and co-author of Singapore Chronicles: Civil Society (2016).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Chairman & Co-Founder, HealthServe
Wei-Leong, a general practitioner, co-founded and chairs Healthserve, an NGO and charity that reaches out to the under-served communities of foreign workers in Singapore. HealthServe and Wei-Leong were awarded the ‘Singaporean of the Year 2017’. <br><br>Wei-Leong was a recipient of the Healthcare Humanity Awards 2015 and the SMA Merit Award 2018. <br><br>He is an active volunteer with the Muhammadiyah Welfare Home. He serves as the South-East Asia Regional Secretary of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association. Wei-Leong is one of the founders of Linking Hands, a web based medical network.<br><br>He is a member of the global board of Operation Mobilisation International and serves as the chairman of OM MTI (Mercy Teams International). <br>Given his personal mission to be a ‘Catalyst Bringing Life!’, Wei-Leong is passionate about social justice and connecting people to one another. He also thoroughly enjoys engaging millennials over a good cappuccino. <br><br>Wei-Leong cares deeply about life and keeps a regular rhythm of rest, reflection and work to constantly calibrate true north.<br>Wei-Leong keeps a regular rhythm of rest, reflection and work. He also thoroughly enjoys engaging millennials over a good cappuccino.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Head of Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations Policy, Asia, Facebook
Gullnaz manages Facebook’s policies and systems to counter terrorism, violent extremism and hate. She particularly oversees Facebook’s efforts across Asia, advising teams on developing trend patterns, supporting engineering teams in developing tools and technology, and building networks of expertise to augment Facebook’s efforts. <br><br>Gullnaz has been examining regional politics and conflicts, and its impact on radicalism for the last ten years. She was previously a senior policy analyst with the Singapore government advising on social reform and public policy, and an associate specializing on terrorism in Southeast Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (Asia).
More About Speaker
Corporate Officer, Takeda Executive Team; Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Officer, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited
More About Speaker
Member of Parliament, Indonesia
Hetifah is a member of parliament in the DPR-RI from the Golkar parliamentary faction, representing the electoral districts of East Kalimantan since 2009 and has just been re-elected for her third term (2019-2024). She currently holds the title of Deputy Chair in Commission X, responsible for education, youth, sports, tourism, and creative economy. Hetifah had previously served in Commission V for infrastructure and Commission II for domestic governance and electoral affairs. During that time, Hetifah was actively involved as a member of the Special Committee on Election Law 7/2017.<br><br>Hetifah graduated in Spatial Planning from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). She obtained her master’s degree in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Ph.D. from Flinders University, Australia. In the national board of Golkar, she currently serves as the Head of the Women Empowerment Section and simultaneously Chair of KPPG, the women’s wing organisation of Golkar. Hetifah is also the Chair of the Women’s Movement of the MKGR civil organisation. In addition to that, she is also a presidium at KPP-RI (Indonesian Women’s Parliamentary Caucus).<br><br>Hetifah originates from an activist background and has been actively involved in various campus organisations, social organisations, and NGOs. Her notable roles include being the Head of the ITB Spatial Planning Student Union and Alumni Organisation, Head of the Education Division in the Indonesian Women’s Congress (KOWANI), and Head of Woman Engineers’ Forum in the Indonesian Engineers Association. She was the founder of the AKATIGA Center for Social Analysis, the Society Initiative, and B-Trust Advisory Group.<br><br>It is frequent for Hetifah to feature as a motivator and facilitator for women’s political participation and leadership. Hetifah has plenty of experience in being a consultant for various international organisations such as the World Bank, ADB, EU, CIDA, Ford Foundation, and so forth, primarily for issues in planning, budgeting, and governance. She has written a number of books, including Innovation, Participation, and Good Governance (published by Obor).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Member of Parliament , Singapore
Dr. Intan Azura Mokhtar is a Singaporean politician and a current Member of Parliament (MP). She was first elected in the 2011 General Election as part of a six-member PAP team in Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Her team was re-elected in 2015 General Election.<br><br>She started volunteering in 2006 at Mendaki, where she assisted in a scholarships interview panel and empowerment programme for girls. Later on, she volunteered at, and sat on the board of directors of the Singapore Muslim Women’s Association.<br><br>Dr. Intan is a published author in peer-reviewed journals and has presented her research work at conferences on the Singapore education system, information and media literacy, teaching and learning in higher education, and on social and education policies. She has also won various awards in her line of work, including the Faculty Service Award from the Abu Dhabi University, the NTU Outstanding Young Alumni Award, the NUS Outstanding Science Alumni Award, the NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association Young Researcher Award.<br><br>Dr. Intan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics from the National University of Singapore (NUS) before moving on to complete a postgraduate diploma in education at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She obtained a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in information studies from NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. She also holds a Master of Public Administration from NUS’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
More About Speaker
Research Assistant, Institute of Water Policy
Ishaan Bindal is a Research Assistant at the Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He holds an MSc in Money, Banking & Finance from the University of St Andrews (United Kingdom), Master’s degree from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) in Economics & Finance and a BA (Hons) in Economics from University of Delhi (India).<br><br>His research interest includes Water access and health outcomes, Water governance and Domestic water efficiency and security.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Associate Professor in Practice, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
James Crabtree is Associate Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School, as well as a fellow at its Centre on Asia and Globalisation (CAG). Previously James worked for the Financial Times, most recently leading coverage of Indian business as Mumbai bureau chief. His best-selling 2018 book, “The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age” was short-listed for the FT / McKinsey book of the year. He is now a columnist for Nikkei Asian Review, and also a non-resident fellow at the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House. Prior to journalism, James was a senior policy advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Former Minister of Health, Senior Deputy Minority Leader, Philippine Congress
Dr. Janette Loreto-Garin blends the sharp and fierce passion of empowerment and equitable access to public health. She is an advocate of universal health coverage, quality healthcare services, and access to safe, effective, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.<br>As a legislator, she championed the passage of the Cheaper Medicines Law, Sin Taxes, Magna Carta for Women, and the Reproductive Health Law, among many others.<br><br>As former Minister of Health, Dr. Janette Garin introduced systems and innovative programs that were seen to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), curb fraud in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and most importantly, bridged public health to how it will impact every Filipino family.<br><br>Her exemplary performance allowed her to be chosen in 2011 as one of the Top 100 Inspiring People of the World by Women Deliver, a New Yorkbased organization. In June 2016, she was conferred with the Order of Lakandula , the highest honors given by the Philippine Republic, citing the important contributions she has made to Public Health. She firmly holds on the belief that infections know no borders, and that public health means a global nation fighting as one, protecting the future of the world: our children . Believing in health equity, she fought hard in making vaccination a government’s obligation. Her mantra: Vaccines for the rich should be the same vaccines for the poor.<br><br>With nine (9) years of experience in State Legislation, nine (9) years in National Legislation and three (3) years in the Executive serving as Deputy Minister and Minister of Health, her thrust for accountability and wise government spending, never wanes. Her more than two-decade of government service has made her a pillar of health justice in the Philippines.<br><br>A scholar, physician, public health champion – Dr. Janette Garin is a feisty and genuine fiscalizer that personifies what true public service should be. With her comeback to Philippine Congress, she brings with her the fight that fake news is a new virus infecting health.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Director, Policy - APAC, BSA
Jared Ragland serves as Senior Director, Policy — APAC at BSA | The Software Alliance. Working with BSA members, he develops BSA’s international strategies to open markets and promote innovation and digital trade in important foreign markets in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.<br><br>Before joining BSA, Ragland served as the US Patent and Trademark Office Intellectual Property Rights Attaché in the Shanghai Consulate General. Before that, he served as Director in the Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation, Office of the US Trade Representative. From September 2005 to November 2007, Ragland served as the Science Policy Advisor to the US Ambassador to APEC in the State Department’s Office of Economic Policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.<br><br>Ragland received a Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington in 2004, a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in East Asian Studies and Anthropology from the University of Arizona. He is based in BSA’s Singapore office.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Foreign Editor, The Straits Times, Singapore
Jeremy Au Yong was appointed Foreign Editor at The Straits Times after 14 years working in various desks across The Straits Times, including a stint as the US bureau chief for the 2016 presidential election. He has been involved in the setting up of a number of ST’s digital projects including the politics website Singapolitics.sg and the social video project Stirr.sg. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Manager, Government Affairs, Se Asia, Pacific & S. Korea, Rolls-Royce
More About Speaker
Director, Usc Center on Public Diplomacy and Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Joanna Lee has internship experience in the public sector. Previously, she interned with the Ministry of Finance, where she analysed the benefit withdrawal effects of social assistance schemes in Singapore. She was also an intern to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where she conducted econometrics research on government procurement chapters in free trade agreements. Driven by her passion for migrant communities and healthcare, she volunteers with HealthServe, an organisation that provides medical care and social assistance to migrant workers. She aspires to apply her public policy training to designing solutions that will improve the health of communities in need.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Joshua is the Founder and Managing Editor of GovInsider, a local publication that interviews government officials across the world about innovation and tech. They also run large-scale conferences with the United Nations to bring together Ministers, Governors and Mayors to share success stories and discuss the future of service delivery. Forbes Magazine described GovInsider as “basically one of the biggest government influencers you’ve never heard of”. University College London named a scholarship programme the ‘GovInsider Scholarship’ in honour of the work that they do.<br><br>Last year, Chambers led a research project for the United Nations into public sector innovation in China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. He is also an Executive Education Fellow at the LKY School. He presents the Asia Insider view on SPH Radio’s Money FM, and consults for some of the world’s largest tech companies including Amazon, Google, Visa, Grab and Dassault.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies
Justin Lee is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. He interested in understanding the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable populations and is embarking on a project to crowdsource social needs with community partners using a wiki platform. He is paying keen attention to the role and strengths of new and untapped resources — such as game designers, community artists and other social innovators — that can be harnessed to address complex social problems.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director, Centre on Asia & Globalisation and Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Kanti Bajpai’s areas of interest include international security, Indian foreign policy and national security. He is currently working on a book on India-China relations.<br><br>Before coming to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, he was Professor of International Politics, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Professor in the Politics and International Relations of South Asia, Oxford University. From 2003 to 2009, he was Headmaster, The Doon School, India. He taught at the Maharajah Sayajirao University of Baroda, and has held visiting appointments at Wesleyan University, Columbia University, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has also held visiting appointments at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, Notre Dame University, the Brookings Institution, and the Australian Defence Force Academy. Most recently, he was Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Kanti writes a regular column for the Times of India (New Delhi).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Vice Dean (Research) and LI Ka Shing Professor in Political Science, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Khong Yuen Foong is Li Ka Shing Professor in Political Science at the School. He was formerly Professor of International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987 and was Assistant/Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Government Department from 1987-1994. His Ph.D. dissertation was awarded Harvard’s Sumner Prize for the best dissertation on war and peace in 1988. His book, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton, 1992; sixth printing 2006) was co-winner of the American Political Science Associations Political Psychology Book Award (1994). He also received the Erik Erikson Award for distinguished early career contribution to political psychology in 1996.<br><br>He has held grants from the Social Science Research Council (New York)MacArthur Foundation Program on Security in a Changing World, the United States Institute of Peace, and the (U.K.) Leverhulme Trust. A former Vice-President of the International Studies Association (U.S.A), 1999-2000, he has also served on the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Foundation Committee on International Peace and Security. His research interests include United States foreign policy, the international relations of the Asia Pacific, and cognitive approaches to international relations. Recent publications include “Power as Prestige in World Politics,” International Affairs (January 2019), “The American Tributary System,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics (2013) and “The United States Response to China’s Rise,” International Security, (2013/2014). He is currently working on two long-term projects – International Politics: The Rules of the Game and The American Tributary System.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Distinguished Fellow , Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Kishore Mahbubani is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (NUS).<br><br>Mr. Mahbubani has been privileged to enjoy two distinct careers, in diplomacy (1971 to 2004) and in academia (2004 to 2019). He is a prolific writer who has spoken in many corners of the world.<br><br>In diplomacy, he was with the Singapore Foreign Service for 33 years (1971 to 2004). He had postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington DC and New York, where he twice as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN and served as President of the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002. He was Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998. As a result of his excellent performance in his diplomatic career, he was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) by the Singapore Government in 1998.<br><br>Mr. Mahbubani joined academia in 2004, when he was appointed the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School), NUS. He was Dean from 2004 to 2017, and a Professor in the Practice of Public Policy from 2006 to 2019. In April 2019, he was elected as an honorary international member to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which has honoured distinguished thinkers, including several of America’s founding fathers, since 1780.<br><br>He has achieved several firsts in his two careers. He was the Founding Dean of the LKY School, the founding Director of the Civil Service College, the first Singapore Ambassador to serve on the UN Security Council, the first Singaporean to publish articles in globally renowned journals and newspapers.<br>He has also been a prolific author, having published seven books: Can Asians Think?, Beyond The Age Of Innocence, The New Asian Hemisphere, The Great Convergence, Can Singapore Survive?, The ASEAN Miracle (coauthored with Jeffery Sng) and Has the West Lost It? .<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
CEO and Founder, Biofourmis
Kuldeep Singh Rajput is the CEO and Founder of Biofourmis, a fastgrowing digital health company filled with committed, passionate people who care about augmenting personalized care and empowering people with complex chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives. Biofourmis is pioneering an entirely new category of digital health, by developing clinically-validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, smarter engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, and cost-effective solutions for payers. <br><br>Recognized as a “Forbes 30 Under 30”, Kuldeep has demonstrated strong leadership experience with building teams, developing talent, and successfully growing, and managing strategic partnerships with global pharmaceutical manufacturers, health systems and payers. Under his leadership, Biofourmis has raised over USD $45 Million in venture capital from leading Venture Capital firms including Sequoia Capital, MassMutual Ventures, Aviva plc, and Mayo Clinic Ventures. <br><br>He uses his background and experience in biomedical engineering and data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to unfold his vision of “Predicting and Preventing Seri ous Medical Events using AI” . During his Ph.D. studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), he built bioelectronic implants, which aim to control biological processes and treat disease by modulating electric impulses. <br><br>As part of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle (YLC), Kuldeep is supporting the mission of providing people access to education and healthcare for stable economic growth. He has been featured in major publications and has been a keynote speaker at numerous prestigious conferences like TED. <br><br>[Specialties: Entreprene ur, Fund Raising, Build ing Companies, Digital Therapeutics, Licensing and Deal Struct ure, Healthcare Strategy, Digital Healthcare, Wearable Biosensors, Pharmaceuticals]<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Chief Executive Officer, Ori9in Pte. Ltd
Dr Koh Tat Suan started his first career as an engineer serving in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for 22 years. His time with the Armed Forces imbued him with experience in the areas of research and development, strategic and corporate planning, logistic and supply management, engineering maintenance, training development and education management.<br><br>He left the SAF at 45 to join the Ministry of Education (MOE) for 3 years. In the MOE, he oversaw the human resource management and development of the non-teaching staff.<br><br>He then worked at the Singapore Workforce Development Agency as Deputy Director of the Generic Skills Development Division and later at the Institute of Adult Learning as the Director of Learning and Professional Development Division, both of which dealt with workforce development. His most recent appointment was the Director of Lifelong Learning at SkillsFuture Singapore. He spent a total of 14 years overseeing the promotion of workforce development and lifelong learning at a national level.<br><br>Dr Koh is currently the CEO of Ori9in, a boutique consultancy and training firm specialising in workforce development and lifelong learning. The firm seeks to help nations and businesses be relevant and resilient by preparing individuals to be lifelong learners.<br><br>Dr Koh has a Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He obtained a Masters in Education Management with the University of Western Australia, graduating with honours. He most recently obtained a Doctorate in Education from the University College London.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Research Fellow, East Asian Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Lance Gore is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. He has done research and publications on a wide variety of topics, including Chinese environmental politics, the reforms in China’s steel industry, energy sector, patterns of entrepreneurship in mainland China, the economic bureaucracies of China, cadre performance evaluation, local state economic behaviour, the Chinese Communist Party and industrial relations. Previously he taught at Bowdoin College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University in the United States. He is the single author of three monographs: Chinese Communist Party and China’s Capitalist Revolution: the Political Impact of Market (Routledge); Market Communism: the Institutional Foundations of China’s Post-Mao Hyper-Growth (Oxford); and Chinese Politics Illustrated: the Cultural, Social and Historical Contexts (World Scientific). He also published widely in international journals such as The New Political Economy, Polity, The China Journal, East Asia: An International Quarterly, Problems of Post-Communism, Chinese Journal of Comparative Law. He edited and co-edited several books and contributed numerous book chapters, and is also the associate editor of China: An International Journal. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Associate Professor, Centre for Applied Research, Singapore University of Social Sciences
Leong Chan-Hoong is Associate Professor at the Centre for Applied Research, Singapore University of Social Sciences. Prior to the current position, he was the Head of Social Lab, at the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). Chan-Hoong received a PhD Psychology (2006) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and MSc’s in Statistics (2011) and Applied Geographic Information Systems (2019) from the NUS. He is the Singapore national representative for the World Association for Public Opinion Research , and an elected board member of the International Academy for Intercultural Research . A prolific writer, editor and reviewer, Chan-Hoong has served as consultant editor for International Journal of Inte rcultural Relations (IJIR) and Asian Journal of Social Psychology, and has reviewed manuscripts and research grant proposals submitted to distinguished journals and research agencies, including Applied Psychology: An International Review, the Israel Science Foundation, and Israel Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. He was Special Editor for the 2013 and 2019 IJIR Special Issues, “Multiculturalism: Beyond Ethnocultural Diversity and Contestations”, and “Viewing intercultural adaptation and social inclusion through constructs of national identity”, respectively.
More About Speaker
Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Leong Ching’s work lies in making sense of apparently irrational environmental behavior, whether in refusal to use recycled water, underinvesting in water utilities, or decision making in building dams and managing rivers. She uses narratives, perceptions and stories to understand collective public behavior as well as environmental identities. Her field research is focused on water institutions and governance in Asia. <br><br>Leong Ching has graduate degrees in philosophy, information technology and journalism. Before joining the university, she had a career in television and newspaper journalism. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Dr. Li Hui is an Assistant Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. She attained her PhD in Public Administration and Policy from the University of Georgia, USA, and a Master in Public Administration from Fudan University, China. Prior to joining the LKY School of Public Policy, she was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Eastern Michigan University from 2008 to 2011. Her primary research and teaching area is public budgeting and finance. Her research interests lie in fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental fiscal relations, local finance and governance, and corruption and development in emerging economies. Some of the topics she has worked on are China’s intra-provincial fiscal disparities and fiscal equalization policies, land finance and land use reforms, local cadres’ performance and promotion, and public-private partnerships. Her articles appear in Land Use Policy, Journal of Urban Affairs, Public Finance and Management, Journal of Contemporary China, China: An International Journal, Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, among other outlets. <br><br>Professor Li is also a faculty associate at Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, where her research project focuses on growth and competitiveness analysis of sub-national economies in Indonesia.<br><br>Professor Li has provided extensive executive education and consulting services for various international organizations including OECD, UNDP, ADB, UNESCAP, among others, and government agencies and companies in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, South Korea and United States. She has served as a resource person for local and international media including Singapore Channel 8, Lianhe Zaobao, 88.3 Jia FM, China Daily, among others.<br><br>Professor Li serves as a council member of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) International Chapter (2018-2020), and also a board member of the Section on Chinese Public Administration (SCPA) of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) (2019-2022).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Lionel is CEO Advisor at Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading everyday app providing ride-hailing, delivery, financial and other services. He also serves on the Board of Directors of SGX-listed telco StarHub Limited.<br><br>He was formerly Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board from 2012-2018, where he executed a successful strategy to attract major sports and leisure events to Singapore, launched a new country brand for Singapore, implemented industry transformation plans, and led the push to be the world’s first national tourism body to provide a shared digital platform for tourism content, services and data. During this time, Singapore’s visitor arrivals hit record highs and grew by almost 30%. Lionel also chaired and hosted the ASEAN forum for senior tourism officials in 2017.<br><br>During his distinguished career in the Singapore Public Service, Lionel also served as Dean and CEO of the Civil Service College, and helmed senior policy roles in the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Finance. <br>LIONEL
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Adam was trained as a political scientist at Stanford University, though he does not believe in disciplinary and methodological boundaries. Four broad questions intrigue him at the moment: (1) The political foundations of markets in nonwestern, non-democratic societies; (2) the economic effects of political tensions between nations (3) the spatial organization of coercive institutions in autocracies (4) and the use of culture as a coordination device for sustaining political rule.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director of Programs, Environmental Health , Vital Strategies
Lynn Tang is a development professional with over a decade of experience in various local and international NGOs, including UN Women, Conservation International and Save the Children. She has proven competency in a range of roles including marketing and communications, program management, partnership development and fundraising. As the Director of Programs for Environmental Health in Singapore, she is responsible for developing and managing programs around air-pollution and environmental health in Asia. She holds a Bachelor of Communications from Northwestern University and a Master of Tri-Sector Collaboration from the Singapore Management University.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Vice President & Head of Content Development, Group Strategic Marketing & Communications , DBS
Marco Sparmberg is a transmedia storytelling evangelist and digital content developer who has worked on pioneer projects in new media across Europe and Asia for more than 17 years. In his current role, Marco is heading up Content Development at DBS’ Strategic Group Marketing & Communications division, looking after the brand’s content marketing strategy with a focus on topics around sustainability. Previously, he was Director, Digital Media at mm2 Entertainment, revamping Asiaone.com’s content and monetization strategy. Before that, he spent over 4 years with Mediacorp, driving its digital business transformation in audience development and social media.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Dr. Marina Kaneti specializes in questions of global development, including the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, migration, environmental governance, human rights, and the sustainable development goals.<br><br>Dr. Kaneti has published extensively on questions of migration, activism, and rights and is currently completing a book manuscript on migrants’ political agency. With research funding from the Ford Foundation and the National University of Singapore, she is also exploring the geopolitical impact and cultural significance of the Belt and Road initiative.<br><br>Originally from Bulgaria, Dr. Kaneti completed her BA (East Asian Studies) and MSW (Social Enterprise Administration/minor in Business Administration) at Columbia University, and her PhD (Politics) at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA. Before moving to the National University to Singapore, Dr. Kaneti taught at Columbia University and New York University, among others.<br><br>Prior to her academic career, Dr. Kaneti worked as Project Manager for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and equity trader on Wall Street. She regularly works as a strategy consultant to a number of non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and think tanks around the world.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Experience Designer, Government Digital Services, Govtech
Melisa knew that she wanted to be a designer from the age of 4. Her love of stories, the pursuit of art and craft, and curiosity for new design throughout her life has been a good foundation for her career. People are at the heart of her work; she believes that human-centred design informs meaningful, engaging and sustainable design solutions. She has over 15years of professional design experience, and her journey in design practice has involved anything from award-winning window display, to retail trends, urban morphology, and methodologies rooted in the social sciences and creative processes.<br><br>Although architecturally trained, she has most recently found a home for her skillset in the practice of Design Thinking, Service Design and Experience Design. Melisa works at GovTech, Singapore, at the intersection of Design, Technology and Education, where she enjoys the challenge of working through ambiguous, complex problems, and welcomes conversations about designing for social impact, where the strategic application of design can start to “make lives better”.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, IBM ASEAN
Michael DiPaula-Coyle serves as the Head of Government & Regulatory Affairs for IBM ASEAN. Based in Singapore, he leads a regional team that supports IBM business units on trade, investment and market access policies. He engages governments throughout ASEAN on legislation and regulations related to technology policy.<br><br>He previously worked as an executive in IBM’s Washington, DC office, focusing on global trade and market access policy. In that position, he supported IBM’s global business units in Latin America, South Asia, Africa and Europe and represented IBM on trade policy before the Executive Branch and Congress. He also represented IBM in a number of bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, including the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the WTO Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). <br><br>Prior to joining IBM, Michael worked at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business association. In that role, he represented global Information and Communications Technology companies before government agencies and regulators in South Asia. <br><br>From 2004-2008, Michael served as a political appointee in the George W. Bush Administration, including as Chief of Staff at the International Trade Administration and as a Special Assistant and Policy Advisor at the Bureau of Industry and Security, where he helped develop, coordinate and implement national security policies regarding high-technology trade and dual-use export controls. <br><br>Michael received his undergraduate degree from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and his Master’s Degree from King’s College, London.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Mohnish Kedia recently graduated from Peking University with a Masters in China Studies as a Yenching Academy (YCA) Scholar. He has previously worked with the George Institute for Global Health and Indian Statistical Institute. Before joining YCA, Mohnish read economics at the University of Cambridge and the University of Delhi.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Research Fellow (Institute of Policy Studies) and Senior Lecturer (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) , National University of Singapore
Dr Natalie Pang is Senior Research Fellow at IPS Social Lab at the Institute of Policy Studies. Natalie received her PhD in Information Technology from Monash University, Australia, where her research on participatory technologies in communities won her two awards: the Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, and the Faculty of Information Technology Doctoral Medal. During her time in Melbourne, she also served as an Honorary Research Associate at Museum Victoria and was involved in the outreach and special projects department.<br><br>Prior to joining IPS, Natalie worked briefly at The Gallup Organization before joining Nanyang Technological University as Assistant Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. She has been Principal Investigator for externally funded projects and research centres, including the Centre of Social Media Innovations for Communities (COSMIC) 2010-2015, Social Media in Civic Engagement (SMICE) which was launched in 2016, and Bukit Brown Cemetery and Citizen Documentation in 2014.<br><br>Natalie has served as member of the Advisory Committee on Bukit Brown Cemetery Documentation in 2012, and presented her work on social resilience in online communities to various public agencies. She has also taken on leadership roles in the International Communication Association (ICA) as well as the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). She is an active contributor and reviewer for top-tiered journals, including New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Online Information Review, Information Technology & People, Chinese Journal of Communication, and Media, Culture & Society.
More About Speaker
Chief of Peatland Restoration Agency / Brg, Peatland Restoration Agency of the Republic of Indonesia/ Badan Restorasi Gambut RI
Nazir Foead was appointed by the President to lead Peatland Restoration Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (Badan Restorasi Gambut Republik Indonesia/ BRG RI) in January 2016. He has to lead restoration actions of 2 million hectares of Indonesia’s peatland within five years. Prior to this, Nazir joined the Climate and Land Use Alliance as the Indonesia Initiative Coordinator in February 2014, to direct grants and support for Indonesia’s CSOs. He was the Conservation Director of WWF Indonesia, managing over 300 staff in 26 conservation sites, from 2010 before joining the Alliance. Since 2016, Nazir has been active as one of the members of the World Economic Forum’s Stewardship Board of System Initiative on the Future of the Environment and Natural Resource Security.<br><br>Trained as forester and conservation biologist, he spent his earlier professional career from late 1980s in the interior of Kalimantan, Maluku and Papua running biodiversity assessment, learning from and interacting with the indigenous peoples as well as running investigations illegal logging. In the last sixteen years of his career he dedicated a major part of his time in engaging with the drivers behind the conversion of topical tropical forest in Indonesia, including land use policies, palm oil, and pulp and paper. He got the Bachelor degree in forestry from Gadjah Mada University (1992), and Master degree in conservation biology from the University of Kent, UK (1996); and intensive courses in Sustainable Forest Management in Gottingen University, Germany (1995) and DNA analysis in Indiana University (1997).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Ng Kok Hoe is Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He received his PhD and MSc degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He previously worked in the Singapore civil service and continues to consult for the government and the voluntary sector on social policy issues and social service research.<br><br>Kok Hoe’s research is concerned with ageing and poverty, old-age pensions and income security, public housing policy, social housing, and community-based social interventions.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director, Security and Global Affairs, Singapore Institute of International Affairs
Nicholas Fang graduated from Oxford University with a Masters in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He joined Singapore’s oldest think tank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, in 2010. He is currently Director, Security and Global Affairs, at the Institute. Nicholas started his working life as a journalist, and spent nine years at Singapore’s national daily newspaper, The Straits Times, reporting on financial and sports news, and writing lifestyle columns and special reports on a diverse range of topics, while rising to the post of Senior Correspondent. He then spent two years as Business Desk Editor at national broadcaster Mediacorp’s Channel NewsAsia. During this time, he oversaw local and business news coverage, and also presented various key bulletins. He was most recently Deputy Chief Editor of Singapore news at Mediacorp. He was appointed Nominated Member of Parliament in February 2012, and served a two-and-a-half-year term where he focused on issues pertaining to international affairs, media, defence and security, and sports. He is currently a member of the advisory committee of the national youth volunteerism institution Youth Corps Singapore. He also chairs Singapore Defence Ministry’s expert panel for strategic communications. Nicholas is founder and managing director of Black Dot Pte Ltd, a strategic communications consultancy, and Black Dot Research, a market research agency which offers fact-checking capabilities to address the rising threat of fake news.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
A conversationalist, researcher and policy advocate who specialises in cyber law, data privacy, crime investigation and policy research. Prior to joining the LKY school, he has worked with the Cyber Peace Foundation as Manager for Training and Policy initiatives. In this capacity, he worked with stakeholders like UNICEF, Facebook, Google, National Commissions for Women and Protection of Child Rights in India, etc. He has also curated two field handbooks on cyber crime investigation for law enforcement agencies. Recipient of the Cyber Blogger of the Year, 2015 award by the Government of Maharashtra in India, he co-founded The Cyber Blog India, which is one of the leading blogs on citizen awareness in India. He has conducted and led over 300 community workshops and over 100 law enforcement capacity building workshops. His interests lie in areas like mitigating international cyber conflict, internet rights, data privacy and protection, regulation of disruptive technology, combating child sexual abuse online, technology against sex trafficking and building online resilience against cyber crimes and attacks. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Under-Secretary-General (2007-2015), United Nations SESSIONS
Dr Noeleen Heyzer, Social Scientist, was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007-2015). <br><br>She was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific since its founding in 1947. Under her leadership, the Commission focused on regional co-operation for shared prosperity, social equality, and sustainable development. She was the first Executive Director from outside North America to lead the UN Development Fund for Women, and was widely recognized for her role in the landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. She was also the UNSG’s Special Adviser for Timor-Leste, working to support peace-building, statebuilding, and sustainable development. Currently, she is a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Board on Mediation.<br><br>A former trustee of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Noeleen is on the Governing Board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and co-chairs the Advisory Board of NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She is also a member of the Kofi Annan Global Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age. She holds BA Upper Honours and MSc Singapore University, and PhD from Cambridge University.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Research Associate, Centre for AI and Data Governance, Singapore Management University
<p>Nydia Remolina is a Research Associate at the Singapore Management University´s Centre for AI and Data Governance. She holds a Master of the Science of Law from Stanford University and has more than ten years of experience in the financial services industry, currently acting as an advisor for financial regulation, digital transformation and Fintech for financial institutions. <br><br>Nydia has also been a senior advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Foreign Attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (New York Office). She has taught or delivered lectures at several academic institutions in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and she has been invited to speak about fintech and financial regulation at various organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Her main areas of work and academic research include financial and banking regulation, securities regulation, fintech, legaltech, and the intersections of law, finance and technology.<br><br>Nydia has published the following to date: </p><ul><li>Co-authored The Dark Side of Implementing Basel Capital Requirements: Theory, Evidence and Policy , Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press (March 2019, Vol. 22, Issue 1) </li><li>Co-authored The Law and Finance of Initial Coin Offerings , in Cryptoassets. Legal Regulatory, and Monetary Perspectives. Ed. Chris Brummer (Oxford University Press, 2019) </li><li>Open Banking: Regulato ry challenges for a new form of financial intermediation in a data-driven world , SMU Centre for AI & Data Governance Research Paper No. 2019<br></li></ul><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Lead Scientist, Lloyd's Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, National University of Singapore
Olivia Jensen is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy.<br><br>Her research focuses on the political economy of water and sanitation service delivery including economic and environmental regulation, public-private partnerships, contracts and utility performance. Before joining IWP she was the Asia bureau chief of Global Water Intelligence. She has worked as a consultant for both public and private clients including the World Bank, OECD and UNEP.<br><br>Olivia holds a PhD and MSc in Development from the London School of Economics, an MA from the International University of Japan in International Relations and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University (Magdalen College).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Minister for Education, Ministry of Education, Singapore
Ong Ye Kung is the Minister for Education. He was elected Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC in Sep 2015, and appointed to the Cabinet of Singapore on 1 Oct 2015. He had held the positions of Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and Second Minister for Defence. He is concurrently a board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Chairman of the Chinese Development Assistance Council.<br><br>Prior to his Cabinet appointment, he held the position of Director of Group Strategy at Keppel Corporation, overseeing long term strategic planning of the Group’s activities. <br><br>Before joining Keppel Corporation, he was the Deputy Secretary-General of National Trades Union Congress, overseeing the Labour Movement’s employment and employability programmes. <br><br>He also held various positions in the Government earlier. These include the Chief Executive of Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), during which he spearheaded many initiatives to build up the Continuing Education and Training infrastructure. <br><br>He was the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from 2003-2005, and Press Secretary to Prime Minister Lee from 19972003. Mr Ong was also the Deputy Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. <br><br>Mr Ong graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) with a Bsc(Econs) First Class Honours, and holds a Master of Business Administration from the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland. He is married with two teenage children.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Palak Rawal is a second year student of the Master in Public Policy (MPP) programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Prior to this, she has worked with the Chief Minister’s Office of Haryana in India, where she led a project on behalf of the state government – Jaagriti, aimed at reducing gender disparity in the state. She has also worked as an associate in Haryana to improve the implementation of social policies and programmes across 16 government departments. Her core interest areas lie in the fields of gender, education, and sustainable livelihoods.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Co-Director, The Vaccine Confidence Project team, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
I am co-director of The Vaccine Confidence Project team with Dr Heidi Larson.<br><br>I have been researching issues of public confidence in immunisations since 2010. Specific research activities include qualitative analysis of parental reasons for not vaccinating their child with influenza vaccine in England, analysis of concerns surrounding HPV vaccine in India and Japan, and a systematic review on public trust in vaccination.<br><br>I am a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Immunisation in partnership with Public Health England.<br><br>I have also researched HIV risk perception in sub-Saharan Africa, and feasibility and acceptability of PrEP in Kenya, and carried out a systematic review on conceptualizations of uncertainty and risk, and implications for uptake and use of biomedical HIV prevention technologies in subSaharan Africa.<br>I have a PhD in Epidemiology, an MBA, and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London. My MBA project consisted of two systematic reviews and a case study in Thailand, in collaboration with WHO, exploring health system preparedness to changes in malaria and dengue fever epidemiology as a result of climate change.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Director, Apac Government Affairs, Splunk
Philips is Director, APAC Government Affairs for Splunk. He is based in Singapore and works with government policies stakeholders across diverse markets in APAC & Japan.<br><br>Philips has more than 20 years of experience in government strategic business development in Cisco Systems & Sun Microsystems, R&D in Kent Ridge Digital Labs and general management in the Centre for Learning Technologies. He is passionate about creating new markets to drive long term revenue growth and technology leadership.<br><br>These new markets are built as a PPP model, in collaboration with Government, Industry and Citizens. These markets include National Cyber Security & Critical Information Infrastructure (CII), Smart Cities and Smart Grids, National Broadband Network, Students & Teachers workbench and various Java platforms.<br><br>In Kent Ridge Digital Labs and Centre for Learning Technologies, He was responsible for the research direction of the lab, managing a team of IT researchers and leading national IT pilots in schools. This work has led to a number of spin-off companies during the dotcom era.<br>Philips holds a Bachelors degree with highest distinction in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana, USA. He is also a National Computer Board scholar and an Officer in Command in the Singapore Armed Forces.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Asia Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
Phred Dvorak is a Senior Asia Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, based in Tokyo. Recently, she has been looking into the changing landscape of global venture finance, and the amazing antics of SoftBank and Masayoshi Son.<br><br>Previously, she oversaw the Journal’s coverage of Asian markets and finance, as well as companies and business trends from Hong Kong. She was also deputy bureau chief in Japan. She joined the Journal in 1999 and has reported from Tokyo, San Francisco and Toronto, covering everything from Japan’s financial-system meltdown and U.S. executive compensation to polar bears and the downfall of the BlackBerry. Phred has a BA in American Studies from Yale University and master‘s in Journalism and Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Regional Industry Director, Asia-Pacific, International Finance Corporation
Ms. Karadsheh-Haddad has over 20 years of experience in the field of international investing and finance. She is currently Regional Industry Director – Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services, South Asia & East Asia and Pacific for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where she is heading up Agribusiness & Forestry, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Construction Materials, Health & Education, Machinery, Manufacturing, Tourism, Retail, and Property, and managing a diverse team located in 16 offices in the both South Asia & East Asia and Pacific.<br><br>Before taking on the role as Regional Industry Director, she was Country Manager leading IFC’s operations in Singapore, which includes infrastructure investments, infrastructure advisory, agribusiness, TMT/PE/Tech investments, IFC’s Asia Treasury Hub and three of IFC’s Asset Management Funds. She was also leading the infrastructure investment team covering Singapore and the Philippines. Prior to this, she was the Europe, Middle East and North Africa Head for the Global Chemicals Group, leading multi-disciplinary teams in executing capital intensive projects and leading IFC’s Global Fertilizer Strategy. Ms. Karadsheh-Haddad’s deals have included debt, equity, quasi-equity transactions in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East for new ventures, expansions, operational turnarounds and acquisitions a range of sectors including infrastructure, fertilizer, chemical and petrochemical sectors. Earlier in her career at IFC, Ms. KaradshehHaddad was with the privatization transaction group, where she was involved in the sourcing, structuring, execution and closing of major privatization and restructuring transactions in various sectors.<br><br>Ms. Karadsheh-Haddad holds an MBA and an MA in International Economics from The George Washington University and a BA in Economics and French from The University of Michigan.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Reuben Ng trained as a behavioural scientist at NUS, Oxford and Yale. He spent 16 years in government, consulting, and research. In government, he was in the Prime Minister’s Office driving evidence-based policymaking through data analytics and Singapore’s Smart Nation strategies. In consulting, he co-built the advanced analytics practice at a top firm, and implemented complex analytics capabilities across industries (e.g., government, banking, consumer goods) and functions (e.g., strategy, HR, operations). He teaches courses on data analytics, behavioural insights, and policy innovation, and works with senior executives (C-suite) on their organisations’ transformation strategy. He serves on the advisory boards of agencies in finance and homeland security.<br><br>Reuben is an expert in successful ageing, preventive health, psychometrics, the skills gap, and culture. He is credited with creating innovative techniques to measure societal perceptions/stereotypes that are applied to policy, and program evaluation. His research has been recognised by grants/awards from the US National Institute of Aging and American Psychology Association, and has been featured in major Singapore newspapers including The Straits Times, Business Times, TODAY, and Lianhe Zaobao. He is the first Singaporean to receive the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, the first nonBritish recipient of the UK Social and Economic Research Council (ESRC)’s Neville Butler Prize (runner-up) awarded at the Houses of Parliament in London, and the youngest winner of an Early Research Career Award from the International Council of Psychologists. He has over 50 journal/conference papers, has taught extensively in Asia and the United States, and was nominated for teaching awards at Quinnipiac and Yale.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Executive Vice President, Chief Communications Officer and Chief of Staff, Bell Flight, USA
More About Speaker
Director, Global Strategic Communication Graduate Program, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, USA
More About Speaker
Deputy Editor, Eco-Business
Robin has spent a decade living and working in Asia Pacific, including in Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, and has 17 years of experience in journalism, writing about media, marketing, government, technology and the environment.<br><br>Robin is currently the Deputy Editor of Eco-Business, where he reports on the latest trends in sustainability as well as manages Eco-Business’s network of writers across the region. He is frequently invited to speak and moderate at events around Asia.<br><br>Robin has a degree in Zoology from the University of Bristol in the UK, and spends his weekends as a volunteer for Singapore animal welfare charity ACRES.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Cxo, Founder, Autopolitic (Anova Socialytics)
Roger runs AutoPolitic, a Data Intelligence firm focusing on social engineering for electoral outcomes and for translating ideological network into movements that result in legislative alteration. It has worked in many Asian countries and is currently winning 80% of all the campaigns it has worked on. The firm’s client includes national and regional governments, political parties, candidates and international NGOs.<br><br>AutoPolitic is currently reverse-engineering 1) the creation of fringe belief circle and its propagation, 2) weaponization of social dissent, and 3) cross-border arbitrage of electoral outcome.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Adjunct Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Roger Hayes teaches an elective “The Foreign Policy of Global Business: The International Corporation as Diplomatic Actor’. Based upon a combination of his practice experience in public relations/public affairs with a late career research study comparing and contrasting international PR and Public Diplomacy, leading to a Doctorate (Henley Business School, UK, 2012), he is determined to help create a new cadre of corporate and public diplomats needed in this age of disruption, digitalisation and diversity.<br>He is passionate about the need for governments, NGOs and business to collaborate on solving social issues, especially in emerging countries and all his teaching, training, writing and research as well as consulting has this as an objective. Indeed, he authored a book REFRAMING THE LEADERSHIP LANDSCAPE: Creating a Culture of Collaboration (with Reginald Watts, 2015) to illustrate how this works and should work around the world. <br><br>In addition to his teaching in Singapore and the UK (Greenwich University), Roger has consulted with and trained business and governments in Africa, India, ASEAN and the Middle-East, speaking at conferences all over the world. Roger was President of the International Public Relations Association in 1997.<br><br>For the past 12 years Roger has been a senior counsellor with strategic communications and public affairs firm APCOWORLDWIDE in London with a stint managing its operations in India from Delhi (2010/11). He is also a senior adviser to the UN supported charity The Consortium for Street Children (CSC), member of the Advisory Board of FICCI-UK, the Indian trade body and a Trustee of the think tank Global Thinkers Forum (GTF).<br><br>Roger is among the forerunners of the global expansion of PR in the 70s and 80s working with Burson-Marsteller PR in London and New York. During his later career he held senior positions with the PA Consulting Group, Thorn/EMI, Ford of Europe, ending up as DG of the British Nuclear Industry Forum (now NIA), the UK nuclear lobby and trade association. For 10 years during the 1990s he was Non- Executive Chairman of Echo Research. Roger began his career as a Reuters Correspondent in Paris (1967/71).<br><br>Roger received his MA in International Relations from the University of California and BSC Economics from University College London.<br><br>Roger lives in London , commuting regularly to Singapore and other parts of the world.
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Selina Ho is Assistant Professor and Program Chair (Master in International Affairs) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She specializes in Chinese politics and foreign policy, with a focus on the politics of water and infrastructure. She is the author of Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India (Cambridge University Press, 2019). She is currently working on a co-authored book manuscript, Rivers of Iron: High-speed Rail in Southeast Asia and China’s Quest for Power, which is funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation. She has also published several peerreviewed journal articles and book chapters on China’s international rivers. She was appointed a Global Futures Council Fellow with the World Economic Forum. <br><br>Selina received her Ph.D. from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, where she also received a Master’s in International Public Policy (Honours). She graduated from the National University of Singapore with a B.A. in History (Honours). She was a Singapore public servant before joining academia.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Executive Director, Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) , Nanyang Technological University
Dr. Shane Snyder is a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and is the Executive Director of the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He joined NTU after serving as a Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering and the co-Director of the Water & Energy Sustainable Technology (WEST) Center at the University of Arizona, USA. For over 20 years, Dr. Snyder’s research has focused on the identification, fate, and health relevance of emerging water pollutants. Dr. Snyder and his teams have published over 200 manuscripts and book chapters on emerging contaminant analysis, treatment, and toxicology. He currently serves as an editor-in-chief for the international journal Chemosphere. Dr. Snyder has been invited to brief the Congress of the United States on three occasions on emerging issues in water quality. He is a Fellow of the International Water Association and a member of the World Health Organization’s Drinking Water Advisory Panel. He has served on several US EPA expert panels and is currently a member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board drinking water committee and the US EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors Sustainable Water committee.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
CEO and Editor-In-Chief, Click2View Pte Ltd
Simon co-founded Click2View after a successful career in newspaper journalism, culminating as Political Editor for the News Limited Group Sunday newspapers in Australia. He was Chief of Staff on Australia’s biggest-selling newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, where he managed over 150 editorial staff. He also worked for the national broadsheet, The Australian, as a senior roving reporter covering everything from coups in Fiji, bombings in Bali, race riots in Sydney and indigenous disadvantage in outback Australia.<br><br>He came to Singapore in 2008 to run communications for a billionaire philanthropist making films in India, Philippines, Rwanda, Iraq, Kenya and Afghanistan. In 2010, he met business partner Neal Moore at online TV channel TelecomTV.com and launched Click2View shortly thereafter.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Sonia Akter is Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Her research is situated on the nexus of agriculture, environment and development in the Asia-Pacific region. She has worked extensively on agricultural microinsurance, women’s empowerment and gender equity in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia. She is presently a Senior Editor for the journal Food Security and an Associate Editor for the journal Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies. She graduated with a PhD in Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University in 2010, and holds a MS degree in Economics from York University, Canada. She was Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) where she led the Gender Research Team and was the coordinator for gender research of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) program of the CGIAR (2014-2015). Prior to that, she was Senior Researcher at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany (2011-2013). She has (co)authored over 20 publications, including journal articles, books and book chapters. She has served in numerous advisory roles and expert panels including as Advisor of IRRI Gender Research Program (2015-2016) and a member of the impact assessment panel of the Seeds of Life program of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) (2015-2016). <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Analytics & Digital Hub Lead, Inside Sales Engagement Lead, Apj Customer & Marketing Experience, Intel Technology Asia Pte. Ltd
More About Speaker
Minister of Finance, Republic of Indonesia
Born in Tanjung Karang, Lampung on August 26, 1962, Sri Mulyani Indrawati earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Indonesia (1986). She then continued her studies in the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States and earned her Master of Science (M.S.) in Policy Economics (1990) as well as Ph.D. Economics (1992).<br><br>As a specialist in monetary economics, public finance and labor economics, she was chosen as the Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) representing 12 countries in Southeast Asia – including Indonesia —from 2002 to 2004. In October 2004, she received her first cabinet appointment as Indonesia’s Minister of National Development Planning.<br><br>In December 2005, she was appointed to serve as the Minister of Finance. During this period, Sri Mulyani Indrawati was able to stabilize the economy, maintain prudent fiscal policy, lower the cost of borrowing, manage the debt level, and create trust of investors.<br>As Minister of Finance, she also introduced extensive reforms and created fundamental changes in the Ministry. In September 2006, Sri Mulyani was crowned as the “Best Minister of Finance in Asia” by the Emerging Markets during the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Singapore. Sri Mulyani was also awarded as the “Best Minister of Finance” by Euromoney in 2006.<br><br>From June 2008 to October 2009, she served as the Acting Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs. She was then appointed as the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank Group in June 2010 and served in this position for six years.<br><br>In July 2016, Sri Mulyani Indrawati came back to public service when President Joko Widodo appointed her as the Minister of Finance in his cabinet. In February 2018, she was awarded as the “Best Minister in the World” at the World Government Summit in Dubai, UEA. That same year, in October 2018, Global Markets conferred her as the “Finance Minister of the Year – East Asia Pacific” at the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bali. In October 2019, Sri Mulyani was reappointed as the Minister of Finance in the Joko Widodo’s second term as the President of Republic Indonesia.<br><br>In addition, she serves as the Co-Chair of the Pathways for Prosperity <br>SRI MULYANI INDRAWATI MINISTER OF FINANCE Republic of Indonesia<br>Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development with Melinda Gates and Strive Masiyiwa. She is also the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN and sits on the Board of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited Initiative.<br><br>Sri Mulyani Indrawati lives in Jakarta with her husband, Tonny Sumartono. They have three children and four grandchildren.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Steven currently hosts Talking Point, a programme that takes a fresh approach to tackling Singapore’s hottest and most current topics. Each week, he dives into a hot topic to present different perspectives to the subject.<br><br>Prior to this, Steven co-anchored and produced CNA’s flagship morning show, AM LIVE!, one of the network’s most-watched shows, with a colourful mix of hard news, live interviews and discussions on current issues.<br><br>During his stint as a morning show host, he interviewed numerous personalities. From tennis star Anna Chakvetadze, actress Maggie Q, to former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, just to name a few. In 2015, Steven also moderated the election debates and co-anchored Singapore’s General Elections results show.<br><br>His media career began in 1999, as a trailer producer for ESPN StarSports. A year later, he ventured out as a freelance TV producer and presenter.<br><br>Outside of work, Steven is a keen volunteer. He enjoys interacting with youths and focuses on youth development through several communityrelated programmes. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at the YMCA of Singapore and a District Councilor with South West Community Development Council. When time permits, Steven is also an adjunct lecturer at local polytechnics.
More About Speaker
Senior Director and Regional Head of Government Relations, Asia-Pacific, PayPal
Steven Xavier Chan is the senior director and regional head of government relations, Asia-Pacific, for Paypal Inc. Based in Singapore, he leads government advocacy, strategy and outreach efforts in the region. <br><br>Steven has more than 20 years of combined government and industry experience in international trade and public policy. Prior to joining Paypal in August 2018, he was the managing director and regional head of regulatory, industry and government affairs for State Street’s businesses in Asia Pacific. Steven also served as Director of Government Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility for the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. He previously held various positions in the US government as a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State with overseas and domestic assignments in Mexico, China and Washington D.C., and as Deputy Director for China and Mongolia Affairs with the Department of Commerce. He also worked at Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte Consulting supporting change management and enterprise transformation projects for large organizations.<br><br>Steven currently serves a board member of the National Center for APEC and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Steven earned a Master of Arts in international economics and China studies from the School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in international affairs and economics from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He is a native of Hawaii. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Product Manager, Open Government Products
Talitha is a Product Manager at Open Government Products (open.gov.sg, OGP in short). In her role, she works with engineers, designers and stakeholders to build products for the public good, and mainly manages parking.sg. She played a key role in establishing OGP to operate as a unit that experiments and implements modern approaches to digital and corporate systems in Government.<br><br>Not too long ago, she was working in a foresight think-tank Centre for Strategic Futures under Strategy Group in the Prime Minister’s Office where she was researching issues relating to the impact of technology on society/governance. Previously, she was at the Ministry of Trade and Industry working on policies to transform industries. Talitha did her undergraduate studies in Economic History and Economics and a master’s in regulation at the LSE. In her free time, Talitha enjoys dancing and getting lost in a great book.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times, USA
Thomas L. Friedman, an internationally known author and journalist, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. His foreign affairs column in T h e N e w Y o rk Tim e s reports on US domestic politics and foreign policy, Middle East conflicts, international economics, environment, biodiversity and energy.<br><br>For his coverage of the Middle East, Mr. Friedman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 and 1988 for international reporting. He was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary for ‘his clarity of vision…in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.’. In 2004, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement and the honorary title, Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Queen Elizabeth II.<br><br>Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem , which won both the National Book and the Overseas Press Club Awards in 1989, a revised edition was released in December 2012. The Lexus and the Olive Tree , winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best non-fiction book on foreign policy. Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, issued in 2002, consists of columns Friedman published about September 11. The World is Flat: A Brief Hi story of the Twenty-first Century, issued in April 2005 and updated in 2006 and 2007, received the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. In 2008 he brought out Hot, Flat, and Crowded , which was published in a revised edition a year later. His sixth book, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back , co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was released in 2011. <br>His new book, Thank you For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations 2.0, was updated and released in 2017.<br>
More About Speaker
Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Tikki joined the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy after 13 years at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland as Director of its Research Policy & Cooperation department. In this capacity, he worked with countries to strengthen their national health research systems, developed mechanisms and initiatives to improve the efficiency and transparency of global health research, and helped formulate an organisation-wide research policy. Prior to his WHO career, Tikki was Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies & Research, and Associate Professor/Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<br><br>After following a traditional academic career path in Malaysia, his experience at the WHO convinced him that the generation of knowledge must be accompanied by its translation and utilisation, and the bridging of the ‘know-do’ gap into effective and sustainable public policies in order to improve the health of humankind, especially in the developing world. In turn, and in order to ensure its effective implementation, effective public policies must exist in a climate of good global governance as health in a globalised world is increasingly becoming a trans-national issue which knows no borders. As a corollary, good global health governance is dependent on strong national governance. In an increasingly globalised world, healthy, evidence-informed public policies are crucial for sustainable human development and its development must involve and engage politicians and civil society. Health, as a microcosm of the world’s problems, can also act as a vanguard to address and analyse governance challenges in other sectors of the economy.<br><br>Tikki’s main research and academic interests are in infectious diseases, the impact of genomics on public health, global health governance, national health research systems, knowledge translation, research transparency & accountability, and the use of evidence in health policy development. In these areas, he has published more than 200 scientific articles and 12 books, edited volumes and reports. This includes several major WHO reports, including Genomics and World Health (2002), the World Report on Knowledge for Better Health (2004) and a History of Research in WHO (2010). His involvement with the LKY School of Public Policy began in 2009 through the ST Lee Project on Global Health Governance.<br><br>Tikki holds a BSC (Honours) and PhD degrees from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia in the fields of biochemistry and microbiology/immunology. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (UK), American Academy of Microbiology (USA), Institute of Biology (UK) and the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia. He was the Founding Editor of Health Research Policy & Systems and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.<br><br>Knowing is not enough, we must apply; willing is not enough, we must act (Goethe)<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Senior Lecturer (Adjunct), Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School
Titus Yong is passionate about fostering creative collaboration in teams and the use of strategic tools for innovation. He has been facilitating programmes for managerial teams in organisations across the Asia Pacific. In his role as mentor, Titus cherishes the opportunities to help MBAs envision meaningful career and life strategies.<br><br>Titus has served on the alumni exco boards of NUS Business School and Harvard University. He contributes to leading Garden of Values, a groundup movement recently awarded by Singapore Kindness Movement. Titus is the Chairman of Harvard Prize Book (Singapore), an initiative to recognize altruism in youth and promote sustained caring behaviour in the community. <br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Ambassador-At-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Tommy KOH is currently Professor of Law at NUS; Ambassador-At-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Rector of the Tembusu College at NUS; Chairman of the Governing Board of the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Special Adviser to IPS. He is the Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of the Asia Research Institute (NUS) and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Master’s Degree on Environmental Management (NUS). He is also the Co-chairman of the Asian Development Bank’s Advisory Committee on Water and Sanitation. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SymAsia Foundation of Credit Suisse (pro bono).<br><br>He had served as Dean of the Faculty of Law of NUS, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador to the United States of America, High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico. He was President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. He was also the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for and the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). He was the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He was the founding Chairman of the National Arts Council, founding Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Foundation and former Chairman of the National Heritage Board. He was Singapore’s Chief Negotiator in negotiating an agreement to establish diplomatic relations between Singapore and China. He was also Singapore’s Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. He acted as Singapore’s Agent in two legal disputes with Malaysia. He has chaired two dispute panels for the WTO. He is the Co Chairman of the China Singapore Forum and the Japan-Singapore Symposium.<br><br>Professor Koh has received awards from the Governments of Singapore, Chile, Finland, France, Japan, Netherlands, Spain and the United States. Professor Koh received the Champion of the Earth Award from UNEP and the inaugural President’s Award for the Environment from Singapore. He was conferred with honorary doctoral degrees in law by Yale and Monash Universities. Harvard University conferred on him the Great Negotiator Award in 2014.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Business Development & Strategy Manager, Siemens Mobility Pte Ltd
Veronika has a master degree from Technical University Munich, where she studied Management & Technology with a specialization in Engineering and Finance. After assignments in Porsche Consulting and in several industrial companies’ business strategy departments, she started her career in Siemens Mobility almost 2 years ago. Based in Singapore, Veronika is now heading the Business Development and Strategy activities of the Intelligent Traffic Systems business segment in APAC. Thereby, she focuses on utilizing innovative technologies such as AI, cloud computing and Big Data to overcome traffic issues in the region and to enter new markets with digital business models.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
As Director General of Independent Evaluation at Asian Development Bank, Vinod Thomas led changes at the institution successfully. He assumed the position in August 2011 for a term of five years. He reported to ADB’s Board of Directors through the Development Effectiveness Committee. His work was to assess ADB’s development effectiveness while providing lessons to help inform ADB’s actions. This work in evaluation was instrumental in making green growth and action on climate change more integral to ADB’s strategy. <br><br>Dr Thomas was responsible for evaluating policies, programs, projects and technical assistance, as well as thematic issues at the regional, country, and sector levels. Taken together, the reviews addressed the effectiveness of ADB’s strategies, policies, practices, and procedures. He also headed the review and selective validation of project and program completion reports from operational departments. He was in charge of tracking the response to evaluation recommendations, as well as building evaluation capacity in countries. External partnerships are vital to this work. <br><br>He was Director-General Evaluation, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) and Senior Vice President at the World Bank Group, reporting directly to the WBG’s Board of Directors as part of the governance of the WBG. He led changes and impact there successfully. As DGE, he has emphasized both the accountability and knowledge aspects of independent evaluation. His strategy to increase the development effectiveness of the WBG through independent evaluation has helped shape sector and corporate policies. He oversaw a trilogy of flagship reports on climate and the environment.<br><br>In this role, he unified the three separate evaluation units of the World Bank, IFC and MIGA, and pulled them together as one under a new name, IEG. He has spear-headed initiatives at international cooperation in impact evaluation and evaluation harmonization. In 2009, he chaired the Evaluation Cooperation Group of the multilateral development banks. IEG has under his leadership been responsible for several highly influential evaluations, among them, Trade, Natural Disasters, Gender and Development, Primary Education, Environment, Climate Change and Africa’s agriculture. He was oversaw a trilogy of reports on climate change and the environment. <br><br>During this time as DGE, there was a renewal at IEG — at the management level, at the level of the staff, in terms of the work and its impact. IEG initiated a number of new cutting edge evaluations, more joint evaluations across the WBG, initiated common work with ECG, and strengthened external partnerships, outreach and dissemination. <br>Dr. Thomas was formerly Country Director for Brazil and Vice President of the World Bank, where he led the transformation of the Brazil program. In this capacity, he managed the Bank’s US$ 2 billion lending and nonlending portfolio in Brazil, helped shape the dialogue with the government and the Bank’s Brazil Country Assistance Strategy, and participated in key <br><br><br><br><br>events with the government. Environmental sustainability was introduced as one of three pillars of the country strategy (in addition to economic growth and social inclusion). He led the World Bank’s work supporting a number of analytical and financial initiatives of the Lula administration in macroeconomic, social and environmental areas. The lending program was expanded to some US$ 2 billion a year, with a great deal of stress on external partnerships and financing. <br><br>As Vice President of the World Bank Institute (WBI), he tripled the funding and programs and launched a new Institute. He sharpened the Institute’s focus and quality and expanded its mandate and impact, including partnerships and co-financing. He transformed the former Economic Development Institute into WBI — an organization that was three times larger in financing, with a far greater outreach and impact, especially in health, education, governance, women’s enterprise management, finance and trade. He established the Global Distance Learning Network, programs in global governance and development, oversaw the Joint program with African Development Bank and supported the African Virtual University <br><br>He also held positions as Chief Economist for the World Bank in the combined Asia Region and the East Asia and Pacific Region. During this time, he led analytical work relating to the enormous success of the East Asian economies, as well as their threats in the areas of finance, social progress and environmental protection.<br><br>Dr Thomas was the Director of the 1991 World Development Report, entitled “The Challenge of Development”, working with the then Chief economists Stanley Fischer and Larry Summers. The report assessed the world’s development experience. It signaled the role of market friendly reforms, trade reform, freedom and liberties, health, education, the environment, and summarized the desirable balance in governance— noting in the important role of the state to complement the role of markets.<br>He was also Chief of Trade Policy and Principal Economist for Colombia. As Chief in the Trade Policy Division, he established a new work program of research, policy analysis and operational support. He was Co-Director of a UNDP-financed technical assistance project for trade expansion and Co-Director of a Board Report on Adjustment Lending and a Board Paper on Trade Policy. <br><br>Dr. Thomas authored books, articles, and reports on macroeconomic, social and environmental issues, among them, Climate Change and Natural Disasters, Multilateral Banks and the Development Process (with Xubei Luo), The Quality of Growth, From Inside Brazil, and forthcoming Climate Change and Natural Disasters, The Fury of Natural Disasters. His op-ed articles have been featured in national and international newspapers including New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, China Daily, South China Morning Post, Korea Herald, the Hindu, and The Guardian.
More About Speaker
Air Pollution Epidemiologist, Environmental Health, Vital Strategies
Vivian Pun is an air pollution epidemiologist with over 8 years of research experience, focusing on air pollution, environmental health, urban health, methodological modelling, chronic diseases and well-being, and “big data” quantitative research methods. Vivian has hands-on public health experience, working as an epidemiologist and conducting disease and injuries surveillance for 3 years in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston, USA.<br><br>Vivian is responsible for making the case for addressing air pollution from a public health perspective, increasing commitment and capacity of key stakeholders to strengthen air quality management to promote public health, and informing the public about the risks of air pollution. She received her BS (Cellular Biology) from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA), MPH (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) from Boston University (Boston, USA), and PhD (Public Health) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
University Professor, National University of Singapore
Professor Wang received his BA and MA from the University of Malaya in Singapore, and his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He was Professor of History at University of Malaya; Professor of Far Eastern History at Australian National University. From 1986 to 1995, he was Vice-Chancellor of University of Hong Kong.<br><br>His latest book is China Reconnects: Joining a Deep-rooted Past to a New World Order (2019), Other recent books include Home is not Here (2018); Renewal: The Chinese State and New Global History (2013); Nanyang: Essays on Heritage (2018); Another China Cycle: Committing to Reform (2014) and The Eurasian Core and it Edges: dialogues on world history with Ooi Kee Beng (2015).<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Member of Parliament, Malaysia
Shu Qi is a Malaysian politician from the Democratic Action Party (DAP). She was a member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly for the Senai constituency from 2013 to 2018. In the 2018 general election, Shu Qi was elected to the Parliament of Malaysia for the Kluang constituency.<br><br>Prior to her political career that began in 2011, Shu Qi worked as a journalist where she wrote mainly on parliamentary and political issues for close to three years. Currently, she is also a Board Member of REFSA (Research for Social Advancement), an independent think tank based in Kuala Lumpur.<br><br>Shu Qi graduated with a double degree in Journalism and Political Science from the National Cheng Chi University in Taiwan and a Master in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker
Master in Public Policy Candidate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Miss Wong Yee Lok is a Master in Public Policy candidate at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and was the Vice-President of Bridging GAP (Gender and Policy), a student-led group to enhance future policymakers’ awareness of the challenges associated with gender-based inequalities. She is also a Young Scholar of Institute of New Economic Thinking. Yee Lok is interested in the study of economic and social policies to protect people from economic risks and insecurities of life. Her recent works include “The Shape of the Production Possibility Frontiers between Economic Growth and Income Equality in East Asia” and “Public Rental Housing of Two Productivist States: The Case Study of Hong Kong and Singapore”. As a former athlete herself, she actively promotes sports as a tool for development. Before joining LKYSPP, she worked in a sports charity in Hong Kong to facilitate equal access to sports for youths – regardless of their economic background, gender, ethnicity and religion. Yee Lok holds a degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Hong Kong. She is also an independent commentator for Hong Kong newspaper, with a main focus on social policies in Hong Kong and Singapore.<br><div><br></div>
More About Speaker