
ABOUT EVENT

Datuk Wira Dr Hj. Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff
Chairman
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Dr Rais Hussin is an avid strategist, perennial wordsmith, social engineer, serial entrepreneur and serious policy intellectual. He is also the President and CEO of EMIR Research that specialises in data driven research on any given national or international issues. He has more than 23 years corporate experience in leading and managing local and global telecommunications, technologies and IT companies. He has been actively promoting inbound investment, technology and execution for high-tech high value projects in Malaysia and the exciting growth markets of the ASEAN economic zone. Among the issues that fascinate him are those related to disruptive change, big data, the wide use of apps driven economy, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Straddling between science, strategy, communications, and policy advice, Dr Rais has sought to convince governments to adopt private public partnerships as advocated by the World Bank, to resolve any market break down or conundrums. Dr Rais Hussin received his Bachelors in Economics (Hons), Masters in Management and Doctorate in Business Administration from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).
Dr Sumitra Nair
VP of Digital Talent Development
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Sumitra is Vice-President at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), in charge of the digital talent development. Her mandate is to work with like-minded ecosystem partners to build a sustainable and quality talent pool for digital technology sectors. In this capacity, Sumitra spearheads digital technology and data talent development strategies for the entire talent life-cycle aimed as nurturing a strong talent pipeline as well as securing continue career relevance for the existing workforce. To-date her work has impacted more than a million Malaysians.
In her prior role at MDEC, Sumitra also initiated and led a national initiative to empower small and youth businesses with digital marketing skills, benefitting more than 300,000 small businesses in Malaysia.
Prior to joining MDEC, Sumitra held leadership and advisory roles in corporate responsibility and sustainability portfolios at DiGi Telecommunications and Telenor ASA (Norway). Sumitra holds a PhD in Business & Economics from Monash University Malaysia. Her most important role is being a mother to two digital natives.
Safuan Zairi
Senior Vice President
MaGIC
Safuan heads the Technology and Innovation Division of the Malaysia Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) as a Senior Vice President. His portfolio covers the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS), Social Innovation (SI), Academy (consisting of Global Accelerator Programme, Bootcamps and MooC) as well as MaGIC’s Technology Development. Skilled in Strategy, Business Planning, Management and Business Development with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Strong professional with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and MBA. Initiated Malaysia’s DroneTech Ecosystem, supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Drone Industry Insight (Droneii) and DHL.
Dr Yeong Ceh Fai
Co-Founder
DF Automation
Dr Yeong Che Fai is an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He graduated with a PhD from Imperial College London. His interests are in robotics, innovations, and entrepreneurship. He together with his team has won more than 100 awards such as SOBA, British Invention Show, APICTA, ROBOCON and MOE Entrepreneurship Mentor Award.
He is a serial entrepreneur and has co-founded several companies. One of the companies, DF Automation & Robotics, produces Industry 4.0 enabled robots which have been exported to Singapore, Thailand, India, Mexico, and Europe. DF has also received support from National Technology Innovation Sandbox (NTIS) for two projects. One of the projects is to supply Healthcare Delivery Robot or nicknamed as Mak Cik Kiah 19 (MCK19) to hospitals to assist frontliners to deliver meals and medicine. The second project is an Autonomous UV Disinfection Robot. This robot can move autonomously in a premise while eliminating viruses and bacteria using UV light.
Jin Xi Cheong
Chief Executive Officer
Poladrone
Jin Xi is the founder and CEO of Poladrone, a leading UAS (drone) solutions company based in Cyberjaya, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand. In 2019, he was recognised as a Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 recipient for Poladrone’s work in the agriculture sector. Jin Xi is a certified remote pilot under the Civil Aviation Safety Authority Australia and holds a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering degree from Monash University Australia. He firmly believes that automation is key to sustainability in the agriculture sector.
To date, Poladrone has mapped and analyzed over 800,000 hectares of agricultural land across Southeast Asia with deep understanding on how drones can increase productivity in plantations. In August 2020, Poladrone launched Oryctes, their first proprietary agriculture spraying drone developed to meet the needs of the regional oil palm and farming sector.
Aaron Tang
Country Manager
Luno
Aaron is Country Manager for Luno Malaysia, which is the first cryptocurrency exchange to obtain full approval from the Securities Commission of Malaysia. Luno makes it easy for Malaysians to buy, sell, store and learn about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Aaron began his career in in the Oil and Gas industry, where he spent almost a decade with international companies like PETRONAS and Weatherford International. He also has experience in the Learning & Development and Social Enterprise space. In his free time, he runs a popular blog — which has been featured in publications such as Business Insider, iMoney, SAYS and Malaysia’s #1 Business Radio BFM.
Aaron has an Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS.
Howie Chang
Founder
Forward School
Howie Chang is the founder and CEO of Forward School (www.forwardschool.co), a revolutionary technology and future skills school in Malaysia. At Forward, he leads the growth and development of the company, with the goal of building sustainable talent pipelines for businesses.
Having spent the formative years of his career in Singapore, he has a long experience of product management, user experience and digital business transformation in various industries. Howie also had stints with startups of all kinds, where he delved into the dynamic intersection of design, business and technology.
He was also the Head of UX and Design at Viki and Director of Product Management at Redmart, both which resulted as two of the most notable tech acquisitions in Southeast Asia.
Mei Tan
Founder
Scoopoint
Mei Tan is the 2nd generation CEO and Director of Asia Green Group – a Property Development and Timber Milling & Manufacturing company. Mei kickstarted her career serving a brief stint as a Graphic Interactive Designer with MTV International in NYC before returning to her hometown, Malaysia to ply her trade.
Having to succeed a brick and mortar business of over a decade, as well as her venture into Co-Working Space and now the online learning & mentorship platform as mentor and investor, Mei soon came to realize that innovation would always be the key in driving business growth. That impetus in her to grind out solutions for every problem arise has fed her passion to help and empower more NextGen of family business leaders to discover new and progressive methods to further build on their businesses and legacies. She then founded the Asia Innovative Agency, and soon proceeded to launch Innovatif+ that has its influence spans across Asia.
Besides holding her own as a dynamic entrepreneur, Mei is also a TEDx Speaker and an award-winning CEO. Some of the prominent and most coveted awards under her belt were Top CEO Award, Top 100 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs Award, Top 30 JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Award, InPenang Emerging Entrepreneur Award, and EZ Emerging Entrepreneur award and High Flyer award.
Stephanie Ping
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
WORQ Coworking Space
Stephanie Ping is the Co-founder & CEO of WORQ, a hyper-localized community workspace founded in March 2017 with a vision of helping businesses and entrepreneurs by fostering meaningful connections for its members and the surrounding community. Stephanie is an award recipient of the Malaysian Venture Capital Association’s Outstanding Female Entrepreneur of 2019.Till date, WORQ has bagged 5 prestigious awards, including the coworker member’s choice awards for two consecutive years. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Economics and M.S. in Management Science & Engineering, where her experience with Stanford’s entrepreneurship community played a significant role in shaping her vision for WORQ’s entrepreneurial community.
Hamdan Abdul Majeed
Executive Director
Think City
Hamdan Abdul Majeed is a Director at Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the investment arm of the Malaysian government. He leads Khazanah’s regional office in the Northern Region of Malaysia, with the mandate to seek out strategic investment opportunities to catalyse growth and development. He also serves as Executive Director of Think City, an urban regeneration agency providing urban policy thinking and implementing innovative urban solutions, while catalysing and managing urban regeneration initiatives in Malaysia. Mr Hamdan has successfully managed the public grants programme for regeneration in the George Town UNESCO World Heritage site. He is also actively involved in the Sustainable Penang Initiative and hopes to make his native city more liveable and sustainable. Prior to joining Khazanah, Mr Hamdan had a career in investment banking, involved extensively in debt capital markets advisory and specialising in structured finance and project finance and advisory. Mr Hamdan has an interest in the development of civil society in Malaysia, the political economy of the Third World, and Islamic Economics. He is actively involved in activities and discussions in the areas of economics and socio-political development, world affairs and religion. In 2012, he was awarded the Eisenhower fellowship as a young leader for his work on urban development and leadership on cities. In 2014, he was recognised by the World Cities Summit as a young leader on urban development and city transformation. Mr Hamdan holds a degree in Economics and Management from the University of London.
Justin J Anthony
Executive Director
PIKOM
Justin is entrusted to execute key initiatives towards achieving the needs of the TECH industry in the areas of Global Business Services (GBS), E-commerce and Cybersecurity and other special interest groups. Leading a team that enables industry partnerships and collaboration between private and public sectors in establishing strategic alliances which includes stakeholder engagement with various associations, academia and relevant industry bodies creating a viable eco-system between industry, academia, private and public sector. Justin has been instrumental in executing projects at the national level under the Economic Transformation Program – National Key Economic Areas – Business Services and advocating SME adoption of e-Commerce and contribute towards National E-Commerce Strategic Roadmaps (NESR) 2020 goals. Justin is also a Council Member of the Global Technology & Business Services Council (GT&BSC).
FS Yoong
Senior Director of IT
Jabil
With a wealth of leadership experience in IT management, operations, talent development and innovation. FS is responsible for spearheading key technology transformation of Jabil IT, leveraging cloud technology, Open Source and Data Analytics. Member of IT leadership team in developing IT Long Term Plan and strategic initiatives that help Jabil as the most technologically advanced and trusted manufacturing solution provider.
Joined Jabil in 2002, with strong technical expertise and deep leadership experience. Prior to joining Jabil, held various IT leadership roles in a numbers of MNC companies focusing on IT operation, infrastructure and application development.
FS rich skill sets include strategic IT management, human capital development and managing a diverse cultural organization. Acquired extensive working experience with counterparts in USA, China, Vietnam, India, Japan and European countries.
Sugeeta Bhanoo
APAC Head of Capabilities
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Sugee is BAE AI’s APAC Head of Capabilities overseeing 480 staff across Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. With over 17 years of experience in telecommunications and defence industries coupled together with her MBA research on global virtual team inefficiencies, she has a deep understanding of the R&D challenges in a global and local context.
Prior to joining BAE, Sugee was the first female Head of R&D of a 62-member software development and testing team in Nokia Solutions & Networks (NSN). This team played a significant role in developing and maintaining the world’s largest Subscriber Data Management solution (2.2 billion subscribers). She also has extensive experience managing offshoring and building new teams for start-up (Apertio) and multi-national companies (Motorola, NSN, BAE Systems).
Sugee is an electronics engineer by training – B.Eng in Electronics Majoring in Computer to be exact, and she remembers the days in university when she was one of the few women in a class dominated by male classmates. By the time she graduated, the IT industry was booming in Malaysia and she felt her engineering background would be a natural fit for the software engineer role. Her background in engineering has influenced the way she thinks and helped her throughout her career.
Sugee started off her career as a graduate trainee in Motorola shortly after graduation. After 1 and a half years, she went on to become the technical lead for a test team of 60 before moving on to a project manager role. That was the start of her career in leadership and she continued on that path. She took a short break to start a family and embark on the most important role she’s held to date – the role of a mother. As a leader, it has always been a privilege and honour for her to be the voice of the lesser heard and play a significant role in ensuring they were represented.
Raymond Devadass
Chief Executive Officer
Daythree Business Services & President Contact Center Association of Malaysia (CCAM)
Raymond is the Founder & CEO of DayThree Business Services. He specializes in providing strategic management direction, particularly in the field of digital transformation strategy and management. Raymond presently serves as President of Contact Centre Association of Malaysia.
He has guided several technology companies from ‘start-up’ to becoming leading technology players in the industry. Amongst his many key achievements, Raymond managed one of the largest healthcare informatics implementations in Malaysia and played key role in realizing the IT Outsourcing agenda of a major state government in Malaysia.
Having originated from a corporate finance background, Raymond has strong working and practical knowledge in finance, accounting, and banking. He holds a Master of Business Administration majoring in Strategy & Planning. He is a Chartered Accountant, registered with CPA Australia and Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
Raymond is also the author of several articles and research papers. He was twice selected by peers in the industry as ‘Best Thought Leader’ in 2017 and once again in 2019 – an award reserved for recognizing leadership aimed at external positioning of the individual’s competencies in delivering value.
Byron Fernandez
EVP Malaysia & India/Group CIO
TDCX
Byron brings 20 years of BPO experience from designing customer access strategies, inbound customer contact, outbound outreach, and all supporting functions of a high-performing contact centre. His expertise in verticals such as telecommunications, banking, insurance, FMCG, technology, and government contact centres make him ideally suited to the responsibility of leading TDCX units in various markets. Byron is a COPC-certified Implementation Leader, CIAC-certified Strategic Leader, as well as a member of the IAOP. He is also one of the very few individuals in the country to be presented with the Career Achievement Award by the CCAM.
Irine Lopez
Director, Customer Engagement
AIA
Irine comes with 25 years of experience in Operations and Contact Center management covering businesses across Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK, and New Zealand. She has business acumen amongst other in driving successful turn-around of a Singapore base company (abss) into a profitable company in South East Asia.
As a director now in AIA, Irine spear heads the digital transformation initiative to deliver a superior service for a ‘1 stop’ digital OMNI channel experience for AIA Malaysia.
Irine is an active member of CCAM in the last 20 years and have been Chief Judge in 2019 for the CCAM AWARDS in Malaysia. Irine also actively participates in Contact Centre World, namely in being Judge for their global awards for many years now, including 2020.
Jinder Kaur Sidhu
Managing Partner
Language Talent Solutions
Jinder is an Entrepreneur at Language Talent Solutions, a niche recruitment agency focusing in providing multilingual talent beyond geographic boarders. With over a decade of HR experiences including both Fortune 1000 company and start-up, she has accumulated valuable business acumen, HR employment, regulations, and best practices experience, as well as a strategic partner to stakeholders in operations and with global clients. Responsible for leading the company’s workforce strategy, which includes talent management, Build a talent pool, Recruitment marketing strategy, Inbound Recruiting, Candidate experience, Candidate relationship management, Social recruiting and Automation process which is driven by clients experiences and associate empowerment efforts. She believes in order to build globally competitive teams; we need to bridge boards across the world because skills matters more that your passport.
Dato Munirah Looi
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Brandt International
Dato Munirah Looi is an experienced, CX & Digital Transformation Strategist, Operational Excellence Management & Human Performance Improvements practitioner for the past 30 years. She has cconsulted in areas of Customer Experience, Organization Development & Digitalization assignments, both locally and overseas and had worked extensively throughout Asia & US. She has more than 15 years of experience in Banking & Financial.
Awards & Recognition:
- Awarded as the Top 10 Best Inspiring CEOs of 2-2- By Industry Era and was the Top 3 Nominee for the prestigious ‘EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018 (Malaysia)’.
- ‘Women Leadership Award’ for Business Process Outsourcing Sector in 2018.
- ‘Top 30 Women Achievers & Leaders-Malaysia’ 2017.
- The ‘Women Leadership Achievement Award’ at the WWLCA-World Women Leadership Congress & Award 2015
- Inaugural ‘Malaysian Women of Excellence Award 2014’
Mohamad Helmi Harit
Leader
IBM Client Innovation Centre Malaysia
Helmi is passionate about Championing Progress & Innovation in Malaysia. He is currently the Leader of IBM Client Innovation Centre (CIC) Malaysia. Helmi brings over 20 years of experience in Service Delivery, Business Operations & Transformation, Financial Management, Consulting and Program & Project Management.
In the current role, he has transformed his teams to the Agile way of working, adopting Design Thinking methodology, deployed Automation into the business processes, preparing his teams with the skills of the future and promote collaborations across the global teams.
He has successfully led his team during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, with seamless transition to the new norm and 100% of IBM CIC services are available to the client. Prior to joining IBM, Helmi was formerly attached to Ericsson Process and Application Consulting as Consultant for Ericsson companies in Asia Pacific.
He is also active in IBM knowledge sharing activities like communities of practice, forums, conferences and/or other knowledge exchanges. Helmi holds a Degree in Accountancy and Finance, De Montfort University, United Kingdom.
Tze Siang Koay
Senior Director, Head of Dell Digital Malaysia and General Manager
Dell Cyberjaya
TS Koay leads the Dell Digital Global Cloud Service Delivery, responsible for infrastructure engineering and solutions for Dell internal businesses. He is also the head of Dell Digital Global Delivery Center in Malaysia, driving digital transformation for Dell internal businesses. In addition, he heads up the General Manager role for Dell Cyberjaya site, overseeing site level operations and development.
He brings with him over 18 years of IT experience across enterprise application and infrastructure management in both internal IT and outsourcing services industry. He is very passionate in driving Digital transformation across application transformation, IT transformation on multi-cloud strategies and workforce transformation, provide the best end user digital experience for Dell internal stakeholders.
He is also a strong advocate in developing the digital workforce for the future with new technologies adoption as well as cultivating innovation culture in the workplace. Under his leadership, Dell Digital Malaysia has been awarded the Best Digital Global Business Services Provider of the year 2019 from PIKOM (The National Tech Association of Malaysia). TS studied Bachelor of Computer Science at University Putra Malaysia and obtained Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School.
Neeti Mahajan
Managing Director of HSBC Global Service Centre (GSC) Malaysia & Global Head of Workforce Management
HSBC
Neeti Mahajan joined HSBC in 2001 within Payment Operations and has since held several key roles in the Group’s operations in multiple geographies, including postings in India, United Kingdom and Malaysia. Before her appointment as Managing Director for GSC Malaysia in August 2017, she was the Centre Director for GSC Hyderabad, India. Neeti is a business professional with more than 20 years of experience spanning Operations, Change and Transformation, Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma.
In HSBC, Neeti’s passion for Gender diversity and Balance at the workplace has led her to pioneer the “Career Comeback” programme in various Global Service Centers, helping female professionals resume their career post-sabbatical.
Dato’ Hasan Azhari bin Hj Idris
Chief Executive Officer
Invest Selangor
Dato’ Hasan is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Invest Selangor Berhad, an investment promotion agency of the state of Selangor, with a key role in promoting and attracting both local and foreign direct investments as well as coordinating and facilitating the approval of investors’ project application with government agencies. Invest Selangor also assist in providing relevant networking opportunities to improve the business ecosystem in the state.
Dato Hasan was one of the founding members of the organization in 1999 before he left and pursued his career in Oil and Gas industry in 2009. He returned as the Chief Executive Officer of Invest Selangor in 2012 and remains in the organization until today.
Dato Hasan demonstrates his natural leadership in successfully steering the promotion of inward direct investments into Selangor over the years. He has a broad range of multidisciplinary skills and experience in strategic investment promotion & industrial development and holds directorships in a few state GLC companies as well as members of several industries development councils in Selangor. He is also often invited to share his views in multiple forum and media channels, locally and internationally.
Dato’ Karim Abdullah
Group Chief Executive Officer
Serba Dinamik Holdings Group
Dato’ Karim is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in engineering services for Oil & Gas, power, water, utilities and IT solutions. He serves as the Group CEO and Managing Director for Serba Dinamik since 1993 and leads the group of companies to be listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia in February 2017. He helms the group of companies from an unknown SME to almost RM6.0billion market capitalization and in excess of RM15.0billion order book.
During this time, Dato Karim has actively engaged as speaker at various private and government events including international conferences on futuristic technologies, Industry Revolutions 4.0, effective leadership, winning management style, entrepreneurial journey, economic & industry views from his perspective, educational and financial wisdom, as well as his secret corporate manoeuvring during choppy economic periods.
Under his stellar leadership, Serba Dinamik presents in 24 countries across 6 continents and has operational offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Qatar, Bahrain, UK and UAE. Currently, Serba Dinamik has ongoing projects locally in Kuala Terengganu, Melaka, Johor, Sarawak and Sabah. Globally, Serba teams are working on projects in Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Laos, Abu Dhabi and Indonesia.
Dato’ Karim is the Chairman of Kumpulan PowerNet Berhad, Sarawak Consolidated Industries Berhad and Bion PLC (fka Green & Smart PLC). He is the Chairman of Institute Materials Malaysia (IMM) and the CEO Faculty of Politeknik Kuching.
He has received many awards and recognitions for his achievements which includes:
- 2018 – The Brand Laureate BestBrands Award 2017/2018: Signature Brand – Integrated Energy Solutions
- 2018 – The World Business Leader Bizz Award 2018, Prague: Beyond Success & Inspirational Company by World Confederation of Businesses
- 2018 – Forbes Asia’s Best Under a Billion 2018,Tokyo
- 2019 – Contractor Outstanding Behaviour and Recognition Award (COBRA) 2019 by PETRONAS Chemicals Ammonia Sdn Bhd
- 2019 – The Asset Asian Awards (Triple A) 2018 by Asset Publishing and Research Ltd.
- 2019 – The Asset Asian Awards (Triple A) 2019 by Asset Publishing and Research Ltd.
- 2020 – The Asset Asian Awards (Triple A) 2020 by Asset Publishing and Research Ltd.
Dr. Jasmine Begum
Director of Legal, Corporate & Government Affairs
Microsoft ASEAN and New Markets
Dr. Jasmine Begum, Director of Legal, Corporate & Government Affairs for ASEAN and New Markets. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Jasmine has held this role since 2010, where she oversees corporate affairs, government relations and policy engagement as well as philanthropies for Microsoft businesses in the ASEAN region.
Jasmine joined Microsoft with over 20 years of award-winning experience that uniquely straddles both legal/policy engagement and communications, that included leadership and regional stints at companies such as Dell Malaysia, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Executive Office of the Secretary-General in New York as well as having been a corporate litigator.
Jasmine has broad educational qualifications, having completed a double degree in law at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur. Jasmine then pursued post-graduate studies in both Law and Communications in the UK and earned her Ph.D. in business and human rights.
Derek Toh
Founder & CEO
WOBB
Derek is the Founder & CEO of WOBB, an award-winning Malaysian online job search platform designed to help employers and young jobseekers find each other. He was previously an Associate Director at Robert Walters before embarking on his journey to build a company that helps Gen Y talent to find the right company with the right culture to work in.
WOBB revolutionises job search by offering jobseekers a simpler way to browse for jobs on their smartphones and take virtual tours through media rich company profiles. By allowing jobseekers to take a peek at their company culture, employers, regardless of their size and industry, are able to gain access to the best talent available in the market.
Derek was in the pioneer batch of Stanford-MaGIC Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program where he learnt from top mentors from Stanford Universities and the founders of successful startups in the Silicon Valley. Besides that, he is also a mentor for McKinsey & Company’s Youth Leadership Academy, a program where some of the brightest university undergraduates in Malaysia were selected to embark on social projects to make an impact in the country.
Hew Wee Choong
Vice President, Investment Development
MDEC
Hew Wee Choong is the Vice President, Investment Development (ID) of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) joining in October 2016.
As the VP, he oversees the strategic planning, investment attraction to client management and development. Supporting the local digital services companies to go global. Additionally, Hew looks into matters relating to the industry critical enablers or eco-systems to ensure the continued development of the industry.
Hew has more than 20 years’ working experience and having graduated from La Trobe University, Australia in 1992 with Bachelor of Science (Computing & Economics) and Graduate Diploma in Economics. He has extensive experience in private sector consulting as well as B2B (business to business) Sales and Business Development. He started his investment attraction and facilitation role in another investment promotion agency as a pioneer member in 2011. He led the Investor Relations team in attracting large Fortune 500 or Forbes 2000 multi-national companies before moving into his current role in MDEC.
Surina Shukri
Chief Executive Officer
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Surina Shukri brings two decades of experience working across a diverse range of companies including global multinationals, middle market companies and early stage startups across the financial services, natural resources and technology sectors. She spent the bulk of her professional career in the United States, including 17 years of experience as an investment banker, strategist and leader at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the United States. There she served as Head of Strategy, Innovation & Business Management for Middle Market Banking, Head of Strategy for Commercial Banking, Chief Staff to the CEO and Executive Director in Natural Resources Investment Banking. Surina left JPMorgan Chase in 2018 to start SheNovation Ventures, a transformation and growth venture studio where she advised fintech and blockchain startups on growth strategy and capital raising and consulted business leaders on culture change and transformation. She graduated from University of Pennsylvania’s Management & Technology dual degree program with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Systems Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to returning to Malaysia, Surina lived in Manhattan, New York City, with her Malaysian husband and three children.
Shafinaz Salim
Head of Technology Hub Development Division
Cyberview
SHAFINAZ SALIM is the Head of Technology Hub Development Division of Cyberview Sdn Bhd and has vast experience in the digital arena, as she previously served as the Strategy and Planning Manager with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, MDEC who is also our strategic partner.
Today, Shafinaz is responsible for strategising, designing, developing and executing key enablers to elevate Cyberjaya into a Global Technology Hub. In her current role, Shafinaz has been instrumental in driving the development of Cyberjaya as a vibrant Global Tech Hub, making it a vibrant, smart city that we envision it to be.
John Low
Co-Managing Partner
South-East Asia of Roland Berger
JOHN LOW is Co-Managing Partner South-East Asia of Roland Berger. John has over 25 years of working experience, of which 20 years were spent on consulting and over five years in the industry and public sector. John focuses primarily on serving clients in public services, manufacturing, digital hubs, healthcare, and hospitality sectors. He has worked for clients across Asia, US, Europe, and the Middle East on projects related to digital transformation, economic and industry development, strategy development and organisation capability development.
Gopi Ganesalingam
Vice President – Global Growth Acceleration (GGA)
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Gopi Ganesalingam is a finance professional and an entrepreneur who has served in executive and board positions in the Asia Pacific region for the last 30 years. Gopi has worked in brand names like Matsushita, American Express International, Lucent Technologies, Telstra Australia, Salesforce.com and Google.
Gopi is now the Vice President of Global Growth Acceleration at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Berhad (MDEC), the government agency tasked with developing Malaysia’s Digital Economy. At MDEC, Gopi is at the forefront of championing talented entrepreneurs, by empowering them to actualise their business vision. Gopi is passionate about developing Malaysia’s nascent Digital Economy towards achieving sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development. His end goal is to connect and propel the global digital economies via government intervention, business chambers, aligning investors/funders, government and business chambers, all of which will link global tech entrepreneurs.
Kamarul A Muhamed
Founder and CEO
Aerodyne
Kamarul A Muhamed is the Founder and CEO of Aerodyne Group, a Malaysian drone solutions company that is ranked second in the world by Drone Industry Insights of Germany. Aerodyne was also named as Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Asia Pacific UAV Services Company of 2019’; and a recipient of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Malaysia’s ‘Industry Excellence Gold Award 2019’.
Kamarul led Aerodyne from a 3 person start-up in 2014 to a global company with over 400-strong drone professionals operating in 35 countries in less than 5 years. He is a TEDx speaker and a drone Industry thought-leader and have presented his ideas and innovation on AI, drones and Industry 4.0 around the world.
Dina Krishnan
Head of HR, Malaysia, Indonesia & Brunei
DXC Technology
Dinakaran Krishnan is the Head of HR for DXC Technology Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
As the Head of HR, he oversees key HR strategic functions namely across workforce planning, employee engagement & development, total rewards and workforce transformation.
Dina has more than 20 years’ working experience and having graduated from University of Tasmania, Australia with Bachelor of Business (International Business & Human Resources). He has extensive working experience in Human Capital Consulting, Manufacturing, IT services and BPO.
His career envisaged across reputable organization such as Arthur Andersen & Co, Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd, Deloitte Malaysia, Axon Solutions Sdn Bhd, Hewlett-Packard Malaysia Technology Sdn Bhd and now with DXC Technology Sdn Bhd (formerly known as CSC Malaysia Sdn Bhd).
Jeff Sandhu
Head
FutureX Talent, 42KL, Sunway Education Group
Jeff Sandhu is currently heading an innovative computer science school called 42 Kuala Lumpur. Having started his career at the age of 19, he is a firm believer that skills and not certificates will be the key to unlocking talents for the jobs of the future. He was previously the Executive Producer of BFM radio overseeing the technology and entrepreneurship development in Malaysia. Jeff is also the first representative from Malaysia for the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Young Leaders Summit 2015 in Luxembourg and a recipient of the U.S Department of State IVLP 2019 Programme on leadership and journalism.
Dr. Nikolai Dobberstein
Managing Partner Malaysia
Kearney
Nikolai Dobberstein is the Head of Kearney’s Communications, Media & Technology Practice in Asia Pacific and the Managing Partner of the Malaysian Practice. He has been involved in multiple business and digital transformation programs of technology companies and telecom operators in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa. Nikolai is also the lead partner for Kearney’s collaboration with the WEF on the Future of Production in ASEAN. He was a member of the Indian Government’s Innovation Taskforce in 2016/17
Before joining Kearney in India in 2011, Nikolai was the Exco member for New Businesses at Maxis, Malaysia. Nikolai had P&L responsibility for all data and digital businesses and helped propel Maxis into one of the global top 15 data operators. Before Maxis, Nikolai was 12 years with McKinsey & Company. He was a Director on the Board of Scicom (MSC) Bhd from 2005 to 2017 and Exco member of the Global Wireless Broadband Alliance.
Nikolai came to Malaysia in late 1996 when he was involved in setting up the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). He has spent the last 26 years working in Asia, mostly in Malaysia and India. He moved back to Malaysia in 2017.
Nikolai is German and has a PhD in Technology & Innovation Management from the University of Kiel, Germany.
Salina Muhammad Zain
Senior Vice President & Head of Partners
& Stakeholders Engagement
Salina leads the Investment Facilitation unit and is responsible to facilitate companies in setting up their business services operations in Iskandar Puteri. Her roles include managing relationships and engagement with the Malaysian government, its agencies and partners to meet the companies’ business needs.
She brings with her over 30 years of working experience in various IT roles, marketing, business development and stakeholders management from Multinational Corporations (MNCs), Government agencies, and Large Local Companies (LLCs) such as Sony, Dell, Microsoft and MDeC. She spent her first 10 years of her career in IT roles before moving on to non-IT related roles. Salina is one of the pioneer team members in the setting up of Dell in Asia Pacific.
Salina holds a Bachelor Degree of Science in Computer Science with Hon from ITM/UKM
Malaysia.
Mohd Ibrahim Abdul Majid
VP of Investment Attraction
IIB Ventures
Ibrahim is the Project Director of the Blockchain Village at Medini a strategic project under GBS ISKANDAR to promote the development of the necessary ecosystem of a Blockchain hub in Medini, Iskandar Malaysia. Currently the VP for Investor Attraction of IIB Ventures Sdn Bhd, Ibrahim has over 20 Years of diversified experience specifically in the ICT industry in the area of Business and Industry Development for the regional and local market.
Dr Tan Ching Seong
CEO
iCycle
Dr Ching Seong Tan serves as the Associate Professor in Multimedia University, Malaysia. Concurrently, he is also the honorary secretary of TEEAM and Vice Chairman of MyCIE. He is also the recipient of J. William Fulbright Award 2012/2013. Today, he serves as the consultant in various industries, e.g. SENKO Advanced Components, Finestar Ltd, etc.
Dr Tan received his first degree in 1998 at the University of Malaya, the oldest university in Malaysia. He obtained his PhD in Engineering in 2006 (NTU Singapore). Academically, he has served in various institutions as director, department head, research centre chair, and research team leader since 2005. He is a senior member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), member of SPIE (International Society of Optical Engineering) and Chartered Engineer (Institute of Mechanical Engineer, UK). He has co-authored an engineering text book, titled: Applied Engineering Failure Analaysia: Theory and Practice. He is the (co-)author of over 25 peer reviewed journal papers and over 30 peer reviewed conference papers.
Chak Lee Meng
CEO & Founder
CENS Digital
Chak Lee Meng is the CEO & Founder of CENS (Singapore & Malaysia), focusing on digital technology and platform, he has three decades of experience in the technology industry across US, Europe and Asia Pacific, high-tech companies : Oracle, Vmware, TIBCO, RealNeworks and others. Recently managing and operating one of largest FinTech Platform and IT infrastructure in China, transacting about RMB35 billion yearly, previously as part of the Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor E-Procurement Flagship Team spearheaded the design & architect of the E-Procurement platform, he has worked with open source, commercially provided, and proprietary technologies to provide efficient, effective, secure, and continuous infrastructure operations for the expanding FinTech and digital platform. As a technology executive, leader and architect for 20 of those years, he led and oversaw the design and timely deployment of products and services through coordination with technical and business teams.
- Named one of China IT Premier Leaders (Digital Transformation), 22nd November 2018
- Named the “Top Ten Excellent Cases of 2018”, FinTech data platform, 11th December, 2018
- 2018 China Intelligent Manufacturing Best Solution Award, 30th November 2018
- Awarded the “Cloud Computing Big Data Innovative Enterprise Award” at the 10th China Cloud Computing Conference, 24th July 2018
- Launched TX Stack all-in-one machine and hybrid cloud solution seamlessly connected with Microsoft Azure with Microsoft China, 7th June, 2018
- Awarded the “Best Solution Award for Intelligent Manufacturing” for TX Technology Beijing, China, 16th November, 2017
- Awarded the first China Blockchain Technology Development Contest with “Tianxi Blockchain Music Property Blockchain Application”, 16th May, 2017
Jagdish Pandya
Founder & Chairman
BlockOn Capital Pte Ltd
JAGDISH PANDYA is a future-ready technopreneur whose love for tomorrow has helped him turn into a top-notch catalyst for a number of successful business ventures across technology, finance, human and social interactions. His sound strategies are pre-loaded with a simple and smart process that makes all the difference. He’s remained at the forefront of the blockchain and cryptocurrency developments since the beginning and has formed a strong alliance and credibility among his peers with his dedicated hard work and grow-all mindset.
A self-made cryptopreneur, he spearheads a corporate structure consisting of multiple brands that cater to the whole crypto ecosystem. Every brand is run by a professionally managed team of industry experts who comes with a depth of experience, the width of expertise and the height of commitment. Pandya underlines the need where we all need to strengthen the decentralized innovations and tomorrow’s world will be much better than what it is today. Currently, in his position as the crypto catalyst, he plays a hand on the role of an accelerator, providing opportunities, scale, and speed that this rapidly growing sector needs.
Block On is working to impact crypto and blockchain industry with Innovating Events including www.malaysiablockchainweek.com, www.thaiblockchainweek.com, www.blocklive.asia and have hosted many celebrities, government officials including Ex-prime minister of Malaysia Tun Mahathir Mohamad.
Apart from many other initiatives that he endorses, he is empowering ‘Blockchain Village’ with ‘Center of Excellence for Blockchain and Emerging Technologies’ that focuses Incubation, Innovation, and Academy to enhance Entrepreneurship, Education and Employment in Malaysia / Asia with the support of Khazanna’s Subsidiary: Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB at Iskander, Johor Bahru, Malaysia Offshore location near to Singapore.
Known among his tribe as JP, his passion for creating a win-win-win world for the crypto community, media and government have won his tremendous respect from everywhere which had encouraged him to work even more toward his growth of this fantastic industry.
Sudev Bangah
Managing Director
International Data Corporation (IDC) ASEAN
As the Managing Director for IDC ASEAN, Sudev directs the overall operations of the ASEAN country offices’ development, sales, consulting, as well as marketing, and works alongside local and global organizations’ C-level executives in their aspirations in developing robust plans and strategies for both emerging countries. Sudev is also a frequent speaker at industry events across Southeast Asia on a wide range of topics, and is regularly quoted in both local and international media such as Bloomberg, Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and BBC.
Raymond Siva
Chief Marketing Officer
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Raymond Siva is the Chief Marketing Officer at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) overlooking the 31-strong brand and strategic partnerships division – includes brand marketing and partnerships, strategic communications, digital and experiential. With more than 23 years of experience in journalism, strategic marketing and crisis and issues response, he is a sought after Reputation and Influence Strategist for international brands, local conglomerates and CEOs. He has conducted over 100 spokesperson and crisis training, messaging workshops and talks in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. He is recognized as one of the few Malaysians with deep knowledge of the government and international affairs, with extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and management. Ray remains the only communications strategist to support Malaysian and Indonesian delegations to the World Economic Forum at Davos over a period of 6 years. He is recognized for his work in CEO/Leadership positioning, government and community communications, brand and marketing campaigns and financial communications.
Darshiniy Selvaratnam
Senior Market Analyst
Financial Insights, IDC Malaysia
Darshiniy is a Senior Market Analyst for IDC Financial Insights. Based in Kuala Lumpur, she will be covering the Fintech and Financial Services Technology space both in Malaysia and the greater Asia/Pacific region in research, custom consulting projects, and related events.
Prior to IDC, Darshiniy served as an external auditor in KPMG Malaysia and has over three years of experience in the financial services sector. She previously specialized in the statutory audit and regulatory reporting of foreign and Islamic banks, including Labuan offshore banks in Malaysia.
Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Mohd Munir Abdul Majid
Chairman of CARI
ASEAN Research and Advocacy
Tan Sri Dr. Munir is currently Chairman of CARI, an internationally recognised thought leader in ASEAN Research and Advocacy, Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council of Malaysia, as well as President of the ASEAN Business Club
He also sits on the board of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and is board chairman of the Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia (ICMR). He is an active advocate of deeper ASEAN economic integration.
He has extensive experience and is well known in the Malaysian corporate world. He is formerly the Chairman of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (2008-2020). He had been the Group Editor of the New Straits Times, first executive chairman of CIMB and founding chairman of the Malaysian Securities Commission. After stepping down from the Securities Commission, he became Independent Non-Executive Director of Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Chairman of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and Non-Executive Chairman of Malaysian Airline System Berhad. He was Founder President of the Kuala Lumpur Business Club, established in 2003 and is a member of the Court of Fellows of the Malaysian Institute of Management.
Tan Sri Dr. Munir obtained a B.Sc (Econ) and Ph.D in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1971 and 1978. He is an Honorary Fellow of LSE and continues the long association with his alma mater as Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre of International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy.
Armi Majid
Managing Director
OFO Tech
Muhamad Armi completed his Master Degree in Telecommunication Engineering in University of Kassel (Universität Kassel) in Germany in 2013. He obtained his Bachelor also in Telecommunication Engineering in 2011 from University of Applied Science Ulm (Fachhochschule Ulm), also in Germany.
During his stay in Germany, he was involved in developing Functionality and Performance Test Software for TV and Radio Tuner for Daimler, Mercedes and Smart Cars. The software has already been used widely for Daimler owned Car Manufacturer, such as Mercedes and Smart Car.
Upon returning Malaysia in 2015, Muhamad Armi has an intense interest in developing new Convergence Technology Businesses. He is exploring and developing Business opportunities using IR4.0 technologies and other engineering disciplines. The development will lead to new untapped businesses and other commercial applications and services. In mid-2016 he founded OFO Tech.
Now OFO Tech – a multi-award-winning company and one of the leading Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) solution provider in Malaysia – has developed its own all-in-one GeoAI data platform solution, utilizing both reality and real-time data.
Justin Tan
Head of Investment Advisory
MDEC
Justin heads the Research & Advisory department within the Investment & Industry Development (IID) division of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). In his current role, Justin assists in shaping policies and regulations that impact Malaysia’s digital economy and attracting key investments in Malaysia. Additionally, Justin looks into critical enablers and industry ecosystems to ensure the continued development of Malaysia’s digital economy. Prior to this, Justin headed the Investor Management and Development department within MDEC to nurture the growth of digital companies within Malaysia. Justin was previously a management consultant at various firms before joining MDEC.
Gene Tang
Head of Professional Services
Asia and India, Rackspace
Gene Tang is the Head of Professional Services and Onboarding Delivery at Rackspace Technology Asia-Pacific Japan. He oversees the company’s portfolio of professional services in the region, working with customers to deliver bespoke projects that produce seamless transitions to target platforms or to public cloud which improve their business and IT agility.
Gene is also responsible for defining Rackspace Technology’s professional services strategy and offerings in Asia and prioritizes listening to customers’ business challenges. Gene has brought his passion and expertise in Multi-cloud Computing and Big Data to life at Rackspace Technology for over nine years, working in roles including Systems Engineer, Senior Solutions Architect and Head of Solutions Architecture in London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Scott Jarkoff
Director, Strategic Threat Advisory Group
APJ & EMEA, Crowdstrike
Scott Jarkoff is a Senior Threat Intelligence Advisor at CrowdStrike. Reporting to Kent Rounds, Vice President Global Threat Intel & Government Sales, Scott focuses on helping customers operationalize and integrate threat intelligence within their organization’s security strategy, demonstrating the value of CrowdStrike intelligence capabilities. Scott is based in Tokyo and covers APJ. He has over twenty years defense-grade cyber security and intelligence experience, serving on a global team entrusted with empowering sales of CrowdStrike threat intelligence.
Prior to joining CrowdStrike, Scott worked at McAfee in Tokyo, Japan as a Senior Security Advisor focusing on evangelizing defense-grade cyber security solutions, with a strong emphasis on the Japanese government and critical infrastructure sectors. He also directed and led the introduction of McAfee threat intelligence services in the Japanese market. Scott regularly presents at events in Japan and internationally and is frequently interviewed by Japanese media on cyber security news topics.
Before joining McAfee, Scott worked for the US government for over twenty years, the most recent as the Chief of Cyber Security at United States Forces Japan. At USFJ he was responsible for overseeing DoD cyber security strategy and cyber situational awareness for the U.S. military components in Japan. Scott leveraged DoD intelligence capabilities to develop U.S. and Japan cross-government cyber security strategy, managing the USFJ cyber security program, and commanding the USFJ security incident response team.
Scott was a key player in the United States Government (USG) and Government of Japan (GOJ) Bilateral Information Security Consultation (BISC), a Department of State-led initiative to increase information sharing and strengthen cyber security cooperation between the two nations. Scott was the U.S. Co-Chair of the Information Assurance Working Group (IAWG) and single-handedly reinvigorated a stale bilateral relationship between U.S. DoD and Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD), leading to substantive cyber security information sharing, cyber security training for the Japanese military, and other significant initiatives to increase MOD cyber security capabilities.
Amitabh Srivastava
Chief Information Security Officer
Abyres
A seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in various industries across the IT domain. Amitabh has been in in Cyber Security industry for close to a decade with unique SOC implementation across APAC. He has worked extensively across various markets in Asia Pacific on Cyber Security from designing and implementing SOC across various industries and sectors. A master’s in business management with a specialization program from University of Washington, Amitabh has acquired a unique skill sets in understanding the the fabric of Cyber Security industry in Asia Pacific. With Abyres, Amitabh is working on building Malaysia’s First full integrated Threat Centric Security Operation Center with a unique system of complete customization and tailor making options.
Tony Yeoh
CEO
Digital Penang
Currently, Tony is CEO of Digital Penang, a government agency of the State of Penang, Malaysia, established to accelerate efforts to capture opportunities in the digital economy and promote a digitally engaged society. He was a visiting Industry Fellow, Associate Faculty, teaching Information Systems Management to students of Bachelor’s in Hospitality (Honours) at Singapore’s 5th university Singapore Institute of Technology. From 2006 till 2016, he was the regional Chief Information Officer for Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) Asia Middle East Africa region.
Over 12 years, Tony led the HP Consulting and Systems Integration practice in Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, until his last assignment as General Manager of Consulting in China HP. He started his career with Singapore National Computer Board as one of the pioneers of the Civil Service Computerization Program, and later moved to New Zealand to work for a systems consulting company Computer Sciences Corporation. Tony holds an MBA from University of Auckland, New Zealand and a BSc from Monash University, Australia.
Amit Minocha
Finance Shared Services Director
Intel
Amit Minocha is the Finance Director for Intel Finance Shared Services Center, a role he has helmed for the past 4 years. In his prior 10+ years with Intel, he had multiple finance roles supporting Manufacturing, R&D, Business Units and Corporate Accounting. Prior to Intel, he had 10 years experiences in the fields of Audit, Public Sector, and financial services. Amit has an MBA in International Management from RMIT Australia and is an FCPA Australia. He is passionate about people development and spends considerable time and energy helping the organization mature into high performance, while crafting and shaping finance of the future.
Dato’ Loo Lee Lian
Chief Executive Officer
Invest Penang
Dato’ Loo Lee Lian is the Chief Executive Officer of Invest-in-Penang Bhd. since 2010. As the principal investment promotion agency, InvestPenang is the point of contact for investors, providing facilitation support to foreign and local businesses as well as policy advocacy. Dato’ Loo has more than 20 years of industry background in the various sectors of the manufacturing industry. She has led companies in strategic planning, project management, operations, business development, supply chain management, customer strategies and international business migration. Born in Penang, Dato’ Loo graduated with Bachelor of Economics & Accounting from University of Adelaide, South Australia and received her Master of Business Administration from the University of South Australia.
Llyod Lee
Vice President – Sales
AIMS Data Centre
Lloyd Lee is currently the Vice President of Sales of AIMS and APAC Regional Sales Head for OTT Division under TIME Group level. As VP of Sales, Lloyd is responsible for developing business strategies and opportunities, create sales leads, cultivate cross sectors, building channel partners for the company to position all our services. Lloyd has been instrumental in leading the sales team to grow new revenue and maintain double digits growth since 2009
Tan Tze Meng
Head of Data Cloud
MDEC
Tze Meng graduated with a BSc(Eng) in Computer Engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London in 1986 and has been in the ICT industry for more than 30 years. In 1988 he started a career with Telekom Malaysia’s IT Division and in 1994 had a key role in the launch of TMnet in 1996. In 2000 he left his role of managing TMnet’s international networks and was involved with two startups in data centre design, cybersecurity and Apple enterprise support. In 2007 he joined MDEC and today he heads the Data Cloud Department which is responsible for the digital infrastructure ecosystem in the digital economy. He has also been a member of the Malaysia’s mirror committee for ISO/IEC Information Security Standards development and the ISO mirror committee for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology standards.
Eric Foo
Acting Head – Cloud, Security & Infrastructure Services
Hitachi Sunway Information Systems
Eric is the Acting Head of Cloud, Security & Infrastructure Services (CSI 1) Business Division for Hitachi Sunway Information Systems Sdn Bhd (“Hitachi Sunway”). He is responsible for the overall business strategy and services delivery capability
Ir. Wan Murdani Mohamad
Director, Digital Infrastructure & Services
MDEC
Wan Murdani Mohamad started a career with Time dotCom in 1995 as a Telecommunication Engineer, primarily involved in the network planning, design, business development and project management for metropolitan area network, as well as national and international telecommunication network.
He then joined Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in 2001, first attached to Regulations Department. He is currently part of the Senior Leadership Team of MDEC, as a Director of Digital Infrastructure and Services Division, primarily overseeing formulation, recommendation and implementation of divisional business strategies and initiatives to support MDEC’s strategic thrusts in championing digital economy. His responsibility includes driving, advocating and facilitating the progression of digital enablers and catalytic investments in the identified focus areas that includes data centre, cloud and cybersecurity eco-systems and strategic infrastructural development.
Wan Murdani was nominated and elected by the country members of Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), a joint initiative by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to represent the Government of Malaysia, under the then Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, as a Chairman of Study Group for two terms from 2002 to 2007, where he successfully led the multi-countries dialogues and deliberations on ICT users adoption. Wan Murdani currently serves as a Member of Kelantan State ICT Council and Penang Smart State Steering Committee, primarily to provide advice, strategic view and domain expertise in the areas related to digital economy.
He graduated with Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Missouri-Rolla, USA in 1994 and also holds Master of Business Administration (Management). He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Board of Engineers Malaysia.
Lim Chee Siong
Vice President
Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group of Huawei Technologies
Lim Chee Siong is the Vice President – Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group of Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. With more than 20 years’ experience in the ICT industry, he possesses broad experience in the Digital and ICT industry development strategy and technology, business solutions, Sales and Marketing; He is currently responsible for Huawei Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group, covering Huawei Cloud, Intelligent Computing, A.I. portfolio, Data Storage & Intelligent Vision solution. His mission is to support customers and partners to identify and develop the right Cloud & A.I. transformation solutions and ecosystem, to build a Fully-Connected Intelligent World. He previously held the position of Chief Strategy Marketing Officer for the Southern Pacific Region.
Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli
Chief Executive Officer
InvestKL
In his current role as Chief Executive Officer, he leads the teams to identify, facilitate, and develop solutions for MNCs to locate their high value regional hubs in Greater KL and Malaysia. The focus sectors include oil & gas, healthcare, FMCG, business and financial services. To date, InvestKL team led by Azmi has successfully brought in more than 100 MNCs to set up regional headquarters or hubs within Greater KL. He joined InvestKL in 2012 as Director of Investor Relations for the European Region.
Prior to InvestKL, Azmi has over 16 years’ experience in leadership and management positions spanning commercial business, business transformation and operations with MISC Berhad, a subsidiary of Petronas. He participated in MISC’s business transformation initiatives and was part of a leadership team to re-engineer, develop and commission a global ICT system throughout MISC offices globally. Azmi holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
Adrian Hia
Investment Director
Kairous Capital
Adrian has more than 5 years of experience and expertise in cross-border venture capital investment between Greater China and Southeast Asia. As part of the founding team, he played a pivotal role in the initial setup of Kairous Capital. He spearheaded the license applications in Hong Kong and Malaysia for Kairous Capital and since then, Kairous Capital is still the only licensed private equity firm in Malaysia that is also licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Since inception, Kairous Capital has invested in 12 portfolios companies and exited 2 of our portfolio companies through IPO in China and Hong Kong. Some of the notable investments are iPayLinks, JomParking, SkinRun and Intrepid Group. Few of the investments have successfully secured next round of fundraising from reputable investors such as Tencent, Lenovo, Visionplus Capital, Sun Sea Capital etc. Cross-border and value creation have always been the key pillars of Kairous Capital’s investment strategy. For all the portfolio companies, Adrian has been working closely with the management team, successfully helping them to expand their business outside of China and across SEA. As a result of his deep understanding in the cross-border investment space, he has been listed under Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (Finance & Venture Capital) list. He is also a qualified investment fund manager under Asset Management Association of China and Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. He holds Business and Finance Professional qualification under ICAEW and graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Law from the University of Liverpool.
Anna Yamauchi
Executive Director
Lumirous
Born in Japan and raised in Indonesia until 4 years old. Lived abroad (in 6 different countries including Japan, Indonesia, USA, France, UK and Malaysia) in my childhood. Graduated from Oxford Brookes University and have MSc at University of Surrey in the UK. Since she was 15 years old, her dream was to become a successful women entrepreneur. She had an opportunity to participate in a mock UN. The proposal was about “Children in the military”. After she participated in this, she started thinking what she would like to achieve most would be supporting children who do not have parents by setting up an NPO or as a CSR activity. The journey so far has been exciting as Trambellir has managed to participate in massive new events last year such as RISE conference in Hong Kong, WMTC in Abu Dhabi. We were also invited to the Aviation Festival in Singapore. Because of Covid-19, the travel industry is struggling however, once the border is open, we can promote treatment bookings in Malaysia. This is to encourage locals and tourists to visit Malaysia and get top-notch medical and fertility treatments.
Stanley Chee
CEO
SalesCandy
Stanley Chee Co-founded and grew an online game business from scratch to USD10m revenue in less than 6 years. He is a Mensa member with an IQ of 164 with 15+ years’ experience in running businesses. He is professionally trained as a software engineer in the USA, a Google Regional Trainer and TEDx speaker in digital marketing. Awarded “Most Influential Digital Marketing Leaders 2016” by World Brand Congress.
Prof Datin Dr Sameem Abdul Kareem
Dean
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya (UM)
Prof Dr Sameem Abdul Kareem is an academic at the Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She started her career as a Lecturer in the Insititute of Preparatory Studies, ITM (now known as UiTM) in 1986 after graduating with a B. Sc.(Hons.) in Mathematics from the University of Malaya, in the same year. Prof Sameem obtained her M.Sc. in Computing from the University of Wales, Cardiff (now known as the University of Cardiff) in 1992. She subsequently embarked on a career in the University of Malaya from 1993 onwards. She obtained her PhD in 2002; her current research interests include Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Machine Learning, Data Analytics/Mining, Image Processing and Biomedical Informatics. Prof Sameem has successfully supervised a number of Master and PhD candidates and acted as Internal and External Examiners both in and outside Malaysia. She is currently the Dean of The Faculty of Computer Sc and Information Technology, University of Malaya
Prof Ir Ts Dr Vinesh Thiruchelvam
Deputy Vice Chancellor
Asia Pacific University (APU)
Prof Ir Ts Dr Vinesh Thiruchelvam is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) and the Chief Innovation Officer for the APIIT Education Group. He is also an academic advisor and external examiner to four Malaysian Public Universities. He is Professional Engineering with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with Engineering Council, UK and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE-UK). Prof Vinesh has been the Chairman of the Engineering Education Technical Division (E2TD) at the Institute of Engineers Malaysia, advisory member of the Ministry of Education’s ‘STEM Task Force’ directly involved with the development of the MoE’s Education Blueprint in 2014-2015, member of the Ministry of Human Resources’ BPIC on quality of graduates in 2014-2017, member of Malaysian National Task Force for Big Data Movements with Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDeC) in 2015-2018 and is currently contributing to the Malaysian National Framework for Artificial Intelligence as a scientific expert appointed in 2019.Prof Vinesh is also appointed on to Digital Expert Panel for Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) covering Cybersecurity, Data Science, Software & System Integrator, Animation, Games and Internet of Things for 2020-2024. He is also the Technical Chair and Lead worldwide for ISO under the working group TC307/WG 1 – BlockChain Fundamentals Standards Development.
Prof. Ts. Dr. Wan Mohd Nasir Wan Kadir
Chair of School of Computing
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
Prof Dr Wan Mohd Nasir is a Professor in Software Engineering and currently the Chair of School of Computing, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He was the Head of the Software Engineering Department (2005-2009), Deputy Dean (Development) of the Faculty of Computing (2010-2015), and Director of Center for Academic Leadership and Professional Development (CALPD), UTMLead (2016-2018). He is active in teaching, research, and professional consultation in the area of Software Engineering, especially in Software Quality Assurance and Software Testing. He is also greatly involve in the future ready digital talent development.
Arham Abdul Rahman
Deputy CEO I
MIDA
Obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Joined the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) as an Economic Affairs Officer in 1989. Worked primarily in the Foreign Investment Division, which is MIDA’s frontline division for attracting and facilitating foreign investments into the country. From September 1994, served as the Deputy Director of MIDA Cologne, Germany for 6 years, promoting Malaysia as an investment destination to companies in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and other Eastern European countries. Beginning year 2009, served as the Director of MIDA New York for 4 years, promoting Malaysia to investors in East Coast of USA. Promoted as Director of Foreign Investment Division upon returning from New York in 2013. Beginning May 2015, assumed the position as the Executive Director of Investment Promotion and led 3 divisions of MIDA, namely Foreign Investment, Domestic Investment and Corporate Communications. In addition, supervised the coordination of MIDA’s 12 state offices and 20 overseas offices. Served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer II of MIDA from 1 March 2018 until February 2019. Currently is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer I of MIDA. As part of the MIDA Management Team, attended the Senior Executive course at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University USA in 2011
Attila Emam
Head of Talent
Learning & Culture, AirAsia
Attila Emam has been responsible for talent management, learning and development, and culture and employee engagement at AirAsia since 2017.
He joined the company in 2013 to set up its enterprise risk management function and also managed ASEAN affairs. Before that he was a financial economist with Securities Commission Malaysia.
Attila read economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at Birkbeck College, London University, as a Chevening scholar.
A science, maths and data geek, he enjoys watching and playing rugby, and was a third-dan instructor in aikido, a Japanese martial art.
He is married with two young children and a cat.
Chow Sang Hoe
Partner
Ernst & Young
Chow Sang Hoe is the EY Asean Consulting Leader, overseeing nearly 120 partners and 4,000 consultants in 10 Asean countries. He is also the Malaysia Consulting Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Advisory Services Sdn. Bhd.
Chow has more than 32 years’ experience in business consulting, strategy and transformation, and is actively involved in making targeted acquisitions to bolster digital, technology, innovation and analytics capabilities in ASEAN. Chow’s passions are transformation and nation-building, and he is energized by the achievements of his clients. He enjoys bringing people together, having conversations, facilitating discussions and achieving actionable outcomes.
He has a keen understanding of the digital capabilities landscape and how these apply to our clients. Recently, since Covid-19 pandemic started, Chow has been extensively involved in Digital Transformation projects, including Digital DERMA platform, Digital Dashboards and Control Tower for LAKSANA, Digital Malaysia Vision for Economic Action Council, ASEAN Digital Capital White Paper in collaboration with MDEC and Huawei.
Dato’ Fadzli Shah
Chief Strategy Officer
Corporate Strategy Division, MDEC
Dato’ Fadzli Shah has an impressive and diverse track record across areas which include early stage startups, infrastructural project investment, and management consulting. As an entrepreneur and investor, he is especially passionate about technology enabled disruption of low innovation industries.
With two successful venture exits in Europe in the period between 2005 to 2009, he is also an active proponent of the localisation of proven business models into an ASEAN context. His history of building businesses is driven by a dedication to helping entrepreneurs capitalise on growth opportunities in ASEAN.
Prior to joining MDEC, Dato’ Fadzli was attached to Team Venture where he raised US$50 million Venture Capital Fund from High Net Worth (HNW) and family offices to invest in disruptive startups at Series B., primarily focused on energy, eCommerce, fintech and agriculture.
Dato’ Fadzli holds a degree in Statistics, Computing, Operational Research & Economics from University College London, and also a masters in Technology Entrepreneurship from London Business School/UCL.
Sinan Ismail
CEO
Digital Durian Animation
(2012 – Now) CEO of Digital Durian – As the CEO, I set the company direction and guide/mentor my team to reach these goals. Managing 135 team members and growing.
(2007 – 2012) CEO of Digital Durian Enterprise – Creating multimedia content, 3d animation, E-Learning and motion graphics. Diverted the business to do trading wedding gifts, wedding cinematography, wedding cards and personalised wedding gifts
(2006 – 2007) 3D Animator of Asia Pacific Videolab – Created 3D animated for TV commercial such as Shieldtox, Ayam Brand, Thumbs Up, Dettol, Pantene, Toshiba
(2005 – 2006) 3D Animator for Netcarbon Sdn Bhd – E-Learning
Dr. Khairul Faizi Khalid
Operations Manager Asia Pacific
Hematogenix
Dr Khairul Faizi Khalid graduated with honors from Moscow Medical Academy, now known as I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. He completed his compulsory service in the Ministry of Health Hospital before venturing into the private sector.
He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2012 and worked with AstraZeneca (AZ) and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) where he was involved in Cardiovascular and Diabetes therapeutic areas, handling Medical Affairs as well as Clinical trials. He was involved in monitoring and early feasibility of trials which includes EPICOR Asia, CEPHEUS-5S, RECOVERY, Investigator initiated trials for Brilinta and Empagliflozin. Dr Khairul received the Country Presidents Award twice and the Asia Area Vice Presidents Award while in AZ and Best Diabetes team in SEA and South Korea during his tenure with BI.
Just Prior to joining Hematogenix, Dr Khairul served as the Head of Business Development in Clinical Research Malaysia, a company owned by the Ministry of Health Malaysia where he contributed immensely in establishing Global business and clinical research networks for Malaysia via CRM. His most notable contribution was the setting up of the Phase I Realization project where Malaysia Establishes its capacity for running Phase I Clinical trials.
His vast experience and networks in Pharmaceutical, Clinical trials and Healthcare industry allows him to oversee the establishment of Hematogenix Sdn Bhd from the very beginning till recently getting Hematogenix Asia Pacific operational hub to be up and running in Malaysia.
Nadia Azmi
Assistant Manager, Strategic Communications & Marketing
Cyberview
NADIA AZMI is currently an Assistant Manager for Strategic Communications & Marketing at Cyberview Sdn Bhd, primarily overseeing public relations. Although having a Bachelor of Laws from the United Kingdom, she has devoted her advocacy through a career of broadcasting and communications. This includes her years as a journalist and news presenter for Astro Awani and TV3. In her role at Cyberview, she also writes speeches and articles, and moderates the company’s monthly webinar which covers a vast spread of topics on technology and digitalisation
Norlisa Francis Nordin
Head of Division, Corporate Affairs
OK Blockchain Centre
Norlisa Francis Nordin is currently a Head of Division, Corporate Affairs for OK Blockchain Centre, primarily overseing public relation management. Her objective is to obtain a position that will enable her to use her strong organizational skills, award-winning educational background, and ability to work well with people.
Her experience in OK Blockchain Centre cover:
- Accounts Management
- HR Management
- Public Relation Management
- Government Liaison
- Event management
Anwer Mohamed Yusoff
Head of Industry Development and Collaboration
Cybersecurity Malaysia
Anwer Yusoff graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida and did post graduate studies at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the area of artificial intelligence in aircraft design.
He has more than 25 years of extensive experience in the Malaysian ICT inand his skillsets encompass Supply Chain Management, Business Process Re-engineering; and in the last 15 years in the area of information security.
He is currently the Head of Cyber Security Industry Engagement & Collaboration Department Cybersecurity Malaysia and believes that the cornerstone of cyberspace security is and will remain a public private partnership and only by acting together can we build a more secure future in cyberspace.
Megat Mohammad Faisal
Chief Information Security Officer
Bank Muamalat
Megat is currently the Chief Information Security Officer of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad. Until recently, Megat was a Partner/ Executive Director of Deloitte Risk Advisory practice and leads the Technology & Data Risk Services. He has over 19 years of experience in providing Cybersecurity,Internal Audit, IT Audit, IT security, Risk Management, Operational & Business Process Assessment and Advisory Services. In addition, He also specializes in IT Project Advisory and Governance. He has managed numerous projects for clients in the financial services and government-linked companies.
He has provided various services to clients in various industries, including public sector, banking and insurance, oil & gas, public transportation, telecommunication, services and manufacturing industries.
Robin Lee
Chief Executive Officer
HelloGold
Robin Lee is the Co-Founder and CEO of HelloGold, a Shariah-compliant fintech focused on creating financial products for the underserved and the unbanked in emerging markets. HelloGold launched its platform in Malaysia in April 2017 with gold as its first financial product with a minimum transaction size of 25 cents. As at November 2020, it has acquired more than 370,000 customers in Malaysia and Thailand and has made US$25 million of gold transactions. In 2021, HelloGold intends to expand into other markets in the region and into other financial products
Prior to HelloGold, Robin was the Chief Financial Officer of the World Gold Council where he was also the Principal Accounting Officer for SPDR Gold Trust, world’s largest gold ETF, with US$75+b AUM. He has also been a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, and a regulator with the Securities Commission Malaysia. He qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG and is a graduate from Oxford University.
Hann Liew
Founder
Jirnexu
Hann Liew is the Co-founder of Malaysian Fintech company Jirnexu Sdn Bhd (Jirnexu) and RinggitPlus.com, Malaysia’s leading financial comparison website which has helped over 1,000,000 Malaysians with their financial product applications since 2012. In 2012, Hann co-founded SaveMoney.my and JimatCermat.my, two financial advice websites dedicated to helping people manage their money better. In 2014, he led SaveMoney.my through a successful merger with RinggitPlus to form Saving Plus Sdn Bhd. Saving Plus later rebranded itself into what is now Jirnexu.
Hann currently heads RinggitPlus in its pursuit to help Malaysians to be more financially literate and to help them do more with their money. Hann is a former Assistant Vice President, Equities and Funds Structured Markets at Barclays Capital in the United Kingdom (UK). He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the Financial Planning Association Malaysia (FPAM) as a Certified Financial Planner.
Norhizam Abdul Kadir
VP
Fintech & Islamic Digital Economy
Hizam brings with him 20 years’ experience in multi-market technology and energy industries in various markets across Asia Pacific. He was with Intel, Microsoft and Ballard Power System before joining MDEC as Vice President in 2015. He has wide experience in corporate strategy and marketing, end-customer sales, business development, communications and channel marketing and enablement.
At MDEC, he currently oversees new growth areas, with key emphasis on Fintech and Islamic Digital Economy. Main responsible are building and growing the ecosystem in setting Malaysia as the hub for Inclusive and Islamic Fintech. Prior to this, Hizam managed the tech startup ecosystem where he formulated policies to attract global startups and its ecosystem, facilitated tech funding accessibility, prepared talent in emerging technologies and partnered with corporates for co-innovation.
Hizam sits on the board of directors of MiMOS Berhad. He is also an Investment Panel for Penjana Kapital and a member of the Advisory Council for Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Purdue University, USA and a masters degree in Corporate Marketing and Communication from Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Patrick Chan
Vice President
South Asia, Uptime Institute
Mr. Patrick Chan is the Vice President for Uptime Institute, South Asia and is responsible for all commercial, business development and service delivery activities in ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania and the Fiji Islands.
Patrick has over 30 years leadership experience both in ICT and Data Center Services which includes ICT Security, Business Continuity, Managed Service, Data Center Solutions encompassing Financials, Manufacturing, Co-location and Telecommunication industries.
Patrick has experience working throughout Europe, Asia and Australia with client engagements in both strategic and business developments, ICT strategic planning and operation on business continuity in the data centre for manufacturing, oil and gas, telecommunications, and financial services industries.
Patrick joined Uptime Institute in 2013. Prior to joining Uptime Institute, Patrick was with Emerson Network Power, IBM Malaysia, and Hewlett Packard.
Patrick holds an MBA from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
A. Balasubramaniam
Head, Funding Facilitation, Global Growth Acceleration
MDEC
A.Balasubramaniam ( Bala) , is the Head of Funding Facilitation & Investors Relations at MDEC, a one-stop agency under Ministry Of Communication & Multimedia Malaysia, focused on facilitating the success of MSC Malaysia, Digital Economy and the companies operating in it. MDEC also advises the Malaysian Government on legislation and policies with respect to ICT matters. Bala has been instrumental in attracting foreign Venture Capitals to Malaysia since 2013, and working closely with Securities Commission in formulating policies and incentives for VCs. He has provided strategic inputs for Securities Commission to revise the incentives for the Venture Capital Industry under 2018 budget.
Bala has extensive experience in guiding the organization with regards to policy and implementation matters pertaining to Incubation Development, Entrepreneur Development and Funding Development. He co-developed the mechanism for ICT Pre-Seed Grant for ICT start-ups, which was successfully implemented by MDEC in 2007 with RM80million funding from the government.
Prior to MDEC, Bala has been with several other government organization such as Bank Industri Malaysia (now known as SME Bank), Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and Malaysian Technology Consultants (MTDC-SIRIM JV Co).
Among other notable contribution are the policies and inputs for the 8th Malaysia Plan, 9th Malaysia Plan, 10th Malaysia Plan, 11th Malaysia Plan and, currently the 12th Malaysia for the ICT Industry & Digital Economy.
Bala was the key driver in the establishment of the 1st IC Design Training Centre in Malaysia during his MTDC days. He was also part of the National Task Force for the establishment of the 1st Wafer Fabrication Facility in Malaysia during his tenure at Bank Industri.
Bala has also been an Entrepreneur developing process technology for the Semiconductor Industry in particular for IC Packaging sector. On this particular venture, he raised corporate venture funding amounting to RM2.0m in 1999. Bala holds BEng (Hons) Electrical & Electronics Engineering and MSc. Manufacturing Engineering Management from the UK.
Dr. Ram Gopal Raj
Director of Strategy and Innovation
Redbeat Academy
Having had more than a decade of experience in academia, research, and publication as well as more than 20 years in software development, Ram currently oversees the curriculum of Redbeat Academy (RBA) across all streams along with building cutting edge innovative products.
Having obtained his PhD in Artificial Intelligence in 2011, founded several successful start-ups, RBA’s “Dean of School” knows what makes universities, and technology businesses tick and is therefore guiding RBA in bringing the latest and greatest technology syllabus today
Shaun Stephen
Profile Coming Soon!
Andrew Pereira
Chief Commercial Officer
General Assembly Malaysia
Andrew is Chief Commercial Officer of General Assembly Malaysia, a global leader in skills transformation.
Andrew is a talent development and education expert with over 10 years of experience counselling 60+ organisations globally. At GA, he helps Malaysian public and private sector organisations to articulate their people strategy and to future-proof their workforces for the digital age.
Prior to GA, Andrew was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York and Kuala Lumpur. He founded and led McKinsey’s Transformation Academy globally, designing and delivering digitally-enabled learning to 150,000+ learners across 30+ countries in 10 languages. Andrew remains a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company on talent topics.
Andrew holds MA and BA (Law) degrees from the University of Cambridge and was called to the Bar of England and Wales.
Dato’ Eric Ku
Executive Director
iTrain Group
Profile Coming Soon!
Speaker


