THE 2020 JUDGES:

2020: AWARDS CHAIRMAN

Anjali Patil
Chair of the 2020 PublicAffairsAsia Gold Standard Awards
Head of Brand & Communications for South East Asia, BNP Paribas

PAST CHAIRMEN

2019 Chairman: Stephen Thomas, Head of Group Brand and Communications, AIA Group
At AIA Stephen Thomas has responsibility for helping to set AIA Group’s communications strategy and to convey a focused, compelling narrative with both internal and external audiences around AIA’s key reputation drivers, including its business performance, growth initiatives, thought leadership, ESG reporting and community engagement.
Prior to joining AIA in 2012, Stephen spent seven years as Head of Corporate Affairs for Citigroup in China, based in Shanghai. Stephen was a Managing Director at Citi and was the spokesperson for Citi in China. During his tenure with Citi, Stephen created a holistic communications strategy for the bank in China and coordinated Citi’s engagement with a range of stakeholders.
He is a Board Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society (Chair of Page Hong Kong).

2018 Chairman: David Kiu Vice President, Corporate Affairs Mars Wrigley Confectionery Asia-Australia, Middle East and Africa

Past Chairman (2017): Shakilla Shahjihan
Senior Regional Director for Government Affairs Abbott Laboratories Asia Pacific

Shakilla Shahjihan is the Senior Director for Regional Government Affairs at Abbott Laboratories for the Asia Pacific region, based in Singapore. In this role, she leads a team that partners with Abbott’s business leaders to strategically manage and shape policies across the nutrition, pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics businesses. She leads external stakeholder engagement to drive key business priorities.
Prior to joining Abbott, Shakilla was Monsanto’s Corporate Affairs Lead for Asia Pacific where she led a capable team across the region to gain acceptance for use of technology in Agriculture. Before this, Shakilla was leading Monsanto Thailand’s business as the Country Lead for 2 years, based in Thailand. She joined Monsanto in 2008 as Regional Marketing Manager, based in Singapore.
Shakilla’s experience in the health care industry included her role as Regional Government Affairs Manager for South East Asia in Boston Scientific; and various positions in sales, marketing and corporate affairs in Merck Sharp & Dohme, Singapore.
Shakilla currently co-chairs the Government Affairs Committee of APACMED (Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association) and is an active member of the Management Committee of APIYCNA (Asia Pacific Infant and Young Children Nutrition Association).
Shakilla holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Singapore. Additionally, she completed her Executive MBA at the National University of Singapore in 2011.
Shakilla enjoys discovering new places, arts and yoga.

Past Chairman (2016): Penny Burtt, Group CEO, Asialink

Past Chairman (2015): Min Qin, Vice President, Public Affairs, Mars China

Min Qin is Vice President for Public Affairs of Mars China. She joined Mars in 2018 and leads Mars’ efforts to build and grow strategic partnerships with key public stakeholders at both central and local levels, conduct policy advocacy in key categories Mars operates in, formulate public affairs strategies, and protect and promote Mars’ corporate reputation. Prior to joining Mars, Min worked with Fonterra and McKinsey, building and leading their external affairs function in Greater China. Min holds a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University and a BA from Foreign Affairs College in China. She was nominated a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2006.

Past Chairman (2013-2014): Elizabeth Hernandez, Director, Government Affairs, Asia Pacific, Corteva Agriscience

Elizabeth Hernandez is Director, Government Affairs, Asia Pacific at Corteva Agriscience. Until recently she was Head of Public Policy, South East Asia with Facebook.  She joined HP in 2010 and was Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Asia Pacific and Japan. She was responsible for shaping public policy and building public-private partnerships with governments and other stakeholders, as well as managing HP Living Progress around the region. Before joining HP, she was Director, Government and Public Affairs, Asia Pacific at GlaxoSmithKline from 2005 to 2010. Prior to GSK, Hernandez was Regional Director of the US-ASEAN Business Council from 2002 to 2005.

Past Chairman (2011-2012): Steve R. Okun, Founder and CEO, APAC Advisors

Steven Okun is Founder and CEO of Singapore-based APAC Advisors, a public affairs consultancy working with clients on ESG, sustainability and stakeholder engagement. In addition, he is Senior Advisor for global public affairs consultancy McLarty Associates. Steve has lived and worked in Asia since 2003, most recently with KKR, and previously with global logistics company UPS. He has been elected to four terms to the Board of Governors of AmCham Singapore and served for three years as its Chairman. He served in the Administration of President Bill Clinton as Deputy General Counsel at the US Department of Transportation and is a graduate of the University of Virginia as well as its School of Law.

JUDGES INCLUDE:

Michael Alexander is the Regional Campaigns Manager for WWF-Singapore, where he is responsible for bringing communications, campaigning and advocacy work together to deliver conservation outcomes for significant environmental challenges facing the region. His current focus is heavily on tackling the global challenge of plastic pollution, deforestation in Sumatra and the rampant illegal trade in wildlife. Michael has been with WWF for two years, including a stint working in communications planning for WWF International hosted out of the UK office. He also worked in the advertising industry in London for nearly ten years. WWF-Singapore engages individuals and organisations towards making a positive change in their lives and business operations. Through awareness campaigns and outreach activities, we aim to educate individuals from all walks of life on how a simple action can add up to make a big difference to our environment and safeguard the world’s biodiversity. We also work with businesses both locally and within the Asia Pacific region to help them identify sustainable business practices and reduce their ecological foot print on the planet.

Richard Andrew is Managing Director – Asia for Landmark Public Affairs, an independently owned and managed advisory firm with offices in Singapore, London, Brussels and New York. Richard advises clients across Asia on establishing and building Public Affairs and Government Relations capabilities, managing specific issues / sectors and specialises in designing, building and advising multi-stakeholder business groupings. Richard has worked extensively in senior regional roles across a variety of industries during his near 25 years in Asia. Richard’s corporate roles include building and leading MasterCard’s Asia Pacific Public Policy Team and leading Deutsche Post DHL’s advocacy agenda in North East and South East Asia. He also held advisory and commercial roles at PwC and JETRO, an ‘independent administrative institution’ of Japan’s ‘Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry’ (METI). Richard holds a Masters in Climate Change from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, where he also attained his Bachelors with Honours in Political Science and Asian Studies.

Ang Shih-Huei is CEO and co-Founder at Klareco Communications. Shih-Huei has led the operations and expansion of the Group since 2010. The company underwent a rebrand as Klareco Communications in 2017. Under Shih-Huei’s leadership, Klareco operates in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. Together with a global network of affiliates, Klareco serves businesses facing complex communications challenges in the region and globally. Today, she leads a team of over 50 public relations specialists and advises a complete and diverse range of clients – including world leaders in politics and business, companies in every industrial and commercial sector, and other important organisations and individuals.
Shih-Huei’s communications experience covers corporate reputation, crisis management, public affairs and financial communications. Her clients span a wide range of industries such as property, healthcare, financial institutions, retail and technology. In the area of financial communications, Shih-Huei provided strategic communications counsel for close to S$10 billion worth of M&As, IPOs and other capital market transactions.
Shih-Huei sits on the board of Sentosa Development Corporation, a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry which oversees the development, management and promotion of Sentosa Island. She also sits on the committee of the Career Women’s Group of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CWG SCCCI) which promotes women leadership.
She holds an International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) from the University of South Carolina. She worked with Syngenta International AG in Switzerland and also studied at the Manchester School of Business, as part of her IMBA training. Shih-Huei has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Economics and Sociology, from the National University of Singapore.

Erin Atan is Group Corporate Affairs Director at Jardine Matheson Limited. Erin is responsible for translating Jardine Matheson’s strategic direction and priorities into a global positioning and integrated communication strategy. Her career in corporate affairs spans over 20 years in Asia, the UK and the US. Her career began as a journalist then as a corporate affairs consultant. Her first in-house position was with BMW Group, where she was Corporate Affairs Director for Asia, responsible for maintaining and building the reputation of BMW, Rolls-Royce Motorcars and MINI brands, effectively gaining a foothold for BMW Group in emerging markets. She then spent 8 years at Rolls-Royce plc overseeing corporate reputation activities in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Turkey, and chaired the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Panel.

Aleksandra Barnes is an Associate Director at MullenLowe salt, a strategic communications agency with a strong focus on social purpose and sustainability. She is a seasoned corporate affairs professional with 16 years of consulting experience, 8 of which have been spent in Jakarta and Singapore servicing Asia Pacific clients. Prior to joining salt, she worked 5 years as communications and change management consultant for Accenture in European markets and headed Tesco’s Group Corporate responsibility team. She has led numerous projects with Fortune 100 companies in FMCG, oil and gas, agribusiness, healthcare, property, tourism, non-profit and technology. Aleksandra graduated in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris and has a Masters degree from the London School of Economics.

Jitender Bhargava is a writer on civil aviation issues, management and communication related subjects.  He was executive director of communications of Air India for 13 years and prior to that worked with Coal India.  He is the author of  ‘The Descent of Air India.

Charlie Butcher is the Head of Business Sustainability, Asia Pacific, at Syngenta, a company that produces agrochemicals and seeds, headquartered in Switzerland, and recently acquired by ChemChina. In this role, he holds accountability for regulatory affairs, government relations, NGO engagement, and the company’s ESG commitments.  After almost a decade working as a political advisor in his native Australia, Charlie moved to Beijing with international public affairs firm, Burson-Marsteller (now Burson Cohn & Wolfe) in 2003, providing communications advice and support to financial transactions, government and corporate clients.

Angela Campbell-Noe is the founding partner of Tulchan Communications. As a permanent resident of Singapore, Angela is responsible for spearheading Tulchan’s development in Asia. She joined the firm in 2010 and has a wealth of international advisory and capital markets expertise from her investment banking background at Goldman Sachs, Baring Brothers and Deutsche Bank, as well as experience managing public company stakeholders having been CEO of a London-listed business. Angela’s broad reputation management experience spans diverse sectors across the region and situations, including transactions, crisis and issues management, and multiple stakeholder engagement. Angela has advised many leading businesses in Asia, including Diageo, Axiata, Ayala and Global Logistic Properties. Angela has an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University.

Claudia Chan is the Senior Director of Government Affairs for Southeast Asia at SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software. She drives SAP’s public policy and strategic engagements with governments and stakeholders in Southeast Asia, to develop a regulatory environment that supports digital economies and the adoption of digital technologies. Claudia serves as the Co-Chair of the Digital & ICT Advocacy Group at the EU-ASEAN Business Council and as one of the Co-Chairs of the Digital Economy Committee at EuroCham Singapore.

Before joining SAP, Claudia held key public policy and government relations roles at technology companies such as Google, Lazada and Seagate Technology. She spent a large part of her early career in regional trade and investment promotion roles with the governments of Singapore, Japan and New Zealand.

James Hill is currently Managing Partner in Greater China, based in Hong Kong. James will oversee the firm’s expansion in Greater China and work with colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region to expand the firm’s pan-regional client base.
In his 20-year career, including the last decade in Hong Kong, James has advised senior executives from Asian and global organisations on a range of issues, including complex reputation mandates, fund launches, contested and friendly transactions, litigation, restructurings, issues and crisis management, and shareholder activism.

Sumrita Chander is responsible for leading regional campaigns which establish Microsoft’s unique point of view on innovation, trust (cybersecurity, privacy) as well as Microsoft Philanthropies (CSR) initiatives across Asia (Asia Pacific and Japan).
Chander has more than 18 years’ experience in building regional teams and strategic communications programs that change perceptions of businesses,brands and issues.
Prior to her current role, Chander was the Senior Director, Corporate Communications for Asia at Symantec. In this role she led a team of communications professionals to drive the organisation’s thought leadership and amplify its industry share-of-voice by communicating the company’s perspectives on key industry trends and issues.
Chander began her career in India with a PR/Comms agency which specialised in crisis communications. She moved to Singapore in 2000 and worked within the technology practices of leading PR/Comms agencies including Porter Novelli, Weber Shandwick and Lewis PR before joining Symantec in 2009. Her time within these agencies further honed her passion for corporate and technology PR/Comms and provided invaluable experience in developing and delivering successful local and regional campaigns for global brands such as Hewlett Packard, Salesforce, Brocade, Blackberry and Citrix, to name a few.
Chander holds a Masters in English Literature from Delhi University, India.

Eddie Chew is Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Bitmain, a global leader in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Based in Singapore, he is responsible for stakeholder engagement and government affairs for the company’s international operations, and has spearheaded several greenfield market access and business development projects in Asia. Before joining Bitmain, Eddie honed his craft at Syngenta, DBS Bank, Cargill, and British American Tobacco, taking on a variety of regional leadership roles in marketing and public affairs. Having worked in challenging environments across controversial industries, he fully understands that proactive stakeholder and issues management is an important prerequisite of commercial success.

Karin Lohitnavy is the Founder and Managing Director of Midas PR, Thailand’s leading Public Relations Agency. She started Midas PR in 2007 after gathering ideas and honing her skills in Luxembourg and then refining her PR approach by working in Thailand. She has over 15 years of public relations experience in various industries, including lifestyle, luxury, travel, healthcare, and sports. With this international public relations proficiency, Karin Lohitnavy is one of the premier names in the Thai PR world. What sets Karin apart is her local knowledge paired with a very international flair. These multi-cultural beginnings allowed Karin to make powerful contacts along the way, connecting people with their counterparts and subsequently opening doors full of opportunities for her clients. Karin has been a regular contributor to PR websites, creating articles, blog posts, interviews and press releases for the past 15 years.

Chuah Choo Chiang is Senior Director of Communications for the PGA Tour. In his current role, he oversees PR and communications for the Tour’s events in Asia, namely the CJ Cup (Korea), Zozo Championship (Japan) and WGC-HSBC Champions (China) and contributes towards the Tour’s premier position as the leading professional golf tour in the world through storytelling efforts and media partnerships. Previously, Chuah was director of communications at the Asian Tour and oversaw all communications matters. Other key responsibilities included an advisory role to management on media matters and oversight on digital and social operations. He also enjoyed stints as a sports journalist with two of Malaysia’s leading newspapers, The Star and The Sun and concluded his journalism career as deputy sports editor at the latter publication.

Based in Hong Kong since 1997, Lynne Anne S. Davis oversees the fast-growing, award-winning FleishmanHillard and Omnicom PR Group networks across Asia Pacific, leading collaborative client service strategies, integrated business expansion, and enhancement of the global consultancies’ performance and reputation for quality consulting and creativity, innovation and top talent in the industry.
A sought-after speaker and commentator on industry trends, she is a passionate advocate for creativity and shared value. At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Lynne Anne has chaired the PR jury and served on the prestigious Titanium jury.
Her accolades include “Global Women’s Champion” in the NAFE Women of Excellence Awards, The Holmes Report’s “SABRE Award for Individual Achievement” and PublicAffairsAsia’s “Gold Standard Award for Professional Excellence”. She debuted in PRWEEK’S Global PR Power Book in 2016. She is also listed among Debrett’s Hong Kong 100, which celebrates those who have achieved, created and instigated positive societal change beyond expectations.
Lynne Anne is founding Board Chair of the Asian University for Women (AUW) Support Foundation Hong Kong and sits on its Board of Trustees. Based in Bangladesh, AUW seeks to educate a new generation of leaders equipped to become agents of change ready to tackle their countries’ social, economic and political issues while collaborating across cultural, ethnic and religious lines.

Emma Dale is Co-Founder and Managing Director (Asia) at Prospect and has specialised in PR and corporate communications recruitment for over 20 years. She set up Prospect with Colette Brown in 2002 and in 2009 Emma set up Prospect’s Asia operation in Hong Kong and Singapore. She specialises at a senior level and recruits for communications consultancies as well as MNC’s, working on roles within internal & external communications, social media & digital, government relations and marketing across all industry sector.
Emma is dedicated to diversity and equality in the workplace and challenging the status quo. As such, she is an active member of The Hong Kong Women’s Foundation, mentoring and emboldening women of all ages and industries to become leaders in their field.
Emma is also a certified coach with the Institute of Executive Coaching & Leadership (IECL) and the Founder of Transform Executive Coaching. Drawing on her experience as a successful business leader, Emma coaches managers and leaders across all industries from financial services to luxury brand marketing. She is regularly engaged by Multinational Corporations to coach high-performing individuals on leadership development. In addition she coaches individuals stuck in a rut and looking for their next career path.

Roger Darashah is an international senior communications professional with stints in Europe, India and Brazil. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Adfactors PR. Mr Darashah brings over 24 years of international communications experience to Adfactors PR. Prior to joining Adfactors PR, Mr Darashah worked with Edelman as Executive Vice-President – Technology & Global Business Director in Brazil. As COO, Mr Darashah ensures consistent and industry-leading levels of service across all client relationships. He is also responsible for delivery of insight-based campaigns that drive results and support clients’ business objectives. In addition, he also supports Adfactors PR’s globalisation initiatives – scale operations internationally as well as bring an international, best-practice approach to all aspects of client service in India.

Paul Downie was appointed Chairman, Strategic Communications,  South East Asia & Australia at FTI in 2015 after relocating from Sydney to Singapore. Paul played a pivotal role in building FTI Consulting to be one of  the leading communications consultancies in Australia and across Asia, consistently leading the M&A and equity capital markets transaction rankings along with managing major issues of national significance.
Paul commenced his consulting career in 1992. After working primarily for corporations requiring corporate and investor relations services, he co-founded an independent consultancy in 2002, which was acquired in 2008 by FTI Consulting.

Dr. Colin D’Silva was appointed Head of Communications and Government Affairs for Asia Pacific in April 2018. In this role, he is responsible for external communications, internal communications and government relations across the region with the objectives to build trust, belief and advocacy amongst internal and external stakeholders. Colin has more than 15 years of experience in corporate affairs, public relations, issues management, sustainability and brand management at regional and global levels. Before joining GSK, he was with Skin Inc. as Global Director, Scientific Affairs and Brand Communications. In this role, Colin was responsible for ensuring that Innovation and Communication become key drivers of business growth globally.  From 2008 – 2016, Colin was with Procter & Gamble (P&G) as Associate Director, External Relations – Beauty and Grooming where he had responsibility for the Beauty and Grooming Sector in Singapore and the Prestige Sector, where he managed a variety of stakeholders from celebrity ambassadors, dermatologists to the beauty media in markets across Asia Pacific and the United States. Colin was an integral part of the team responsible for making SK-II a billion-dollar brand.
From 2002 – 2007, Colin was Principal Scientist and Scientific Communications Manager for P&G’s Japan and Singapore organisations. In this role, he was the primary spokesperson for P&G’s cosmetic science and technology innovation to government and regulatory officials, medical and beauty professionals and media.
Colin spent 19 years with P&G; he joined as a Senior Scientist in Japan, overseeing Regulatory Affairs for Personal Cleansing, Skin Care, Cosmetics and OTC drugs in Asia Pacific. In this role, he influenced, shaped and managed the external landscape on cosmetic and OTC regulations, working with Asian regulatory bodies and government agencies. Colin began his career as a Research Fellow in Alberta, Canada with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and National Institute of Animal Industry, Japan. Colin was born in India and is currently based in Singapore. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Microbiology and Biochemistry and a Master’s of Science in Microbiology from the University of Bombay, India as well as a Doctor’s of Philosophy in Microbiology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Jakob Edberg has been deeply immersed in Japan’s politics and policy-making for two decades.  As President & CEO of GR Japan, he works and helps clients solve complex political and regulatory challenges in a large variety of sectors and fields – retail, energy, pharmaceuticals, financial services, project financing, foreign policy, and trade just to mention a few. Before co-founding GR Japan, he was Policy Director at the European Business Council in Japan, where he supervised government outreach and advocacy for over 300 companies in 29 sector committees.  He also served as a senior trade officer at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo.  Representing international businesses’ interests on ministry and party committees, he has a wealth of experience with the Japanese administration and Diet, on everything from front-page trade issues and technical product standards, to successful campaigns for new legislation and financial regulation.  Jakob speaks impeccable Japanese, as well as English and Swedish, and complements degrees in political science and Japanese language with a Masters in International Political Economy from the University of Tsukuba.

Deborah Elms is Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre in Singapore.  The Asian Trade Centre works with governments and companies to design better trade policies for the region.  She is also a senior fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Trade Academy. Previously, she was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and senior fellow of international political economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her current research involves the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and global value chains. She has provided consulting on a range of trade issues to governments including the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Singapore. Dr. Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in international relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University.

Catherine Etheredge is the Head of Communications at the NZ Super Fund, a NZ$47 billion sovereign wealth fund that invests globally to help pre-fund universal pensions for New Zealanders. Catherine joined the Fund in 2012 from Ports of Auckland, where she held the role of Senior Manager – Communications. Formerly a senior consultant with corporate communications firm SweeneyVesty, she has been working in communications and public affairs for over 20 years. Catherine was the winner of the 2019 Prospect Gold Standard Award for Professional Excellence. She has a MA (Hons) from the University of Auckland.

Ben Evetts is an executive director with Golin. Ben has 18 years communications experience gained in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He has worked across a number of industry sectors including automotive, education, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications and technology.  During the course of this he has designed and led multinational campaigns for a broad range of organisations including: Amazon Web Services, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ericsson, GSMA, Honeywell, UK Government, HP, MasterCard, Microsoft, Oracle, SABIC, Siemens and Vodafone. Ben is a multi-disciplinary specialist spanning internal communications, media relations, digital, public affairs, regulatory affairs, financial communications, analyst relations, crisis and issues communications.  He is also a media and storytelling trainer with experience of delivering workshops to senior executives worldwide.

Marc-xavier Fancy is Executive Director of the Prudence Foundation. He joined Prudential Corporation Asia’s regional head office in March 2006 as Head of Government Relations for Asia.  In his role, Marc manages the government relation activities across Prudential Corporation Asia’s businesses in the region. Prior to joining Prudential, Marc held various positions within the financial sector both in the City of London and across Europe. Marc graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (SOAS) with a BA in Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia and South East Asian Studies, and speaks Mandarin, Indonesian, French and English.

Brian Fletcher is the Director of Government Affairs APJ, focusing on Australia-Pacific, Singapore, Japan and Korea. Based in Singapore, he leads the engagement with governments and stakeholders on public policy and provides expert advice on cybercrime and privacy issues. He also supports public-private partnerships to benefit consumers, industry partners and governments across the region.
Brian is an experienced technology executive who joined Symantec after 21 years of Australian Government service, ending his service with the Australian Cyber Security Centre. His previous role was as Director of Cyber Security Relationships, where he led policy development, and industry and government relations function.
Prior to that he served in the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC where he provided advice to the Ambassador and Defence staff on strategic cyber security and intelligence issues, and partnered with senior foreign government leadership, including heads of agencies. Other positions held include leading production, outreach, policy, and business technology change initiatives.

Donough Foley is Senior Vice President Government and Public Affairs, Moody’s Asia Pacific Limited. He was previously Head of Government & Regulatory Affairs, Asia Qantas Airways. Prior to this he was Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Asia Pacific, at Philips Electronics. Donough has been a resident in Asia for over 20 years and has been vice president of corporate communications & Brand at Lucent Technologies and managing director, corporate practice at Burson-Marsteller. He is a graduate of the National University of Ireland.

Stephen Forshaw is the Head of Public Affairs and Internal Communications for Singapore-headquartered investment company, Temasek, He is concurrently appointed as Managing Director Australia & New Zealand, supporting Temasek’s interests and investments in Australia and New Zealand. He is also a Board member of a number of companies and a member of the Singapore Advisory Board of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ryan Gawn is Director of The LEGO Foundation, where he designs and leads advocacy campaigns across multiple markets. He is also a Co-Founder of Stratagem International, an international public affairs consultancy which works exclusively in emerging markets. Formerly Head of International Communications for ActionAid International, he provided senior leadership to a global team of external relations professionals across the federation and its 45 country members. Whilst previously based in Pakistan, he ran a multi-channel award-winning £20m campaign for the UK’s Department for International Development and also advised the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He has advised a variety of corporate clients as Director of Penn Schoen Berland, a research based corporate communications agency, and was a finalist for the 2010 Gold Standard in Political Communication for his government relations work with Save the Children UK. With a background in public affairs consultancy, he has extensive political experience and has worked with and advised multiple Heads of State and UN Secretary-Generals. He is an Advisory Board Member to Wilton Park, the British Council, and former Council member of Chatham House. He has won numerous awards for international communications & campaigns work, and has also acted as a judge for various industry awards – most recently, for the Public Affairs Awards and PR Week Awards.

Sukanti Ghosh is Managing Director of APCO Worldwide’s India operations, and is a member of the firm’s global health care leadership team. He is also the Asia lead for the firm’s Responsible Business Committee. Mr. Ghosh brings to APCO more than 23 years of experience in leading multi-cultural and multi- disciplinary corporate affairs teams in India and around the world. He has considerable experience in advising companies during periods of significant organizational change – market entry, mergers and acquisitions, market access, and focused organic growth. His areas of specialization include policy, litigation and crisis communication, government affairs, public advocacy, executive positioning, internal communications and corporate responsibility.
Previously, Mr. Ghosh served as Head of Corporate Affairs at Barclay’s Bank. He has also led the corporate and product communications functions at Bank Muscat SAOG. Till recently, Mr Ghosh sat on the National Executive Board of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in India and was its Western Region Chair for India. He was also a member of CII’s nodal committee for MNCs in India.

George Godsal is Market Leader of BCW Hong Kong. He first joined Burson-Marsteller Hong Kong (now BCW) as Market Leader in October 2017.
Prior to transitioning to Hong Kong, George was Chair of Burson-Marsteller’s Corporate & Crisis Practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in London. During this time he was a senior advisor on corporate reputation and crisis matters for a number of the agency’s key international clients.
He has significant international experience having lived and worked in the United Kingdom, United States, East Africa and now Hong Kong.
Before joining Burson-Marsteller London, George was Managing Director of MSLGROUP’s Corporate practice in London, where he was instrumental in the introduction of a variety of sector specialist teams.
Previously he worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies based in the UK and Kenya. He was a Board Director and Head of H+K London’s UK Corporate Reputation Practice, and then Managing Director of H+K East Africa, based in Nairobi, where he established and ran operations in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda.

Dean Gould is Chief Marketing Officer for Southern Cross University, a $230 million multi-faceted operation on the east coast of Australia. He is a marketing and media professional with more than three decades experience across multiple industries including journalism, digital, higher education and tourism. He was previously Director Corporate Affairs and Strategy at Gold Coast Tourism Corporation, Australia, where he oversaw the corporate positioning of the organisation. During this time he led the organisation’s media and communications engagement in association with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Prior to that he was Director of Marketing and Communications for Griffith University, Australia, where he led a team that delivered a new brand position, record market share growth and a doubling of its media and social media footprint. His days as a journalist had him covering everything from sport at Wembley to the peace process in Ireland to National Budgets in Canberra. He has been an editor for APN, Fairfax and News Corp in Australia as well as worked on the New York Post and the Irish Examiner. He has won awards with Universities Australia, Asia Pacific Communications, Society for News Design, International News Marketing Association, Pacific Area News Publishers Association and in 2013 was judged Australian Institute of Management’s Manager of the Year (Gold Coast).

Robert T. Grieves is Founder and Chairman of Hamilton Advisors Limited, a strategic communications firm based in Hong Kong.  Following  a career in journalism for The Times (London) and The  Economist (both in Beijing), and Time magazine and Forbes (both in New  York), he has been a top-tier international communications specialist.  His communications career has included positions at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller; head of Marketing and Communications, Asia, for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong; head of Global Communications for The Bank of New York; head of global external communications for the international insurance firm, ACE (now Chubb), and President, Hong Kong for Edelman. He is currently Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.  Robert graduated from Hamilton College magna cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature and East Asian History and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.S. in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a concurrent certificate from Columbia’s East Asian Institute.

Tao Guo joined Hytera in March of 2017 as Vice President, responsible  for the company’s global brand, marketing and public affairs.  Prior to that,  Ms. Guo had been holding multiple brand and communications leadership positions  in her 15 years of career with IBM before she joined Huawei, including  IBM Greater China Group (GCG) Brand Strategist, and  the leader of IBM GCG Strategic Communications  and Workforce Enablement.   She was a TV journalist  for eight years before  moving to the path of marketing and communications in 2002.

Suu Wei Ho is the Southeast Asia Government Relations Director for PayPal and is responsible for providing strategic Government Relations counsel, program support and implementation for PayPal’s business in Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, Suu Wei engages with national and local governments, industry associations, academia and merchants to shape the policy environment, protect PayPal’s reputation and help PayPal grow its business in Southeast Asia.
Prior to joining PayPal, Suu Wei was the Chief Regulatory and Compliance Officer at Eurex Clearing Asia and was responsible for all regulatory and compliance matters for the firm. Before that, he was a deputy director and division head at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, focusing on the development of Singapore financial sector. Before this, Suu Wei completed a broad range of roles with Citi in Shanghai and Singapore.
Suu Wei holds a Bachelor degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tokyo in Japan and an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the US with a double major in Finance and Management. Aside from English, he speaks fluent Mandarin, Japanese and Cantonese.

Agnes Hui is Head of Group Corporate Communications at The Wharf Group covering The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd (HKSE: 0004) and Wharf Real Estate Investment Company Ltd (HKSE:1997). Ms Hui has over 25 years of experience in corporate communications, public relations, community affairs and B2B market communications. Before joining Wharf in 2009, Agnes held senior communications roles at leading market research firm ACNielsen as Communications Director covering 11 markets for 6 years. Prior to that, she was regional public affairs manager and chief liaison for Amex Philanthropy at the premier financial services company American Express for eight years.
Ms Hui has been an Executive Committee member of the Public Relation Professional Association (PRPA) in Hong Kong since 2008 and serves as Vice President since 2018.

Walter Jenning is an experienced corporate reputation professional with some 25+ years’ experience gained working and living in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, France, and the United States.

Walter served as Vice President, Global Corporate Communication at Huawei Technologies at headquarters in Shenzhen, China from 2015-2018. His focus was on building and protecting corporate reputation in all countries outside of China.

Earlier in his career, Walter led the Greater China operations for Kreab Gavin Anderson, a global public affairs and corporate communications consultancy. He advised media relations and issues management in China for The Wall Street Journal and the World Health Organization, among other clients

A permanent resident based in Hong Kong, he is an American-Australian dual-national who is fluent in French and conversational in Mandarin. He has a Bachelor of Arts from St. Lawrence University.

Walter is an experienced corporate reputation professional with some 25+ years’ experience gained working and living in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, France, and the United States.

Walter served as Vice President, Global Corporate Communication at Huawei Technologies at headquarters in Shenzhen, China from 2015-2018. His focus was on building and protecting corporate reputation in all countries outside of China.

Earlier in his career, Walter led the Greater China operations for Kreab Gavin Anderson, a global public affairs and corporate communications consultancy. He advised media relations and issues management in China for The Wall Street Journal and the World Health Organization, among other clients

A permanent resident based in Hong Kong, he is an American-Australian dual-national who is fluent in French and conversational in Mandarin. He has a Bachelor of Arts from St. Lawrence Uni

Sunil John is the Founder & CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the region’s leading PR agency – a part of the WPP Group. He also leads Proof ME, a specialist branding and digital marketing firm, and PSB Research ME that offers polling and research-based consultancy for corporate and marketing campaigns in the region. The three entities – ASDA’A BM, Proof and PSB Research – together provide integrated marketing communication services for over 100 retained clients in the Government and private sectors in the Middle East and North Africa region.
At the heart of the public relations business in the Middle East for more than two decades, Sunil has shaped ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller (www.asdaabm.com) to be the benchmark public relations consultancy in the Arab world, advising governments, multinationals and global & local companies. Sunil is the first PR professional in the Middle East to receive the Outstanding Individual Achievement SABRE Award (EMEA) from The Holmes Report, in May 2014. He was also recently honoured with the  Chairman’s Award 2016 at the Middle East PR Awards (MEPRA) in November 2016.
Today, ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller has more than 160 professionals in 11 wholly-owned offices across the Middle East and North Africa markets. The success of the company has been widely acknowledged; ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller was named ‘Media & Marketing Company of the Year 2016’ at the Arabian Business Achievement Awards; the Middle East Consultancy of the Year 2015 by the SABRE Awards and “PR Agency of the Year in the Middle East and Africa 2016” by the International Business Awards (the ‘Stevie Awards’).

Abhinav Kanchan is Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & National Marketing at SOBHA Ltd. which is India’s most admired and trusted realty brand for the past several years. He is responsible for corporate communications, brand building, reputation management, consumer connect, stakeholder management, employee engagement, managing issues and crises, making national level marketing strategies and future planning. SOBHA Ltd. is one of the most loved realty brand in India and the Middle East. Abhinav has been a SOBHA associate since September, 2013. Prior to this he held global and regional leadership positions at FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry); Aditya Birla Group; ArcelorMittal and Moser Baer. He has more than two decades of rich experience working in diverse business sectors such as textiles; steel; mining; power; technology; engineering and construction. He has established strong, transparent and credible communications framework and has brought immense value loads at his place of work. He has a double Masters degree (MA from St. Stephen’s, University of Delhi and an MSc in Media Management from University of Stirling, UK). He is formally trained in media and communications – journalism, mass communication, content creation, IMC, brand building, TQM and film making from prestigious institutions. He is an avid reader, a value creator, a passionate practitioner of good quality communications and yoga. He volunteers his time for HCP (Hope for Cancer Patients), an NGO that works for poor kids afflicted with cancer. He is currently doing a PhD in Business Administration.

 Karen Khaw is Senior Consultant at Global Management Consultancy, The Tantalus Group and is based in Sydney, Australia. She was previously the Head of Corporate Communications & Corporate Marketing for Asia Pacific at BNY Mellon where she was responsible for leading both teams in amplifying the brand, developing communication strategies and enhancing the clients’ experience through digital initiatives. Having joined BNY Mellon in 2011, she was previously the Director of Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific before taking on her current role. Moving to Hong Kong from Sydney in 2006, she has over 18 years of Asia Pacific experience in advising, leading and realizing marketing and communications strategies in financial and professional services.

Damian Kelly is the Senior Manager of Public Affairs for the NSW Business Chamber, the largest member based business organisation in Australia. Damian leads the function responsible for Government Relations, Stakeholder Management and Media Engagement. He has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Sydney, a Bachelor Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Technology, and is Member and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  During his career, Damian has also run Government Affairs for major State Owned Corporation, been the Senior Media Adviser for a State Government Minister and been a journalist in Sydney. Damian has worked as part of the Australian Team at the past five Olympic Games, guiding athletes on media management and working with international news agencies.

Matt Kovac is the Executive Director at Food Industry Asia (FIA), the food industry’s first regional industry platform for major food & beverage companies. He reports to a non-profit board of regional CEOs from multinational food and drink companies.  Matt, with a dedicated team of 13 secretariat staff, is responsible for delivering impactful policy outcomes in nutrition, food safety and regional trade across Asia through the establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms and capacity building projects on areas related to health and nutrition, food security, trade liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. This is done through forging sustainable partnerships with a variety of government agencies, regulators, academia, NGOs and IGOs.  Matt is a seasoned corporate affairs professional with more than 18 years of experience specialising in stakeholder relations, policy analysis, government relations and journalism.  Originally from the UK, Matt has spent 13 years in Asia living in China, Taiwan and Singapore. He holds an MBA at the UK’s Lancaster University Management School.

Scott Kronick, A 33-year Ogilvy veteran, Scott is responsible for the leadership and management of Ogilvy Public Relations & Influence across the highly awarded Asia-Pacific network, the largest and most influential international PR network in Asia.

Scott was instrumental in establishing Ogilvy Public Relations China in 1995, overseeing the opening of offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Under his leadership, Ogilvy served as counsel to Lenovo during the highly publicized Lenovo-IBM PC acquisition and produced critically-acclaimed campaigns including “Great Chinese Names for Great Britain” which picked up one Gold and two Silver PR Lions at the Cannes Lions 2015.

Scott has also provided senior counsel to various governmental bodies, including the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games and China’s State Council Information Office. He was instrumental in making Ogilvy the agency-of-record for the World Economic Forum in Asia, resulting in the creation of the Summer Davos conference. His numerous personal awards include ranking on the Global Power List by PR Week from 2014-16, and he was featured in Campaign Asia as one of 11 Most Admired Agency Leaders in the region. Scott was also been awarded a prestigious Individual Achievement Sabre by the Holmes Report in 2012. He is a regular contributor to media titles including the Washington Post, China Daily and the South China Morning Post. A keen writer, Scott has authored a number of successful books.

Alvin Lee is a government and public affairs professional at HERE Technologies where he is Head of Government Relations, Asia Pacific. HERE is reinventing the concept of maps by unlocking the power of location intelligence to positively change today’s urban life and inspire innovative business development. Before joining HERE, Alvin was the LEGO Group’s Director, Government and Public Affairs, Asia Pacific and Chairman of the Southeast Asia Toy Association. Prior to that, Alvin was Head of Communications for Microsoft and Nokia (during the time that Microsoft acquired Nokia’s devices and services business) leading an international communications team with offices throughout Asia, and Executive Director, International Relations and Public Policy for Time Warner (now Warner Media) and actively engaged with trade associations such as the Motion Picture Association of America, CASBAA, the US-ASEAN Business Council and Quality Brands Protection Committee. Alvin was born and raised Vancouver, Canada, and was educated at the University of British Columbia.

Ma Li is currently China Communication Director at Solvay. She has over 15 year of expertise in corporate communications and public relations. Now she is based in Shanghai, but oversees the corporate communications function of the whole China. Prior to joining Solvay in 2008, Ma Li has well-established experience in public relations, communication and marketing working for JCDecaux. From 2011 to 2015, she was elected as the Chairman of Public Relation and Communication at AICM (Association of International Chemical Manufactures). She holds a MBA degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Euromed Marseille.

Diana Lin was the former  host and senior executive producer of The Pearl Report, Money Magazine and Pearl Finance.  A prominent network news journalist in Hong Kong, she is a former presenter of the news at 7.30 on TVB Pearl. Born in Hong Kong, Diana attended Diocesan Girls’ School for her primary and secondary education, before going to university in the USA, majoring in English Literature then Fine Arts. Diana has worked as a journalist in radio, magazines, newspapers and TV for more than 25 years variously based in San Francisco, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. She is a contributor and editor of the book Third World Women.

Liu Xiaowei is currently the Regional Vice President of External Relations (ER) for Shell in Asia, leading its ER function in15 markets across Asia. In her 25 years with Shell, Xiaowei has led ER functions of various sizes at country, regional and global business level. She has worked in different businesses and corporate functions for Shell in China, UK, Netherlands and Asia, based in Singapore.
As a leader, Xiaowei is passionate about building high-performing teams through engagement, empowerment and coaching. She has recruited and developed functional leaders in every country in Asia Pacific. She’s a firm believer in growth mindset and continuous improvement. She’s an advocate for diversity and inclusiveness.
As a Communications professional, Xiaowei has over 20 years’ experiences in stakeholder engagement, media relations, advocacy, sustainability and risk/issue/crisis management, and has led projects that won awards and recognitions internally and externally.

Robert Magyar is a founding partner of North Head, a strategic communications consultancy located in Beijing, overseeing the Consultancy’s multi-market regional accounts, especially public affairs projects related to the fields of sustainability, healthcare, and education. He has over fifteen years of experience working in government relations and corporate communications in Asia with clients from around the world. Among other projects, Robert works with various government entities in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines on issues related to rural development and poverty alleviation and forest certification. Prior to North Head, Robert worked at Weber Shandwick as senior vice president in Tokyo for 6 years and then in the agency’s Beijing office. In Japan, he advised the government on a number of projects, among them, he coordinated global communications as agency lead for the Tokyo 2016 Summer Games Olympic Bid Committee. Robert has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Law from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and a Master of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University in Washington DC.  He is also the author of the China chapter in a recently published overview of global public affairs: International Public Affairs: A Global Perspective.

Darian McBain is the Global Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Thai Union, Darian McBain is responsible for implementing change that will drive sustainability through the entire global seafood industry. Darian also leads the company’s communications efforts.
Since joining Thai Union in 2015, Darian has taken the company from a commodity focus to a wholistic ecosystem approach with a focus on oceans and people. Working within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Darian developed and has driven Thai Union’s sustainability strategy SeaChange® since its inception. The sustainability strategy addresses many of the sustainability challenges that Thai Union and the wider industry face.
Darian has developed a strong focus on traceability and transparency within the SeaChange® program. Increasingly Darian is looking to new technologies such as blockchain to solve some of the most critical issues within the industry, whether seafood traceability, identification for migrant workers, or even digital payments.
In 2016, working with internal and external stakeholders, Darian launched Thai Union’s global tuna commitment. This commitment took Thai Union away from just buying fish, to actively engaging all stakeholders, from governments to fleets to NGOs, to agree and act on a series of activities to protect a fishery and maintain a healthy ecosystem. Committed to transparency, Thai Union published a tuna commitment progress report to publicly share their journey.
She also spearheaded Thai Union’s landmark Greenpeace agreement for sustainable and socially responsible seafood, which led to the release of a Vessel Code of Conduct and the vessel improvement program. This was the first global agreement that Greenpeace had reached with a corporation.
In 2016, Thai Union adopted its Ethical Migrant Recruitment Policy, one of the first ‘zero-fees’ recruitment models regionally. Developed closely with a local NGO, this was globally recognized and encouraged the Thai government to adopt new legislation, eliminating recruitment broker use in Thailand. In 2017 Darian joined the Bali Process Business and Government Forum, representing Thai businesses working toward reducing human trafficking and forced labor. Darian regularly presents on the topic of modern slavery, including presenting at a panel at the 2018 UN General Assembly in New York with the UK Secretary of State and other business leaders.
In her Corporate Affairs role, Darian leads Thai Union’s strategic communications efforts, crisis communications, brand reputation management including internal communications, media relations as well as CSR activities.
Darian is a member of Thai Union’s Global Leadership Team, the Risk Management Committee and is Chair of the Sustainability Committee.
Darian holds a PHD in global supply chain analysis from the University of Sydney and remains an adjunct to the university’s Integrated Sustainability Analysis unit. She has published numerous academic articles and books. Before joining Thai Union, she was Managing Director of the consultancy Blue Sky Green, Sustainable Development Executive for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency and worked for the UN as well as WWF. In 2017 she was awarded Thai Union’s Most Exceptional Effort Award, and in 2018 she was named Edie Sustainability Leader of the Year as well as Ethical Corporation’s Responsible Business Leader of the Year. In 2019, Darian was honored in the Vision category of the Seafood Champion Awards at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit.

Robin McClellan is a corporate advisor and company director with extensive experience in government, corporate, and civil society organizations across Asia. She is a non-executive director of the Indonesian firm Star Energy Oil and Gas, a member of the state Advisory Board of the Starlight Children’s Foundation, and a lay canon of the Anglican Cathedral.  Other recent roles include CEO of Leadership Western Australia, a not-for-profit dedicated to enhancing the leadership capability of Australia’s corporate, government, and civil society leaders, and Director of Minerals Research Initiatives at Curtin University in Perth.  Robin was based in Singapore as the Senior Government Relations Advisor in Asia for ExxonMobil Corporation, joining ExxonMobil after a 24-year career in the U.S. diplomatic service. In her Foreign Service career Robin worked extensively with U.S. companies on regulatory, market access, and intellectual property rights issues in Asia. A Kansas native, Mrs. McClellan has graduate degrees from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Dr. Simeon Mellalieu is a communications specialist with 15 years experience in PR consultancy in Europe and Asia. His expertise lies in corporate positioning and reputation management, brand building, issues and crisis management, corporate social responsibility, broadcast media relations and sponsorship and sports marketing.
Simeon is steward of client relationships across all of Ketchum’s offices in the Asia Pacific region, upholding client care, best practices and introducing new services. provides senior counsel for local, regional and global clients and carries with him a wide range of business-to-business, business-to-consumer and crisis communications experience in industry sectors as diverse as aerospace, automotive, finance and investment, gaming, healthcare, payment, petrochemical, retail and technology.
He has consulted for such clients as American Eagle Outfitters, Boeing, Disney Channel, FedEx, Ford, Levi Strauss & Co., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Malaysia Airlines, Motorola, Nissan, Philips Semiconductors, Rolls-Royce, and Visa. His work has won multiple industry awards and in 2007 he received the David Drobis Award, Ketchum’s highest accolade rewarding excellence in client service.
Listed in the PRWeek Global Power Book 2016, Simeon is a Board member of the Council of PR Firms of Hong Kong. He is currently Deputy Chairman and served as Chairman from 2010-2013. He also sits on the Advisory Committee for the School of Communications at Hong Kong Baptist University. Based in Hong Kong for the past thirteen years he started his PR career in the UK before transferring to Asia. He joined Ketchum in 2004. Simeon is British and was educated at University College London.

Mark Michelson is senior counselor at APCO Worldwide and chairman of IMA Asia’s CEO Forum in Hong Kong. He also is an adjunct associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the Fulbright Advisory Committee. Dr. Michelson has worked on government relations and communication projects involving most governments in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States for over 35 years. From 2004 through 2008, he was Associate Director-General for Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, the investment promotion department of the Hong Kong Government. Dr. Michelson earned his Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College and his doctorate from the University of Illinois in Japanese studies.

Paul Mottram leads the development of All Told in the Asia Pacific region and Allison+Partners’ business in Hong Kong, with a mission to help brands tell compelling stories that drive results.
Paul has lived in the region since 1992 and has broad experience in both communications agencies and in-house marketing roles for a range of brands in the technology, consumer, online, automotive and financial services sectors.
Paul previously held regional leadership positions at agencies Text100, Bite, and Upstream Asia. Key clients served include Citi, eBay, FedEx, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Fox International Channels, General Motors, HP, HTC, Microsoft, Siemens and Tencent, among others. Prior to that, he led global marketing and communications for NASDAQ-listed Global Sources.  Originally from the United Kingdom, Paul has a BA in Government & Political Theory from the University of Manchester. He is tolerated by his wife and twin daughters.

Adam Najberg joined Alibaba Group in Hong Kong in late 2016 from consumer drone company, SZ DJI, where he was global director of communications. Prior to that, he spent 25 years in journalism – 21 of them at Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal as an award-winning foreign correspondent and editor in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He is the author of two books and is an avid runner, weightlifter and fiddler.

Alistair Nicholas is the CEO of China Matters. His career of more than 30 years spans international trade policy, diplomacy, journalism, business, government relations, corporate affairs, and crisis management in multiple markets including Australia, the United States and China. Highlights of his career include: International trade policy advisor to the Australian government;  Australian Trade Commissioner to the World Bank and United Nations (based at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC); Head of corporate and government affairs practices of international communications firms in Beijing for 13 years, in roles in which he provided advice to global Fortune 500 firms on their China operations; Advisor to some of the world’s leading companies on corporate and government affairs in numerous markets around the world.
Mr Nicholas has written extensively on doing business in China, and on public and corporate affairs, including contributions published in international university textbooks. He has advised numerous Australian businesses on their China business strategies, and Chinese businesses on their Australian operations.
Mr Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Political Science from the University of New South Wales, and a Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University.
He is actively involved in a number of voluntary roles, including as Deputy Chair of the social enterprise, Welcome To My Yard, which works with street-based youth in Nepal.

Lee Nugent is Archetype’s Regional Director in APAC and leads more than 300 consultants across six countries in the region. He is responsible for helping to build the agency’s capabilities and profile as a provider of cutting-edge integrated communications consultancy to clients across APAC.
Lee was appointed inaugural Chairman of the PRCA Southeast Asia in 2018 and also represents SEA on the board of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), whose membership comprises communications professionals from more than 60 countries around the world. In 2019 he was named by PRovoke as one of the APAC ‘Innovator 25’.
Prior to joining Archetype (which was then known as Text100) in 2016, Lee was CEO of integrated comms and PR firm, Nelson Bostock Group in London. In a career spanning more than twenty years, he has provided senior consultancy to an enviable list of top-tier clients, including the BBC, Facebook, Canon, Salesforce, Disney, Mercedes-Benz, HTC, Ericsson, Amazon, T-Mobile, Orange and EE.
Lee graduated with a BSc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, where he was student President and is married with five-year-old twin girls.
He is a member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), a council member of the PRCA (CMPRCA), and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).

Jeff Paine is Managing Director of PS Engage and is a Singapore-based professional with more than 20 years’ experience at leading multinational corporations including Visa, Microsoft, Reuters and the Royal Bank of Canada. At Visa Jeff was Senior Director and Head of Government Relations for Southeast Asia. In this capacity, he was responsible for managing constructive engagement activities to develop and maintain relationships with public sector officials in Southeast Asia. He was also responsible for the oversight and monitoring various policy and regulatory issues impacting Visa’s business across the region. Prior to working with Visa, Jeff worked at Microsoft as Director of Public Sector Partner Business where he was responsible for driving revenue via the Microsoft partner ecosystem that supported governments across Asia Pacific.
Jeff was Director of Business Development for Central Asia Development Group (CADG), a private development organization involved in the implementation of infrastructure, agriculture and economic development projects in Afghanistan valued at more than US$75 million between 2002 and 2005.
Jeff has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University in the U.S.A. He also attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he has completed a diploma program on Innovations in Governance.

Joanne Painter is Managing Director of icon.pr. She has more than 20 years’ experience in journalism, PR and digital engagement. Prior to founding icon.pr, Joanne was an award-winning print journalist and media commentator for News Limited and Fairfax. As a pioneer of digital PR in Australia Joanne leads a team of digital and social media experts skilled in designing and executing integrated PR and communication campaigns. Joanne consults on digital communications strategy, social media issues management, brand strategy, and corporate communications. Her clients have included ME Bank, ANZ, Schweppes, NSW Farmers, Advantedge/NAB Group, REIV, FKP/Aveo, Australand, Sustainability Victoria, EPA Victoria and VicRoads. Joanne has a BA (Hons) Degree and a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne. She sits on the Victorian Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) committee, is chairperson of the PRIA Victoria Registered Consultancies Group, and a member of the Australian Marketing Institute

Sujit Patil is currently responsible for building and sustaining Godrej group’s reputation across diverse stakeholders. He is among the few IABC accredited business communicators in India and a three time winner of the IABC International Gold Quill award. He has been listed as India’s top ten men in corporate communications by Reputation Today and featured on the PR Week Global Power Book, the definitive guide to PR industry’s most influential operators around the world. Most recently (2018), Sujit has been listed on the Holmes Report’s Influence 100 research and listing of the world’s most influential in-house marketing and communications professionals. Under his leadership, Godrej has won almost all prestigious industry awards for communications including the Diamond Sabre Award – Company of the year – Asia Pacific and South Asia. He has built a team that has been consecutively ranked number one among Reputation Today’s top 30 corporate communications team in India.  Apart from being a speaker and jury at various national and international bodies such as the World Communication Forum, Davos, AMEC, PR Newsweek Asia, etc., Sujit is a part of the prestigious Arthur W Page Society. He volunteers as a guest faculty at various B-Schools, is a weekend farmer, loves travelling, understanding cultures and experimenting with new cuisines.

Peter Parussini is Head of Corporate Affairs, New Zealand & Pacific at ANZ Bank. Peter is responsible for leading external and internal communications, customer complaints, corporate social responsibility and government relations for ANZ Bank in New Zealand and the Pacific. He sits on the company’s New Zealand Leadership Team. Peter recently led the communications work around the sale of ANZ’s Asia Retail and Wealth businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Vietnam. He was also communications lead on the project team for the merger of The National Bank and ANZ, New Zealand’s biggest brand change project. Peter has 30 years of experience in the communications industry, spanning journalism, sports marketing, university lecturing, education, sponsorships, branding, broadcasting, politics and international affairs. He has been recognised for his work inside and outside the industry.

Bev Postma  is an experienced CEO and scale-up strategist with an international blend of non-profit and big brand experience in public affairs and strategic communications. As a lead consultant with GreenOcean Group, she works with businesses, governments and NGOs to broker winning collaborations for social impact.  In 2016, Bev became the first CEO of HarvestPlus, a $400m AgTech venture launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to tackle hidden hunger. She led HarvestPlus to the finals of the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition and secured $15m to reach one billion people with more nutritious crops. Prior that, she was founder and executive director of Food Industry Asia (FIA) and has held corporate affairs roles with Kellogg’s and Syngenta. Bev is a passionate foodie and conservationist and an accomplished under-water photographer. She holds a BSc in Marine Biology from the University of Liverpool and is an expert member of the World Bank Group’s G7 Action Plan on Inclusive Value Chains. In 2016, she was awarded the PublicAffairsAsia Prospect Gold Standard Award for Professional Excellence.

Jayaram Ramanathan is the Vice President Corporate Communications for Aviva Life Insurance in India. In this role he not only manages the external communications for the company but also heads the employee and stake holder communications. & CSR for the company A consummate communications, professional Jayaram brings to the table his experience of over 18 years gained across multiple verticals both on the client and agency side. Prior to joining Aviva, Jayaram has worked with Fortune 100 companies and transnational conglomerates like Avon Beauty Products & Hinduja Group, where he was responsible for not only maintaining a positive reputation of the company with stakeholders, but also act as spokesperson in times of crisis and mitigating negative news coverage. He has been the company representative for dealings with govt officials, industry bodies and international dignitaries. His experience spans geographies that include India & South Asia, Middle East and parts of Europe.  He is a Post graduate in Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur and has advance certifications from Harvard Business School & Columbia Business School in CSR management & Digital marketing.  He is widely travelled and follows basketball & table tennis passionately

Liu Ran is the Vice President, Public Policy for MasterCard Greater China region. In this capacity, he leads the efforts of MasterCard in engaging with the regulators, influential and thought leaders in mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan on regulatory discussions regarding the development of electronic payment services in these markets.
Prior to joining MasterCard in October 2012, Mr. Liu was Vice President, Public Affairs, for United Parcel Service (UPS) in China. In that capacity, he focused on the lobbying activities around trade, aviation and customs issues relating to the operation of express delivery services. Between 2003 and 2005, Mr. Liu was based in Singapore and covered the Public Affairs efforts for UPS in Asia Pacific countries. Mr. Liu received his M.A. in international relations from the Flecher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in Boston, US, and his B.A. in English from the Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. A native of Beijing, Mr. Liu is married with two sons.

Anthony Rose is the Chairman and CEO of the House of Rose Professional, a business consultancy committed to providing services in the Public Relations, Publishing and People segments and is based in Singapore. House of Rose Professional is also owner of Asia’s prestigious “Break the ceiling touch the sky ” –the success and leadership summit for women (R)” which is now being leveraged by over 170 global organizations.
Prior to setting up House of Rose Professional in 2014, Anthony was Vice President and head of the Corporate Affairs function for Walmart Asia based in Hong Kong, and prior to that served in leadership roles at P&G and GSK across Asia and North America. Anthony is also the best selling author of Daddy’s Logic: live a life of no limits, no excuses, no regrets (2012); Break the ceiling touch the sky: success secrets of the worlds most inspirational women (2014); and How to get, grow and succeed in your DREAM JOB (2017).

Wilfredo Rodolfo III is Assistant Vice President for External Relations of Philippine energy and utilities giant Aboitiz Power Corporation. Prior to this, he lead the company’s internal and external communication teams before moving to his current strategic government, industry, and external affairs role. Willy started his career as a community journalist, working as a reporter and editor for Cebu Daily News before moving up to national business daily, Business Mirror. He earned his communications degree from the University of the Philippines – Cebu, and his Masters in Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University as a fellow of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung – Asian Center for Journalism.

Caroline Sapriel is the founder and Managing Partner of CS&A, a specialist risk and crisis and business continuity management consulting firm with offices in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Singapore, and the United States. With over 25 years’ experience in risk and crisis management, Caroline is recognized as a leader in her profession and acknowledged for her ability to provide customized, results-driven counsel at the highest level. Over the years, Caroline has advised senior corporate executives in high-risk industries internationally. Her multi-disciplinary background and experience has enabled her to provide clients with an in-depth analysis of their crisis management capability as well as help them develop effective risk and crisis response organizations and stakeholder and reputation management strategies. She has been directly involved in helping clients manage crises in the oil and gas, chemical, transport, shipping, aviation, pharmaceutical and consumer product sectors.
Caroline is an accomplished trainer, facilitator and coach in risk, issues and crisis management as well as in communication skills. As such, she has coached many senior executives at leading multinational corporations internationally.

Adam Schwarz is Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Asia Group Advisors, a strategy and investment advisory firm. With offices in Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi and presence in Kuala Lumpur and Washington DC, AGA serves global, regional, and national clients on issues related to regulatory and policy affairs, strategic communications, and risk assessments. Prior to AGA, Mr. Schwarz was with McKinsey & Company in Southeast Asia. He advised clients on issues ranging from strategy, corporate transformation, leadership development, board governance, strategic communications, and regional economic integration. He was one of the global leaders of McKinsey’s Sustainability and Resource Productivity practice. Mr. Schwarz was previously a correspondent and bureau chief for the Far Eastern Economic Review in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam. He writes regularly on Southeast Asian political and economic topics, and authored the highy regarded book ‘A Nation in Waiting’, on Indonesian contemporary history.

Andrew Seah is Head, Corporate Communications & Marketing / Training & Talent Development (Commercial) Asia Pacific for DB Schenker in Asia Pacific, Andrew is responsible for all internal and external communications within the region, spanning 20 countries and 13,000 employees for the Regional Headquarters.  Notable experiences and responsibilities include M&A Integration Communications Master-planning, Corporate Marketing Communications for the Olympics Games, as well as spearheading the Crisis Management and Environmental Affairs portfolio (covering the entire suite of Carbon Emissions monitoring, management and sustainability reporting for APAC).
Prior to DB Schenker, as Head of Corporate Communications and a member of the MD’s Office in the YCH Group of companies (which include companies in logistics, properties, Information Technology, Insurance, and others), Andrew developed and managed the entire suite of internal & external strategic communications for the Group.  This included all Branding, Marketing Communications, Advertising & Promotions, Public Relations programmes as well as the management and continuous development of strategic communication channels, materials and infrastructure. Serving in the MDO (MD’s Office), he also managed strategic corporate projects, and functioned as strategic counsel in corporate affairs & tactical development of government relations with key statutory boards and public sector agencies, and also includes support in strategic committees and business advisory councils.

Amit Shah, a senior leader at YES BANK and founding member of YES Global Institute, YES BANK’s practicing think-tank, is a ‘design-thinker’ and TEDx speaker with extensive experience in transformational leadership in the financial services and consultancy sectors across the world, and has made valuable contributions to the public understanding of FINTECH and Digital Banking.
Recently recognized by LinkedIn as a key social media influencer with his profile featuring among the LinkedIn Power Profiles India 2018, Amit has been instrumental in creating and strengthening the ‘YES BANK’ brand over the last eight years. During his tenure, the bank’s profit has grown more than 10x, and the bank has emerged as one of the Top 500 Banking Brands globally.
His responsibilities include business strategy, planning & analytics, marketing, internal & external communication, branding, digitalization, public & social policy advocacy, CSR strategy and sustainability initiatives.
Prior to joining YES BANK, Amit has worked with organizations like TSMG and L&T. He has completed his MBA from NITIE – Mumbai and Engineering from NIT – Surathkal.

Shweta Shukla is Director Sustainable Business, Communications & External Affairs – Unilever SEAA (South East Asia Australasia). Shweta has over 19 years of experience in leading and shaping Corporate & Brand Communications, Sustainability & Social Impact, Government Affairs, Employee Communications, Issues & Crises Management across leading FMCG Companies – Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark & Unilever.
After topping her MBA in Advertising & Communications from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (Mumbai University) in 2000, Shweta began her career in Procter & Gamble India and held leadership roles in P&G India and Asia. She joined Kimberly-Clark in 2015 as Director Communications & Government Affairs Asia-Pacific, before joining Unilever in 2017.
Shweta has led partnerships with several Government stakeholders & not-for-profit organizations like the Ministry of Health – Government of India, Economic Development Board of Singapore, US Embassy, UNICEF, Save the Children, AVPN and WWF among others, to help businesses grow sustainably.
A champion of social impact, she has been responsible for developing P&G’s Shiksha(Education) a cause related marketing program to educate underprivileged children, Parivartan (Transformation) a public- partnership with the National Rural Health Mission to improve hygiene among women, Kimberly-Clark’s sanitation campaign “Toilets Change Lives” and Unilever’s refugee support program for Myanmar. Her paper on “How better hygiene can keep girls in school” was published by the University of Pennsylvania.
She holds several industry positions such as Supervisory Board Member EU ASEAN Business Council, Co- Chair PA Committee Food Industry Asia, Advisory Board Member World Toilet Organization and has been a jury member for PR Week, Campaign Asia, Holmes Sabre and Public Affairs Gold Standard Awards.
Her team’s contributions have been recognized with several awards such as the Cannes PR Lions, US Embassy Award for Corporate Citizenship, Asia Gold Standard Awards for Public-Private partnerships, Best In-House Communications Team and Sustainable Business Awards. She has been named among PR Week’s global list of Top 500 Communications Heads & listed among Holmes Asia’s Top Innovators. Shweta is based in Singapore with her husband and two sons. Her interests include art, design & travelling.

Whitney Foard Small has over 25 years of global experience and deep expertise in the Asian markets. A strong brand strategist equally at home in both corporate and marketing communications, she runs campaigns with attention to detail and deep discipline in integration, measurement and execution. Whitney was until recently the Head of Communications for Thai Union Group, based in Bangkok. Earlier in her career, Whitney served as the Asia Pacific head for Walt Disney Theme Parks and Resorts, where she led marketing, sales and communications, as well as worked on the development of Hong Kong Disneyland. Whitney also led Communications for Ford Motor Company’s Asia Pacific and Africa business unit, where she helped drive the brand rejuvenation and regional integration. An English and Mandarin speaker, Whitney is now improving her Thai.

Emma Smith is CEO, Sandpiper Communications. She has spent over 25 years counselling clients across Asia Pacific, defending and building the reputations of some of the world’s largest and most complex brands ad individuals, and advising on complicated transactions and issues. She was the former APAC CEO of Weber Shandwick, before founding her own firm, The Consultancy, which she sold in 2013 and bought back in late 2019, rebranding as Sandpiper Communications. Currently she is the CEO of Sandpiper, a 100% employee owned firm, where she manages the consultancy’s business globally.

Azmar Sukandar is Director of Communications, Asia-Pacific Region for The Nature Conservancy. Based in Hong Kong, Azmar Sukandar oversees TNC’s Asia Pacific regional external and internal communications strategies and activities. Her scope of work includes strategic communications for the region and she works closely with TNC’s regional managing director, senior executives in Asia Pacific as well as global and in-country teams to increase the impact of TNC awareness to target audiences and potential partners, raise the visibility for its Asia Pacific projects and improve the cohesiveness of its messaging across the region.
Prior to joining TNC, Azmar set up the Asia Pacific communications office for the Financial Times and also worked with Time and FORTUNE magazines and Microsoft’s MSN division. She holds a B.A. in International Relations and B.Sc. in Communications from Boston University, and a Master’s degree in media and communications from the London School of Economics. Azmar is a founding board member of the Association of Asia Pacific Communication Directors, a regional peer-to-peer network for senior in-house communications professionals.

Belinda Tan is Vice President/ Head of Group Communications, Sustainability and Branding  DHL AP/ MENA
Based in DHL’s regional headquarters in Singapore, Belinda is the Head of Group Communications, Sustainability and Branding for DHL in AP/ MENA. Within the corporate function of the logistics powerhouse, she oversees the Group’s internal, external and digital communications activities across all business units – DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Supply Chain and DHL eCommerce Solutions – and its subsidiary functions.
In 12 years with the Group, the past few years have seen Belinda especially champion development in the area of content marketing. Among the first content hubs to originate from Asia, her team launched the external content site Logistics of Things some four years ago, and has worked through multiple iterations and improvements ever since. Embracing the exciting opportunities in content marketing, integrating her work with more ‘traditional’ communications responsibilities – the spirit of continued innovation is redefining the role of the function within the organization.
Belinda’s function is also responsible for group corporate responsibilities initiatives which support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These include regional implementation of the Go Teach programs – working with NGO partners to promote youth employability, Go Help – the Group’s disaster response and preparedness programs working with the United Nations, and Go Green – the Group’s environmental protection program.
Prior to DHL, Belinda spent almost a decade loving the pace in agency life, starting with Hill and Knowlton and subsequently Grayling Public Relations. She worked across a wide range of regional clients and was heavily involved in new business development, growing consulting teams to bring in multi-million dollar billings.

Anna Tehan leads the corporate communications team at Fung Group / Li & Fung and is responsible building its brand across its myriad of stakeholders, including its people, customers, suppliers, media and other influencers. She has over twenty years’ experience in media, internal communications, brand development, and community and stakeholder engagement and moved to Hong Kong over 12 years ago having begun her career in Australia. Anna previously spent seven years at Deloitte as its Asia Pacific Head of Marketing & Communications. Before joining Li & Fung, she was the Head of Communications at CLSA.

Brent Thomas is Director of Public Policy, APAC at Airbnb. Brent leads Airbnb’s public policy team throughout APAC. He has held senior policy and corporate affairs roles across the banking and technology sectors, including as Vice President, Public Policy and Corporate Affairs at Mastercard, Head of Corporate Affairs at eBay and Chief of Staff to the Managing Director at PayPal in Australia. He holds degrees in law and business.

Iain Twine is Vice Chairman, Reputation, Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa at Edelman. Iain leads Edelman’s Reputation business across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, overseeing 700 professionals across the area of reputation, public affairs and issues management. Iain previously oversaw the six Edelman offices and over 400 staff in Southeast Asia and Australasia. Before relocating to his current base of Singapore, Iain was the general manager of Edelman’s operations across the Middle East and Africa until June 2013. He was the first employee of Edelman’s Middle East operations, and grew the business into what the Middle East PR Association and The Holmes Report named Middle East Agency of the Year.
Iain has extensive experience in the field of government relations, reputation management, market entry, media relations, training and policy development. His client work covers sovereign wealth funds, government strategy, MNCs, sport, technology, property and financial services. An Australian raised in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and having lived in 10 countries, Iain brings an international outlook to his work. He joined Edelman in 2006 in our UK operations, his early career was as a taxation and economic development policy specialist, and he was also the Deputy CEO of Tambo Shire Council in Australia.
Iain holds two degrees from the University of Queensland in economics and government. He sits on the Kaplan School of Management Communications Advisory Panel, and The Institute of Advertising Singapore Board.

Helen Wailes is the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Boston Scientific, a US-based medical device company with a strong presence across the Asia Pacific region.  In this role, she is responsible for all internal and external communication activity across 22 markets with the aim of building trust, belief and advocacy amongst stakeholders.
Helen has a strong healthcare track record having previously held senior communication roles with GSK and AstraZeneca.  She is a strategic communications specialist with over 20 years of industry experience and an exceptional track record of delivering business value.  Her international experience spans diverse and complex markets across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.  She has deep experience of disposal, merger and acquisition communications including post-merger integration.  Helen is highly skilled at building, managing and developing multicultural teams, business partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional working.

Becky Wang is Sabic’s Director of Government Relationship, North Asia covering Greater China, Japan & Korea. Becky is a veteran in GR sector in China and Asia. She joined SABIC in 2011 and brings over 18 years of experience in positions of growing leadership responsibility includes GR, business development, marketing, Innovation as well as P&L leadership in other MNCs. In SABIC she oversees GR department, proactively defines GR strategies and programs, influence with key advocacies to provide strong supports for the business to successfully execute its growth strategy, builds long-term relationships with key government agencies, industrial/trade associations, SOEs, etc, in China and North Asia. She is Vice Secretary General of CPCIF (China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation), an active member of the Association of International Chemical Manufacturers (AICM), Global Methanol Institute and Global PC/BPA. She holds Civil engineering degree from Tsinghua University and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Joe Welch, The Walt Disney Company and Chairman, Hong Kong Chapter, International Institute of Communications. Until recently Welch was 21st Century Fox’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the Asia Pacific region. He was responsible for supporting the public policy and regulatory advocacy efforts of 21st Century Fox’s business units across the region.  Previously, he served as MCI WorldCom’s Asia Director of Government Affairs and earlier was an attorney at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C.  He holds a BA from Amherst College and a JD from Santa Clara University in California.

Peter Witton is co-founder of Anthem Asia, an independent investment firm focused on Myanmar. Its portfolio includes investments in creative digital agency Revotech; PR firm Zagar Communications; social influencer agency Blink/Piyasawa; and mobile data research firm Xavey. Mr. Witton has extensive experience in corporate communications, public relations, publishing and journalism, humanitarian and development communications. Previously, he led Asia-Pacific communications for Habitat for Humanity International and ran investor relations for an Australian listed telco. Earlier, Mr. Witton was regional vice president for Ruder Finn Asia. He had a15-year career as a journalist in the UK, the Middle East and Asia, and owned a communications agency and publishing house in Hong Kong. Mr. Witton holds a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Leicester and is a graduate of the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Ada Wong is employed at Sanofi as Asia Public Affairs Lead in driving public affairs strategy and implementation across Asia. Prior to joining Sanofi, Ada was Head of Public Affairs and Communications with FrieslandCampina, one of the world’s largest dairy companies, where she led the development and implementation of the Company’s public affairs and communications strategy across the region. She has 20 years’ experience in public affairs and communications within world-leading global companies including Philip Morris International and Diageo.

Gloria Xu is Corporate Affairs General Manager, Greater China, the Dow Chemical Company, responsible for the company’s policy advocacy, government engagement, and strategic communications in the Greater China region. Prior to joining Dow, she led the China government affairs functions of DuPont and Standard Chartered Bank respectively for over 10 years with rich experiences in policy development and regulatory issues. Gloria was China Public Relations Manager of Alibaba.com Group and helped build up brand awareness of the company at its start-up stage at the beginning of this century.
From 1993 to 2000, Gloria was a political correspondent with China Daily, covering legislative and foreign affairs, military, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan news. She is a board member of China American Chamber of Commerce and Deputy Secretary General of Multinational Companies Committee, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. Gloria graduated from Nanjing University with a BA in English Language and Literature.

Kuek Yu-Chuang is Netflix’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific. Prior to Netflix, Kuek was vice president and managing director for ICANN Asia Pacific. Before joining ICANN, Kuek served as a Senior Director for Yahoo! Inc., where he led the company’s public policy efforts in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions. Kuek had also held roles as diplomat, trade negotiator and policy-maker for the Singapore government.
A Singapore native, Kuek pursued his undergraduate studies at Peking University. He later obtained post-graduate degrees from Harvard University and INSEAD.

Geraldine (Geri) Kan leads strategy and planning as well as Asia Corporate Comms on HP Inc’s worldwide Corporate Communications team, focusing on globalizing corporate campaigns and thought leadership platforms.Prior to this, she headed HP’s Communications Function in the Asia Pacific and Japan, with a remit that included regional corporate communications, media and analyst relations, and executive communications.
Prior to this, she headed the Corporate practice at Communications agency Golin – where her clients included McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley and SATS. She began her career as a journalist at the Straits Times news desk in Singapore where she covered social services and wrote a fortnightly column. She then joined IBM, where she worked for a decade in its Singapore and New York offices. She returned to Singapore to start and lead Lenovo’s
Asia Pacific and emerging markets communication function.
Geri obtained her undergraduate degree in Communications at UCLA and her graduate degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, the latter as the first recipient of the S Rajaratnam Scholarship.

Terence Zeng is Senior Vice President at Shunya. He has nearly 20 years of cross-industry experiences in communication, business news and marketing, including  seven years in Chinese automotive industry. In Shunya, Terence is leading the entertainment marketing group. Prior to this, Terence was in charge of Shunya’s Total Communication Group, providing clients with integrated marketing services, which is an amalgamation of PR, brand strategy, digital marketing, advertising, events and sales promotion services.
Terence’s client portfolio includes HP, General Mills, Tencent, Huawei, Aston Martin, DF Nissan, General Motors, CTF, Isuzu, Haier, Lion Fund, Wanda, Inke, etc. Before joining Shunya, Terence was head of Public Affairs and Communication of Changan Ford Automobile, Ford’s largest passenger-car joint venture in China. He led most of Changan Ford’s communication campaigns including major new vehicle launches, and has won a number of awards including China Effie Awards for successful initiatives in social media.
Before entering the automotive industry, Terence worked as journalist with the Southern Metropolis Daily’s Business News, one of the biggest and the most influential newspaper in China. His early experience also includes software development. This strong technical background, together with his diverse cross-industry experiences, have given him deep insight into communications and marketing, as well as shaped him to be a leader in seeking out and adopting new technology in communications.

Lionel Zetter is an authority on lobbying and public affairs.  He is a vice president of PublicAffairsAsia, a director of the Enterprise Forum, and a member of the Executive Board of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Based in London, he is former president of the CIPR, a former Chairman of the Government Affairs Group, and is currently a consultant and adviser to a wide variety of PA and PR related bodies.  He is a graduate of the University of Sussex.