ATxSummit Plenary

As President of Microsoft Asia, Ahmed Mazhari oversees a vibrant and diverse region comprising 20 countries, some 30,000 employees, and 100,000 partners. He focuses on acceleration of the Asia Pacific region’s digital transformation enabled by Microsoft, as the leading productivity and platform company, through its product, service and support offerings. He also continues to build and reinforce Microsoft’s reputation as a trusted partner for individuals, organizations and governments.

Mazhari believes in deepening collaborations with Microsoft’s customers and partners in Asia to accelerate digital adoption and empower innovative advancements in the region. This is fueled by his deep understanding of business process transformation and his passion for embracing change and implementing creative solutions in a fast-paced world. He is a big believer in the power of long-term partnerships with both employees and customers to achieve stronger and longer-lasting growth.He joined Microsoft Asia in February 2020, following 23 successful years at GE and Genpact (a spin off from GE in 2005) where he last served as Senior Vice President and Chief Growth Officer leading the company’s growth globally across all industry verticals, products, service lines and geographies. Prior to this, he held senior leadership roles at Xerox.

Mazhari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, India. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, is passionate about fitness, is an avid reader and loves watching cricket.

Caesar Sengupta is the CEO and co-founder of Arta Finance. Arta is building the digital family office for the world. It leverages AI and deep tech to unlock the financial superpowers of the ultra-wealthy for millions more people globally. Arta is backed by Coatue, Sequoia, Ribbit and more than 140 luminaries in tech and finance.

This is a continuation of Caesar's passion for using technology to bring greater access. In his last role at Google as VP & GM of Payments & the Next Billion Users initiative, he led Google Pay, which went from 0 to 175M+ users in 5 years. Prior to that, he started and led Chromebooks to become the #1 device used in education and #2 overall and helped drive strategic investments for Google into Asian unicorns like GoTo (Indonesia), Reliance Digital (India), Glance (India) etc. Caesar previously worked as an engineer at Encentuate (acq. IBM) and HP Labs.

He holds fifteen patents in Operating Systems Design and Expert Finding Systems and earned an MBA from the Wharton School and an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. Caesar currently resides in Singapore.

Hwang Hee, CEO of Kakao Healthcare, is focusing on building a mobile-based digital healthcare ecosystem. He is planning to expand the business not only in the domestic market but also in the US, Japan, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. As a representative digital health care expert in Korea, he served as a professor at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, and senior vice president of EMR company, ezCaretech. In 2019, he was selected as one of the 50 Digital Healthcare Innovation Leaders by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and was inducted into the Healthcare IT Hall of Fame by the HIMSS Asia Pacific 2016.

Heesuk Ricky Kang is the Head of Business and Head of Economy for ZEPETO at Naver Z Corp. He is responsible for business strategy, business development, partnerships and ZEPETO's virtual economy. Before joining Naver Z, Ricky co-founded and was Chief Operating Officer of a VR/AR/Web3 start-up called VREX Lab, which was acquired by Naver Z's parent company.

Ricky had also served as a peacekeeping policy officer at the Ministry of National Defense. He has a BS in Finance and an MS in CPA Accounting from New York University Stern School of Business.

Henry Chan is the CEO and Co-Founder of the ShopBack Group. In 2014, Henry and his co-founders launched ShopBack, leading the charge in transforming the shopping landscape in Asia-Pacific. Today, the ShopBack Group is Asia-Pacific’s leading shopping and rewards platform, serving over 30 million shoppers across ten markets, and powering over US$3.5 billion in annual sales for 10,000 online and in-store merchant partners. Today, over one thousand ShopBackers are united by a singular mission - to make shopping rewarding, delightful, and accessible for all.

A customer-centric entrepreneur and serial problem-solver at heart, Henry's passion for eCommerce and entrepreneurship were rooted in his college days at the National University of Singapore and the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to co-founding ShopBack, he was instrumental in driving eCommerce in Asia-Pacific forward as Director of Strategic Partnerships at leading eCommerce logistics solutions provider SingPost, and Regional Head of Partnerships at leading fashion eCommerce platform ZALORA.

Jefferson Chen is the Chairman and CEO of Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore-based Fintech & Artificial Intelligence company that operates in more than 10 markets across Asia Pacific. Advance operates multiple businesses under the brands of Advance.ai, Atome and Ginee, with the aim of using AI technology to empower enterprises, merchants and consumers in the financial services and retail industries. Jefferson is also a Partner at GSR Ventures, a Silicon Valley based global venture capital firm with US$3 billion of asset under management.

Prior to starting Advance, Jefferson was head of private investing for Greater China at Farallon Capital, a leading alternative asset management firm with AUM of over US$30 billion. Jefferson previously also worked at Goldman Sachs where he was involved in the IPO and M&A transactions for numerous Asian companies in technology, financial services and other industries.

Jefferson received Bachelor degree in Computer Science with distinction from Tsinghua University and MBA from Stanford University.

Jennifer Zhang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WIZ.AI, is a visionary and innovative technology leader with a passion for creating smart customer engagements through cutting-edge conversational AI powered by proprietary Enterprise Large Language Models. Jennifer and her two co-founders established WIZ.AI with the ambition to revolutionize how businesses around the world effortlessly connect to their customers across telephony, chat, messaging, and email.

Under Jennifer's leadership, WIZ.AI has experienced staggering growth, boasting a diverse team of professionals and serving over 300 clients globally, including Fortune 500 companies. With its flagship product, the WIZ Talkbot, WIZ.AI delivers hundreds of millions of automated omnichannel customer engagements every hour, 24/7.

Before WIZ.AI, Jennifer co-founded PlusYoou, the most influential US-China entrepreneur community and platform in Southern California, and managed two early-stage tech VC funds in Los Angeles and Beijing from 2016-2019.

Jennifer's success and influence in the technology space have led to her being featured on Channel NewsAsia, The Business Times, and multiple other technology publications and regional forums, further solidifying her reputation as an innovative technology leader.

KC Choi is the Executive Vice President and Head of Global Mobile B2B Team within the MX division. He joined the MX Division in November 2019 to lead company efforts to expand and accelerate revenue and market share in the ever-growing global mobile enterprise and government business. He is responsible for all sales, go-to-market, product development, research and support functions.

Keith Strier has responsibility for commercial and strategic engagements with governments worldwide as well as NGOs such as the United Nations and OECD. Keith also leads NVIDIA’s AI Nations partnership initiative through which NVIDIA teams with Ministries, state-owned entities, and key domestic stakeholders to advance sovereign AI capabilities. As a member of NVIDIA’s leadership team, Keith works across all business units and geographies, advising Heads of State, facilitating public private partnerships, sponsoring corporate alliances and large-scale enterprise deals. Keith is an internationally recognized authority on sovereign AI policies and infrastructure, concurrently serving in senior policy advisory roles including on the US National AI Advisory Committee, appointed by Secretary of Commerce Raimondo to oversee the US AI strategy and to advise President Biden; as Founding Chair, AI Compute and Climate Expert Group, at the OECD; and Member, Australia’s National AI Think Tank.

Prior to NVIDIA, Keith was Senior Partner and first Global AI leader at Ernst & Young (EY), and Senior Partner and first global Chief Digital Officer at Deloitte. Keith served as a Guest Lecturer and Facilitator at Harvard Medical School’s Center for BioMedical Informatics for ten years. He has a Bachelor of Science with Honors from Cornell University and a Law Degree from NYU School of Law.

Kisson Lin is the Co-Founder and COO of Mindverse AI, an AI startup that provides Mind-as-a-Service to businesses and individuals worldwide. Mindverse AI has developed MindOS, an easy-to-use and flexible AI genius that is both controllable and powerful. With customizable personality and long-term memories, MindOS can connect with customers just like a real person and teach itself new skills. MindOS empowers multiple industries, such as hotel & hospitality - as AI trip planners & hotel butlers, ecommerce & retail - as digital sales & customer service reps, education - as an AI tutor, etc.

As a conference speaker, Kisson shares her expertise on the future of AI and how Mindverse AI's solutions can help businesses and individuals leverage the power of AI to transform the way they operate. Prior to founding Mindverse AI, Kisson spent six years at Facebook, where she was in the corporate strategy team in the US, responsible for new user product development and investment & acquisition strategies. Before building Mindverse AI, Kisson also served as the Monetization Strategy Director at Bytedance, where she oversaw the monetization product plans for key markets.

Lim Kuo-Yi is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm in Southeast Asia. He is based in Singapore and is a board member of Ninja Van, Padlet, KKday, Horangi, GoGet, Hypefast, Upmesh and UrbanMetry.

In the early 2000’s, Kuo-Yi was an early employee of Encentuate, an identity and access management software startup (acquired by IBM) and Reputation Technologies, a supplier relationship management software startup (acquired by Security Sources). In 2008, he co-Founded SportsHook, a social networking and event management SaaS startup for the sports community.

Prior to Monk’s Hill Ventures, Kuo-Yi was CEO of Infocomm Investments, a $200M venture fund based in Singapore investing in technology startups globally. At Infocomm Investments, Kuo-Yi led investments in Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), Quid, etc. Kuo-Yi serves as a board member of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Health Promotion Board (HPB) in Singapore. He is also on the board of the Singapore Venture and Private Capital Association (SVCA) and a member of the Technology Council at the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA).

Kuo-Yi graduated from MIT with bachelor’s, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. His doctoral thesis is in the area of nanophotonics, specifically in the design, fabrication and characterization of photonic crystal devices. He started his career as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Boston, MA.

Mark German is the Executive Director, Rise. An initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, Rise will build a lifelong community of students, teachers, and institutions across sectors who aim to serve others. In this role, Mark leads the Rise team and manages a wide array of partners and stakeholders in bringing the program from concept to reality.

Formerly supporting initiatives for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, E-Line Media, Intel Education, XPRIZE, World Science Festival, and other organizations, Mark has led the development of over 200 products and a dozen large-scale programs that have enhanced the lives of more than 12 million students and educators in 75 countries.

Mark has a Master of Arts in Communications Management from the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts in Teaching from National College of Education, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University.

Dr. John O’Shea is Chief Technologist at Dell Technologies. He has more than 25 years’ experience in a variety of global roles including executive leadership within global fortune 500 companies. He trained agents within The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Northern Virginia police officers from 1992 to 1995 on psychoanalysis. He is a member of the Global Digital Twin Consortium and the Global Blockchain Forum and Board Member of the Global IOT Congress.

Dr John is a renowned Keynote Speaker within Digital Twin, IOT & AI, Blockchain and Edge computing. He has represented Dell Technologies as a Keynote Speaker at the United Nations GMIS Summit 2019, 2020 & 2021. Inventor of several advanced Technological Societal Solutions.He served as a judge on the ‘AI For Good’ which is a year-round digital platform of the United Nations, where AI innovators and problem owners learn, discuss and connect to identify practical AI solutions to advance the UN SDGs.

Dr John has been a mentor and advisor in correlation to the Global Prosperity Awards 2020 to 2021. The Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity (the Global Prosperity Initiative) unites the world’s leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, governments and NGOs. His career in science and technology includes scientific product development within the disciplines of AI, 3D Technologies and he holds a Doctorate Degree in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Psychology.

Neo Weisheng is a Partner at Qualgro, with a focus on SaaS, FinTech, and EdTech. He currently leads the investment team. He has led several investments into regional, market-leading companies including EngageRocket, ErudiFi, Convosight, and Accredify.

Prior to Qualgro, he led an EdTech startup in Southeast Asia, and also worked at Alibaba Group in China. He previously worked in strategy at Parthenon Group in India and Singapore. Weisheng holds a BAcc from Singapore Management University, and a Wharton MBA.

Peter Selfridge is the Global Head of Government and Public Affairs for SAP, a position that oversees public policy, government relations, and corporate social responsibility functions for the company. Peter is responsible for promoting technological transformation in the public sector and the positive role played by digital technologies in addressing economic and societal challenges globally. He also drives SAP’s CSR strategy as a key contributor to the company’s overall sustainability framework.

Peter previously served as President Barack Obama’s representative to the foreign diplomatic corps posted in Washington, D.C. as his Chief of Protocol. His other duties included greeting visiting foreign leaders; supporting presidential delegations overseas; and planning and executing high-level summits and multilateral events. Formerly, Peter served as President Obama’s Advance and Operations Director, a position he managed for Vice President Biden in the first term of the administration. He began his career in Washington, D.C. as a staff member for U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, and later served as a scheduling assistant to President William J. Clinton and as a policy advisor to the New York City government. Peter served on the presidential campaigns of Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama, and is no stranger to the private sector having worked for Citigate Communications as well as Rendezvous Consulting where he helped clients develop and execute their communications and public affairs strategies. In 2007, he worked at the William J. Clinton Foundation as the organization’s city director in Los Angeles.

In addition to his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Iowa, Peter holds a Master’s Degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University. He is a native of Minnesota and is married to Parita Shah. They currently reside in Paris, France with their young daughter.

Quint Simon serves as Managing Director of Public Policy, Asia Pacific and Japan for Amazon Web Services (AWS). She fronts AWS’ policy engagements with governments and key decision-makers across the Asia-Pacific on cloud computing and digital policy issues, including cross-border data flows, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, digital trade, and artificial intelligence. Quint also leads a global team of public policy professionals to develop advocacy strategies and accelerate governments’ digital transformation.

Before joining AWS, Quint was a public policy consultant and co-led the technology practice at APCO Worldwide, a public affairs agency. She led numerous government relations and advocacy campaigns for technology clients in Greater China, ASEAN, and the Middle East.

Quint holds a Bachelor Degree in International Politics from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD. She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Based in Singapore, Quint also serves on the board of the US-ASEAN Business Council and co-chairs the Asia Cloud Computing Association.

Rameez Ansar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Circles. Circles is a global technology company re-imagining the telco industry with its SaaS platform Circles X and helping operators launch and operate successful brands. Circles X is powering digital and traditional telco brands - running millions of customers across 13 countries worldwide on its own brand (Circles.Life) and with partners such as KDDI and E& formulating others.

Before founding Circles, Rameez co-founded TechCube8, a TMT venture fund, and also worked at Temasek Holdings and the Boston Consulting Group. Rameez is also an alumnus of the National University of Singapore and the University of Pennsylvania, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ray Harishankar is an IBM Fellow within the Quantum team focused on Quantum Safe. In this role, Ray is responsible for leading the business and technical strategy for IBM Quantum Safe, driving the quantum safe product strategy and product engineering. Ray leverages the deep technical expertise that IBM has in broader security services and post quantum cryptography and pragmatically applies it to benefit clients. Ray also advocates IBM capabilities and leadership in Quantum Safe with its industry clients. Given his extensive client experience, Ray also functions as a mentor for the IBM Quantum Safe delivery team.

Ray is actively engaged with customers across multiple industries and with a focus on Insurance, Banking, Tele Communications and Government. He is often sought after for providing his perspectives on simplifying complex architectures, pragmatic application of leading-edge technologies and innovative methods and approaches. He is on the technology advisory council for selected customers and universities and provides guidance to them on technology decisions.

Ray has been with IBM since 1999. He was nominated as a Distinguished Engineer in 2003 and as an IBM Fellow in 2006. Appointment to IBM Fellow is the highest honor that an employee can receive for technical innovation. Ray is also a member of IBM Academy of Technology. In 2009, Ray was named an Asian American Engineer of the Year. In October 2013, he was honoured with a Distinguished Alumnus award by the Ohio State University College of Engineering. Ray holds 23 patents and has filed several more.

Sam Sniderman is the Co-President of Content Production at Blue Ant Studios. Based in Los Angeles, his focus is driving the growth and commercial performance of Blue Ant’s international production business, which has hubs in a number of international media centers including Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Singapore.

Sniderman leads all commercial partnership and M&A activity for Blue Ant’s production group. He is also the Executive Producer for a number of Blue Ant Studios projects, including Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew: Banished. He develops and uncovers new global business opportunities through partnerships and M&A. He also works with the leadership at each of the production houses to coordinate logistics and financing for sizable production projects in North America and internationally.

Sniderman is formerly the Global Chief Operating Officer and MD, Film and Entertainment at Pulse Films (a Vice Media company) where he was responsible for the commercial performance of Pulse’s TV, film and branded content output and helped to guide Pulse through rapid growth, which included scripted and unscripted commissions from Channel 4, Sky Atlantic and ITV. He also spearheaded the financing and distribution of award winning theatrical feature films like 20,000 Days on Earth (Nick Cave), Who Is Dayani Cristal (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Shut Up and Play the Hits (LCD Soundsystem).

Thomas E. Abell is the Chief of ADB’s Digital Technology for Development Unit, which promotes the effective use of digital technology across ADB programs to improve development impact. His team works with ADB member countries in supporting the transition to the digital economy and provides assistance across many areas, including eGovernment, connectivity, tech startup ecosystems, earth observation, technology policy, and industry partnerships.

Thomas has over 30 years of professional experience in digital technology, including technology policy and strategy, software development, and systems architecture.  During his 10+ years of experience in international development, he has worked extensively across Asia, Africa and Latin America, working with governments, development organizations, NGOs and corporations. He has authored many publications on technology innovation in development, focused mainly on education, financial inclusion and agriculture.

Thomas has master’s degrees in engineering and management and a bachelor in engineering from MIT.

Timoni West is the VP of Product for Wētā Tools at Unity, helping film and game makers create extraordinarily high quality linear and real-time experiences. Previously, they were the VP of Augmented and Virtual Reality, focusing on spatial computing: how we will live, work, and create in a world where digital objects and the real world live side-by-side.

A longtime technologist, Timoni was formerly SVP at Alphaworks, co-founder of Recollect, and CEO of Department of Design, a digital agency. They've worked for startups across the country, including Foursquare, Flickr, Causes, and Airtime. In 2022, they were on Fast Company’s Most Creative People list, and served as a jury member for Cannes Lion 2019. They often give talks and speak on human-computer interaction and future technology, including interviews for the Economist, CNN, Wired, Bloomberg, and more.

Yang Bing joined Alipay in 2009. He has been leading the middleware team of Ant Group. He has led the R&D and evolution of financial-grade distributed middleware platforms such as microservices, data, messaging, application containers, and development frameworks. Yang Bing is now leading the OceanBase team in technology-driven innovation, to provide global enterprise customers with enterprise-level database services that feature high availability, high performance, high scalability, and low costs. Yang Bing was awarded Fortune "40 under 40" in 2020.

Dr Ming Tan is founding Executive Director for the Tech for Good Institute. She is concurrently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology, business and society, including sustainability and innovation.

Ming was previously Managing Director of IPOS International, part of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, which supports Singapore’s future growth as a global innovation hub for intellectual property creation, commercialisation and management.

Prior to joining the public sector, she was Head of Stewardship of the COMO Group, a Singaporean portfolio of lifestyle companies operating in 14 countries worldwide. Her portfolio covered sustainability, brand and data privacy. She was concurrently the founding Executive Director of COMO Foundation, the private philanthropy of the owner of the COMO Group.

As a company director, she lends brand and strategic guidance to several companies within the COMO Group. In the not-for-profit space, Ming is an Advisor to Singapore Totalisator Board and serves on the boards of Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s national performing arts centre, St. Joseph’s Institution International and COMO Foundation.

As part of her commitment to holistic education and the arts, she also sits on the Advisory Panel of the Centre for the Arts of the National University of Singapore.

Ming was educated in Singapore, the United States, and England. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University and her doctorate from Oxford.

Based in Singapore, Jonathan Krause is a seasoned VP Executive Partner in Gartner Executive Programs. He engages executive leaders in digital, information and technology functions across SE Asia to amplify and accelerate their impact on business success. He also engages with ExCo and Board level to help shape leadership thinking and capabilities for success in the digital (and post-digital) age.

Jonathan is an engaging and versatile presenter and facilitator, with a focus on leadership, transformational change, emerging and disruptive trends, business value creation, strategy and culture.

David Treat leads Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum Business Group which includes its Blockchain and Multi-Party Systems business which he formed in 2015 and its Extended Reality business. He also has 25 years of experience in Financial Services.

Nikolai Dobberstein is the Global Leader of Kearney’s Communications, Media & Technology Practice and the Managing Partner of the Malaysian Practice. He has been involved in multiple business and digital transformation programs of technology companies and telecom operators in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa. Nikolai was the lead partner for Kearney’s collaboration with the WEF on the Future of Production in ASEAN and a member of the Indian Government’s Innovation Taskforce in 2016/17.

Before joining Kearney in India in 2011, Nikolai was the Exco member for New Businesses at Maxis, Malaysia. Nikolai had P&L responsibility for all data and digital businesses and helped propel Maxis into one of the global top 15 data operators. Before Maxis, Nikolai was 12 years with McKinsey & Company. He was a Director on the Board of Scicom (MSC) Bhd from 2005 to 2017 and Exco member of the Global Wireless Broadband Alliance. He has spent the last 30 years working in Asia, mostly in Southeast Asia and India.

Nikolai is German and has a PhD in Technology & Innovation Management from the University of Kiel, Germany.

Praveen Tekchandani is a Partner and Deputy Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader at Ernst & Young Singapore, providing advisory and assurance services in the field of Climate Change and Sustainability. He has more than 16 years of sustainability-related experience and carried out assignments for various clients spanning MNCs, government, statutory boards, MDBs, private companies, and not-for-profits across Asia-Pacific. He has been awarded Enterprise Singapore Merit Award 2018 for his significant contributions to Singapore Standardization Programme in the field of sustainability; and is a member at Expert Board Panel on Carbon Pricing for appeals at Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE).

Praveen holds an MBA from NUS Business School and B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Praveen Tekchandani is a Partner and Deputy Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader at Ernst & Young Singapore, providing advisory and assurance services in the field of Climate Change and Sustainability. He has more than 16 years of sustainability-related experience and carried out assignments for various clients spanning MNCs, government, statutory boards, MDBs, private companies, and not-for-profits across Asia-Pacific. He has been awarded Enterprise Singapore Merit Award 2018 for his significant contributions to Singapore Standardization Programme in the field of sustainability; and is a member at Expert Board Panel on Carbon Pricing for appeals at Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE).

Praveen holds an MBA from NUS Business School and B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.