SPEAKERS

Robert Yap

Mr Robert Yap Min Choy

Chairman, Board of Advisors
School of Information Systems
Singapore Management University

Katharina Tomoff

Ms Katharina Tomoff,

Vice President
Shared Value | GoGreen
Deutsche Post DHL Group

Hee Limin

Dr Hee Limin,

Director of Research
Singapore Centre for Liveable Cities

Mr Arun Madhok

Mr Arun Madhok,

Chief Executive Officer
Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre

Lee Himin

Mr Ryoichi Yamaura,

Vice President
New Solution Business Division
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Shih-fen CHeng

Dr Shih-Fen Cheng,

Associate Professor
School of Information Systems
Singapore Management University

Lieven Demeester

Dr Lieven Demeester,

Associate Dean (MBA Programs)
School of Business
Singapore Management University

Mr Marc Dragon

Mr Marc Dragon,

Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Y3 Technologies

Qin Zheng

Dr Qin Zheng,

Senior Scientist
Institute of High Performance Computing
A*Star

Jerry Lim

Mr Jerry Lim,

Head
Grab Singapore

Eiji Kitagawa

Dr Eiji Kitagawa,

Research Manager
New Solution Business Division
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Vishal Sharma

Dr Vishal Sharma,

Research
New Solution Business Division
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

SPEAKERS

Robert Yap Min Choy

Mr Robert Yap Min Choy

Chairman, Board of Advisors - School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University

Robert was part of DFS Group Limited senior global leadership for over 10 years between 2004 till December 2014 and helmed the position as President, DFS Venture (DFSV) Singapore and member of the board. Concurrently Robert was Group Executive Vice President in charge of Information Technology, Global Finance, Corporate and HR Shared Services and Group Sourcing and Procurement. DFS is majority owned by the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and prior to joining DFS, Robert was Chief Executive Officer for East Asia, Asia Middle East and Strategic Services at PSA INTERNATIONAL based in Singapore. Between 2006 till 2014, Robert served as a board member within IBM Corporation Global Advisory Board based in New York, US.

Robert is currently involved in several techno-ventures in the capacity as investor, C-level board leadership, helping companies achieve greater access to markets both in the region and globally, building brand value and equity, strategic investments and divestments. His past appointments of several SGX listed companies included CWT Limited, EXCO Chairman and FRONTLINE Technologies Limited, Independent Director.

Amongst the companies and boards that Robert is presently involved, these include:

  • SUNSEAP GROUP, Board Director
  • Y3 TECHNOLOGIES, Deputy Chairman & Executive Director
  • NUMONI SINGAPORE, Board Director
  • ROCK PRODUCTIONS, Chairman
  • OMEGA Tours & Travels, Board Director
  • ASEAN Business Advisory Council, Singapore Council Member
  • Singapore National Employers Federation, Deputy Honorary Secretary
  • Singapore Business Federation, ASEAN Business Group, Vice Chairman
  • Singapore Management University, SIS, Advisory Board Chairman
  • Singapore Management University, ISES, Advisory Board Chairman
  • University of New South Wales, Singapore Advisory Council Member

Robert graduated with two degrees from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. In 1986, Robert was conferred a Bachelor degree with Honours in Mechanical Engineering and in 1989, a Masters in Engineering Science. He is married and has four daughters.


Jacob Morgan

Ms Katharina Tomoff

Vice President Shared Value | GoGreen at Deutsche Post DHL Group

Katharina Tomoff has been Head of Shared Value since 2013, where social responsibility is integral to economic success.

Deutsche Post DHL’s Group-wide environmental protection programme, GoGreen, has also fallen within her remit since 2010. GoGreen’s primary objective, which is to improve the Group’s CO2 efficiency by 30% by the year 2020, is promoted via various measures including fleet modernisation, the use of alternative vehicles and efficient lighting. GOGREEN products aimed at both private and business customers are also key to the GoGreen programme.

As part of her previous role as Senior Consultant at Inhouse Consulting – Deutsche Post DHL’s internal corporate consulting service – Ms Tomoff contributed to international projects relevant to increasing efficiency, sales, strategy and corporate development.

Prior to her time at Deutsche Post DHL, Katharina Tomoff’s employment included a position at SICK AG, a German SME which manufactures sensors used in the automisation of logistics and production processes. She was also actively involved in development cooperation work.


Hee Limin

Dr Hee Limin

Director of Research, Singapore Centre for Liveable Cities

Limin Hee is Director of Research at Singapore’s Center for Liveable Cities (CLC), a nexus and knowledge centre for liveable and sustainable cities, where she has oversight of research strategies, initiatives and collaborations. At the CLC, she has helped to oversee the Urban Systems Studies series, which delve deep into the transformation of Singapore in the last 50 years. She is the project leader for collaborative research projects, including those with the Urban Land Institute, "Creating Healthy Cities through Active Mobility," and "10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities," as well as the multi-agency collaboration on "Re-Imagining Tampines." Dr Hee has been recognised as a creative leader in her field and has been sought-out as a speaker, moderator, facilitator and panel participant at events, international symposiums and workshops. Active mobility and people-centred development are embedded in her work as fundamental to the planning and design of liveable cities, and she is the recipient of several accolades for her work.

Prior to joining the CLC, she taught at the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore, where she was a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities, as well as being jointly appointed at the Asia Research Institute. Her research is focused on sustainability and its agenda for architecture, urbanism and public space. Dr Hee has published widely on cities, including in international refereed journals and architectural reviews, and her recent book on Future Asian Space (NUS Press 2012). She obtained her Doctor of Design from Harvard University, her Master of Arts (Architecture) as well as her professional degree in Architecture, for which she received top honours, from the National University of Singapore.


Arun Madhok

Mr Arun Madhok

Chief Executive Officer, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre

Mr. Arun Madhok is the Chief Executive Officer of Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre and Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Services.

Mr. Madhok joined Suntec Singapore in 2009 as Director - Business Development and then was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in January 2012 and Chief Executive Officer in June 2012. Mr. Madhok has been instrumental in designing, developing and leading the Centre's major modernization programme that was completed in 2013. He has also transformed the business with the introduction of technology, service excellence initiatives and new business collaborations. Under his leadership the Centre has received many accolades including - World's Leading Meetings & Conference Centre 2014.

Prior to joining Suntec Singapore, Mr. Madhok garnered extensive experience as an area manager in British Airways, based in Germany. His expertise includes strong change management and strategic planning in the area of business development, customer service, operations and information technology. His strong business acumen led to significant service enhancements and growth in several European markets.


Ryoichi Yamaura

Mr Ryoichi Yamaura

Vice President New Solution Business Division, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Ryoichi Yamaura (Rio) is the Vice President of New Solution Business Division with Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd. Rio spent many years with Fujitsu Global Solution Business Division (Japan) developing strategic businesses and markets as well as managing customer relationship activities. Prior to that, he also spent 7 years in Germany with Fujitsu doing Sales and Marketing.

He is also the Co-Director for Fujitsu-SMU Urban Computing & Engineering Corporate Lab overseeing the Fujitsu research and business activities in Singapore and the region.

Rio obtained his Bachelor Degree in Philosophy from Kyushu University, Japan in 1993.


Shih-fen Cheng

Dr Shih-Fen Cheng

Associate Professor of Information Systems, Singapore Management University
Deputy Director, Fujitsu-SMU Urban Computing & Engineering Corp Lab

Shih-Fen Cheng is Associate Professor of Information Systems and Deputy Director of the Fujitsu-SMU Urban Computing and Engineering Corp Lab at the Singapore Management University. He received his Ph.D. degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and B.S.E. degree in mechanical engineering from the National Taiwan University.

His research focuses on the modeling and optimization of complex systems in engineering and business domains. He is particularly interested in the application areas of transportation, manufacturing, and computational markets. He is a member of INFORMS, AAAI, and IEEE, and serves as Area Editor for Electronic Commerce Research and Applications.


Lieven Demeester

Dr Lieven Demeester

Associate Dean (MBA Programs), Singapore Management University
Associate Professor of Operations Management (Practice), Singapore Management University

Lieven Demeester is the Associate Dean of MBA Programs, Professor of Operations Management and Academic Director of MBA programs at the Singapore Management University.

Lieven has more than 15 years teaching experience and has covered a variety of topics within the Operations Management field. In addition to teaching at the Undergraduate, Masters and Executive Education Level for SMU, he has taught at many of the prominent business schools in Asia, including Korea University Business School and INSEAD. He has taught Operations Managements, Supply Chain Management and Project Management course to MBA students and a wide range of executives in Europe and Asia.

Lieven holds a diploma in electrical engineering from the University of Ghent in Belgium and a PhD in Operations and Technology Management from the Anderson School at UCLA.

In his research, Lieven has examined the nature, role and methods for inventory reduction in manufacturing, the role of operations executives in strategy making, and the impact of recycling on operations strategy. Companies such as Siemens, IBM and BASF have sponsored his research. His scientific articles have appeared in Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations management, Production and Operations Management, and Interfaces.

Lieven has designed and delivered Executive Education programs for clients covering several industries in manufacturing and services, addressing topics such as "Performance Leadership", "Operations Excellence", "Project Management" and "Supply Chain Management"

Prior to his academic career Lieven worked as a Principal Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers' Operations Strategy practice in Los Angeles and before that he was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little in Brussels. As a management consultant Lieven has advised several industrial, utility, entertainment and Internet companies.


Marc Dragon

Mr Marc Dragon, CPIM

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Y3 Technologies

Marc is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Y3 Technologies and is responsible for driving business growth, enhancing Y3’s product portfolio and strategies, as well as driving operational excellence, to support the vision of growing Y3 to be the Supply Chain and Omni-channel Technology leader in Asia Pacific.

Marc has more than 18 years experience serving Clients in Asia Pacific, and has previously been in multiple Executive and Directorship leadership roles in IBM, Deloitte Consulting, and Antuit.

Marc was a Founding Partner at Antuit, a specialized analytics services firm, responsible for Asia business and operations, as well as leading the Global Supply Chain Analytics Competency. He architected and drove a 100% year-on-year business growth at Antuit, and along the way built significant analytics IP, which led to a US$56M investment by Goldman Sachs within 3 years.

Prior to Antuit, Marc also started up a Supply Chain Big Data Analytics firm, Insycn, where he conceptualized and led the buildup of the firm’s core analytics software (cloud) platform, and obtained clients such as SIA Cargo & DHL Express.

Marc has previously led IBM’s Supply Chain Optimization business in Asia Pacific, as well as other Consulting and Business Units for IBM. He has also led regional IT Strategy and consulting engagements for Deloitte especially for Retailers and Consumer Goods Companies.

Over the past few years, Marc has also been actively involved in various omni-channel and analytics startups in Singapore and the US, and is a shareholder in a Series B (analytics) firm, a Series A (omni-channel software/services) firm, as well as a pre-Series A (analytics) firm.

Marc has co-authored multiple whitepapers, and is a frequent speaker in the region, especially on the subject of Big Data, Analytics and Supply Chain Management.

He is Certified in Production & Inventory Management (CPIM) from The Association for Operations Management (APICS), holds an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation Certification, is a member of Mensa, and graduated with an Honours Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering.

Qin Zheng

Dr Qin Zheng

Senior Scientist, Institute of High Performance Computing, A*Star

Qin Zheng is a Senior Scientist and leads the Distributed Computing capability group at Institute of High Performance Computing. His research interests include cloud computing, large-scale data processing, and distributed deep learning. He received his PhD from the National University of Singapore.

Jerry Lim

Mr Jerry Lim

Head, Grab Singapore

Jerry Lim is the Head of GrabTaxi Singapore. He has overall responsibility for planning, directing and coordinating all operational activities for Grab’s in-app taxi-booking service in Singapore.

Jerry has close to 10 years of experience in management consulting, solutions management and technology management across the Asia Pacific region. He began his career with McKinsey & Company before moving on to Accenture and Thomson Reuters to champion solutions management and consulting in Asia. Throughout his career, he has been passionate about growing the open innovation culture in the region and inspiring the same passion in the next generation of leaders.

Jerry has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of California Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management and a Masters of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is passionate about wind surfing and is an avid reader.

Dr Eiji Kitagawa

Dr Eiji Kitagawa

Research Manager, New Solution Business Division, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Eiji Kitagawa received Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and PhD in Information Engineering from Nagoya University, Japan in 1991, 1993 and 1996 respectively. He has been a researcher at Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. since 1996. He is currently a research manager with New Solution Business Division at Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd. His research interests include computer graphics, agent technology, data analysis and their application in transportation simulation and crowd management area.

Dr Vishal Sharma

Dr Vishal Sharma

Researcher, New Solution Business Division, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Vishal Sharma received Bachelor of Technology (Hons) in Energy Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India in 2006, and PhD in Computational Intelligence from National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2011. Subsequently, he worked as research scientist at Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore. Since Aug 2015, he is a researcher with New Solution Business Division at Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd. His research interests include deep learning neural networks, big data analytics and time series modelling techniques, and their application in behaviour modelling, recommendation systems, weather prediction and financial time series forecasting.