All In: Stories of Impact – Episode 1: The Passing of the Baton

All In: Stories of Impact – Episode 1: The Passing of the Baton

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How do you transition a legacy of innovation? It starts with a conversation.

We’re proud to launch All In: Stories of Impact, a new content series shining the spotlight on the operators and partners across the Bridge Alliance ecosystem who are shaping the future of seamless business.

To kick things off, we sat down with our outgoing and incoming CEOs for a candid look at the road travelled and the bold vision for 2026 and beyond.

From scaling IoT across borders to growing the strategic influence of the Alliance, this series is about the people who aren’t just watching our telco industry change, they’re driving it.

Watch Episode 1: The Passing of the Baton below.

Geok Chwee: Boon Chee, congratulations on your appointment as the new CEO of Bridge Alliance. So I’m really happy to be handing over to you because we have known each other for more than a decade. And I’m also privileged to bring you onboard in 2020 as the SVP Product and Roaming to Bridge. The best part is we have been comrades in arms in building Bridge as a regional product house in these last 6 years that you are with us.

So that’s the best part because I find that I feel so comforted that I’m passing the rein to someone that I trust and known, and has been proven for these years.

 

Boon Chee: Here, I would like to say thanks so much for allowing me this opportunity to join Bridge 6 years ago and having the honour to serve under your leadership. I’ve learned so much from you, Geok Chwee. I’ve been in the telco industry for over 30 years and have built deep experience across multiple functions in both consumer and enterprise business. During this time, I’ve also worked with many regional operators and established a strong network of relationships and partnerships.

I hope that these qualities will serve me well, as I built the strong foundation and machinery that has kept Bridge Alliance thriving all these years. Just to name a few; our visionary and supportive board of directors that guides us in our strategic direction. Our trusted community of Bridge Member Operators that aligns with us so that we can roll out initiatives in a frictionless manner.

And of course, our encouraging staff culture that empowers our dedicated colleagues to deliver the very best. Individually, we are strong. Collectively, we are unstoppable.

 

Geok Chwee: Exactly. And there’s this analogy that I really like. It says that the leaders are farmers and the culture is the soil. And the crop, the growth of the crop is the business result. So looking back, I like to think that we have cultivated fertile ground. And I’m leaving behind a thriving field in the hand of a very capable farmer, ready to grow even more.

Boon Chee: So Geok Chwee during your tenure, we have undergone a critical transformation from serving as a program office to become also a product house, supporting our member operators in rolling out solutions in IoT, CPaaS and latest being telco APIs.

I plan to accelerate this growth of Bridge Alliance by being FAST. And what do I mean by that?

 F – Future Ready.

A – Actionable; so in terms of concrete and tangible steps Bridge Alliance can take moving from discussions to real implementation.

S – Scalable; ensuring that initiatives we embark on grow across our entire footprint, because our strength is in a collective; and

T – Trusted; maintaining that trust across our members and partnerships and customers, which is really key to the business as platforms get more complex. So I’ll say deepening capabilities and delivering differentiation fast.

 

Geok Chwee: Great vision and focus in taking Bridge to the next level. Now Bridge annual flagship event CXO Forum is into our 10th anniversary this year. So what can we look forward to?

 

Boon Chee: Well, everybody’s talking about AI. So I think it’s an unavoidable topic. But we want to take it a notch further with our CXO theme this year : Activating Intelligence – The Telco Advantage. The possibilities of AI are immense, but how do we bring that potential to life? How do we really activate it? So we’ll examine that from a few different angles.

Firstly, what the CXOs and the companies must do to enable AI and move from mere interactions to outcomes. Two, how do we rewire telcos to bring more value to our customers? And three, how does AI and autonomy define the future of work? I’m sure we have lots of good conversations. I’m really excited to bring this to our members and partners this year.

And of course, we will definitely extend an invitation to you to attend the CXO Forum as a guest. I’ll want to reassure you that I’m looking after Bridge Alliance well, and we are all going to be going strong 8 months after your departure.

 

Geok Chwee: Definitely. And thanks, Boon Chee, for taking over the reins and I wish you all the best. Thank you.

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