The Bridge Alliance CXO Forum 2025 returns to the St Regis Singapore this 17 November!

Vice President, Data Solutions and Digital Financial Services, Telkomsel

Mr Alfian Manullang is Vice President of Data Solutions and Digital Financial Services at Telkomsel, where he leads the strategy, development, and commercialization of big data and telco-powered digital solutions.

Alfian’s portfolio includes data and API-based services such as Telco Verify, Risk Insight Score, and SmartPay, which empower businesses with trusted insights and expand access to financial services across Indonesia.

With over 28 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Alfian has held leadership roles spanning IoT, product innovation, and network strategy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and an MBA in Strategic Management from Prasetiya Mulya Business School, and is recognized for his ability to bridge technology, data, and business impact at scale.

Chief Revenue Officer, Glide Identity

VP, Industry Ecosystem Engagements, Huawei APAC

Konesh brings over 25 years of ICT Industry experience. Having worked in more than 30 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa, he has been successful in building and leading large data networks and business portfolios. Proven expertise in conceptualizing and integrating commercial models and technology platforms to deliver desired customer experience. In-depth experience in Digital economy and NICT frameworks, policy ecosystems, Program Management, Technical Strategies, Commercial Model Development & Governance, Planning and Rollouts of MBB Networks and Spectrum Management.

Prior to joining Huawei, his key roles included leading the Data Business for Airtel Africa and MBB Networks for Airtel India.

Konesh holds ACE (EPGM) from MIT Sloan School of Business, US, PG in Cloud Computing from Texas McCombs, University of Austin US, a BE(Hons) degree in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, India and Designing and Building AI products and Services certification from MIT.

Deputy Head of Staff, Taiwan Mobile

With over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry and a strong background in both engineering and business, Mr Bick Shih is a seasoned leader at Taiwan Mobile. He specializes in telecom innovation, big data, AI, and digital transformation, and has led numerous high-impact projects across the organization.

Notably, he spearheaded the development of OP Scam Buster Personal Edition, a comprehensive anti-fraud solution that improves user safety across voice, SMS, and internet channels—benefiting millions of users in Taiwan. As a strong supporter of Open API standardization and ecosystem collaboration, Bick guided Taiwan Mobile to become the first company in Taiwan to earn GSMA Open API Stable certification, setting a new industry standard. Additionally, he has played a key role in strategic initiatives such as 5G spectrum optimization and network integration planning, helping position Taiwan Mobile for long-term success in a competitive market.

Through these efforts, Bick continues to redefine what’s possible in telecom—balancing innovation, security, and real-world impact in everything he does.

Founder and CEO, Glide Identity

Mr Eran Haggiag is the Founder and CEO of Glide Identity, building the most secure and continuous identity platform for the AGI era. He has decades of experience in cryptography, distributed systems and algorithmic trading, with a track record of scaling innovative systems in global enterprises.

Before Glide, he co-founded ClearX, where he pioneered blockchain-based settlement networks for global financial institutions. Today, Eran leads Glide in partnership with leading banks, fintechs, and telecom operators worldwide, delivering agent-ready identity solutions that replace outdated SMS OTP and enable secure digital ecosystems.

CEO and Managing Director, 917Ventures

Mr Vince Yamat is the CEO & Managing Director of 917Ventures, the corporate venture builder of Globe Group, where he drives the creation, incubation, and scaling of market-leading startups across fintech, healthtech, e-commerce, data, and digital platforms. He is also the COO of Globe Capital Venture Holdings, the Group’s investment arm, where he helps shape Globe’s strategic investments and partnerships across its innovation ecosystem.

Vince serves as Chairman of Brave Connective, Globe’s AdTech and Data Holdings company, and sits on the boards of multiple ventures, including Fuse Financing Inc. (the lending arm of GCash), Yondu Inc., RUSH Technologies, M360, Inquiro, and AdSpark. He is also the CEO of Gogoro Philippines.

Beyond his corporate leadership roles, Vince is a member of the Ayala Innovation Advisory Council, where he collaborates with senior leaders across the Ayala Group to accelerate the adoption of breakthrough technologies and future-proof industries in Southeast Asia.

Throughout his career, Vince has been at the forefront of innovation, corporate venture building, digital transformation, and strategic investing, championing a model that combines the agility of startups with the scale and reach of large enterprises. Under his leadership, 917Ventures has launched some of the Philippines’ most recognized digital platforms and solutions, delivering impact in financial inclusion, digital adoption, and customer engagement at scale.

Chief Technology Officer, V-Key Pte Ltd

Mr Er Chiang Kai is an experienced software development leader, especially in the design and development of security software. As CTO, Chiang Kai provides guidance to the research, product engineering and support teams, to productize V-Key research into quality product releases and provide support for them. Chiang Kai also represents V-Key at institutions of higher learning, and international standards organizations such as Common Criteria and FIDO Alliance.

Before joining V-Key, Chiang Kai was Senior Manager of Software Engineering at IBM’s Singapore Software Lab. He was instrumental in growing the software development lab from a small team when Encentuate was acquired by IBM in 2008, to the multi-product and cross-functional lab when he left IBM. With more than ten years of experience in leading software development teams, he has been a guest speaker for software engineering courses at the National University of Singapore. Prior to IBM and Encentuate, Chiang Kai was a key player in security infrastructure management and policy making in the Singapore government, which has won many awards in e-government.

Chiang Kai holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering, and a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he attended on a National Computer Board (predecessor of the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore) overseas scholarship.

Client Engagement & Partnerships, SC Ventures by Standard Chartered

Mr Marc Westgate leads client engagement for ASEAN and South Asia and is responsible for strategic partnerships and joint venture origination in the region.

Prior to SC Ventures he led the design, co-creation and commercialisation of digital solutions for Standard Chartered’s Corporate & Investment Bank. He has seasoned experience in driving innovation with corporates and financial institutions and was shortlisted for Innovator of the Year at the Asia Fintech Awards in 2022.

Vice President, Cybersecurity Products, Asia Pacific, Mastercard

Mr Steve Harbick is a Vice President, Cybersecurity Products for Asia Pacific at Mastercard. He is a technology executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in cybersecurity, data science, software engineering, and payments.

Steve has held roles at Microsoft, Lazada (Alibaba Group), and prior to joining Mastercard, he served as Group CISO at AirAsia, where he led global teams and delivered innovative solutions to complex security and risk challenges.

AVP, Business Solutions Consulting, Globe Business

Mr Marlon Cruz is a telecommunications and cybersecurity leader with extensive experience in the SEA and APAC regions. He blends technical expertise with sharp business acumen holding Master’s degrees in Engineering Management and Physics. An Electronics and Communications Engineer, his career progression includes key roles at Alcatel Lucent (Systems Design Manager and Business Development Director), A10 Networks (Country Sales Manager), and Trustwave (Country Sales Director).

At Globe, Marlon has led Solution Sales for both IT Enabled Services as well as Cybersecurity and Business Applications. He also served as Sales Head for the Services and Healthcare sectors within the Globe Business Enterprise Group. His background showcases a strong ability to navigate complex technical challenges, drive sales growth, and understand diverse industry needs.

Vice President, Head of International Development, Cloudflare

Dr Chema Alonso is Vice President, Head of International Development at Cloudflare, leading global expansion initiatives across network, security, and developer platforms.

Previously, he served on Telefónica’s Executive Committee as Chief Digital Officer, where he oversaw innovation, data, platforms, and digital products and services, and helped shape industry efforts such as telco API ecosystems and Open Gateway initiatives.

A renowned security expert and founder of Telefónica’s cybersecurity unit ElevenPaths, Chema holds a PhD in Computer Security and has been a frequent keynote speaker at leading technology forums. His work bridges API-driven network monetization, AI-powered security, and Zero Trust modernization—with a focus on how operators can scale resilient, developer-friendly platforms and prepare for the post-quantum era.

At Bridge Alliance Telco API Forum, Chema will share pragmatic lessons from building telco-grade platforms and partnering with enterprises to unlock API-centric growth with robust security and performance.

Partner, Kearney

With nearly 25 years’ experience in the TMT industry, both in executive positions and in a management consulting capacity, Mr Olivier Letant has led and advised leading companies in the Telecommunications, High-Tech, FMCG and luxury industries on strategic and commercial topics ranging from corporate strategy/long-range planning, new market/technology strategy, performance improvement, business transformation and organizational turnaround, and corporate finance / M&A and corporate valuation. In particular, he has advised several leading media and telecom operators across Asia, at the Board-level on strategic options in new markets as well as commercial strategy for new technologies and new businesses and investments.

He has been heavily involved in identifying new investment opportunities in digital services and tech start-ups, with a focus on eCommerce, mobile payment and digital advertising, both in Asia and in Silicon Valley. He is an active participant in the start-up and scene, corporate innovation panels and corporate venturing / venture capital and has advised and mentored several start-ups. He was also a member of the MWC Shanghai / Baustein Innovation Summit Advisory Board.

With 25 years in Asia, including 3 years in Mongolia, over 10 years in China and the rest in South-East Asia, Olivier speaks English, French and Mandarin Chinese. He holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts in International Studies / Chinese from the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania, as well as Bachelor in Marketing Management (Honors), Honors College in Anthropology, from the University of Central Arkansas.

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Global Business Strategy, Intelligent Connectivity, Itron

Mr. Oleg Pachkovets spearheads Global Business Strategy for Intelligent Connectivity at Itron, helping utilities and cities navigate the energy transition. With nearly two decades of experience in technology strategy and product innovation, he brings a global perspective shaped by work across Europe, the Americas, and LATAM. Oleg focuses on enabling resilient, data-driven energy systems that accelerate EV adoption and power a more sustainable, connected future.

President and CEO, Globe

Mr Carl Raymond R. Cruz is a seasoned leader with over 30 years of experience in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, particularly in general management and marketing. Carl is currently Globe’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

His extensive career includes serving as the CEO and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, one of the largest and most significant Airtel operations in Africa. Before this, he was the Managing Director of Unilever West Africa and MD/CEO of Unilever Nigeria, where he led operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Francophone Africa. Mr. Cruz’s career at Unilever spanned 30 years across various countries, including the Philippines, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and West Africa, and he is recognized for his expertise in leading and transforming organizations in developing and emerging markets.

Carl holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management from De La Salle University.

Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Syniverse Technologies

Mr. Paul Hodges is the Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific for Syniverse Technologies, based in Hong Kong and leading the company’s business in Asia Pacific with responsibilities for Sales teams and customer accounts throughout the region.

Mr Hodges has over 30 years’ senior management experience at some of the world’s leading telecoms organizations, including HK Telecom CSL, Hutchison Telecom, Nokia Siemens Networks, Smartfren, Globetouch and Syniverse.

Managing Director & Head of Data Analytics, Global Wholesale Banking, OCBC Bank

Mr Wong Tiong Kiat is the Managing Director & Head of Data Analytics for Global Wholesale Banking at Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank). He is part of the senior leadership team driving digital initiatives for SMEs, developing SME lifecycle insights and identifying opportunities and risks through data analytics.

In his role, Tiong Kiat applies machine learning to predict outcomes and detect abnormal trends in areas such as credit and AML/CFT risk, and leverages network analysis to study interconnectedness and structural relationships across the whole business chain. He spearheaded the launch of Singapore’s first data-driven OCBC SME Index as a benchmark of SME health and industry performance.

With extensive experience across analytics and risk management, he has also held senior leadership roles in product program management, credit initiation & collections, and internal audit at international banks. Tiong Kiat is currently an Adjunct Faculty in Finance at Singapore Management University. He holds a Doctorate degree with a focus on entrepreneurial studies from Singapore Management University and a Master of Commerce in Financial Econometrics from the University of New South Wales.

Strategic Advisor, Google Cloud Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Mr Srikrishna Komatineni leads tech engagements at Google Cloud, architecting transformative AI and cloud solutions for large enterprises across APAC. With a distinguished career spanning over 25 years in the technology sector, he has a proven track record of excellence in sales, business development, go-to-market strategy, and complex systems architecture.

Sri holds a deep passion for the Telecom industry and prides himself on maintaining sharp, hands-on technical skills. Beyond his professional pursuits, he is a dedicated advocate for children with special needs in Singapore, actively contributing his time and resources to community enrichment.

Head of Cloud Communications International, Business Operations, Alibaba Cloud

Mr Max Wang leads global expansion and operational strategy for Cloud Communications at Alibaba Cloud, empowering enterprises across the globe with next-gen voice, messaging, and CPaaS solutions.

With over 22 years of experience in cloud communications and international tech operations — including deep expertise scaling platforms across Asia Pacific, Middle East, and emerging markets — he brings a unique perspective on cross-border digital transformation, regulatory navigation, and customer-centric innovation. Max is a frequent speaker on the future of communications APIs, global go-to-market strategies, and building resilient, scalable cloud infrastructure in diverse markets.

Head of Enterprise Telecom Technology Product Department, AIS

A dynamic leader at the forefront of digital transformation, Ms Asnee Wipatawate leads the charge in enterprise telecom innovation. She oversees a cutting-edge portfolio spanning 5G, IoT, Smart Solutions, Digital Marketing, Data Analytics, Telco Open API, CPaaS, and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) across both local and international markets. With a strong blend of technical vision and business strategy, Asnee drives impactful solutions that power enterprise transformation in the digital age.

Senior Vice President, Roaming and Products, Bridge Alliance

Mr Loo Boon Chee is the Senior Vice President of Roaming and Products at Bridge Alliance. He is responsible for the alliance’s roaming and product development, with strong experience in roaming, innovation, emerging technologies, business development and partnerships.

Prior to joining Bridge, he spent more than 26 years in the telecommunications & ICT business. He was most recently leading the Product and Innovation Group in a fast growing digital services mobile operator in Indonesia, Smartfren, as well as held various management roles in Singtel, Starhub and Telkomsel leading product development, IoT, project deliveries, advanced communications digital services and regional businesses.

Boon Chee holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from Nanyang Technological University in 1993 and Master of Science (Management) degree from Stanford University in 2004.

Head of Networks, GSMA

Henry joined the GSMA in December 2013, and is responsible for the delivery of the Future Networks programme. A key programme of the GSMA’s strategic focus, to deliver industry scale for IP Communications and 5G, whilst considering Network Economic challenges for the Mobile industry as it transitions to a 5G Era.

Previously he worked for the SingTel Group and has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, both in Networks and IT portfolios and has been involved in the deployment of mobile networks in over 10 operations across 10 different countries. Henry designed and built Optus’ 3G + LTE mobile network, all IP network and managed the product development transformation. He was the creator and board member of the network sharing Joint Venture between SingTel Optus and Vodafone Networks Pty Ltd (Australia).

Henry has been a board member and Chair of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and previously held an Executive Management Committee position in the GSMA.

CEO, Bridge Alliance

Dr. Ong Geok Chwee has over 30 years of experience in the info-communications industry. As CEO of Bridge Alliance, she oversees the overall strategy and operations of the company, delivering regional initiatives that enable Bridge Alliance member operators to collaborate as close partners and provide cross border solutions for multi-national corporations.

Geok Chwee has extensive experience in managing the incubation, development and launch of new technologies and businesses in the enterprise sector. She has championed the incubation of emerging growth businesses focusing on Software-as-a-Service, Internet of Things, and Big Data analytics, with responsibilities spanning business development, product development, product management and product marketing. Geok Chwee is a technology evangelist who believes in open collaboration with partners and customers, co-creating value-driven innovation to advance new growth engines.

Geok Chwee holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom and a Doctor of Innovation from Singapore Management University.

Head of Asia Pacific, GSMA

Mr Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific at GSMA, drives collaborative efforts between the mobile industry, policymakers, and ecosystems to advance digital economies. With 20+ years of global experience in Wholesale, Business, Regulatory, Policy, and Digital Transformation, Julian is a pioneer in forging digital partnerships and units. His fervor lies in mobile tech as the cornerstone of economic resilience, sparking dialogues for sustainable, inclusive digital nations.

Chief Strategic Planning Officer, Telkomsel

Mr Wong Soon Nam has served as Director of Planning and Transformation since August 2020. He has vast leadership experience in the telecommunications and technology industry for more than 20 years.

His career highlights have shown several senior leadership roles, such as Vice President of Consumer Products at SingTel (2015-2020), Vice President of Smart and Safe City for NCS Group (2012-2015), General Manager of SingTel Group (2009-2012), Vice President of Consumer Marketing at SingTel (2007-2009), Vice President of Corporate Business Marketing at SingTel (2005-2007), and Vice President of Account Management at SingTel (2003-2005).

Soon Nam has also held several important positions in various organizations and institutions, such as Board Member of Bridge Alliance (2016-present), Board Member of VA Dynamics (2014-present), Chairman of Kai Square (2014-2015), and Council Member of the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (2005-2008).

Soon Nam is a Nanyang Technological University graduate and holds an MSc. degree from the National University of Singapore.

CTO, Singtel Digital InfraCo

Manoj Prasanna Kumar is the Chief Technology Officer of Singtel Digital InfraCo and leads software architecture and cyber security of all software and hardware systems across all business units of Singtel Digital InfraCo. DigitalInfraCo is Singtel’s growth company that incorporates the Group’s regional data center business, subsea cable, satellite carrier businesses, AI cloud business as well as Paragon – Singtel’s unified platform for 5G, edge computing and multi cloud orchestration. Manoj leads the design, development and roll out of Digital InfraCo’s Network Fabric as well as Singtel’s AI cloud to offer GPU as a service to Enterprises and public sector customers. Manoj’s charter is to transform every business under Singtel Digital InfraCo with a software defined digital customer experience that will enhance operational efficiency, customer experience and unlock new value for Digital InfraCo.

Prior to his role as CTO, Manoj was the Head of Enterprise platforms, the software product house under Singtel Digital InfraCo where he lead the design, engineering and delivery of award winning Singtel’s Paragon platform which is Industry’s first all-in-one orchestration platform that unifies network, compute and applications in a single platform for Enterprise customers. Singtel Paragon platform also powers the Enterprise 5G and MEC offering for Singtel’s enterprise business. Singtel also utilizes Paragon platform to deploy 5G and MEC for all enterprise customers in Singapore and the region through Singtel’s associates. Manoj has also spearheaded the 5G and MEC deployment for all the Singtel customers including public sector customers and large enterprises. He has led numerous collaboration initiatives for Singtel Group with hyper scalars like AWS and Microsoft to design an infrastructure agnostic MEC solution that is compliant with hyper scalar stack (Azure and AWS) to ensure seamless adoption of MEC and 5G for Enterprise customers.

Manoj is a data scientist by background with deep domain experience in Telecom industry. His expertise is in Distributed Systems, Big Data, and Machine Learning. He holds over 25 international patents in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and telecom networks, including the first patent of Singtel for Paragon platform that was awarded in multiple countries including Singapore, Australia, USA, South Korea and China.

Manoj’s international patents are listed publicly at https://patents.justia.com/inventor/manoj-prasanna-kumar

Director, APAC API Platform, Red Hat

Mr Steve Shirkey leads AI platform strategy and execution across Asia Pacific as Director for AI Platforms at Red Hat, where he helps enterprises build, scale, and operationalize AI solutions using hybrid cloud and open source technologies. He works across technology, sales, and ecosystem enablement, ensuring AI adoption delivers real business value for Red Hat customers, partners, and open source communities.

Before joining Red Hat, Steve led Azure AI adoption across ANZ, Southeast Asia, and Korea at Microsoft, driving AI transformation for some of the region’s largest enterprises. Prior to that, he helped customers across Southeast Asia scale deep learning adoption at Amazon Web Services (AWS), working with financial services, manufacturing, and large enterprises to build AI-powered businesses.

With over two decades of experience in AI, cloud, and data, Steve has worked at the intersection of technology and business strategy, assisting companies in navigating digital transformation, automation, and AI-driven innovation. Throughout his career spanning US and Asia markets, he has partnered with industry leaders in financial services (Aon, Nationwide), manufacturing (Parker Hannifin, Caterpillar), and cloud platforms (Microsoft, AWS, now Red Hat) to turn data into actionable insights and transform AI and machine learning from hype into real, scalable solutions.

Senior Vice President, Technology & Customer Strategy, Japan & Asia Pacific, Oracle

Mr. Chris Chelliah is responsible for driving digital transformation for Oracle’s customers in the Japan and Asia Pacific region. He’s accountable for the organization’s hypergrowth in cloud infrastructure and autonomous database. Chris leads cloud specialist sales teams, industry architects, and the Oracle Insight team to bring together the expertise needed to provide a collaborative, consultative approach to help customers achieve their objectives.

Chris has nearly 30 years of experience across a variety of portfolios in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. Previously at Oracle, he focused on customer success with consulting and implementation services in global projects in the telecommunications, financial services, and government sectors, implementing disruptive and innovative software solutions.

Chris holds a post-graduate degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He’s a frequent industry speaker and contributes regularly to trade and industry journals and opinion pieces on applications for emerging technologies.

Managing Partner, Global Head of Functional Practices, Arthur D. Little (ADL)

Karim is Managing Partner, Global Head of Functional Practices at Arthur D. Little. Prior to that, Karim led the TIME practice globally for over 12 years since 2012. He has 30 years of experience with ADL in the telecommunication area and previously worked with a leading global telecom supplier.

In Arthur D. Little, Karim’s work focuses primarily on three functional areas:

• Growth strategies and business transformations
• Corporate Finance – Transaction support, mainly working with Private Equity firms and Banks
• Boardroom presentation and facilitation

Besides his management consulting assignments with clients in 4 industries:

• He acts as a Jury member for several Telecom & Media prize award ceremonies in Asia, Europe, and in the US.
• He supports several telecommunication councils and associations as well as governments and regulators in setting their (digital) agenda as an advisor
• He is chairing and facilitating top executive international events and conferences

Before joining ADL he worked for several years for Ericsson and was a research assistant professor at the University of Technology in Vienna. Furthermore, he enjoyed four different education systems: Tunisia (Lycée El Menzah V), France (Lycée JB Say/ESEM), the USA (UC Berkeley), and Austria (TU Wien). Karim holds an MSc, MBA, and Ph.D.

Chief Digital and Information Officer, ASPAC, Suntory Beverage and Food

Director of Engineering and Head of Sustainable Buildings Centre of Excellence (CoE), Honeywell

As Director of Engineering Mr Sachin Gupta is helping Honeywell’s strategic customers build the Blueprint of the Future for Sustainable Buildings and drive their Net Zero goals.

Prior to joining Honeywell, Sachin already has more than 20 years of strong engineering and technology leadership across built environment, IoT and Sustainability innovation

Sachin was also recognized with the “IoT Leader of the Year Award” by the IoT World Asia 2019 and is the current president of Singapore Computer Society IoT Chapter, which provides a platform where professionals learn, share knowledge, and promote a common understanding of IoT technology, applications and ultimately driving the adoption of IoT products and services.

Sachin Holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Management from Swiss School of Business Research, and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from University of NSW Australia.

General Manager, FreeMove

Ms Selma Avdagic Tisljar is General Manager of the FreeMove Alliance with a strong focus on innovation, customer service excellence and the successful implementation of FreeMove’s products and services.

Previously, she held several commercial leadership positions at Deutsche Telekom, where she was responsible for end-to-end management of international deals, leading the IT platform development for process automation, and delivering excellent customer experiences.

Selma is a highly skilled international business executive. Before her various leadership roles at Deutsche Telekom, she worked for its Croatian subsidiary Hrvatski Telekom, as well as the management consulting firm Deloitte. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in Service Management from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY.

Co-founder and CEO, Carro

Mr Aaron Tan is co-founder and CEO of Carro, Asia Pacific’s Largest Online Car Dealership.

Founded in 2016, Carro has since raised over US$600M (~S$800M) from investors including Softbank Vision Fund, Temasek, and Jardines. The company is present in 10 countries across Asia Pacific and has over 4,000 employees worldwide.

Aaron started his career as a venture capitalist – having invested in over 100 startups around the world, he has a strong track record of investing and partnering a tech startup and building it up from the ground up to a unicorn. Aaron is also an active community leader, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Library of Singapore and Board of Trustees of the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Head of Networks, GSMA

Henry joined the GSMA in December 2013, and is responsible for the delivery of the Future Networks programme. A key programme of the GSMA’s strategic focus, to deliver industry scale for IP Communications and 5G, whilst considering Network Economic challenges for the Mobile industry as it transitions to a 5G Era.

Previously he worked for the SingTel Group and has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, both in Networks and IT portfolios and has been involved in the deployment of mobile networks in over 10 operations across 10 different countries. Henry designed and built Optus’ 3G + LTE mobile network, all IP network and managed the product development transformation. He was the creator and board member of the network sharing Joint Venture between SingTel Optus and Vodafone Networks Pty Ltd (Australia).

Henry has been a board member and Chair of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and previously held an Executive Management Committee position in the GSMA.

VP Business Development, Viasat

Chief Executive Officer, PCCW Global

Mr Frederick Chui was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of PCCW Global in 2024, taking on the role to drive the integrated global communication solutions business.

Mr Chui joined HKT in 1991 and has held various key positions in solutions design, product management, product development and marketing. He was the Senior Vice President of PCCW Global’s International Products and Solutions division, overseeing PCCW Global’s product management and development activities, as well as marketing and presales support activities around the world. In 2008, he was appointed head of Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania sales and business development operations. He also served as the Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales and Senior Vice President, Global Data Sales and Presales in 2011 to 2018, and was the Chief Commercial Officer of PCCW Global from 2019.

Before joining HKT, Mr Chui engaged in product and solutions development for a number of telecoms operators serving the Asia-Pacific region. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from The University of Nottingham and an Executive MBA from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In addition, his industry influence extends to board memberships, notably on the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) Board since 2018 and as a Board member of Bridge Alliance from October 2022. Locally, he served as a member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Services Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2023.

Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Maxis

Prateek heads up the Maxis Business division with a strong ambition to help transform businesses in Malaysia to be ready for the future, cutting across corporate, government, small and medium enterprise (SME) and wholesale customers. He brings with him close to 30 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Project Financing, Technology Planning, and Business Planning & Strategy.

Prior to Maxis, he spent over 20 years serving at several companies within the Tata Group including Tata Teleservices and Tata Communications, and on diverse businesses such as hospitality, software, real estate and telecom equipment and services. In the last four years, he setup & led Reliance Jio’s Enterprise Business which provides ICT services such as connectivity, private networks, mobility, cloud, IOT and security to enterprises.

He has served as the Chairman and Board Member of WBA (Wireless Broadband Alliance) and served on the Board of WiMAX Forum, an industry-led, non-profit organization.

He has an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Marketing with an Engineering degree in Electronics. He was a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Fulbright-CII Fellowship Program for Leadership in Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

Chief Commercial Officer, du

Mr. Karim Benkirane is the Chief Commercial Officer at du, where he is responsible for driving the company’s commercial strategy and customer-facing operations across multiple segments. His remit spans Mass, Home and Premium, Soho and SE, ME and LE segments, Government and Key Accounts, Virgin Mobile UAE, as well as Products, Brand and Marketing Communication, and International Wholesale.

Karim brings over two decades of international telecommunications experience, with deep expertise across digital, retail, wholesale, and technology services. Prior to his current role, he served as Managing Director of Virgin Mobile UAE, where he led the launch of the region’s first fully digital mobile service, delivering a disruptive, customer-first experience. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Mobile Saudi Arabia, where he oversaw the market entry and expansion of the Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi brands, launching the Kingdom’s first Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with a mobile-first strategy.

Earlier in his career, Karim held executive roles in Europe, including Chief Executive Officer of KPN France and Chief Commercial Officer at Telecom Italia in France, contributing to commercial growth and operational transformation in highly competitive markets. He currently serves on the board of du Pay, the fintech arm of the Company.

He holds an Executive MBA from HEC Paris and has completed executive programmes at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Partner, Kearney

Having worked in the telecommunications industry since 2007, Mr Gareth Pereira has developed deep expertise in it along with media and technology. “I like working in these industries because they’re structured and logical; the economics are also fairly clear compared to some others,” he remarks. “There are a lot of big topics to address in telecommunications as the industry continues to evolve in interesting ways. I love the content produced by media companies and working on challenges like the royalties mechanisms, and technology underpins the work of both telecommunications and media companies.”

Gareth has enjoyed working in a variety of places around the globe throughout his career, which has taken him from India to the UAE to Malaysia. He now works all throughout the Southeast Asia region, which included time establishing Kearney’s office in Manila.

Head of Innovation Hub Singapore, Volkswagen Group

Mr Petromil Petkov is the founder and head of Volkswagen Group Innovation Hub in Singapore, where he leads the Group’s innovation strategy and partnerships across Southeast Asia. His work enables brands like Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Skoda to collaborate with the regional startup and tech ecosystem.

Previously based in China for seven years, Petromil spearheaded numerous deep tech collaborations for Volkswagen Group and launched Audi’s deep tech incubator in Beijing. He also served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Tsinghua University x-lab and as a design thinking coach at China University of Communications.

Before joining the automotive industry, he held product development roles across four continents with organizations including the United Nations, Motorola, Infosys, and launched a fintech startup.

Chief Commercial Officer, Deutsche Telekom IoT

Mr. Benjamin Bastians is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Deutsche Telekom IoT, where he leads IoT sales across Europe and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. He is spearheading the global expansion of Deutsche Telekom IoT and holds full profit and loss responsibility, driving strategic growth and shaping the company’s international market presence.

With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Benjamin has held multiple senior sales leadership roles within Deutsche Telekom, leading major global deals and forging strong, long-term relationships with enterprise customers.

He is also the co-founder of T-IoT, a global go-to-market initiative between Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA, designed to deliver seamless, cross-border IoT connectivity backed by two leading telco powerhouses.

As part of his global vision, Benjamin is leading Deutsche Telekom IoT’s expansion into the APAC region by building strategic partnerships with Bridge Alliance and other key players in the local IoT ecosystem, positioning the company as a trusted partner for international IoT deployments.

General Manager, Product and Innovation Department, Vice President, China Telecom Global

Eason Cheng is a seasoned executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, specializing in product innovation and digital transformation. As the General Manager of the Product and Innovation Department at China Telecom Group (CTG), Eason plays a pivotal role in driving the strategic direction of telco product development. His leadership encompasses the entire lifecycle of product innovation, from ideation and design to operational management and market deployment

Eason possesses deep insights into emerging technologies and trends within the telecommunications sector, allowing him to spearhead initiatives that enhance service offerings and improve customer experiences. His expertise extends to areas such as cloud-based solutions, network optimization, and digital services, where he has consistently demonstrated a keen ability to align technological advancements with business objectives.

Throughout his career, Eason has cultivated strong partnerships with global customers, working closely with them to design, migrate, and operate their infrastructure on an international scale. His collaborative approach and commitment to understanding client needs have resulted in numerous successful projects, earning him accolades and recognition in the industry.

Eason is not only a leader but also a mentor, dedicated to fostering talent within his team and promoting a culture of innovation. His vision for the future of telecommunications emphasizes adaptability and resilience, ensuring that CTG remains at the forefront of industry advancements.

Senior Vice President, IoT & Enterprise Mobility Services, Bridge Alliance

Mr. Selvakumar Rajasekaran is the Senior Vice President for IoT and Enterprise Mobility at Bridge Alliance.

Selvakumar has over 28 years of experience in the communications industry. Previously, he has served in business leadership roles at Maxis, Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Cable&Wireless. Most recently, he has served as the Executive Vice President for Vi Business at Vodafone Idea Limited in India. He brings deep expertise in product lifecycle management, technology commercialisation, M&A integration, positioning organisations for long-term competitive advantage. He has a track record of scaling enterprise portfolios, commercialising next-gen technologies, and leading digital & transformation initiatives.

Selvakumar holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications from PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore in India. He graduated with First-class honours and distinction and has completed executive programmes from Columbia Business School and Boston Consulting Group, Asia Pacific.

Founder & CEO, Telna

Gregory Gundelfinger is the founder and CEO of Telna, the world’s largest provider of cloud-native, programmable eSIM connectivity.

A skilled lawyer and serial entrepreneur, he recognized eSIM’s potential early on, driving its evolution into a fully virtualized, dynamic platform that digitizes mobile networks and enables seamless, multi-network coverage worldwide. Under Gregory’s leadership, Telna serves both travel and IoT markets as a B2B provider, offering managed services to MVOs, MNOs, and CSPs, and has transformed roaming into a flexible, borderless platform. Gregory’s product-focused, technology-obsessed approach continues to redefine global connectivity.

Chief Customer Officer, Consumer, Optus

Anthony joined Optus in October 2024 as Managing Director of Customer Solutions.

He has a deep breadth of experience in the telecommunications industry having worked for almost three decades in commercial, digital and transformation telco operations here in Australia and overseas.

Anthony was most recently the Group Chief Commercial Officer of Airtel Africa based in Dubai and prior to that was Chief Customer, Channel & Digital Officer of Du Telecom.

He knows Optus and Singtel well, having held senior customer and commercial roles including Chief Revenue Officer, Digital at Singtel and General Manager, Consumer Channels; General Manager, Optus Country and Vice President, Broadband, NBN, TV & Content for Optus.

Anthony holds a Bachelor of Sports Science (Exercise Science), UNSW, Post-Graduate in Business Administration, MGSM, NSW, and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University, USA.

Chief Commercial Officer, Globe

Mr Darius Delgado has been with Globe since 2003. This provided him with a solid track record in strategy execution, transformation, integration, and business innovation. From Internal Audit and Strategy Management during his early years, he ventured and played an important role in one of the biggest and most extensive transformations in the company, the revamp of Globe’s Billing system.

He was also instrumental in catapulting Globe’s Broadband business to subscriber market leadership in 2020 which made him head of the Consumer Broadband Business Group. After just a year’s stint, he became head of Consumer Mobile, which he led towards delivering market innovations that address key customer needs that ultimately set Globe’s foothold in the category, as evidenced by the unprecedented growth in revenue market share for total Mobile in the 1H of 2022.

Prior to Globe, Darius was a Director in SGV & Co (Ernst and Young), with 9 years of experience in multiple industries. He has a degree in Accountancy, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Santo Tomas.

General Manager, Head of Digital BSS Unit, Amdocs Technology

Mr. Yaniv Sahar is General Manager and Head of the Digital BSS Unit at Amdocs, where he leads a global R&D organization. With deep expertise in Business Support Systems (BSS), cloud-native technologies, and digital transformation, Yaniv has been instrumental in shaping Amdocs’ strategic roadmap and delivering platforms that serve hundreds of millions of consumers and thousands of enterprises worldwide.

Under his leadership, Amdocs has launched flagship solutions including the Customer Engagement Platform for B2C and B2B, Amdocs Catalog, CPQ Pro, and the Low Code Experience Platform. Yaniv is also the driving force behind Amdocs’ company-wide transition to microservices and cloud-native architecture.

A true believer in the transformative power of Generative AI, Yaniv is actively embedding GenAI into Amdocs’ products and operational practices to unlock new levels of efficiency, personalization, and innovation. He is at the forefront of redefining Customer Experience in Telco, making it more intelligent, seamless, and turning every interaction into a value-driven moment.

With over two decades at Amdocs and a background in business, computer science, and mathematics, Yaniv brings a visionary yet pragmatic leadership style. His passion lies in building scalable, intuitive technologies that simplify complexity and empower service providers to thrive in a digital-first world.

Associate Partner, Antler Ibex

Mr. Mongi Buckens is an Associate Partner at Antler Ibex, the world’s first full-service vertical growth engine for established corporates. He leads Ibex’s corporate innovation and investment work in Southeast Asia, helping some of the region’s largest telecom operators and other industry leaders unlock organic, inorganic, and transformational growth.

At Ibex, Mongi works with corporates to strategically engage with the $3.5 trillion global venture economy—scouting and securing top talent and technologies, forming high-impact startup partnerships, arming business units with scalable solutions at lower risk, executing thematic investments, and building entirely new ventures beyond the core. His work blends internal capability-building with external ecosystem access to ensure innovation strategies translate into measurable, strategic, and scalable business outcomes.

With over 12 years of experience in strategy consulting and business growth across the Asia Pacific, Mongi began his career at Roland Berger and McKinsey before founding and scaling a data-driven AdTech and location intelligence company in Indonesia. He holds dual master’s degrees in Strategy and Business Engineering from ESSEC and Solvay Business School.

CEO, Digital Ventures, HKT

Ms Monita Leung was appointed as Chief Executive Officer, Digital Ventures of HKT in 2022, taking a leadership role to drive the company’s digital ventures business. She has over 15 years’ experience with the Group and has played an integral part in the success of high-speed broadband modernisation in Hong Kong. With her diverse experience across different business areas, including marketing, product development, operations and customer service, she is committed to driving continuous innovation by actively participating in a range of new initiatives such as digital wallet, virtual bank, ecommerce, merchant O2O solutions and other fintech services. She was involved in the planning and development of Hong Kong’s first mobile payment service and is currently the Chief Executive of HKT Payment Limited, a HKMA licensed Stored Value Facility provider.

Before joining HKT, Monita acquired well-rounded experience in the consumer credit and payment card business in Hong Kong. She holds a Master of Science in City Transformation and Master Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

President & Chief Operating Officer, Grab

Mr. Alex Hungate is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Grab. Based in Singapore, Alex oversees Grab’s mobility, deliveries and financial services businesses, as well as Grab’s marketing and user support functions.

Alex brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the financial services, logistics and food services industries to drive the execution of Grab’s superapp strategy. Alex will play a crucial role in creating and strengthening ecosystem synergies across the company’s core business segments, while ensuring operational excellence as Grab continues to scale rapidly across Southeast Asia.

Prior to Grab, Alex served for eight years as the President and CEO of SATS, a leading food solutions and logistics company that is listed on the Singapore stock exchange. Before that, Alex was Group Managing Director for Personal Financial Services for HSBC Group, and then the CEO of HSBC Singapore. He also served as Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Reuters as well as Co-CEO, Americas and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Reuters. Alex also serves on the board of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and was a non-executive director of UOB Group for four years before he joined Grab.

Alex received a degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University in 1989 and graduated as a Baker Scholar from the MBA program at Harvard Business School in 1993.

CTO, Group Asia, ZTE

David An leads ZTE CTO Group Asia and has more than 20 years’ experience in the wireless telecommunications field. He has represented ZTE as a keynote speaker at ITU and international ICT industry conferences and exhibitions.

President, Taiwan Mobile

Jamie now serves as President at Taiwan Mobile and Chairman & Partner at AppWorks, the Greater Southeast Asia leading startup accelerator and venture capital firm founded by Jamie in 2009.

Taiwan Mobile and AppWorks formed a strategic alliance in January 2019, resulting in Jamie taking over as the President of Taiwan Mobile.

Before Taiwan Mobile and AppWorks, Jamie was an entrepreneur. In 1999, he co-founded Hotcool.com that eventually evolved into Intumit, a successful AI software-as-a-service company. In 2006, he co-founded Sosauce.com that evolved into Muse Games. He received his BS in Engineering from National Taiwan University and an MBA from NYU Stern. His blog, MR JAMIE, has provided inspiration to millions of readers in the startup community since 2009.

VP and Head of Strategic Partnerships, SK Telecom

Mr. Sanghyuk (Will) Cho is VP and Head of Strategic Partnerships at SK Telecom. SK Telecom is South Korea’s leading mobile network operator holding close to 50% market share, with a diverse ICT business portfolio ranging from telecommunications to new ICT businesses including media, security, commerce and mobility.

Mr Cho is responsible for strategic partnerships at SK Telecom and its subsidiaries. Prior to this, he led strategic partnerships at SK Planet, an affiliate of SK Telecom from 2011 to 2018 where he played a key role in corporate development and new business development.

Mr. Cho holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Korea University. He also obtained a Master of Public Policy from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.

CEO, SBTS

With over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, Mr. Norioki Sekiguchi is a seasoned executive known for strong leadership and strategic business creation. Bringing over a decade of expertise in financial and management training, he has played a pivotal role in driving global business expansion.

Currently serving as CEO of SBTS, Norioki has held key leadership roles including Global Business Executive of the Global Business Division in Enterprise Unit, SoftBank Corp.

Chief Marketing Officer, Huawei Carrier Business

Ms Peng Yaping currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei’s Carrier Business, where she leads strategic marketing initiatives to drive growth and strengthen the division’s market position.

Prior to her current role, Yaping held the position of Vice President of Huawei’s China Mobile Account starting in January 2022.

With over two decades of dedicated experience at Huawei—having joined the company in 2001—Her notable tenures include serving as Vice President of the Asia Pacific Region, and as Vice President of Fixed Network in China.

Yaping holds a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University.

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Mr. Ferry Grijpink leads the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity within the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice, which brings together McKinsey’s experts on 5G, low Earth orbit satellites, and Wifi 6.0 connectivity with the firm’s knowledge to help clients overcome hurdles and capture the opportunities of a more connected world.

He advises telecommunications companies on strategy, marketing, and operations, including mobile operators that are launching adjacent businesses in areas such as mobile health and money services. He also coleads McKinsey’s research on deploying and commercializing next-generation infrastructures, such as fiber, mobile broadband, and 5G networks. From 2013 to 2018, Ferry relocated to Singapore to lead our high tech, media, entertainment, and telecommunications work in Southeast Asia.

Ferry brings a long record of tangible client impact in both the consumer and enterprise sectors, and in addition to his work in Asia, also serves clients in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Ferry frequently speaks to industry groups on the dynamics of the highly competitive telecommunications market. Recent presentations to international industry bodies focused on describing the market opportunity for embedded-mobile-data devices, shaping the thinking on 5G, the Internet of Things, and discussing mobile broadband costs as a regulatory lever.

Managing Director, T Digital, Deutsche Telekom

Dr. Maximilian Ahrens has been Managing Director of T Digital at Deutsche Telekom since January 2023. Prior to this, he held the role of CTO and VP of Cloud Strategy at T-Systems, the large enterprise customer division of Deutsche Telekom.

Maximilian has a background as an entrepreneur. Before joining T-Systems, he founded and later sold a majority stake in a technology company focused on cloud infrastructure, which enabled customers to deploy and manage distributed clouds. As CTO and CPO, he led the product strategy and development teams.

Maximilian is a member of the Board of Directors of the GAIA-X Association and served as its Chairman from 2021 to 2023.

CEO, Airtel Business

Mr Sharat Sinha is the CEO of Airtel Business.

In this role, he spearheads the Airtel Business team in expanding its rapidly growing diverse portfolio of future-ready solutions that enable enterprises in driving their business growth.

Championing over three decades of global experience, Sharat leads Airtel Business to enhance its leadership of being the most preferred technology solutions partner for businesses with its cutting-edge solutions spanning secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud-based communications.

With successful experiences across Fortune 500 technology companies like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, VMWare and Ericsson, Sharat joined Airtel from Check Point Software Technologies where he was President of the Asia-Pacific region.

Sharat holds a Doctorate in business management from the University of South Australia, a Postgraduate degree in Industrial and Management Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from IET, Lucknow.

Former CEO, DBS Group

Mr. Piyush Gupta was Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group from November 2009 to March 2025. Under his leadership, DBS underwent a significant and successful transformation, being named Best Bank and Best Digital Bank in the world on several occasions, as well as one of the top ten transformative organizations of the 2010 – 2020 decade by Harvard Business Review.

Prior to joining DBS, Piyush had a 27 year career at Citigroup, where his last position was Chief Executive Officer for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University, and Chairman of the Mandai Park Holdings Board. In addition, he sits on the board of Singapore’s National Research Foundation and is a member of the Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore – Future Economy Advisory Panel. Piyush is a term trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA). Previously, he has been a member of the Singapore Emerging Stronger Taskforce, aimed at defining Singapore’s future in a post-Covid world, the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Board of Institute of International Finance, and the McKinsey Advisory Council.

Piyush has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Piyush was awarded the Public Service Star by the President of Singapore for his meritorious services to the nation in 2020. He is a recipient of the 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour conferred by the Indian Government on the country’s diaspora.

Piyush was named one of the world’s top 100 best-performing chief executives in Harvard Business Review – 2019 edition of “The CEO 100”. He was named Global Indian of the Year by the Economic Times in 2021, Singapore Business Awards’ Outstanding Chief Executive of the Year in 2016, and Singapore Business Leader of the Year by CNBC in 2014.

Chief Product Officer, Aeris

Jon Connet joined Aeris as Chief Product Officer in 2023 to lead the growth and transformation of its IoT product portfolio. Jon has over 20 years’ experience in senior product and business development roles in IoT, cybersecurity and infrastructure software.

Jon’s experience includes Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager at Forescout Technologies where he led the company’s product and business strategy to launch their ‘market first’ medical IoT and operational technology security solutions. As General Manager at Forescout’s network segmentation business, Jon led the business unit’s growth from zero to over $10m in ARR. Jon’s background also includes a decade at Symantec in leadership roles in product, operations and strategy.

Jon lives in California and has a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of Southern California.

Deputy CEO, Singtel Singapore, CEO Business Development, Singtel

Mr Bill Chang is the current Chairman of Bridge Alliance. He was appointed CEO, Digital InfraCo, Singtel’s new standalone infrastructure unit, on 1 June 2023. Prior to that, Bill was the CEO, Group Enterprise since 16 July 2012 and assumed the role of CEO, Regional Data Centre Business on 1 July 2022.

Bill joined Singtel in November 2005 as Executive Vice President of Corporate Business and subsequently became Managing Director, Business Group.

Bill is the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees and a board member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ International Advisory Technology Governance and Innovations Panel. He co-chaired the Future Jobs and Skills Sub-committee of the Committee on the Future Economy of Singapore from 2016 to 2017.

For his contributions to Singapore, Bill was awarded the Public Service Star in 2017 and the Public Service Medal in 2007. He also received the Singapore Computer Society’s IT Leader of the Year award in 2017 and the honorary Fellow of the Society in 2014.

Bill graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University, Australia and attended the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.12

CEO, International Digital Services, Singtel

Dr Anna Yip was appointed CEO, International Digital Services (IDS), a new OpCo set up to focus on the international expansion of Singtel’s digital services and solutions, on January 1, 2025.

Anna joined Singtel in December 2020 as Deputy Consumer CEO. She was designated Consumer CEO in April 2021. In July 2023, Anna was designated Deputy CEO of overall Singapore on 1 July 2023, after the Consumer and Enterprise business were combined into one organisation. She then led the Consumer and SME business in Singapore and positioned it to be a leading digital services provider as 5G goes mainstream. Anna was also appointed a Board of Commissioner member of Telkomsel on 1 June 2021.

Before joining Singtel, Anna was the CEO and Executive Director of Smartone, a leading telecommunications company headquartered in Hong Kong. Under her leadership, Smartone was named Best Mobile Carrier by the Communication Association of Hong Kong in 2019. In 2017 Smartone launched Birdie Mobile, which has grown to become one of the best known full digital brands serving the Millennial and tech-savvy market.

Prior to Smartone, Anna headed up Mastercard’s operations in Hong Kong and Macau; during her tenure she launched a number of new digital products including Contactless, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Masterpass. She was previously a global partner with McKinsey & Company where she was a co-leader of the Financial Institutional Group and payments practice in Asia.

Anna holds a DPhil (PhD) from University of Oxford and a First-Class Honours degree in Business Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

CEO, AIS

Mr Pratthana Leelapanang is Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Info Service (AIS).

Pratthana worked as an engineer for six years (1996- 2002) and was responsible for planning GSM and NMT switching network infrastructure, and value added network infrastructure. In 2003, he moved on to the new role in marketing area as the Wireless Service Planning & Development Manager. After that, he was promoted to the Vice President Value Added Service Business and the Senior Vice President Digital Product & Service in 2008 and 2012 respectively. One year later, he was appointed as the Executive Vice President Marketing. He has been the Acting Chief Marketing Officer since 2016 and then the position changed to be Acting Chief Consumer Business Officer. Until October 2017, he got promoted to be Chief Consumer Business Officer. In July 2025 he was appointed Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer before his appointment as Chief Executive Officer from November 2025.

Pratthana graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from Kasetsart University. He received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in System Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Founder & CEO, Twimbit

Manoj Menon is founder and CEO of twimbit, an immersive life-long learning platform providing industry know-how to aspiring leaders. He is a futurist and an authority in the area of digital transformation. He helps individuals, society and businesses make sense of the fast-changing world that we live in.

Prior to starting twimbit, Manoj was a Senior Partner and Asia Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan. He was a founding member of the team in Asia, joining them in 1996 as an analyst. He went onto helping them open offices in over 13 countries and helping it become a leading advisory firm in the region.

His presentation and workshops provide a unique view of how the world is transforming and how we can be better prepared to participate in this new era. He has spoken at over a 1000 seminars and private conferences in the last decade across all continents.

Manoj is a chartered financial analyst (CFA), has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and also holds a post-graduate degree in Business Administration (PGDBA). He is an author of many research studies on future industries and markets. He has appeared on major media such as CNN, BBC, Channel News Asia, CNBC and other regional media providing his opinion on major business events around the world.

Manoj is passionate about sports. He is an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club, runs marathons and is currently learning on best practices from sports that can be integrated into business practices.

Chairman, Bridge Alliance; CEO, Digital Infraco, Singtel

Mr Bill Chang is the current Chairman of Bridge Alliance. He was appointed CEO, Digital InfraCo, Singtel’s new standalone infrastructure unit, on 1 June 2023. Prior to that, Bill was the CEO, Group Enterprise since 16 July 2012 and assumed the role of CEO, Regional Data Centre Business on 1 July 2022.

Bill joined Singtel in November 2005 as Executive Vice President of Corporate Business and subsequently became Managing Director, Business Group.

Bill is the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees and a board member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ International Advisory Technology Governance and Innovations Panel. He co-chaired the Future Jobs and Skills Sub-committee of the Committee on the Future Economy of Singapore from 2016 to 2017.

For his contributions to Singapore, Bill was awarded the Public Service Star in 2017 and the Public Service Medal in 2007. He also received the Singapore Computer Society’s IT Leader of the Year award in 2017 and the honorary Fellow of the Society in 2014.

Bill graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University, Australia and attended the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Chief Product Officer, IoT, Aeris

Jon Connet joined Aeris as Chief Product Officer in 2023 to lead the growth and transformation of its IoT product portfolio. Jon has over 20 years’ experience in senior product and business development roles in IoT, cybersecurity and infrastructure software.

Jon’s experience includes Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager at Forescout Technologies where he led the company’s product and business strategy to launch their ‘market first’ medical IoT and operational technology security solutions. As General Manager at Forescout’s network segmentation business, Jon led the business unit’s growth from zero to over $10m in ARR. Jon’s background also includes a decade at Symantec in leadership roles in product, operations and strategy.

Jon lives in California and has a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of Southern California.

Managing Partner, Global Head of Functional Practices, Arthur D. Little (ADL)

Karim is Managing Partner, Global Head of Functional Practices at Arthur D. Little. Prior to that, Karim led the TIME practice globally for over 12 years since 2012. He has 30 years of experience with ADL in the telecommunication area and previously worked with a leading global telecom supplier.

In Arthur D. Little, Karim’s work focuses primarily on three functional areas:

• Growth strategies and business transformations
• Corporate Finance – Transaction support, mainly working with Private Equity firms and Banks
• Boardroom presentation and facilitation

Besides his management consulting assignments with clients in 4 industries:

• He acts as a Jury member for several Telecom & Media prize award ceremonies in Asia, Europe, and in the US.
• He supports several telecommunication councils and associations as well as governments and regulators in setting their (digital) agenda as an advisor
• He is chairing and facilitating top executive international events and conferences

Before joining ADL he worked for several years for Ericsson and was a research assistant professor at the University of Technology in Vienna. Furthermore, he enjoyed four different education systems: Tunisia (Lycée El Menzah V), France (Lycée JB Say/ESEM), the USA (UC Berkeley), and Austria (TU Wien). Karim holds an MSc, MBA, and Ph.D.

CEO, Airtel Business

Mr Sharat Sinha is the CEO of Airtel Business.

In this role, he spearheads the Airtel Business team in expanding its rapidly growing diverse portfolio of future-ready solutions that enable enterprises in driving their business growth.

Championing over three decades of global experience, Sharat leads Airtel Business to enhance its leadership of being the most preferred technology solutions partner for businesses with its cutting-edge solutions spanning secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud-based communications.

With successful experiences across Fortune 500 technology companies like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, VMWare and Ericsson, Sharat joined Airtel from Check Point Software Technologies where he was President of the Asia-Pacific region.

Sharat holds a Doctorate in business management from the University of South Australia, a Postgraduate degree in Industrial and Management Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from IET, Lucknow.

CEO, AIS

Mr Pratthana Leelapanang is Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Info Service (AIS).

Pratthana worked as an engineer for six years (1996- 2002) and was responsible for planning GSM and NMT switching network infrastructure, and value added network infrastructure. In 2003, he moved on to the new role in marketing area as the Wireless Service Planning & Development Manager. After that, he was promoted to the Vice President Value Added Service Business and the Senior Vice President Digital Product & Service in 2008 and 2012 respectively. One year later, he was appointed as the Executive Vice President Marketing. He has been the Acting Chief Marketing Officer since 2016 and then the position changed to be Acting Chief Consumer Business Officer. Until October 2017, he got promoted to be Chief Consumer Business Officer. In July 2025 he was appointed Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer before his appointment as Chief Executive Officer from November 2025.

Pratthana graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from Kasetsart University. He received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in System Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

General Manager, Head of Digital BSS Unit, Amdocs Technology

Mr. Yaniv Sahar is General Manager and Head of the Digital BSS Unit at Amdocs, where he leads a global R&D organization. With deep expertise in Business Support Systems (BSS), cloud-native technologies, and digital transformation, Yaniv has been instrumental in shaping Amdocs’ strategic roadmap and delivering platforms that serve hundreds of millions of consumers and thousands of enterprises worldwide.

Under his leadership, Amdocs has launched flagship solutions including the Customer Engagement Platform for B2C and B2B, Amdocs Catalog, CPQ Pro, and the Low Code Experience Platform. Yaniv is also the driving force behind Amdocs’ company-wide transition to microservices and cloud-native architecture.

A true believer in the transformative power of Generative AI, Yaniv is actively embedding GenAI into Amdocs’ products and operational practices to unlock new levels of efficiency, personalization, and innovation. He is at the forefront of redefining Customer Experience in Telco, making it more intelligent, seamless, and turning every interaction into a value-driven moment.

With over two decades at Amdocs and a background in business, computer science, and mathematics, Yaniv brings a visionary yet pragmatic leadership style. His passion lies in building scalable, intuitive technologies that simplify complexity and empower service providers to thrive in a digital-first world.

Associate Partner, Antler Ibex

Mr. Mongi Buckens is an Associate Partner at Antler Ibex, the world’s first full-service vertical growth engine for established corporates. He leads Ibex’s corporate innovation and investment work in Southeast Asia, helping some of the region’s largest telecom operators and other industry leaders unlock organic, inorganic, and transformational growth.

At Ibex, Mongi works with corporates to strategically engage with the $3.5 trillion global venture economy—scouting and securing top talent and technologies, forming high-impact startup partnerships, arming business units with scalable solutions at lower risk, executing thematic investments, and building entirely new ventures beyond the core. His work blends internal capability-building with external ecosystem access to ensure innovation strategies translate into measurable, strategic, and scalable business outcomes.

With over 12 years of experience in strategy consulting and business growth across the Asia Pacific, Mongi began his career at Roland Berger and McKinsey before founding and scaling a data-driven AdTech and location intelligence company in Indonesia. He holds dual master’s degrees in Strategy and Business Engineering from ESSEC and Solvay Business School.

Chairman, Bridge Alliance; CEO, Digital Infraco, Singtel

Mr Bill Chang is the current Chairman of Bridge Alliance. He was appointed CEO, Digital InfraCo, Singtel’s new standalone infrastructure unit, on 1 June 2023. Prior to that, Bill was the CEO, Group Enterprise since 16 July 2012 and assumed the role of CEO, Regional Data Centre Business on 1 July 2022.

Bill joined Singtel in November 2005 as Executive Vice President of Corporate Business and subsequently became Managing Director, Business Group.

Bill is the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees and a board member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ International Advisory Technology Governance and Innovations Panel. He co-chaired the Future Jobs and Skills Sub-committee of the Committee on the Future Economy of Singapore from 2016 to 2017.

For his contributions to Singapore, Bill was awarded the Public Service Star in 2017 and the Public Service Medal in 2007. He also received the Singapore Computer Society’s IT Leader of the Year award in 2017 and the honorary Fellow of the Society in 2014.

Bill graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University, Australia and attended the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Senior Vice President, IoT & Enterprise Mobility Services, Bridge Alliance

Mr. Selvakumar Rajasekaran is the Senior Vice President for IoT and Enterprise Mobility at Bridge Alliance.

Selvakumar has over 28 years of experience in the communications industry. Previously, he has served in business leadership roles at Maxis, Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Cable&Wireless. Most recently, he has served as the Executive Vice President for Vi Business at Vodafone Idea Limited in India. He brings deep expertise in product lifecycle management, technology commercialisation, M&A integration, positioning organisations for long-term competitive advantage. He has a track record of scaling enterprise portfolios, commercialising next-gen technologies, and leading digital & transformation initiatives.

Selvakumar holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications from PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore in India. He graduated with First-class honours and distinction and has completed executive programmes from Columbia Business School and Boston Consulting Group, Asia Pacific.

Co-founder and CEO, Carro

Mr Aaron Tan is co-founder and CEO of Carro, Asia Pacific’s Largest Online Car Dealership.

Founded in 2016, Carro has since raised over US$600M (~S$800M) from investors including Softbank Vision Fund, Temasek, and Jardines. The company is present in 10 countries across Asia Pacific and has over 4,000 employees worldwide.

Aaron started his career as a venture capitalist – having invested in over 100 startups around the world, he has a strong track record of investing and partnering a tech startup and building it up from the ground up to a unicorn. Aaron is also an active community leader, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Library of Singapore and Board of Trustees of the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

General Manager, Product and Innovation Department, Vice President, China Telecom Global

Eason Cheng is a seasoned executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, specializing in product innovation and digital transformation. As the General Manager of the Product and Innovation Department at China Telecom Group (CTG), Eason plays a pivotal role in driving the strategic direction of telco product development. His leadership encompasses the entire lifecycle of product innovation, from ideation and design to operational management and market deployment

Eason possesses deep insights into emerging technologies and trends within the telecommunications sector, allowing him to spearhead initiatives that enhance service offerings and improve customer experiences. His expertise extends to areas such as cloud-based solutions, network optimization, and digital services, where he has consistently demonstrated a keen ability to align technological advancements with business objectives.

Throughout his career, Eason has cultivated strong partnerships with global customers, working closely with them to design, migrate, and operate their infrastructure on an international scale. His collaborative approach and commitment to understanding client needs have resulted in numerous successful projects, earning him accolades and recognition in the industry.

Eason is not only a leader but also a mentor, dedicated to fostering talent within his team and promoting a culture of innovation. His vision for the future of telecommunications emphasizes adaptability and resilience, ensuring that CTG remains at the forefront of industry advancements.

Former CEO, DBS Group

Mr. Piyush Gupta was Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group from November 2009 to March 2025. Under his leadership, DBS underwent a significant and successful transformation, being named Best Bank and Best Digital Bank in the world on several occasions, as well as one of the top ten transformative organizations of the 2010 – 2020 decade by Harvard Business Review.

Prior to joining DBS, Piyush had a 27 year career at Citigroup, where his last position was Chief Executive Officer for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University, and Chairman of the Mandai Park Holdings Board. In addition, he sits on the board of Singapore’s National Research Foundation and is a member of the Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore – Future Economy Advisory Panel. Piyush is a term trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA). Previously, he has been a member of the Singapore Emerging Stronger Taskforce, aimed at defining Singapore’s future in a post-Covid world, the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Board of Institute of International Finance, and the McKinsey Advisory Council.

Piyush has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Piyush was awarded the Public Service Star by the President of Singapore for his meritorious services to the nation in 2020. He is a recipient of the 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour conferred by the Indian Government on the country’s diaspora.

Piyush was named one of the world’s top 100 best-performing chief executives in Harvard Business Review – 2019 edition of “The CEO 100”. He was named Global Indian of the Year by the Economic Times in 2021, Singapore Business Awards’ Outstanding Chief Executive of the Year in 2016, and Singapore Business Leader of the Year by CNBC in 2014.

Managing Director, T Digital, Deutsche Telekom

Dr. Maximilian Ahrens has been Managing Director of T Digital at Deutsche Telekom since January 2023. Prior to this, he held the role of CTO and VP of Cloud Strategy at T-Systems, the large enterprise customer division of Deutsche Telekom.

Maximilian has a background as an entrepreneur. Before joining T-Systems, he founded and later sold a majority stake in a technology company focused on cloud infrastructure, which enabled customers to deploy and manage distributed clouds. As CTO and CPO, he led the product strategy and development teams.

Maximilian is a member of the Board of Directors of the GAIA-X Association and served as its Chairman from 2021 to 2023.

Chief Commercial Officer, Deutsche Telekom IoT

Mr. Benjamin Bastians is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Deutsche Telekom IoT, where he leads IoT sales across Europe and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. He is spearheading the global expansion of Deutsche Telekom IoT and holds full profit and loss responsibility, driving strategic growth and shaping the company’s international market presence.

With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Benjamin has held multiple senior sales leadership roles within Deutsche Telekom, leading major global deals and forging strong, long-term relationships with enterprise customers.

He is also the co-founder of T-IoT, a global go-to-market initiative between Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA, designed to deliver seamless, cross-border IoT connectivity backed by two leading telco powerhouses.

As part of his global vision, Benjamin is leading Deutsche Telekom IoT’s expansion into the APAC region by building strategic partnerships with Bridge Alliance and other key players in the local IoT ecosystem, positioning the company as a trusted partner for international IoT deployments.

Chief Commercial Officer, du

Mr. Karim Benkirane is the Chief Commercial Officer at du, where he is responsible for driving the company’s commercial strategy and customer-facing operations across multiple segments. His remit spans Mass, Home and Premium, Soho and SE, ME and LE segments, Government and Key Accounts, Virgin Mobile UAE, as well as Products, Brand and Marketing Communication, and International Wholesale.

Karim brings over two decades of international telecommunications experience, with deep expertise across digital, retail, wholesale, and technology services. Prior to his current role, he served as Managing Director of Virgin Mobile UAE, where he led the launch of the region’s first fully digital mobile service, delivering a disruptive, customer-first experience. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Mobile Saudi Arabia, where he oversaw the market entry and expansion of the Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi brands, launching the Kingdom’s first Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with a mobile-first strategy.

Earlier in his career, Karim held executive roles in Europe, including Chief Executive Officer of KPN France and Chief Commercial Officer at Telecom Italia in France, contributing to commercial growth and operational transformation in highly competitive markets. He currently serves on the board of du Pay, the fintech arm of the Company.

He holds an Executive MBA from HEC Paris and has completed executive programmes at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

General Manager, FreeMove

Ms Selma Avdagic Tisljar is General Manager of the FreeMove Alliance with a strong focus on innovation, customer service excellence and the successful implementation of FreeMove’s products and services.

Previously, she held several commercial leadership positions at Deutsche Telekom, where she was responsible for end-to-end management of international deals, leading the IT platform development for process automation, and delivering excellent customer experiences.

Selma is a highly skilled international business executive. Before her various leadership roles at Deutsche Telekom, she worked for its Croatian subsidiary Hrvatski Telekom, as well as the management consulting firm Deloitte. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in Service Management from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY.

President and CEO, Globe

Mr Carl Raymond R. Cruz is a seasoned leader with over 30 years of experience in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, particularly in general management and marketing. Carl is currently Globe’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

His extensive career includes serving as the CEO and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, one of the largest and most significant Airtel operations in Africa. Before this, he was the Managing Director of Unilever West Africa and MD/CEO of Unilever Nigeria, where he led operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Francophone Africa. Mr. Cruz’s career at Unilever spanned 30 years across various countries, including the Philippines, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and West Africa, and he is recognized for his expertise in leading and transforming organizations in developing and emerging markets.

Carl holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management from De La Salle University.

President & Chief Operating Officer, Grab

Mr. Alex Hungate is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Grab. Based in Singapore, Alex oversees Grab’s mobility, deliveries and financial services businesses, as well as Grab’s marketing and user support functions.

Alex brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the financial services, logistics and food services industries to drive the execution of Grab’s superapp strategy. Alex will play a crucial role in creating and strengthening ecosystem synergies across the company’s core business segments, while ensuring operational excellence as Grab continues to scale rapidly across Southeast Asia.

Prior to Grab, Alex served for eight years as the President and CEO of SATS, a leading food solutions and logistics company that is listed on the Singapore stock exchange. Before that, Alex was Group Managing Director for Personal Financial Services for HSBC Group, and then the CEO of HSBC Singapore. He also served as Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Reuters as well as Co-CEO, Americas and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Reuters. Alex also serves on the board of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and was a non-executive director of UOB Group for four years before he joined Grab.

Alex received a degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University in 1989 and graduated as a Baker Scholar from the MBA program at Harvard Business School in 1993.

Head of Networks, GSMA

Henry joined the GSMA in December 2013, and is responsible for the delivery of the Future Networks programme. A key programme of the GSMA’s strategic focus, to deliver industry scale for IP Communications and 5G, whilst considering Network Economic challenges for the Mobile industry as it transitions to a 5G Era.

Previously he worked for the SingTel Group and has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, both in Networks and IT portfolios and has been involved in the deployment of mobile networks in over 10 operations across 10 different countries. Henry designed and built Optus’ 3G + LTE mobile network, all IP network and managed the product development transformation. He was the creator and board member of the network sharing Joint Venture between SingTel Optus and Vodafone Networks Pty Ltd (Australia).

Henry has been a board member and Chair of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and previously held an Executive Management Committee position in the GSMA.

VP, Industry Ecosystem Engagements, Huawei APAC

Konesh brings over 25 years of ICT Industry experience. Having worked in more than 30 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa, he has been successful in building and leading large data networks and business portfolios. Proven expertise in conceptualizing and integrating commercial models and technology platforms to deliver desired customer experience. In-depth experience in Digital economy and NICT frameworks, policy ecosystems, Program Management, Technical Strategies, Commercial Model Development & Governance, Planning and Rollouts of MBB Networks and Spectrum Management.

Prior to joining Huawei, his key roles included leading the Data Business for Airtel Africa and MBB Networks for Airtel India.

Konesh holds ACE (EPGM) from MIT Sloan School of Business, US, PG in Cloud Computing from Texas McCombs, University of Austin US, a BE(Hons) degree in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, India and Designing and Building AI products and Services certification from MIT.

CEO, Digital Ventures, HKT

Ms Monita Leung was appointed as Chief Executive Officer, Digital Ventures of HKT in 2022, taking a leadership role to drive the company’s digital ventures business. She has over 15 years’ experience with the Group and has played an integral part in the success of high-speed broadband modernisation in Hong Kong. With her diverse experience across different business areas, including marketing, product development, operations and customer service, she is committed to driving continuous innovation by actively participating in a range of new initiatives such as digital wallet, virtual bank, ecommerce, merchant O2O solutions and other fintech services. She was involved in the planning and development of Hong Kong’s first mobile payment service and is currently the Chief Executive of HKT Payment Limited, a HKMA licensed Stored Value Facility provider.

Before joining HKT, Monita acquired well-rounded experience in the consumer credit and payment card business in Hong Kong. She holds a Master of Science in City Transformation and Master Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Director of Engineering and Head of Sustainable Buildings Centre of Excellence (CoE) Honeywell

As Director of Engineering Mr Sachin Gupta is helping Honeywell’s strategic customers build the Blueprint of the Future for Sustainable Buildings and drive their Net Zero goals.

Prior to joining Honeywell, Sachin already has more than 20 years of strong engineering and technology leadership across built environment, IoT and Sustainability innovation

Sachin was also recognized with the “IoT Leader of the Year Award” by the IoT World Asia 2019 and is the current president of Singapore Computer Society IoT Chapter, which provides a platform where professionals learn, share knowledge, and promote a common understanding of IoT technology, applications and ultimately driving the adoption of IoT products and services.

Sachin Holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Management from Swiss School of Business Research, and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from University of NSW Australia.

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Global Business Strategy, Intelligent Connectivity, Itron

Mr. Oleg Pachkovets spearheads Global Business Strategy for Intelligent Connectivity at Itron, helping utilities and cities navigate the energy transition. With nearly two decades of experience in technology strategy and product innovation, he brings a global perspective shaped by work across Europe, the Americas, and LATAM. Oleg focuses on enabling resilient, data-driven energy systems that accelerate EV adoption and power a more sustainable, connected future.

Partner, Kearney

Having worked in the telecommunications industry since 2007, Mr Gareth Pereira has developed deep expertise in it along with media and technology. “I like working in these industries because they’re structured and logical; the economics are also fairly clear compared to some others,” he remarks. “There are a lot of big topics to address in telecommunications as the industry continues to evolve in interesting ways. I love the content produced by media companies and working on challenges like the royalties mechanisms, and technology underpins the work of both telecommunications and media companies.”

Gareth has enjoyed working in a variety of places around the globe throughout his career, which has taken him from India to the UAE to Malaysia. He now works all throughout the Southeast Asia region, which included time establishing Kearney’s office in Manila.

Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Maxis

Prateek heads up the Maxis Business division with a strong ambition to help transform businesses in Malaysia to be ready for the future, cutting across corporate, government, small and medium enterprise (SME) and wholesale customers. He brings with him close to 30 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Project Financing, Technology Planning, and Business Planning & Strategy.

Prior to Maxis, he spent over 20 years serving at several companies within the Tata Group including Tata Teleservices and Tata Communications, and on diverse businesses such as hospitality, software, real estate and telecom equipment and services. In the last four years, he setup & led Reliance Jio’s Enterprise Business which provides ICT services such as connectivity, private networks, mobility, cloud, IOT and security to enterprises.

He has served as the Chairman and Board Member of WBA (Wireless Broadband Alliance) and served on the Board of WiMAX Forum, an industry-led, non-profit organization.

He has an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Marketing with an Engineering degree in Electronics. He was a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Fulbright-CII Fellowship Program for Leadership in Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Mr. Ferry Grijpink leads the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity within the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice, which brings together McKinsey’s experts on 5G, low Earth orbit satellites, and Wifi 6.0 connectivity with the firm’s knowledge to help clients overcome hurdles and capture the opportunities of a more connected world.

He advises telecommunications companies on strategy, marketing, and operations, including mobile operators that are launching adjacent businesses in areas such as mobile health and money services. He also coleads McKinsey’s research on deploying and commercializing next-generation infrastructures, such as fiber, mobile broadband, and 5G networks. From 2013 to 2018, Ferry relocated to Singapore to lead our high tech, media, entertainment, and telecommunications work in Southeast Asia.

Ferry brings a long record of tangible client impact in both the consumer and enterprise sectors, and in addition to his work in Asia, also serves clients in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Ferry frequently speaks to industry groups on the dynamics of the highly competitive telecommunications market. Recent presentations to international industry bodies focused on describing the market opportunity for embedded-mobile-data devices, shaping the thinking on 5G, the Internet of Things, and discussing mobile broadband costs as a regulatory lever.

Chief Customer Officer, Consumer, Optus

Anthony joined Optus in October 2024 as Managing Director of Customer Solutions.

He has a deep breadth of experience in the telecommunications industry having worked for almost three decades in commercial, digital and transformation telco operations here in Australia and overseas.

Anthony was most recently the Group Chief Commercial Officer of Airtel Africa based in Dubai and prior to that was Chief Customer, Channel & Digital Officer of Du Telecom.

He knows Optus and Singtel well, having held senior customer and commercial roles including Chief Revenue Officer, Digital at Singtel and General Manager, Consumer Channels; General Manager, Optus Country and Vice President, Broadband, NBN, TV & Content for Optus.

Anthony holds a Bachelor of Sports Science (Exercise Science), UNSW, Post-Graduate in Business Administration, MGSM, NSW, and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University, USA.

Senior Vice President, Technology & Customer Strategy, Japan & Asia Pacific, Oracle

Mr. Chris Chelliah is responsible for driving digital transformation for Oracle’s customers in the Japan and Asia Pacific region. He’s accountable for the organization’s hypergrowth in cloud infrastructure and autonomous database. Chris leads cloud specialist sales teams, industry architects, and the Oracle Insight team to bring together the expertise needed to provide a collaborative, consultative approach to help customers achieve their objectives.

Chris has nearly 30 years of experience across a variety of portfolios in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. Previously at Oracle, he focused on customer success with consulting and implementation services in global projects in the telecommunications, financial services, and government sectors, implementing disruptive and innovative software solutions.

Chris holds a post-graduate degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He’s a frequent industry speaker and contributes regularly to trade and industry journals and opinion pieces on applications for emerging technologies.

Chief Executive Officer, PCCW Global

Mr Frederick Chui was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of PCCW Global in 2024, taking on the role to drive the integrated global communication solutions business.

Mr Chui joined HKT in 1991 and has held various key positions in solutions design, product management, product development and marketing. He was the Senior Vice President of PCCW Global’s International Products and Solutions division, overseeing PCCW Global’s product management and development activities, as well as marketing and presales support activities around the world. In 2008, he was appointed head of Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania sales and business development operations. He also served as the Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales and Senior Vice President, Global Data Sales and Presales in 2011 to 2018, and was the Chief Commercial Officer of PCCW Global from 2019.

Before joining HKT, Mr Chui engaged in product and solutions development for a number of telecoms operators serving the Asia-Pacific region. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from The University of Nottingham and an Executive MBA from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In addition, his industry influence extends to board memberships, notably on the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) Board since 2018 and as a Board member of Bridge Alliance from October 2022. Locally, he served as a member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Services Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2023.

Director, APAC API Platform, Red Hat

Mr Steve Shirkey leads AI platform strategy and execution across Asia Pacific as Director for AI Platforms at Red Hat, where he helps enterprises build, scale, and operationalize AI solutions using hybrid cloud and open source technologies. He works across technology, sales, and ecosystem enablement, ensuring AI adoption delivers real business value for Red Hat customers, partners, and open source communities.

Before joining Red Hat, Steve led Azure AI adoption across ANZ, Southeast Asia, and Korea at Microsoft, driving AI transformation for some of the region’s largest enterprises. Prior to that, he helped customers across Southeast Asia scale deep learning adoption at Amazon Web Services (AWS), working with financial services, manufacturing, and large enterprises to build AI-powered businesses.

With over two decades of experience in AI, cloud, and data, Steve has worked at the intersection of technology and business strategy, assisting companies in navigating digital transformation, automation, and AI-driven innovation. Throughout his career spanning US and Asia markets, he has partnered with industry leaders in financial services (Aon, Nationwide), manufacturing (Parker Hannifin, Caterpillar), and cloud platforms (Microsoft, AWS, now Red Hat) to turn data into actionable insights and transform AI and machine learning from hype into real, scalable solutions.

CEO, SBTS

With over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, Mr. Norioki Sekiguchi is a seasoned executive known for strong leadership and strategic business creation. Bringing over a decade of expertise in financial and management training, he has played a pivotal role in driving global business expansion.

Currently serving as CEO of SBTS, Norioki has held key leadership roles including Global Business Executive of the Global Business Division in Enterprise Unit, SoftBank Corp.

Vice President and CTO, Singtel Digital InfraCo

Manoj Prasanna Kumar is the Chief Technology Officer of Singtel Digital InfraCo and leads software architecture and cyber security of all software and hardware systems across all business units of Singtel Digital InfraCo. DigitalInfraCo is Singtel’s growth company that incorporates the Group’s regional data center business, subsea cable, satellite carrier businesses, AI cloud business as well as Paragon – Singtel’s unified platform for 5G, edge computing and multi cloud orchestration. Manoj leads the design, development and roll out of Digital InfraCo’s Network Fabric as well as Singtel’s AI cloud to offer GPU as a service to Enterprises and public sector customers. Manoj’s charter is to transform every business under Singtel Digital InfraCo with a software defined digital customer experience that will enhance operational efficiency, customer experience and unlock new value for Digital InfraCo.

Prior to his role as CTO, Manoj was the Head of Enterprise platforms, the software product house under Singtel Digital InfraCo where he lead the design, engineering and delivery of award winning Singtel’s Paragon platform which is Industry’s first all-in-one orchestration platform that unifies network, compute and applications in a single platform for Enterprise customers. Singtel Paragon platform also powers the Enterprise 5G and MEC offering for Singtel’s enterprise business. Singtel also utilizes Paragon platform to deploy 5G and MEC for all enterprise customers in Singapore and the region through Singtel’s associates. Manoj has also spearheaded the 5G and MEC deployment for all the Singtel customers including public sector customers and large enterprises. He has led numerous collaboration initiatives for Singtel Group with hyper scalars like AWS and Microsoft to design an infrastructure agnostic MEC solution that is compliant with hyper scalar stack (Azure and AWS) to ensure seamless adoption of MEC and 5G for Enterprise customers.

Manoj is a data scientist by background with deep domain experience in Telecom industry. His expertise is in Distributed Systems, Big Data, and Machine Learning. He holds over 25 international patents in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and telecom networks, including the first patent of Singtel for Paragon platform that was awarded in multiple countries including Singapore, Australia, USA, South Korea and China.

Manoj’s international patents are listed publicly at https://patents.justia.com/inventor/manoj-prasanna-kumar

CEO, International Digital Services, Singtel

Dr Anna Yip was appointed CEO, International Digital Services (IDS), a new OpCo set up to focus on the international expansion of Singtel’s digital services and solutions, on January 1, 2025.

Anna joined Singtel in December 2020 as Deputy Consumer CEO. She was designated Consumer CEO in April 2021. In July 2023, Anna was designated Deputy CEO of overall Singapore on 1 July 2023, after the Consumer and Enterprise business were combined into one organisation. She then led the Consumer and SME business in Singapore and positioned it to be a leading digital services provider as 5G goes mainstream. Anna was also appointed a Board of Commissioner member of Telkomsel on 1 June 2021.

Before joining Singtel, Anna was the CEO and Executive Director of Smartone, a leading telecommunications company headquartered in Hong Kong. Under her leadership, Smartone was named Best Mobile Carrier by the Communication Association of Hong Kong in 2019. In 2017 Smartone launched Birdie Mobile, which has grown to become one of the best known full digital brands serving the Millennial and tech-savvy market.

Prior to Smartone, Anna headed up Mastercard’s operations in Hong Kong and Macau; during her tenure she launched a number of new digital products including Contactless, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Masterpass. She was previously a global partner with McKinsey & Company where she was a co-leader of the Financial Institutional Group and payments practice in Asia.

Anna holds a DPhil (PhD) from University of Oxford and a First-Class Honours degree in Business Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chief Digital and Information Officer, ASPAC, Suntory Beverage and Food

President, Taiwan Mobile

Jamie now serves as President at Taiwan Mobile and Chairman & Partner at AppWorks, the Greater Southeast Asia leading startup accelerator and venture capital firm founded by Jamie in 2009.

Taiwan Mobile and AppWorks formed a strategic alliance in January 2019, resulting in Jamie taking over as the President of Taiwan Mobile.

Before Taiwan Mobile and AppWorks, Jamie was an entrepreneur. In 1999, he co-founded Hotcool.com that eventually evolved into Intumit, a successful AI software-as-a-service company. In 2006, he co-founded Sosauce.com that evolved into Muse Games. He received his BS in Engineering from National Taiwan University and an MBA from NYU Stern. His blog, MR JAMIE, has provided inspiration to millions of readers in the startup community since 2009.

Chief Strategic Planning Officer, Telkomsel

Mr Wong Soon Nam has served as Director of Planning and Transformation since August 2020. He has vast leadership experience in the telecommunications and technology industry for more than 20 years.

His career highlights have shown several senior leadership roles, such as Vice President of Consumer Products at SingTel (2015-2020), Vice President of Smart and Safe City for NCS Group (2012-2015), General Manager of SingTel Group (2009-2012), Vice President of Consumer Marketing at SingTel (2007-2009), Vice President of Corporate Business Marketing at SingTel (2005-2007), and Vice President of Account Management at SingTel (2003-2005).

Soon Nam has also held several important positions in various organizations and institutions, such as Board Member of Bridge Alliance (2016-present), Board Member of VA Dynamics (2014-present), Chairman of Kai Square (2014-2015), and Council Member of the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (2005-2008).

Soon Nam is a Nanyang Technological University graduate and holds an MSc. degree from the National University of Singapore.

Founder & CEO, Telna

Gregory Gundelfinger is the founder and CEO of Telna, the world’s largest provider of cloud-native, programmable eSIM connectivity.

A skilled lawyer and serial entrepreneur, he recognized eSIM’s potential early on, driving its evolution into a fully virtualized, dynamic platform that digitizes mobile networks and enables seamless, multi-network coverage worldwide. Under Gregory’s leadership, Telna serves both travel and IoT markets as a B2B provider, offering managed services to MVOs, MNOs, and CSPs, and has transformed roaming into a flexible, borderless platform. Gregory’s product-focused, technology-obsessed approach continues to redefine global connectivity.

Founder & CEO, Twimbit

Manoj Menon is founder and CEO of twimbit, an immersive life-long learning platform providing industry know-how to aspiring leaders. He is a futurist and an authority in the area of digital transformation. He helps individuals, society and businesses make sense of the fast-changing world that we live in.

Prior to starting twimbit, Manoj was a Senior Partner and Asia Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan. He was a founding member of the team in Asia, joining them in 1996 as an analyst. He went onto helping them open offices in over 13 countries and helping it become a leading advisory firm in the region.

His presentation and workshops provide a unique view of how the world is transforming and how we can be better prepared to participate in this new era. He has spoken at over a 1000 seminars and private conferences in the last decade across all continents.

Manoj is a chartered financial analyst (CFA), has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and also holds a post-graduate degree in Business Administration (PGDBA). He is an author of many research studies on future industries and markets. He has appeared on major media such as CNN, BBC, Channel News Asia, CNBC and other regional media providing his opinion on major business events around the world.

Manoj is passionate about sports. He is an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club, runs marathons and is currently learning on best practices from sports that can be integrated into business practices.

VP Business Development, Viasat

Head of Innovation Hub Singapore, Volkswagen Group

Mr Petromil Petkov is the founder and head of Volkswagen Group Innovation Hub in Singapore, where he leads the Group’s innovation strategy and partnerships across Southeast Asia. His work enables brands like Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Skoda to collaborate with the regional startup and tech ecosystem.

Previously based in China for seven years, Petromil spearheaded numerous deep tech collaborations for Volkswagen Group and launched Audi’s deep tech incubator in Beijing. He also served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Tsinghua University x-lab and as a design thinking coach at China University of Communications.

Before joining the automotive industry, he held product development roles across four continents with organizations including the United Nations, Motorola, Infosys, and launched a fintech startup.

CTO, Group Asia, ZTE

David An leads ZTE CTO Group Asia and has more than 20 years’ experience in the wireless telecommunications field. He has represented ZTE as a keynote speaker at ITU and international ICT industry conferences and exhibitions.