The Team

Mr. Chong is the Singtel Group Chief Technology Officer. He was Singtel’s Chief Executive Officer, International, from January 2013 to March 2017.

He is the current Chairman of Bridge Alliance, Asia Pacific’s leading mobile alliance of 34 premier operators, serving close to 900 million customers.

From Oct 2010 to January 2013, Mark was the Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), the Group’s associate in Thailand.

He joined Singtel in 1997 and has held various executive positions in sales and marketing as well as being Executive Vice President of Networks. He had a previous assignment in Thailand from 1999 to 2000. Before Singtel, he was a member of the Singapore Administrative Service from 1990 to 1997.

Mark represented Singtel on the Boards of Globe Telecom, Bharti Infratel, OpenNet, CSLox(Thailand) and other submarine cable joint venture companies.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Electronics Engineering and Master in Research in Electronic Systems from ENSERG, Grenoble, France, on a Singapore Government scholarship. He also obtained his Master of Business Administration from the National University of Singapore. He is a senior fellow with the Singapore Computer Society.

Mr. Ashish Arora –  is currently serving as a Chief Executive Officer of Global Business at Bharti Airtel Ltd. Prior to that, Ashish has served as CEO Airtel Business -Enterprise Business.  In his earlier stint, he has led SME Business for Airtel as CEO – Corporate Business. Prior to Airtel, he was with Sify leading corporate business.

Under his leadership Airtel has been awarded as Best Enterprise business by F&S. He is also a recipient of Airtel Chairman Award.

Mr. Somchai Lertsutiwong is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Info Service PLC (AIS). He has been working for the Intouch Group for many years and is a veteran of the telecom industry.

Over two decades, Mr. Somchai has played pivotal roles in defining the course of the telecommunications industry in Thailand, and in 1992, as Vice President of Business Relations and Development, he helped bring operations into accordance with the Concession Agreement Act which functioned to coordinate the private sector with the Government’s undertakings.

In addition, Mr. Somchai also has served in other key positions of AIS namely Vice President of Wireless Service Business – in charge of all Value Added Services where he introduced the new approach to partnership model, and Executive Vice president of Marketing – supervising all marketing and sales operations where his performances have been highlighted by five consecutive years of new targets achievements. In 2010, he was appointed as Chief Marketing Officer – supervising all commercial and corporate strategies including new businesses of the company.

Mr. Somchai has also been a member of several project teams and forums which have focused on national telecommunications and information technology issues, such as the Thailand Interconnection Forum (TIF) and the Interconnection Charge in Thailand research group. He has also been a member of the IT Business and Communication Committee of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and served as a consultant for the Telecommunications Committee of the Assembly of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Somchai holds both a BA in Statistics and an MBA from Chulalongkorn University and has a certificate from the Executive Development Program.

Mr. C Marc Halbfinger is the Chief Executive Officer, PCCW Global, a position which he held since July 2007. He is primarily responsible for the integrated global communication solutions business and the Cosnole Connect software defined fabric. He has been working in media and telecommunications services since 1988 with experience in cable TV, directories, cellular, and international ICT.

Mr. Halbfinger joined PCCW in May 2000 as the Senior Vice President, Business Development of Pacific Convergence Corporation, Ltd. covering Europe and North America markets where he was involved in early commercial development of “now TV”. In 2001, he helped found Beyond-The-Network, which later became part of PCCW Global, and was initially appointed as the President for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Mr. Halbfinger is formerly the Chair of the Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), a forum for the global carrier industry which provides leadership direction for ubiquitous interoperability and connectivity. He is also formerly a member of The Board of Governors of the Pacific Telecommunications Council. He also serves on the Board of the Singapore-based Communications Business Automation Network (CBAN).

Prior to joining PCCW, Mr. Halbfinger was a Vice President at Teleglobe serving the Mediterranean and South Europe. Previously, he was a senior manager at Global One, Sprint International, and a subsidiary of Southwestern Bell Corporation.

Among other academic achievements, Mr. Halbfinger earned a Master of Science (Econ.) in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1988

Ernest Cu has served as Director since April 2009. He is also currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Globe Telecom, Inc. He joined Globe in October 2008 as Deputy CEO, and was officially appointed President and Chief Executive Officer on 2 April 2009. Since then, Mr. Cu has been passionately driving a sweeping transformation across the company, including modernising its network and IT infrastructure, creating a strong collaborative and service-oriented culture, and product innovations in its mobile business. Under Mr. Cu’s visionary leadership, Globe has outperformed industry growth with the company breaking records across all key product groups, brands and market segments, catapulting Globe as the number 1 mobile brand in the country.

In 2016, Mr. Cu was named Best CEO by Finance Asia for the third time, the last one in 2015 and 2010. Moreover, for the fourth year in a row, he was recognised as one of the 100 most influential telecom leaders worldwide by London-based Global Telecoms Business Magazine Power 100. In 2014, Mr. Cu was honoured as the Telecommunications Executive of the Year by the International Business Awards (Stevies). Mr. Cu also earned international accolade in 2012 as CEO of the Year by Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.

Prior to Globe, Mr. Cu was President and CEO of SPi Technologies from 1997 to 2008. At the cusp of the new millennium, Mr. Cu spurred the beginning of the BPO business model for the Philippines, earning him the recognition as one of the founding fathers of BPO in the country. Lauding his pioneering spirit and drawing great highlight to his career then was a recognition from Ernst & Young in 2003 as the ICT Entrepreneur of the Year.

Mr. Cu has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Management Engineering from De La Salle University in Manila, and an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

Wayne’s career history covers over 30 years of increasingly senior roles in telecommunications, technology, media, professional services and investment banking. He has lots of experience in transforming complex businesses to improve their competitive position and to focus them on delivering outstanding customer service. His 20-year career at Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, included global scale strategic, commercial and leading roles particularly in Telstra’s Initial Public Offering and secondary market offering valued at over A$30billion. Wayne has also played key roles in driving major transformation programmes at Telstra.

Before joining Maxis, Wayne was Chief Financial Officer of Latitude Financial Services. Before that, he was Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer of KPMG Australia, where he led the transformation of KPMG’s business model in the country. He was also a key member of KPMG’s Global & ASPAC Committees and its Global IT Steering Committee.

Wayne holds an MBA from Melbourne University as well as a Master’s degree in Practicing Accounting from Monash University. He is a Fellow of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Australia, a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia, a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Wayne has also attended a number of senior leadership development programmes at the Harvard Business School and other institutions.

Mr. Ben White is currently Managing Director of Optus’ Marketing and Product division. This group brings together all of Optus’ mobile and fixed products, TV and entertainment services, brand and communications, customer marketing, customer experience, analytics and insights, along with responsibility for the Optus wholly-owned brands Virgin Mobile and vivid wireless.

This portfolio leads overall product development, go-to-market execution and customer base management for Optus across the Consumer and Small Business segments of the market.

Mr. White holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from Sydney University.

Mr. Jihnwoo (JW) Kim is VP and Head of Global Business Group of SK Telecom, South Korea’s the leading mobile network operator with close to 50% market share, and with a diverse ICT businesses portfolio from telecommunications to new ICT businesses including media, security, commerce and mobility.

He is responsible for strategic partnership, global business development and corporate accelerator for SK Telecom and its subsidiaries. Before his role as the Head of Global Business Group of SK Telecom, he led Global Strategy & Business Development at SK Planet, an affiliate of SK Telecom from 2011 to 2017 where he played key a role in developing and managing global digital commerce in the US, Japan, Turkey and South East Asia. He spent more than two decades in the ICT industry covering MNO, commerce, and media. He previously worked in the US as Head of Product Management at Helio, an SK Telecom subsidiary from 2005 to 2008. 

Mr. Kim holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of Chicago.

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.

Mr. Hendri Mulya Syam is the President Director of Telkomsel since May 2021. Prior to his appointment, Hendri has served as Director Sales of Telkomsel (February-May 2021) and Director of Network Telkomsel (2020-2021).

Hendri has vast leadership experience in the telecommunication industry for more than 25 years. He is known for his expertise in LTE Strategy Deployment, Network Strategy, Network Services and Quality Management, Sales Strategy & Operation, Corporate Planning, Product and Mobile Data, Marketing, Customer Service, and IT Operation.

Since starting his professional tenure at Telkomsel in 1995, Hendri has held strategic positions, such as Executive Vice President Program Management Office and Executive Vice President Sales Area.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electro Telecommunications from the Indonesian Institute of Technology (ITI).