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 over 800 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 Adminstration from the National University of Singapore. He is a senior fellow with the Singapore Computer Society.

As Director & CEO-Global Voice & Data Business at Bharti Airtel Ltd, Mr. Chitkara is responsible to transform and execute the expansion and profitability of the Data and Voice Business globally. Adept in creating value, he drives the operations’ distribution strategy through multiple dedicated units.

Mr. Chitkara is also responsible for creating Airtel’s Global Data, Voice, VAS & Roaming business roadmap, Business Development, Processes, Product Rollout, Service Capabilities enhancement and customer facing activities both in India and overseas. He is instrumental in spearheading Airtel’s growth strategy for expanding the International Infrastructure including Submarine assets and global footprint. His endeavors in the business resulted in India becoming an important transit services hub for both data and voice in the region with Airtel as a leader in this space.

Mr. Chitkara was chosen by the readers of Global Telecom Business as one of the 40 most impressive leaders of the telecom industry under the age of 40 in 2011.

Mr. Chitkara has held a variety of positions handling a broad spectrum of roles at leading technology organizations during the course of his career. He has over 18 years of telecom experience and has been an integral part of Bharti Airtel for over 13 years.

Mr. Chitkara holds a post-graduate Degree in Electronics and a Masters in Business Management.

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. He has been working in media and telecommunications services since 1988 with experience in cable TV, directories, cellular, and international voice, video, data and Internet. 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 currently serving as 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 currently serving as a board member of the Pacific Telecommunications Council.

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. Myung Jin Han is SVP and Head of Global Alliance Office of SK Telecom, Korea’s the leading mobile network operator with around 50% market share (over 29 million subscribers) that pursues innovation and growth opportunities with new ICT technologies under the 4th industrial revolution environment.

He is responsible for the Global Corporate Development business of SK Telecom including global alliances, global investments, and global business developments. Prior to this appointment, he had various experiences (around 20 years) in SK Telecom including global business, developing new business models, marketing strategies and pricing. Mr. Han received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Korea University.

Dr. James Jeng served as Chairman and CEO of Kbro from February 2011 till January 2014.

Prior to joining Kbro, Dr. Jeng concurrently served as CTO of TWM Group, COO of Home Business Group and President of TFN Media CO., LTD. – a subsidiary company of TWM. He served as CEO of Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless – a new start up 3G mobile operator and Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom – a new fixed line operator, and president of Asia Pacific Online – an Internet Service Provider.

Dr. Jeng has been serving in executive management in the telecom industry both in Taiwan and USA for more than 30 years. Prior to returning to Taiwan, Dr. Jeng served in AT&T Bell Lab. as a research engineer for 4 years and then as Technical Supporting Manager in Greater China for another 2 years. After that, Dr. Jeng was appointed as Executive Vice President of United Fiber Optic Communication Inc. which is a subsidiary of Lucent Technology in Taiwan.

Dr. Jeng received his Ph.D. and MS degrees from State University of New York in 1985 and 1982, and BS degree from National Cheng Kung University where he majored in Electrical Engineering in 1977.

Mr. Ririek Adriansyah has served as Telkomsel’s President Director since January 2015, based on the Resolutions of Shareholders of PT Telekomunikasi Selular.

He has held various positions in PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and Telkom Group since 1990. Prior to joining Telkomsel, he was appointed as Director of Wholesale & International Service in Telkom in May 2012. Mr. Adriansyah served as President Director in PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), subsidiary of Telkom, from 2011 to 2012 and as Director of Marketing & Sales in Telin from 2010 to 2011. He was the Director of International Carrier Service in Telin from 2008 to 2010 and Deputy Executive General Manager of the Infratel Division in Telkom from 2004 to 2008.

Mr. Adriansyah holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in telecommunications from University of California, Los Angeles.