Our Hosts
Our hosts comprise leaders across tech/startup/VC industries in Asia. We are grateful for their commitment to nurturing the next generation of leaders and supporting our social cause.
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QING RU LIM
​Ben Cheah
Innoven Capital
Director
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Female Founders in Tech
Friday, Jul 16, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Qing Ru Lim co-founded Zopim, a live chat software, which was acquired by Zendesk (NYSE:ZEN) in 2014 when she was 28 years old. She is an active angel investor, investing in more than 20 companies at seed/series A stage. Qing Ru is also a Partner in True Global Ventures 4+, a 100M blockchain venture capital fund. True Global Ventures 4 Plus invests in Serial Entrepreneurs in over 20 cities. It has an unparalleled network of investors that are Angel Investors, VCs, Professionals and Family Offices that help accelerate the portfolio companies globally.
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Qing Ru is also an advisory board member with NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Science, & a board member at ACE.gov.sg.
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: The Why, When and Which Type of Financing Your Startup Needs
Monday, Jul 19, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Ben Cheah brings more than a decade of experience in finance for corporates and venture-backed companies. He was an early employee in Innoven Capital’s Singapore Office and helped to establish Innoven’s portfolio in S.E.A by leading venture lending transactions regionally, in a diverse range of sectors that include, E-commerce, Fintech, Pharmaceuticals, Logistics, Media & Entertainment and Enterprise Software. He is currently responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing venture debt transactions in the S.E.A region and also assists in Innoven’s efforts to develop relationships with various investors/industry partners in the region.
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Prior to joining Innoven Capital, he began his career at Citibank Singapore, where he managed a portfolio of SME companies focusing on cash management and secured lending. He subsequently went on to join United Overseas Bank Singapore (“UOB”) where he managed a portfolio of middle-market companies helping to originate and execute a variety of commercial lending deals while also taking care of the portfolio’s trade, cash management, and FX needs.
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Ben holds a double degree in Accountancy/Business Management from Singapore Management University. Outside of work, Ben maintains a keen interest in the rock/pop music.
CHRIS SIRISEREEPAPH
Saison Capital
Partner
DAVID Z WANG
Helicap
Co-founder & Group CEO
Emerging Trends: The Evolution of Fintech
Wednesday, Jul 21, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Chris Sirisereepaph is a partner at Saison Capital, a FinTech-focused venture capital fund that focuses on South East Asia and India. The VC firm is bullish on embedded finance, which is the trend for non-fintech companies expanding into fintech products. Their investments include Grab, Southeast Asia's largest startup and super-app, as well as ShopBack, Southeast Asia's largest shopping and cashback rewards platform.
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Chris graduated from National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Engineering. Chris has worked in the tech ecosystem for the last eight years and has been involved in policymaking, venture capital, and operational roles. He first started his job in Enterprise Singapore, before joining SPH ventures and also spent time at Grab launching financial services in Philippines.
Emerging Trends: Untapped Potential of the Unbanked and Underbanked in SEA
Friday, Jul 23, 2021, 12:30 pm
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David Z Wang is Co-founder and Group CEO of Helicap. Helicap is an alternative lending platform and sustainable lender, backed by leading financial institutions and venture capitalists.
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David graduated as a University Scholar, Business from the National University of Singapore, and a semester abroad at the University of Southern California. He also holds a certification in FinTech: Future Commerce form the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his free time, he enjoys sports, wine and travelling. Before Helicap, David founded tech-focused investment firm 33 Capital and worked at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Nomura.
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David has a decade of experience working in investment banks for Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Nomura; a career which fuelled his passion to transform the way corporations and consumers in Asia access credit today. Before Helicap, David founded the tech-focused investment firm 33 Capital; where he gained exposure to innovative FinTech platforms in loans, payment and credit - paving the way for the Helicap mission - to expand fair financing to Asia’s underserved borrowers.
TEIK GUAN TAN
Entrepreneur First
Venture Partner
Emerging Trends: The Next Big Things in Cybersecurity
Friday, Jul 23, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Tan Teik Guan is a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First and a hardcore computer scientist. After earning a degree in computer science at the National University of Singapore, he worked in IT Security at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, before being bitten by the startup bug. He then became the CEO and CTO of the security software startup DS3 for about a decade. Teik Guan led the sale of DS3 to the security multinational Gemalto and continued there for three years in VP roles. But this success came only after two earlier failed startups - a mobile payments company and a B2B fintech startup.
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In recent years, he has been mentoring a number of tech startups while pursuing a PhD in quantum cryptography. Teik Guan may be in academia now but one could never mistake him for an ivory-tower theoretician – he is a "doer" by temperament.
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Teik Guan graduated from National University of Singapore with Masters Degree in Computer Science.
Here's a podcast episode from Tin Men Capital featuring Teik Guan, tune in to learn why everyone can benefit from being an entrepreneur at some point in their lives. -- http://www.tinmen.asia/wdky-1820-all-bull-no-st/
Sam Rhee
Endowus
CIO & Co-Founder
Entrepreneur's Toolkit: How to attract, build, maintain a world class team?
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Samuel Rhee has over 26 years of investment experience, spending the bulk of that time at Morgan Stanley. He is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Asia. Sam managed investment portfolios in excess of US$10 billion dollars while working with the largest financial institutions in the world. He is a widely recognized leading fintech industry expert and investor in Asia.
During his time in Morgan Stanley, financial technology was beginning to disrupt the industry, especially in areas such as asset management, wealth management and investment advisory services. Inspired by the potential that fintech has, he left his role in search of a more fulfilling and exciting challenge that allows him to make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.
As the Chief Investment Officer of Endowus, Sam is responsible for the company’s asset allocation and investment selection. He heads the Investment Committee and ensures holistic portfolios for every investor. He is a firm believer that individuals should have access to the same knowledge and resources that are made available to institutional investors. With this vision, Sam utilises technology to create a digital solution to financial advisory and wealth management.
Sam believes that “the future of financial advice and investments will be greatly shaped by technology, and financial technology companies need to deepen their domain expertise and creatively solve the great problems of our times. This includes allowing each individual to prepare better their financial future and bring value to the greater society.”.
Beyond his passion for finance and technology, Sam has a voracious reading appetite. He enjoys outdoor sports with his wife and three children.
Jason Lee
Algorand
COO
Jason Lee - Emerging trends: Blockchain for Good (Proudly Sponsored by Algorand Foundation)
Thursday, Jul 29, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Jason Lee is the COO for Algorand Foundation. He held various positions in NEM Foundation as Vice President and Executive Committee, Board Secretary, Partnerships & Strategic Alliances and as Expansion Director since 2017. Based in Melbourne, he is also a Board Director for Blockchain Australia and advisory board member to the Blockchain Philanthropy Foundation. Recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list-maker, he was a FinTech startup co-founder, ecosystem builder and Wealth Management executive with Standard Chartered Bank, having worked with partners across 30+ cities throughout his career.
Jason holds a Master of International Business and a Bachelor of Laws and has completed the Cambridge Judge Business School executive programs on strategy, innovation and creating high-performance teams. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
The Algorand Foundation is dedicated to fulfilling the global promise of blockchain technology by leveraging the Algorand protocol and open source software, which was initially designed by Silvio Micali and a team of leading scientists. With core beliefs in the establishment of an open, public and permissionless blockchain, the Algorand Foundation has a vision for an inclusive ecosystem that provides an opportunity for everyone to harness the potential of an equitable and truly borderless economy.
SIU RUI QUEK
Carousell
Co-founder and CEO
ELISE TAN
Asia Startup Network
Founder
Siu Rui​ Quek - The Entrepreneur's Toolkit: Solving Problems with Tech and Growing a Community
Thursday, Jul 29, 2021, 07:00 pm
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Quek Siu Rui is the Co-founder and CEO of Carousell. Carousell is a classifieds marketplace that makes selling as easy as taking a photo, buying as simple as chatting. Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia. Carousell is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplaces in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
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Siu Rui graduated from National University of Singapore, where he was Valedictorian Reserve for Graduating Class of 2012 and was awarded the Chettiars' Temple Medal, Ban Hin Leong Gold Medal and Leslie Wong Prize. Prior to creating Carousell, Siu Rui was a Collaboration Evangelist for VSee.
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Siu Rui is an alumnus of Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Launching A New Startup — What You Need (Networks, Resources and Ecosystem Support)
Friday, Jul 30, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Elise Tan is the founder of Asia Startup Network. Her mission is to bring the global ecosystem closer together and nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs who will change the world for the better.
Over the past 3 years, she has built up an active network of over 2,000 early stage tech investors and 2,000 blockchain focused investors, across Asia Pacific, Europe and USA. She is also the Vice President of Investor Relations and Partnerships at LongHash Ventures, a blockchain-focused fund and accelerator backed by Fenbushi Capital and Hashkey capital and Enterprise Singapore.
Prior to this, she started and led the Asia's investor relations team at Entrepreneur First, a talent investor in the area of deep tech. She helped the portfolio companies across Singapore, Hong Kong and India with their early stage fundraising activities.
KELLY CHOO
True Global Ventures
Partner
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Embracing Failures and Turning Disappointment into Success
Friday, Jul 30, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Kelly Choo is the founding partner of True Global Ventures. True Global Ventures is a global Venture Capital firm built by a group of experienced entrepreneurs. They have a solid track record investing their own money together with investors into early stage ventures run by serial entrepreneurs leveraging Technology, Data, AI and Blockchain – as a competitive advantage to drive change with proven products.
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Kelly Choo graduated from NUS, where he was the Vice President of the 13th Management Committee of the NUS Entrepreneurship Society during his second year as a student. He self-proclaims himself as an Entrepreneur with a passion in Health, Digital Marketing, and Analytics.
OUR PAST SESSIONS
Murli Ravi
Tin Men Capital,
Co-Founder and Partner
Emerging Trends: The Rise, Opportunities, and Challenges of B2B Technology in Asia
Monday, Jun 28, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Murli Ravi is the Founding Partner of Tin Men Capital. Tin Men Capital is a Singapore-based venture capital fund management company which focuses exclusively in B2B tech companies in SE Asia.
Murli studied engineering on a full scholarship at National University of Singapore, before undertaking his Masters at Nanyang Technological University. He was previously with Temasek Holdings, JAFCO and INSEAD. Murli has been a board member of more than 25 venture-backed firms since 2008 across an array of enterprise tech sectors, countries (Singapore, India, Australia, and the US), and stages (from pre-revenue startups to 2000+ employee firms). His first board roles came just as the global financial crisis began, which was a brutal crash course in the vagaries startups must navigate.
JEFF CHI
Emerging Trends: Deep Tech for a Post-COVID World
Thursday, Jun 24, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Dr Jeff Chi is the Vice Chairman and Founding Partner of Vickers Venture Partners. Vickers Venture Partners, founded in 2004, is an international venture capital firm. It is ranked No. 5 most consistently performing fund manager worldwide, No. 6 Fund IV Ranking of its vintage worldwide, and has 3 Top quartile funds and 1 second quartile fund.
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Jeff graduated from the University of Cambridge with a First Class Honors in Engineering and has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a CFA charterholder. Prior to joining Vickers, he was a Corporate Finance Specialist and an Executive Director at Pegasus Capital, where he managed engagements for a wide range of clients in both the public and private sectors.
Vickers Venture Partners
Vice Chairman & Founding Partner
CHRIS YEO
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Knowing the Who, Why and How to Partnerships and M&As to Scale your Startup Quickly
Friday, Jun 25, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Chris Yeo is Head of Grab Ventures (GV), whose mandate is to develop the next generation tech leaders in SEA. Grab Ventures does this through venture building, investments and scale-up programs.
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Chris graduated from University of California. He then did his masters in University of London, where he specialized in Financial Management. Chris is a leader with rich experience in building world-class teams and companies. He is a result-oriented and effective influencer who has mentored quite a few startups. He has diverse experience in technology, eCommerce, payments, travel, and SaaS.
Grab Ventures
Managing Director and Head of Grabpay
KUO-YI LIM
Monk's Hill Ventures
Co-founder & Managing Partner
Blue Skies: How can Singapore be transformed into Asia’s Silicon Valley?
Friday, Jun 25, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Kuo-Yi is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies, primarily Series A, in Southeast Asia. He is also a board member of Ninja Van, Padlet, KKday, Jio Health, Horangi, Saleswhale and GoGet. Kuo-Yi serves as a board member on several Singapore government statutory boards, including the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Health Promotion Board (HPB), and the Intellectual Property Office (IPOS). He is also a member of the Future Economy Council in Singapore.
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Kuo-Yi graduated from MIT with the bachelor, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. Prior to Monk’s Hill Ventures, Kuo-Yi was CEO of Infocomm Investments, a $200M venture fund based in Singapore investing in technology startups globally. At Infocomm Investments, Kuo-Yi led investments in Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), Dataxu, Quid, Gengo and other leading startups.
Steve Melhuish
PropertyGuru
Co-founder and Impact Investor
Blue Skies: Will Climate Action, Sustainability and ESG Focus Open Up a Trillion Dollar Greentech Opportunity?
Thursday, Jun 24, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Steve Melhuish is a Co-founder of PropertyGuru and an impact investor. PropertyGuru Group is Asia’s leading online property company and the preferred destination for over 24.5 million property seekers to find their dream home, every month. The Group empowers property seekers with the widest options of more than 2.7 million homes, in-depth insights and solutions that enable them to make confident property decision across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
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Steve graduated from University of Plymouth where he majored in Electronics and Communications Engineering. Prior to PropertyGuru, Steve was CEO of an Asian social network firm; an advisor to digital media and venture capital firms and start-ups in Asia and Europe including Skype, AOL, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Extreme Media, iPass and Ariadne Capital. Steve has led global teams and managed a US$500 million turnover business unit for Cable & Wireless.
CARMEN YUEN
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Why do Some Startups in Asia Succeed while Others Fail?
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Carmen Yuen is a Partner of Vertex Ventures. Vertex Ventures is a global network of operator-investors who manage portfolios in China, Israel, Southeast Asia & India and the US. Vertex teams combine firsthand experience in transformational technologies, on-the-ground knowledge in the world’s major innovation centers, as well as global context, connections and customers.
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Carmen graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree Business Administration and Economics. Prior to joining Vertex Ventures, Carmen worked at SPRING Singapore as a General Manager, where she provided matching seed capital to innovative start-ups based in Singapore.
Vertex Ventures
Partner
SHIYAN KOH
Hustle Fund
Managing Partner
SHANE CHESSON
Blue Skies: How can We Encourage and Empower More People to Start Up?
Wednesday, Jun 30, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Shiyan Koh is the Managing Partner of Hustle Fund. Hustle Fund, founded in 2017, is a venture capital fund that invests in teams at the pre-seed and seed stages, exclusively in companies based in the United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. It has invested in 212 companies across North America and Southeast AsiaThe vast majority of Hustle Fund's portfolio companies are in B2B, fintech, and consumer digital health.
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Shiyan graduated from Stanford University with a BA and possesses an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to Hustle Fund, she joined investment teams at JP Morgan, Institutional Venture Partners and Bridgewater Associates, as well as holding the role of a VP of Business Operations & Corp Dev at NerdWallet, helping the company grow from US$1M to US$150M in revenue.
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Lessons learnt from investing into Successful Ventures such as Gojek and Biofourmis
Wednesday, Jun 30, 2021, 07:00 pm
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Shane Chesson is the co-founder and partner of Openspace Ventures. Openspace Ventures (formerly NSI Ventures) focuses on Series A and B investments in technology companies based in Southeast Asia. Key areas of investment for Openspace Ventures include fintech, healthtech, edutech, consumer applications and cloud-based solutions.
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Shane graduated from the University of Western Australia before studying at INSEAD in Singapore. Prior to working at Openspace Ventures, Shane was previously Managing Director and Co-Head of Technology Group for Citigroup Investment Banking Asia-Pacific.
Openspace Ventures
Co-founder & Partner
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Expansion across Asia-Pacific: Learnings & Mistakes
Thursday, Jul 1, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Henry Chan is the Co-founder of Shopback. ShopBack is the largest rewards and discovery platform in Asia-Pacific. First launched in Singapore in 2014, ShopBack has since expanded its reach to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, Vietnam, and South Korea.
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Henry Chan graduated from the National University of Singapore, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, Product Design and Technopreneurship. Henry Chan is a people person. In fact, he credits ShopBack’s achievements, which include helping consumers save more than $15m in cashback, to “killer team execution”. Henry, who looks up to tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, says his definition of success is tied to eventually becoming a “problem-solver, entrepreneur, husband and father, with a self-driving Tesla car”.
HENRY CHAN
Shopback
Co-founder
The Entrepreneur's Toolkit: From Startup Operator to Venture Investor - Learnings from Both Sides of the Table
Friday, Jul 2, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Tiang Lim Foo is the Partner and Co-founder of Forge Ventures, an institutional seed VC looking to partner founders in Southeast Asia at seed or earlier. He currently serves as a Venture Partner at Next Billion Ventures. He was also a partner at SeedPlus, a leading seed fund in Southeast Asia backed by SGInnovate, Jungle Ventures, Cisco, and IFC. Previously, he launched and managed Evernote's operations in Asia. Tiang has invested in category-leading startups in the region and currently serves as a board member of Qoala, a Sequoia-backed insurtech company in Indonesia.
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Tiang holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with Honors from NUS and is an alumni of the NUS Overseas College (NOC) programme in Silicon Valley.
Tiang Lim Foo
Forge Ventures
Co-founder & Partner
Manpreet Ratia
Jungle Ventures
Partner
The Entrepreneur's Toolkit: The Rise, Challenges and Opportunities of Borderless Businesses
Tuesday, Jul 6, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Manpreet Ratia a senior business leader with over 25 years in leadership postions with world class financial services (Citibank, GE Capital) and e-commerce businesses (Amazon, Flipkart). He is a Partner focussed on Portfolio Development with Jungle, SE Asia largest Independent Venture Capital firm. He helps invest in; and then sits on the board of companies, helping them build to last and continue to win on the marketplace.
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Before Jungle, Manpreet was COO with the Flipkart Group where he drove strategies and built and scaled processes, systems and talent to enable the Flipkart’s fashion vertical to grow 5X in 4 years. He was a key member of the leadership team which enabled Walmart’s $16Bn investment into Flipkart.
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As Senior Director with Amazon in India he helped power Amazon India’s exponential growth, by building world’s first e-commerce in house fulfilment operations at scale; which now delivers, direct to customers, 85% of all orders inhouse, giving significant cost and customer experience advantage. He was the COO for Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions for Asia he innovated and then implemented across 96 countries a new network and client management model, allowing Citibank’s Global Treasury and Trade Business to be the largest EBIDTA contributor for the Citibank franchise. He also played a key role in restructuring Citibank India’s consumer portfolio in helping execute on divesture of Citi’s captive BPO to TCS and optimization of the NBFC portfolio.
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Prior to Citi he was a member of GE Capital Asia Leadership team that drove strategic investments in the area of consumer lending, card and SME finance into Hyundai Capital, Bank of Ayudhya, and Keppel Bank (Philippines), Cosmos Bank (Taiwan) and Shenzen Development Bank (China), SBI Cards in India, Walmart co branded card in China.
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Manpreet graduated from St Xavier’s College Kolkata and subsequently did his managemen education from XLRI, Jamshedpur and Columbia Business School in New York. He is based in Singapore and has lived and worked in United States, Hong Kong, Bangkok and India. He loves cooking, real-time gaming, loves his family holidays and has a strong interest in middle eastern and European history.
Andrew Vranjes
The Entrepreneur's Toolkit: Making Great Hiring Decisions
Tuesday, Jul 6, 2021, 07:00 pm
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Andrew Vranjes is the Head of Startup Ecosystem, ASEAN at Amazon Web Services. Based in Singapore, Andrew leads a team who support startups, venture capital and accelerators across Southeast Asia. Andrew helps startups grow, scale and acquire customers. Prior to AWS, Andrew held multiple leadership roles with Cisco and SingTel/Optus in Australia.
Amazon Web Services
Head of Startup Ecosystem, ASEAN
DAVID Z WANG
Helicap
Co-founder & Group CEO
Career Transitions: Pivoting from Investment Banking into Fintech
Wednesday, Jul 7, 2021, 07:00 pm
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David Z Wang is Co-founder and Group CEO of Helicap. Helicap is an alternative lending platform and sustainable lender, backed by leading financial institutions and venture capitalists.
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David graduated as a University Scholar, Business from the National University of Singapore, and a semester abroad at the University of Southern California. He also holds a certification in FinTech: Future Commerce form the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his free time, he enjoys sports, wine and travelling. Before Helicap, David founded tech-focused investment firm 33 Capital and worked at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Nomura.
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David has a decade of experience working in investment banks for Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Nomura; a career which fuelled his passion to transform the way corporations and consumers in Asia access credit today. Before Helicap, David founded the tech-focused investment firm 33 Capital; where he gained exposure to innovative FinTech platforms in loans, payment and credit - paving the way for the Helicap mission - to expand fair financing to Asia’s underserved borrowers.
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Purpose-driven Leadership in Startups
Thursday, Jul 8, 2021, 12:30 pm
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John Kim is the co-founder of Amasia, a thesis-driven venture capital firm with offices in the Bay Area and Singapore. Amasia works with founders building companies in the thesis of fighting the climate crisis and enhancing sustainability, through behaviour change.
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John graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He started his career as an entrepreneur, founding music internet and e-consulting businesses. He has also started a third company, a Delaware incorporated rock band called The Ally. John then spent the next 10 years managing trading and investment strategies across multiple asset classes.
JOHN KIM
Amasia
Managing Partner
ZANN KWAN
Bitcoin Exchange
Co-founder & CEO
Blue Skies: #FOMO & #YOLO in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: Why does it matter?
Thursday, Jul 8, 2021, 07:00 pm
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Zann Kwan brings with her over twenty years of professional experience in finance and investments, of which the last eight years were spent in cryptocurrency.
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Zann is the co-founder of Bitcoin Exchange Pte Ltd, a cryptocurrency pioneer that launched the first public bitcoin machine in Asia in early 2014. She is the CEO of Deodi, providing digital token services via cryptocurrency machines and bots. She has been called the "Crypto Queen" by the Accounting and Business Magazine in 2019 for her contribution in the space.
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Ms Kwan was previously with GIC Real Estate and Arthur Andersen in Singapore and New York. Ms Kwan is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder, Chartered Accountant (CA, Singapore) and a Fellow of Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA).
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Zann graduated with a Bachelor degree in Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and is an alumnus of Hwa Chong College.
JEFFREY PAINE
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Is your Startup Idea Fundable by Venture Capitalists?
Friday, Jul 9, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Jeffrey Paine is the Managing Partner at Golden Gate Ventures. He actively invests in early stage technology companies in Southeast Asia. Jeffrey is particularly interested in companies in financial services/fintech, consumer internet/mobile/consumption upgrade, commerce/marketplace and infrastructure surrounding them, transport/mobility, education, healthcare, adaptation to climate change, B2B SaaS and media/content distribution platforms.
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He graduated from University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management. Jeffrey also started and manages the Founder Institute in Singapore where he is currently overseeing its expansion in Southeast Asia, and Japan. He is a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur himself.
Golden Gate Ventures
Managing Partner
SHao Ning Huang
& Der Shing Lim
AngelCentral
Founder/Chief Angel
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: The Right Mindset for a Successful Early Stage Founder & Understanding How Angel Investing Works
Monday, Jul 12, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Shao-Ning Huang and Der Shing Lim have been active angel investors in the Southeast Asian ecosystem since 2012. They started their first business, JobsCentral, together as two fresh grads in 2000, ran the business for 11 years, was acquired and fully exited in 2014. After their exit, they spent a lot of time supporting early founders and figuring out their next steps. In 2018, Shao-Ning decided to "professionalise" their community project AngelCentral, to better support early stage investors. AngelCentral is now one of the fastest-growing angel investment networks in Singapore & Southeast Asia, consisting of over 140 active member-investors. It organises regular angel investment workshops, curated startup pitch sessions, and provides syndication services. The network has supported >16M in investments over the past three years, and completed >20 syndicates.
They are life partners; they met as undergrads studying in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Der Shing graduated with BSc of Engineering, while Shao-Ning BBA. After their exit from JobsCentral/CareerBuilder, they became full time investors. In the family angel/PE portfolio, they have investments in >35 startups (of which, 6 are led by women CEOs) and 7 VC investments. On non-investment fronts, they spent time volunteering and supporting social enterprises, with heavy preferences towards education centric work. On the "children portfolio", they have four sons, between ages of 7 and 19.
Daphne Ng
Dedoco
Co-Founder and CEO
The Entrepreneurial Toolkit: My Journey From Bootstrapping to Funding -- The Importance of Vision and Execution
Tuesday, Jul 13, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Daphne is the co-founder and CEO of Dedoco. Dedoco's API-first document infrastructure makes it simple and easy for companies to digitally transform their document workflow without compromising their document security and data privacy. Her first job out of university was working at her family's business in travel and hospitality. Thereafter her she started her own entrepreneurial venture in retail services, which was sold to a lifestyle group.
Daphne has also spent 9 years in corporate banking, starting from SME lending and then later specializing in structured trade and commodities across international banks. Her technopreneurial journey started 3 years ago, after leaving her banking career to found her first blockchain start-up. Daphne is also a guest lecturer at International Trading Institute @ Singapore Management University. Regular speaker and advisor on supply chain finance, and related fintech and blockchain topics.
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Daphne is an alumna of NUS where she studied Business Administration.
KHENG LIAN HO
Kollective Ventures
Open Circles
Founder
The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: How to Build Global Communities, Network and Fundraise for Your Startup
Wednesday, Jul 14, 2021, 12:30 pm
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Kheng Lian Ho is the founder of Kollective Ventures and Open Circles. Kollective Ventures is an investment and acquisition firm that has invested in top technology companies, including Wish, Coffee Meets Bagel. She invests in early, growth and late-stage technology deals. Open Circles is a global community that converges the most accomplished individuals in the East and West. It creates engaging experiences for meaningful conversations with a curated crowd of thought leaders, change-makers, investors, entrepreneurs, and industry experts that catalyzes economic growth and social impact.
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Kheng Lian graduated from National University of Singapore with a Bachelor's Degree (LLB) and transitioned from being a litigation lawyer to venture capital as she joined Vectr Ventures, a Hong Kong-based early stage venture capital firm that invests in startups globally.
Sudhir Agarwal
Everise
Founder and CEO
From Idea to Global Digital Platform - How to Accelerate Growth through Purpose, People, and Partnerships
Wednesday, Jul 14, 2021, 07:00 pm
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Sudhir Agarwal brings more than two decades of corporate leadership and management experience to his role as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Everise. With a proven record of helping enterprises achieve long-term growth and years of overseeing corporate mergers and acquisitions, migrations, business development, outsourcing, and vendor and client management, he has spearheaded multiple expansions for multiple companies in the customer experience (CX) industry.
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Today, Sudhir is at the helm of Everise leading and expanding the business operations, with a vision to become the world’s leading customer experience solutions and technology business. To realize his vision, Sudhir first partnered with Everstone Group to build Everise into a next-generation industry leader, then was instrumental in the acquisition of Everise by its latest partner, Brookfield Asset Management.
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Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Sudhir earned his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Delhi University and his Master of Business Administration in Strategy and International Business from Manchester Business School, UK.
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Regardless what stage of growth you’re in, hypergrowth occurs when a leader is able to optimize 3 critical things: Purpose, People, and Partnerships. Everise Founder and CEO, Sudhir Agarwal, shares his insights from over 20 M&A transactions during his career, and in particular the lessons he has learned at Everise, growing it from an idea to a global digital platform in only 4 years. In this MakanforHope session he will discuss:
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Why purpose and people are important to creating value
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Why finding the right investment partner matters
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What you should be looking for in an investment partner
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The critical elements to scale once the right partner is found
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How to effectively manage changing from one partner to another