Speakers

Kuo Pin is the Deputy CEO of NCS. His current priority is to shape a new vision for NCS, and lead the transformation program to realise that vision.

Kuo Pin brings with him 24 years of management and technology consulting experience. Prior to joining NCS, he held various executive leadership positions in Accenture. He started as an analyst in 1994 and made partner in 2006. Between 2006 to 2018, he took on 3 senior leadership roles within the global Communications, Media and Technology (CMT) operating group: Head of CMT Singapore, Head of CMT Greater China, and finally as Head of Consulting for CMT Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

Kuo Pin enjoys solving with clients, building up people and dealing with business and technology challenges (and opportunities) prevalent in today’s increasingly complex enterprise and government environments. He believes that good ideas are best executed with a diverse and empowered team, and calls Asia Pacific home. Currently based in Singapore, he spent 9 years living and working in Beijing and Sydney.

Alan is a senior executive with over 24 years of global experience. He is a returning Singaporean, and was formerly the Global VP & General Manager of RB (Reckitt Benckiser) eCommerce Direct to Consumer, based in New York. He has led teams in China and the US, and has extensive experience in transforming traditional businesses into digital throughout the last 8 years with RB. A frequent speaker on Digital, Big Data & Analytics and E-Commerce, his work focuses on growth hacking through Innovation, Disruption and Scale using a data driven approach and AI/Machine Learning. He now heads the Product and Platforms division in NCS and is working on advanced research & development of machine capabilities in AI for computer vision, embedded systems, robotics and health care solutions.

Justin Hayes is Cloudera’s Director of Data Warehouse Field Engineering. He has worked for Cloudera for six years, and has been involved in the Hadoop community for nine years.

He works with data warehouse customers across verticals, ranging from some of the earliest Hadoop adopters to those that are just getting started. As such he has a broad perspective of how the Big Data movement has evolved, and how it will continue to transform.

Before joining Cloudera Justin was a Principal Architect with Red Hat, focusing on data, cloud, and middleware. He holds a MS in Computer Science from George Mason University, as well as a BS in Computer Science from Wake Forest University.

Dr Ong has distinguished herself as a cybersecurity specialist, with over a decade of experience in malware analysis, artificial intelligence, analytics, risk and vulnerability assessments, security monitoring and incident response. Her research work has been published extensively in leading publications worldwide.

She is currently Director of Operational Technology Security at Trustwave, a Singtel company, providing security services to secure operational technology and Internet-of-Things for business customers.

Dr Ong has earned accreditations as a GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst (GCFA) and GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM) technologist. She holds a PhD in Computer Science under the Singapore-MIT Alliance. She also holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BSc (Honours) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in the United States.

KC Choi is Senior Vice President of Global Enterprise Systems Engineering for Dell EMC. In this role, he leads a global team of over 3,000 world-class technology professionals that provide solutions advisory to help customers transform their digital enterprises.

Previously, KC was Vice President, Global Solutions Architecture and Engineering and Solutions Development at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. KC was with HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for 26 years in a variety of technical and sales leadership roles. He led the Oracle/Compaq business unit for three years and also served on the Global Diversity and Inclusion Board for HP. KC has also served as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for SeniorCo Inc. (now a part of United Healthcare), and held sales and technical positions with NCR Corporation and IBM Corporation. While at NCR, KC developed expertise in engineering and sales disciplines for the retail and financial service sectors.

KC graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Economics. He is a frequent keynote speaker at industry and trade events. KC guest lectures regularly at Loyola Marymount University’s MBA program on various IT topics. He is an alumnus of the Leadership Development Program, a recipient of the David R. Barclay award for diversity leadership and a former board member of LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics), a non-profit organization dedicated to leadership excellence.

Joshua CHAMBERS is the founder and managing director of GovInsider, a journalism website that interviews Ministers, Mayors and senior government officials to showcase public sector innovation to an audience of over 3 million readers.

He is a Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he specialises in the application of technology to public policy challenges; an Expert Advisor on Digital Economy to the League of Arab States; and a weekly politics presenter on Singaporean radio station Money FM. He studied History and Politics at the University of York, and was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York.

He is the Leading contributor for Chapter III of the UNESCAP report on the Evolution of Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development: The Experiences of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore,

Clifton Phua is a Customer-Facing Data Scientist for APAC at DataRobot. His vertical domain expertise is in banking, insurance, government; and his horizontal domain expertise is in cybersecurity, fraud detection, and public safety. Clifton’s PhD and Bachelor’s degrees are from Clayton School of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia. In his free time, Clifton volunteers professional services to events, conferences, and journals. Was also part of teams which won some analytics competitions.

Alex is a trusted advisor across Next Best Conversation, Contextual Marketing, Organisational Customer Decision Management for large enterprises in ANZ. As a Marketing and Decisioning Specialist, he challenges organisations to appreciate and adopt the benefits of Artificial Intelligence, Contextual Customer Engagement, Conversational Marketing and Next Best Action. Alex has worked with brands in a range of verticals, championing customer-centric thinking to drive revenue growth, revenue protection and improved customer satisfaction for the last 20 years, serving in a variety of roles across tier 1 corporates and software vendors, through to start-ups.

Alex Dragoi joined UiPath when it was a small startup and has seen the company grow to more than 2500 employees and 30 over offices around the world.  A veteran in Robotics Process Automation (RPA),  Alex is the Evangelist at UiPath,  passionate about helping customers and partners embrace ‘Automation First’ mindset,  promoting workforce education and readiness for the future of work with RPA and AI.

Soo Kiat leads the Big Data & Advanced Analytics practice at NCS. He has over 15 years of experience in providing business advisory services to clients in the US, Australia and Asia on matters ranging from strategy to execution. He specialises in Data Analytics-focused solutions underpinned by AI and Machine Learning techniques, combined with his deep industry experience to drive measurable business transformation through impactful data insights.

Soo Kiat’s extensive experience span across all functional areas within an organization and have demonstrated the application of Data Analytics in various domains, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, revenue assurance, billing systems integration, as well as operational process improvement.

Soo Kiat frequently conducts workshops on the fundamentals of Data & Analytics to raise awareness among business executives on how Data & Analytics can be used to transform businesses and operations.

With a diverse portfolio from IT roles in multi-national corporations around the world to entrepreneurship in Chinese children books, for our new IT Strategy & Management Chief, Tan Peng Wei, going into teaching was the next logical step.

“In a conversation with my career coach then, she asked me how I intended to move from ‘Success to Significance’, it was then I realised that I could make a bigger impact than continuing what I have been doing,” said Peng Wei.

Peng Wei shares with INNOVATE@ISS his journey from ‘Success to Significance’ and reveals a facet of his private self.

For more information, please click here.

As a serial in/entrepreneur, Leesa Soulodre has worked for 20+ years on the cutting edge of innovation, technology and strategy consulting. She has led companies from seed to $14B USD into new markets and supported in the raising of over USD35M in Seed to Series C investments. She has had one IPO, a number of successful exits, and knows the hard knocks of lessons learned.

She has 15+ years of Digital Director and Board Advisory experience in the not for profit, academic and private sectors. Leesa currently holds Board roles with the Victorian Government backed rural Accelerator, RunwayHQ, R3iventures and is a Board Advisor to Raiven Capital.

As a venture builder, she supports the growth of a portfolio of Seed to Series B tech start-ups internationally and is currently hands-on in-house as Chief Innovation Officer at Inspirit IoT, Inc.

A dynamic corporate speaker, Leesa is known for her ability to inspire audiences with cutting-edge examples from around the world. As a Keynote, Panelist, and Moderator, she has presented to a wide range of audiences and conferences across the public and private sector internationally.

Leesa serves as an Adjunct Faculty Member on the Singapore Management University and IE Business School MBA Programs and lectures on the Singapore Institute of Directors Program, the SMU J&J Hospital Management Program, and the Singapore Civil Service College Innovation Program. As an Expert, she is called upon each year by the European Commission Research Agency to assess projects for the Horizon 2020 SME ICT Disruptive Innovation Fund.

Leesa holds a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM ( NYU, HEC, & LSE) and a Masters in Management (Marketing) from USQ. She has studied Sports Marketing, Sustainability Strategies, Risk Management, and Technology Entrepreneurship at Wharton, Harvard, the Australian Graduate School of Management and Stanford University respectively.

She is a Certified Reputation Manager of the Reputation Institute, a Member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Public Relations Consultants Association.

Frank Kretschmer is head of strategic business and innovation development at DERMALOG Identification Systems. He is specialized in the evaluation of disruptive business concepts and the development of new strategic fields of business, e.g. in the context of authentication methods based on single and multimodal biometrics. As part of his position, he is also responsible for implementing a Biometric Identification and Payment Platform.

He has more than 12 years of experience, including as an IT strategy consultant, where he was responsible for the introduction of interoperable payment systems and the implementation of large bank transformations in the context of regulatory compliance.

Gary Su is Hitachi Vantara’s Asia Pacific CoE Solution Architect for Smart Solution and Video Intelligence. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mr. Su joined Hitachi in 2017, and he have more than 15 years’ experience in development and designing innovative solution / new solution profile for the company. Gary is a multi-skilled solution architect with good all-round ability to juggle multiple projects and at the same time comprehending complex and interdependent business processes.

Sumeet Puri is Solace’s Senior Vice President and Global Head of Field Technology, heading up the whole sales engineering operations and driving innovative uses of Solace technology in different industries. He joined Solace in 2010 and has held a variety of architecture and leadership positions over the years.

Sumeet is responsible for providing strategic direction for the Solace technical field organisation, developing technical relationships with and being the trusted advisor for Solace clients and partners around the world. Sumeet has extensive experience and expertise architecting large-scale enterprise systems in different domains, including trading platforms, core banking systems, machine-to-machine and track and trace systems. He focuses on supporting our clients by developing technology strategies and roadmaps as well as driving the implementation of projects in areas such as cloud, big data, digital transformation and internet of things, and in various sectors like financial services, telecommunications, public sector and transportation and logistics.

Prior to joining Solace, Sumeet held lead architect positions at TIBCO Software, BEA Systems and NIIT Technologies. Sumeet is hands on and codes to prototype applications regularly.

Jiin Joo co-founded Garuda Robotics in 2014, a leading cloud robotics startup aimed at developing end-to-end drone platforms and drone data solutions for businesses in South East Asia.

Jiin Joo comes from a diverse background consisting of 18 years of software engineering, distributed systems design, technology scouting, business development, government service and telecommunications. As CTO, he leads the product management, software engineering, field computing, cloud operations, GIS and data analytics teams.

He is also currently serve as the Project Director for FutureFlight Consortium of companies that includes Singtel, to develop Singapore’s first Connected Urban Airspace Management ecosystem for Unmanned Aircrafts.

Dr. Tan Kar Han joined NCS on 1 December 2017 and currently heads Product R&D at NCS. In his current role, Kar Han is leading a new division whose sole purpose is to create world-changing products. The NCS R&D organization includes the SCALE@NTU joint lab, customer-focused product management, and a full-stack product engineering team.

He has close to 20 years of experience working with various technology companies and research institutions in scientific and engineering roles. Prior to joining NCS, he was Vice President of Engineering at NovuMind, an Artificial Intelligence start-up in Silicon Valley, where he led the development of full-stack AI technologies and solutions including unconstrained face recognition systems and edge intelligence-powered smart city products.

Previously, he was Head of Advanced Development at HP where he oversaw advanced technology development for Sprout, HP’s flagship 3D-scanning personal computer. As Master Technologist with HP Labs, he led a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers working on Immersive Multimedia Communications and depth sensing technologies. Kar Han had also worked at Epson R&D in Palo Alto as Manager of Algorithms Group, where he led the invention of advanced projection and imaging technologies. He was also a Research Scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he did pioneering work on Computational Photography.

Kar-Han graduated from NUS, earned his M.S. from UCLA and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a Beckman Institute Graduate Fellow. Kar Han has won numerous awards including the APSIPA Distinguished Industrial Leader Award. He has 51 granted patents and more than 30 pending patents under his name. His work has been cited in numerous scientific and engineering publications.

Undergraduate of Shenzhen University, an MBA of Hong Kong Baptist University. Determined to use the knowledge, international business operations, and market experience to help more Chinese companies go global. In 2005, he joined Hytera Corporate as the first batch of network communications in the overseas market. The company became the NO.1 global private network company in China by 2017. Now, with the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the future of AI robots is coming soon, especially in the Southeast Asian market, surpassing Japanese and American companies. The idea of transforming the traditional market to revolutionary market defines the new technology era. Joining UBTECH as the deputy general manager of the overseas market. He’s adhering to the idea of helping Chinese companies to go global, with the ability to experience and learn to join the excellent team.

Main contributions:

1, Actively promotes China’s AI education system around the globe. Refines and forms the establishment of AI and robotics education system in line with local education level, especially with the countries signed for ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy with the Chinese Government. Invited by the Thai government, Malay government, Chinese Overseas Innovation Center of the Academy of Sciences for discussing the agreements and business contracts with multinational universities and colleges. In the meantime, he’s achievements has promoted by the local mainstream media and domestic CCTV.

2, Exploring and landing AI service robots overseas in Retail 4.0, business service scenes and other development companies. A large number of AI robots from UBTECH, and also certified by multinational’s Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Science and Technology. For instance, UBTECH’s service robot has met Prime Minister Malay Mahathir, His Royal Highness Princess Spirit of Thailand, and the Minister of Industry.

3, Cooperated with multinational governments and well-known institutions, carry out cross-country and regional innovation competition that are conducive to the common development of AI robots. as well as endorsed by IEEE, national education departments, top local Participation. Brings out AI and new robotics technology to the front of people, to participate, to co-create. It is the display of the new China image with ‘One Belt, One Road’. Eventually, UBTECH will become a business card for Shenzhen and China.

Julian is the Head of Solutions Architect ASEAN for Amazon Web Services. One of his main focus is to lead the regional Solutions Architect team to involve in building and fostering different government agency in ASEAN to accelerate the cloud adoption for improving the government services. He is an expert in infrastructure automation, application deployment, and software development in the cloud. Julian helps customers to understand best practices around advanced cloud-based solutions, and how to migrate existing workloads to the cloud.

With nearly two decades of experience under his belt, he currently  leads a multi-cultural team, using cutting edge technology to help Customers & Partners secure their business and enable growth through the adoption of advanced security solutions.

As Regional Director, Evan is responsible for Check Point’s business in South East Asia as well as developing relationships in key accounts to Identify and solve customer problems. He spends most of his time in the field meeting with customers, prospects and channel partners focused on ensuring customer satisfaction through collaboration.

An advocate of threat prevention as best practice and passionate about understanding the business environment, Evan has contributed to multiple initiatives focused on improving the security of business while maintaining end user experience helping customers and partners use cyber security as an enabler.

Outside of work, Evan enjoys reading and spending time with his wife and three children. He is an avid outdoorsman and a seasoned cyclist.

Richard Koh is the chief technology officer of Microsoft Singapore. In this role, he is responsible for engaging with key executive leaders across government, industry and academia; bringing in the macro technology landscape; and helping customers leverage technology innovations for their digital transformation. His focus areas include guiding technology policies, standards, legal and regulatory matters, as well as security, privacy and compliance decisions.

Always passionate about the promises that the Internet and cloud computing can bring, and with a keen eye on business strategies, product development and marketing, Richard’s professional experience spans the Asia and North America regions, as well as multiple functional areas including research & development, IT, product management, marketing, business development and sales operations.

Prior to joining Microsoft, he was the senior director for Emerging Businesses & Strategy under Group Enterprise at Singtel. There, he led a team of intrapreneurs, products managers, product marketers, architects, and engineers to catalyse new businesses, products and platforms in Cloud services, the Internet of Things, machine to machine, education and healthcare.

Earlier on in his career, Richard spearheaded Emerging Markets strategy for Microsoft Operations as the operations team unit lead based in Singapore. And in Redmond, Washington, he led product teams as director of technical product management in Microsoft’s Office, Servers & Tools, as well as telecommunication solutions businesses, which led him to be part of the founding product team for Microsoft’s flagship productivity suite – Office 365.

Richard also spent close to 12 years at Hewlett-Packard, with stints at the company in Singapore and in Cupertino/Palo Alto, California, where he gained wide experience in R&D, business development and marketing of emerging Internet/web-services and telecommunications technologies, as well as people and organisation management.

Richard graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science & Information Systems. Richard is a proud father of two children. He loves to work with passionate people who wants to change the world for the better, and enjoys running, skiing/snowboarding, reading, indie movies and tinkering with tech gadgets.

Srirengan Kumar is Director Chief Architect Office with focus on project Management for large projects and specialization on Data Management and Governance. He has more than 20 years of managing and delivering various system integration/Infrastructure projects in Singapore, with specific focus on Business-Technology Transformation. He has broad industry experience, good balance of technical, business management skills with key focus on Data architecture, Information Architecture, Data Governance and Data Management, Infrastructure deployment and management, project management. In his current position as Director for Chief Architect Office, he oversees tools and framework development for cloud migration, tools development, Dev Ops and application security focus teams.