Webinar 10 – Handling Obligations Under Commercial Contracts Through The MCO

Partner

Is There Any Escape Clause or Way Out?

Will your air tight contracts hold water in a pandemic situation like this? Ways to manage contracts that was signed before this pandemic and how to renegotiate it.

1. What businesses can do in relation to their commercial contractual obligations viz their customers, suppliers, landlords, service providers.
2. What to look out for in such commercial contracts.
3. Discussion on “force majeure” clause and frustration of contracts.
4. Can commercial contractual obligations be suspended or terminated?
5. Re-negotiating terms under a commercial contract.
6. Practical steps to take to mitigate potential breaches of contract.

Moderator & Panellists

Back

Rafidz Rasiddi

Chief Strategy Officer, Merchantrade Asia, Malaysia

Rafidz is the Chief Strategy Officer of Merchantrade Asia. He has close to 30 years working experience in financial services, mostly in Investment Banking.

Stephanie Ping

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, WORQ Coworking Space, Malaysia

Stephanie Ping is the Co-founder & CEO of WORQ, a hyper-localized community workspace founded in March 2017 with a vision of helping businesses and entrepreneurs by fostering meaningful connections for its members and the surrounding community. Stephanie is an award recipient of the Malaysian Venture Capital Association’s Outstanding Female Entrepreneur of 2019.Till date, WORQ has bagged 5 prestigious awards, including the coworker member’s choice awards for two consecutive years. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Economics and M.S. in Management Science & Engineering, where her experience with Stanford’s entrepreneurship community played a significant role in shaping her vision for WORQ’s entrepreneurial community.

Lim Chee Siong

Vice President – Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group, Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia

Lim Chee Siong is the Vice President – Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group of Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. With more than 20 years’ experience in the ICT industry, he possesses broad experience in the Digital and ICT industry development strategy and technology, business solutions, Sales and Marketing; He is currently responsible for Huawei Malaysia Cloud & AI Business Group, covering Huawei Cloud, Intelligent Computing, A.I. portfolio, Data Storage & Intelligent Vision solution. His mission is to support customers and partners to identify and develop the right Cloud & A.I. transformation solutions and ecosystem, to build a Fully-Connected Intelligent World. He previously held the position of Chief Strategy Marketing Officer for the Southern Pacific Region.

Sudev Bangah

Managing Director, International Data Corporation (IDC) ASEAN, Indonesia

As the Managing Director for IDC ASEAN, Sudev directs the overall operations of the ASEAN country offices’ development, sales, consulting, as well as marketing, and works alongside local and global organizations’ C-level executives in their aspirations in developing robust plans and strategies for both emerging countries. Sudev is also a frequent speaker at industry events across Southeast Asia on a wide range of topics, and is regularly quoted in both local and international media such as Bloomberg, Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and BBC.

Sophie Kamaruddin

Reporter, Bloomberg Television, Hong Kong

Sophie Kamaruddin is a reporter for Bloomberg Television. Based in Hong Kong, she tracks financial market developments and covers stories in the field. She has interviewed prominent newsmakers from across Asia. Previously, Sophie was anchor and editor for Bloomberg TV Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to starting her journalism career with CNBC in Singapore, she was with the CIMB Asean Research Institute, a think tank dedicated to the regional capital market and economic integration.

Aiza Azreen

Former Director, Strategic Development of Boost, Axiata, Malaysia

In the twenty years of her professional journey, Aiza Azreen has held various leadership positions in international and regional companies in two countries, Australia and Malaysia; working in industries of digital services, telecommunication, finance and banking, large conglomerate (plantation, motor, industrial and property businesses), media and communications, global management consulting, software development and investment management. She led large scale transformation programs and provided advisory on mergers and acquisition and corporate development. As a passionate technology evangelist, Aiza provided advice, at times pro bono, to ministries, government agencies, GLCs, SMEs and startups on “go to market” strategy, frontier technologies, digital transformation and operational improvements.

Low Huoi Seong

Chief Executive Officer, Vision Animation, Malaysia

Low Huoi Seong has over 35 years of experience in the content industry, from content development to production and distribution as well as licensing and merchandising. Today, Seong is focused primarily on taking Vision Animation forward as a producer of valuable global IP and the creation of value in that space. He is passionate about doing things right and is always striving to build world-class capabilities in all aspects of his life. Apart from managing Vision, he is often consulted about the Malaysian content industry. He also coaches budding entrepreneurs and writes an occasional piece about the industry.

Khoo Hsu Chuang

Managing Director, KHC Ventures Sdn Bhd/Do More, Malaysia

Khoo Hsu Chuang owns and manages KHC Ventures Sdn Bhd / Do More, which offers content creation, podcasting and executive training services. His background is in financial journalism, with twenty three years’ experience covering financial and capital markets in Asia, the UK as well as Europe, writing for The Edge Communications, Bloomberg LP, Thomson-Reuters Plc and BFM Radio, covering tech, equity capital markets, banking, mergers/acquisitions, renewables, small-caps, current and political affairs in various media formats. He is a co-host of The Morning Run on BFM, a business and finance-oriented radio station and a former Contributing Editor with The Edge Media Group in KL, Malaysia. Chuang also spent nine years in corporate governance advocacy as an associate analyst at the activist firm, the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group.

Low Ngai Yuen

Chief Executive Officer, WCIT Malaysia

Low Ngai Yuen, a multiple award-winning workaholic sits as an Independent Non-Executive Director of GD Express Carrier Berhad and is on its Audit & Risk Management Committee as well as the Combined Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Also named Most Successful Woman of 2014 by Jessica Magazine, Bella Creative Award 2013 by ntv7, Women Weekly’s Great Women Of Our Time 2012 award for the category of Media and Arts as well as Her World’s Young Achiever of the year 2008. An Elevate Fellow as well as the US Department of State’s IVLP’s alumni, over the past 20 years, Yuen has held various roles in the corporate world – as the Director of Marketing and Communications of Carrefour Malaysia and Singapore, sitting on its management and executive committee; to being appointed the Executive Director/CEO of Global Entrepreneurship Movement Assoc that bridge technology to the underserved entrepreneurs.

Freda Liu

Broadcast Journalist & Moderator

Freda Liu is a vivacious person who has lived and breathed business in the past decade with Malaysia’s only business radio station and has conducted over 5000 interviews and some prominent names include Martin Cooper, author Stephen Covey, motivational speaker Nick Vijucic, former GE CEO Jack Welch, the Duke of York HRH Prince Andrew to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. At BFM, her show Enterprise provides the tools to help businesses succeed covering topics with the startup scene, personal development, technology to organizational development. While HerVantage talks about women of leadership and influence to showcase women representation in all strata of society from sports, the arts & sciences to entrepreneurship. Freda has authored five books called “PR Yourself” and “Shake & Spear Your Business: The Romeo & Juliet Way, ” and “Everybody Loves Ray” (biography) “Bursting Fixed Mindsets” and her latest “In Your Skin”.

Anwar Jumabhoy

Speaker & Coach, Profitability (SEA) Sdn Bhd, Malaysia

Anwar has over 40 years of business and management experience covering several different industries. His entrepreneurial spirit and interest in management sciences started with his job at FELS-Singapore. He was first employed at a shipyard in Newcastle, England, which closed just 8 years after he left. FELS on the other hand, continues to operate. These and other experiences made him realize that to survive companies need to adopt entrepreneurial practices. He works closely with Entrepreneurs and CEO’s as a Mentor and Business Coach. Anwar serves on the Advisory Panel of the Taylor’s University School of Hospitality and School of Business. He has been a Mentor at the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) for the SE Accelerator Program – Malaysia’s first social enterprise accelerator designed to improve lives and build a sustainable world.

Chan Kok Long

Co-Founder & Executive Director, iPay88, Malaysia

Chan Kok Long, is one of the 3 key founders of iPay88 and he is currently the Executive Director of both iPay88 Holdings Sdn Bhd (formerly known as iPay88 Sdn Bhd) and iPay88 (M) Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Mobile88.com Sdn Bhd). With over 25 years of experience in online businesses, he is also actively engaged as both speaker and mentor for most major ecommerce conferences and seminars within ASEAN. Mr Chan has also been featured on various media channels, such as BFM and Bloomberg as a guest expert within the field. In recognition of his contributions, Mr. Chan has been awarded with Technopreneur Excellence Award presented by PIKOM ICT Leadership Award (PILA) 2016. Mr Chan is currently Advisor and E-Commerce Malaysia Deputy Chair for PIKOM. He is also a council member of PayNet Advisory Forum.

Tan Eng Tong

Vice President – Strategic Management, Silterra, Malaysia

As VP of Strategic Management, Tan Eng Tong provides strategic direction to SilTerra Malaysia to enter into emerging markets such as IOT, silicon photonics and life-sciences. A veteran with over 30 years’ international experience, he previously held senior executive positions in blue chip tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard UK, HP Laboratories in Palo Alto and Seagate Technology in Scotts Valley California. He has led multi-disciplinary teams across the globe to pioneer numerous technologies, most notable are HP’s DDS Backup solution, Seagate’s DriveTrust encrypted HDD technology, and the IrDA industry standard for wireless connectivity, which gave rise to Bluetooth.

Mahama Samir Bandaogo

Economist, World Bank, Malaysia

Mahama Samir Bandaogo is currently an Economist at the World Bank in the Macro, Trade and Investment Global Practice, based in Kuala Lumpur. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Washington in Seattle and prior to joining the World Bank, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA.

Sabran Samsuri

Chief Operating Officer, Inari Technology Sdn Bhd, Malaysia

Sabran Samsuri is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Inari Technology Sdn Bhd. He has more than thirty-two (32) years of experience in the semiconductor industry, twenty-four years of which were at managerial level (20 years in ASE Malaysia, Penang. Within Inari, he has held several positions such as Vice President of Planning, Assembly & Test Operations, Semiconductor Design/Packaging Engineering and Processes/Products Development, New-Product-Introduction (NPI), Technical Business Development and Engineering.

Chris Leong

Chief Strategy Officer, Soft Space, Malaysia

Chris Leong is the Chief Strategy Officer at Soft Space, one of Asia’s award-winning Fintech companies that develops mobile-based financial products aimed at simplifying digital payments and value-added services for business growth. Throughout his leadership in Soft Space, Chris provides strategic oversight to ensure Soft Space’s growth targets align with the mobile payments market. Chris also manages stakeholders and partner relations, which enabled Soft Space to complete its first funding round with transcosmos inc in 2017, one of Japan’s largest e-commerce companies.

Rafidz Rasiddi

Chief Strategy Officer, Merchantrade Asia, Malaysia

Rafidz is the Chief Strategy Officer of Merchantrade Asia. He has close to 30 years of working experience in financial services, mostly in Investment Banking.

Maran Virumandi

Managing Director & Founder, DoctorOnCall, Malaysia

Maran Virumandi has more than 20 years of professional experience with a clear passion for Digital Health and accessible healthcare for all. After a stint in managing medical clinics, he saw fundamental challenges in the Malaysian healthcare that could be resolved through new business innovations and technologies. Hence, the birth of DoctorOnCall, Malaysia’s leading Digital Health platform that offers affordable, accessible telehealth consultation and online pharmacy. Recently, the Ministry of Health established a partnership with DoctorOnCall to develop digital health solutions in the battle against Covid-19.

Rene Bernard

Managing Director & Co-Founder, LuxTag.io, Malaysia

Rene is Managing Director & Co-Founder of LuxTag.io and the Founding President of the Malaysian Non-Profit ACCESS Blockchain Association. His daily focus is on Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Technology and their adoption and integration into existing economies and businesses. Rene regularly shares his insight at national and global events. He educates professionals and academia in Malaysia as part of the Blockchain Association’s agenda. His for-profit project is the tech startup “LuxTag.” Started with two fellow co-founders in 2017, it is now a highly valued startup business in Southeast Asia, leveraging its core on NEM & SYMBOL Blockchain technology.

Erman Akinci

Co-Founder, Common Ground Works , Malaysia

Erman Akinci is the Co-Founder of Common Ground Works. Previously, Erman was the Director of Business Development at Catcha Group, where he was responsible for the growth in Catcha’s businesses including iFlix, iProperty, REV Asia and iCarAsia. He was also involved in Ensogo, the social e-commerce site and was the Founder & CEO of Dealmates.com, an online flash sales website. During his time at Catcha, Erman was often exposed to businesses that chose to mitigate ‘innovation risk’ and focus on operational and executional excellence. Common Ground was born out of this pillar – having learned about how the co-working model was doing in other markets, he decided to partner with Common Ground co-founder Juhn Teo to launch what is Southeast Asia’s fastest growing co-working group today.

Sunil Coushik

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Boole Technologies, Malaysia

Sunil has built and run multiple high-tech companies. Sunil’s companies has raised venture capital of more than $260 Million Ringgit from VCs like Sequoia Capital, ComCast Ventures, Singtel Innov8, JAFCO and more.

Saemin Ahn

Managing Partner, Rakuten Ventures, Singapore

Saemin is Managing Partner at Rakuten Ventures. He has held this position since the fund’s inception in 2013. Based in Singapore, Saemin invests in diverse verticals such as advertising technology, artificial intelligence and on-demand business around the world. Some of the portfolio investments he manages include Carousell, ViSenze, Epic!, and Algorithmia.

Lennise Ng

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Dropee, Malaysia

Lennise Ng is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dropee – a B2B eCommerce platform that enables brands and wholesalers to be closer to their customers – both online and offline. Being very passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, Lennise has worked with venture-building accelerators, venture capital companies, and multinational tech companies before starting Dropee. Lennise is also the 3rd-generation of a family business that manufactures and distributes rubber products. Combining the two worlds, Lennise started Dropee to address the issues of a growing brand and wholesale businesses.

Wai Hong Fong

Chieftain & Co-Founder, StoreHub, Malaysia

Wai Hong Fong is Chieftain and Co-Founder at StoreHub, an omnichannel operating system for over 15,000 retail and restaurant businesses across Southeast Asia. Raised in Malaysia, Fong spent four years in Singapore as an ASEAN Scholar and lived in Melbourne for a decade. Soon after completing his BA at the University of Melbourne, Fong co-founded OZHut – a multi-niche online retailer – and served as managing director for five years. Fong was also named Australia’s Best Young Entrepreneur in 2011 by StartupSmart and amongst Melbourne’s top 100 most influential people by Australian daily The Age, that same year. Fong spent a year and a half studying Mandarin in Shanghai and eventually returned to Malaysia in 2013, and founded StoreHub.

Yong Kai Ping

Chief Executive, SITEC (Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council), Malaysia

Yong Kai Ping is the Chief Executive of Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC), established by the Selangor government in 2015. SITEC is spearheading the digitalisation in Selangor by promoting digital entrepreneurship and innovation, nurturing local tech champions, driving tech investment and creating high-income jobs. SITEC has been a result-orientated and impact-driven digital agency by successfully nurturing about 600 Online Entrepreneurs and 90 Startups, creating 6000 jobs and contributed more than RM 200 Million of GMV (Gross Merchants Value) towards the Selangor State economy for the last 5 years.

Glenn Tasky

Director, Financial Stability, Supervision, and Payments, The SEACEN Centre, Malaysia

Glenn Tasky is the Director of Financial Stability, Supervision and Payments at The SEACEN Centre. He holds years of acquaintances being in the financial sector regulatory and a supervisory expert. He comes with 22 years of experience as an advisor to central banks in 6 countries and 3 years in Malaysia as the Director in a Research and Training Centre serving 19 member central banks and monetary authorities in the Asia-Pacific.

Vikram Bharati

Founder, Draper Startup House, Singapore

Vikram founded Tribe Theory in Singapore in 2018 which was later rebranded to Draper Startup House in early 2020 after an investment from legendary Silicon Valley Investor, Tim Draper. The inspiration for Tribe Theory was born when Vikram spent two years backpacking around the world, where he traveled to over 50 countries in six continents and stayed in amazing hostels around the world. Vikram’s vision is to build a global hospitality brand which provides affordable yet soulful accommodation for young startups and entrepreneurs. It currently has locations in 8 countries with plans for expansion to every major country of the world by 2030. Prior to building Tribe Theory, Vikram was the head of venture capital investments at REAPRA where he made investments in early stage ventures across Asia.

Joel Neoh

Founder, Fave, Malaysia

Joel Neoh is one of Southeast Asia’s most recognized young entrepreneurs. Joel is currently the Founder of Fave, a leading mobile payments & loyalty platform with a strong presence in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Joel has received the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Malaysian Tatler also awarded Joel Entrepreneur Par Excellence in 2018. As a Kuala Lumpur native, Joel was one of the initial founders of the Groupon businesses in Asia Pacific, and headed up the region for 4 years. He played an instrumental role in establishing the high-growth business model that propelled Groupon into a multi billion dollar business, with thousands of employees spanning across 12 countries. Joel has also co-founded several successful companies including social news platform Says.com, and invested in over 20 technology startups across Asia.

Thomas G. Tsao

Co-Founder, Gobi Partners, Malaysia

Thomas Tsao co-founded Gobi Partners in 2002. Gobi’s regional platform supports entrepreneurs from the early to growth stage, and has expanded to 11 offices across Asia. In China, Tom and his partners were first-round investors into Airwallex, Dianwoda, Teambition, Tuniu and UR. He was named on the Forbes List of China’s Top VCs from 2013 – 2017. For two years, he served as CEO for DMG and created the world’s first subway soap opera starring Huang Xiaoming. Tom also leads the team that manages the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, which has invested in companies like AutoX, DayDayCook, GoGoX, Prenetics and WeLab. In 2015, Tom relocated to Kuala Lumpur where he set up several funds with MAVCAP, Malaysia’s largest VC firm. Gobi has invested in over 60 companies in Southeast Asia, including Aerodyne, Carsome, EasyParcel, iStoreiSend and Kumu. Tom is now building Gobi’s TaqwaTech investment practice focused on innovative startups serving Muslim communities such as UmrahMe. In 2006, he founded SEO China, a non-profit organization, which has provided more than 200 internships for underserved college students. He also serves as Chair of the Presidential Scholars Foundation, which cultivates, connects, and celebrates U.S. Presidential Scholars (161 of the nation’s top high school seniors who are selected annually and honored by the White House).

Francesco Argento

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Ezyspark, Malaysia

Francesco Argento is the Founder and CEO of Ezyspark, South East Asia’s first online marketplace for corporate training. An enthusiastic, forward-looking technopreneur, Francesco is passionate about learning and technology, thrives on challenges, and has been highly involved in the industry since his arrival in Malaysia 10 years ago. He was also responsible for the setting up of the pioneer team for Blue Ocean Leadership for UCSI, and has offered his consultancy expertise to various local corporations during this time. Backed by Sunway Group and Nexea Angels, Ezyspark has over 2,000 training programmes and a growing pool of independent trainers across the region.

Johary Mustapha

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Forest Interactive, Malaysia

Johary Mustapha is an entrepreneur involved in the mobile and tech industry.A hands-on technical person, he founded Forest Interactive in 2006 from his earlier background of working with Broadcasting and ICT companies. Johary has a long historical understanding of the mobile industry and its growth in SoutheastAsia. His vast experience in the business has enabled him to grow the company to a diverse workforce of 220 talents expanding market reach across 39 countries. Besides being awarded accolades such as EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at ACES Awards, Johary’s efforts in bridging the gap between mobile operators, content providers,and game publishers with their subscribers have enabled him to tap into markets in developing countries,providing opportunity for local employment and mobile purchasing capabilities.

Joe Khoo

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, iStore iSend, Malaysia

Joe is the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of iStore iSend. He is a seasoned industry veteran whose experience in co-founding an eCommerce marketplace led him to see the opportunities in B2C logistics and fulfillment. He and his partner co-founded iStore iSend in 2009, having learnt the ropes from the ground up by tackling logistical bottlenecks from an eCommerce perspective, as opposed to traditional B2B distribution models that remain prevalent in this region. As the first fulfillment company in Malaysia, iStore iSend was founded before the eCommerce boom in SouthEast Asia, helping leading eCommerce retailers manage their distribution challenges amidst rapid growth.

Joel Tay

Chief Executive Officer, Soft Space, Malaysia

Joel Tay serves as the new Chief Executive Officer of Soft Space and is driven to transform the payment and banking industry in Asia. With 14 years of experience in financial consulting, operational improvement strategies and risk management under his belt, he has the vision to take the company to a whole new level. This includes venturing into omnichannel payment methods such as artificial intelligence technologies, Big Data analytics and CRM. Through his work at Soft Space, Joel has managed the mobile payment advisory and services arm, as well as regional projects in Taiwan and Indonesia.

Stephanie Sitt

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Inmagine, Malaysia

Closest to the heart of INMAGINE is Stephanie Sitt – the co-founder who has bootstrapped the Company for almost two decades. Ever humbled to learn the many aspects of her business, Stephanie is actively involved in leading, strategizing, and driving Inmagine’s global sales, marketing, operations, and partnerships. Notably, she has spearheaded the HR transformation since the year 2017 with a strong belief that the right human talent will drive the business forward. Just as at an opportune time in which she has witnessed the revolution of microstock, Stephanie will continue to grow INMAGINE as a seamless creative ecosystem, forging a future where design is within reach for everyone.

Danny Leong

Group Chief Executive Officer, GHL Systems Berhad, Malaysia

Danny Leong defines the strategy and oversees the operations of all GHL businesses across ASEAN, namely Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia as well as Australia. Amongst his accomplishment to date is to strategies and implements GHL’s merchant acquisition business for card, mobile and online payments coupled with reload and bill payment collection, loyalty and other SME services. Latest addition will be the introduction of Grow by GHL, a collection of financial and non-financial services specially curated to catalyse the growth of MSMEs, leading them to an eventual sustainable livelihood in a very competitive economic environment.

Jasmine Ng

Chief Revenue Officer, iPay88, Malaysia

Jasmine has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector. Her senior-level assignments include the setting up of corporate & consumer financial services contact centres, credit card merchant businesses, overseeing the card business regionalisation programmes, creating alliances with synergies for organisations and providing consultancy from business transformation to service culture enhancements to the C-suites. Jasmine loves to share her passion for economic empowerment through her roles as mentor, investor and active business consultant to various start-ups that operate in the fintech, agri-culture tech, waste management and social enterprise businesses.

Raymond Siva

Chief Marketing Officer, MDEC, Malaysia

Raymond Siva is the Chief Marketing Officer at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) overlooking the 31-strong brand and strategic partnerships division – includes brand marketing and partnerships, strategic communications, digital and experiential. With more than 23 years of experience in journalism, strategic marketing and crisis and issues response, he is a sought after Reputation and Influence Strategist for international brands, local conglomerates and CEOs. He has conducted over 100 spokesperson and crisis training, messaging workshops and talks in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. He is recognized as one of the few Malaysians with deep knowledge of the government and international affairs, with extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and management. Ray remains the only communications strategist to support Malaysian and Indonesian delegations to the World Economic Forum at Davos over a period of 6 years. He is recognized for his work in CEO/Leadership positioning, government and community communications, brand and marketing campaigns and financial communications.

Karamjit Singh

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Digital News Asia, Malaysia

Karamjit Singh is the CEO of Digital News Asia. He has come to be regarded by industry and peers as one of the nation’s most respected journalists and pundits and is frequently invited to speak or moderate at conferences and roundtables. Karamjit founded Digital News Asia with a vision that media should play its role as the Fourth Estate, and on the belief that timely, insightful, and analytical coverage can help the tech ecosystem in South-East Asia, especially Malaysia, grow and develop.

Khailee Ng

Managing Partner, 500 Startups, Malaysia

Khailee Ng is a managing partner of 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm. Beyond investing in Silicon Valley, With the firm, Khailee has led 180+ investments in Southeast Asian tech startups, including Grab, Carousell, and other regional champions. Prior to this, he was the founder of Groupsmore (acquired by Groupon) and Malaysia’s largest online media company, Says.com (acquired by Media Prima). As every industry continues to be disrupted by new technology and evolving consumer landscapes, Khailee and 500 Startups specialize in discovering patterns of economic opportunity and investing in the entrepreneurs who will realize them. His investment activity and industry opinions are featured by Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, and Fortune, and the 500 Startups portfolio of companies have collectively raised over $10Billion USD.

Patrick Grove

Co-Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer, Catcha Group

As Co-Founder and Group CEO of Catcha Group, Patrick Grove is recognised as one of the leading entrepreneurs in the Asia Pacific region. Over the last thirteen years, he founded and took five companies from start-up to IPO, selling one of those companies, iProperty Group in a transaction valued in excess of US$534m. The iProperty Group sale was one of the largest internet exits in ASEAN history.

Patrick is also Co-Founder of Instahome, a leading home rental platform in Malaysia, Co-Founder and Director of iCar Asia, ASEAN’s No. 1 network of digital automotive portals; Co-Founder of Frontier Digital Ventures, a leading operator of online classifieds in frontier markets; and Co-Founder and Non Executive Director of Rev Asia Berhad, one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic digital media groups.

Taavi Kotka

Entrepreneur & Former Estonian Chief Information Officer, Estonia

Taavi Kotka is an Entrepreneur and Former Chief information officer of the Estonian Government. Having been the European CIO of the Year 2014, Taavi has a strong background working in the private sector. He started his career as a programmer, rising to be a CEO of the largest software development company in the region – Webmedia (now Nortal). In 2012, he sold his shares in Nortal and accepted Estonian Government offer to become the country’s first Chief Information Officer. Now he is back in the private sector, helping his start-ups and consulting large enterprises and governments on digital transformation. He is also a very popular and visionary speaker in large conferences world-wide. As an engineer and CIO, he has been the brainpower behind many Estonian e-government innovative initiatives like e-residency (digital citizenship), data embassies, country in the cloud, no-legacy policy, VAT fraud detection etc. Addition to his own company Proud Engineers (proudengineers.com), he has been the CEO of the Jio Research Center in Estonia for the last two years, which is a subsidiary of Indian telecom giant Reliance/Jio.

Harry Moseley

Global Chief Information Officer, Zoom Video Communications, USA

Harry D. Moseley brings to Zoom a blend of transformational leadership, disruptive innovation, and corporate growth strategies. As the former CIO & Managing Director for KPMG, Harry was responsible for technology and innovation to support the firm’s competitive growth. Over five years he identified and replaced legacy technology to dramatically improve productivity, security, and reliability. Before joining KPMG, Harry served as CIO & Senior Managing Director – Partner for Blackstone, where he led the company’s transformation to the world’s best digital alternative asset manager. Prior to Blackstone, Harry was a Managing Director for Credit Suisse, where he served as the CIO of Global Investment Banking, and Global Co-Head of Application Development / Co-CIO of the firm. Before Credit Suisse, Harry served as CTO & Managing Director for UBS Americas. Harry has been inducted into CIO Magazine’s Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the world’s top 100 CIOs by Computerworld, and honored by Irish Magazine (twice) as one of its Annual Wall Street 50. He is a former Board Member of Bi-Sam (since acquired by Factset), a former Advisor to Aquiline Capital Partners, a former Board Member of iLevel Solutions (since acquired by Ipreo), and led Blackstone’s investment in Watchdox (since acquired by Blackberry).

Alexander Stubb

Former Prime Minister, Finland & Vice-President, European Investment Bank (2017-2020), Finland

Alexander Stubb has served as Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, Trade and Europe Minister of Finland. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004-2008 and in the national government from 2008-16 and was the Chairman of the National Coalition Party from 2014-16. He served as Vice-President of the European Investment Bank from 2017-20. Stubb’s background is in academia and civil service. He has published 16 books, 11 of those on the European Union. He holds a Ph.D. From the London School of Economics and Political Science. He worked as an expert adviser at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Helsinki and in Brussels, and in President Romano Prodi’s team at the European Commission. His expertise includes European and International Affairs, Foreign and Security Policy, the Euro and the Global Economy. He chaired the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development which is responsible for promoting national and international sustainable development goals, and works to encourage society’s commitment to and involvement in sustainable development. Stubb sits on the 12-member World Happiness Council, convened by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Randi Zuckerberg

Former Head of Marketing, Facebook & Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Zuckerberg Media

Randi Zuckerberg is an entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, and Emmy-nominated tech media personality. She is the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, with the mission of supporting current and future entrepreneurs through investment, mentorship, and media. Prior to founding her own company, Randi was an early employee at Facebook, where she is best known for creating Facebook Live, now used by more than a billion people around the world. A Harvard graduate, Randi hosts a weekly business talk radio show, Randi Zuckerberg Means Business on SiriusXM and is the author of four books: two best-selling business books, Dot Complicated and Pick Three, and two children’s books, Dot (currently also an award-winning preschool television series on Universal Kids and Hulu) and Missy President.

Surina Shukri

Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia

Surina Shukri brings two decades of experience working across a diverse range of companies including global multinationals, middle market companies and early stage startups across the financial services, natural resources and technology sectors. She spent the bulk of her professional career in the United States, including 17 years of experience as an investment banker, strategist and leader at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the United States. Surina left JPMorgan Chase in 2018 to start SheNovation Ventures, a transformation and growth venture studio where she advised fintech and blockchain startups on growth strategy and capital raising and consulted business leaders on culture change and transformation.

YBhg. Datuk Wira Dr Hj. Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff

Chairman, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia

Dr Rais Hussin is an avid strategist, perennial wordsmith, social engineer, serial entrepreneur and serious policy intellectual. He is also the President and CEO of EMIR Research that specialises in data driven research on any given national or international issues. He has more than 23 years corporate experience in leading and managing local and global telecommunications, technologies and IT companies.. Straddling between science, strategy, communications, and policy advice, Dr Rais has sought to convince governments to adopt private public partnerships as advocated by the World Bank, to resolve any market break down or conundrums.