Eric Fesselmeyer
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics

National University of Singapore

Dr. Fesselmeyer joined the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore after receiving his PhD from the University of Virginia in 2009. Before obtaining his PhD, he spent several years working at an economic consulting firm and the U.S. Department of Justice, where he analyzed the effects of mergers and antitrust behaviour.

At NUS, he teaches Housing Economics, Econometrics and Industrial Organization at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has published several papers on housing and transportation issues in Singapore and the United States.

Vincent Bakker
Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer, Positive Energy

Vincent Bakker has over 10 years of experience in the energy industry. He co-founded at Positive Energy, a Singapore-based technology startup simplifying the financing of renewable energy projects, where he supports commercial renewable energy projects in Asia in attracting investments. Due to his work and personal interest, Vincent has a strong background in the financial world, economic/energy policies & regulations as well as the energy industry. Prior he worked at oil major Royal Dutch Shell. Vincent studied Industrial Engineering in the Netherlands and is CGMA accredited.

Eunice Chua

CEO at Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC), Research Fellow at SMU School of Law

Ms Eunice Chua is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC) and a Research Fellow at the Singapore Management University School of Law. She is qualified as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Singapore Supreme Court and an Associate Mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). A First-Class Honours law graduate from the National University of Singapore, Eunice served as a Justices' Law Clerk in the Singapore Supreme Court and later obtained a Masters of Law from Harvard. On her return, she was appointed Assistant Registrar of the Singapore Supreme Court, Magistrate of the Singapore State Courts and Assistant Director of the SMC. She later joined the Singapore International Mediation Centre as its first Deputy CEO before her next role as Assistant Professor at the SMU. Eunice is an expert on alternative dispute resolution and has conducted training in this field both locally and internationally. She also coaches students for negotiation and mediation competitions. Her articles on mediation, evidence, and procedure appear in leading publications and academic journals in her field.

ESSEC
BIZ-GOV FORUM 2019

Luis Gonzales
Managing Director APAC, Element AI

Mr. Luis Gonzalez leads our APAC operations, 21 years experience in the Digital Transformation of industrial enterprises and involved with over 55 Customers in Heavy Industries (Power, Oil & Gas, Chemical, Mining and Manufacturing). Focus in advisory and transformation on how to extract value from and ERP, Analytics, Industrial IOT, GIS, Control Systems, Historians and AI solution for enterprise clients in Asia Pacific, North/ South America, Europe and the Middle East.Prior to joining Element AI, Luis was the VP & Chief Customer Success Officer at GE Digital responsible for delivery of all GE Digital Projects in APAC and formerly the GE Power VP & Chief Digital Officer, responsible for the Power Digital division’s P&L in Asia. Before that he spent 15 years working in the SAP Industrial solutions environment for Energy and Resources practices, with 10 of those years in Digital advisory for Accenture and Deloitte.Luis has a graduate diploma from MIT with a double major undergrad from University of Victoria in Commerce and Computer Science as well as a specialization in Asian studies from Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Phanish Puranam
Roland Berger Professor of Strategy & Organization Design at INSEAD

Phanish’s research in organizational science focuses on how organizations work, and how we can make them work better. His current research focuses on how algorithms are shaping organization designs. Phanish has published his research extensively in internationally reputed academic journals,and has served in senior editorial roles in such journals. His research has won international awards and competitive grants awarded across the social and natural sciences. He has also served in advisory/training roles with several global corporations as well as public sector agencies. His book “The Microstructure of Organizations” (Oxford University Press, 2018) offers researchers a new perspective on organization design. Phanish’s books for practitioners include "Corporate Strategy: Tools for analysis and decisions" (co-authored with Bart Vanneste, Cambridge University Press, 2016) and “India Inside” (co-authored with Nirmalya Kumar, Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), which won critical acclaim for its balanced look at the prospect of India emerging as a global hub for innovation. Phanish obtained his PhD at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and was on the faculty of London Business School till 2012. He served there as School Chair Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship, and Co-Director of the Aditya Birla India Centre. Phanish has served as the Academic Director for the PhD Program at both London Business School and INSEAD. He had also held visiting positions at Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, Oxford University, Indian School of Business and IIM-Ahmedabad.

His Excellency Mr Marc ABENSOUR
Ambassador of France to Singapore

Marc Abensour is a career diplomat. He was appointed Ambassador of France to the Republic of Singapore by decree of the President of the Republic of France on 18 November 2016. His professional experience mainly covers Asian Affairs and politico-military issues.

He has served as an Inspector of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since July 2014. Previously, he was Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister of Defense in 2014 and Director for International, Strategic and Technological Affairs of the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security (Prime Minister’s Office) in 2012 and 2013. From 2008 to 2012, he was Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), where he contributed to a process whereby France has regained its rank within the organisation. He was previously Deputy Director of Industrial and Sustainable Export Issues from 2005 to 2008 and Deputy Director of the Far East from 2003 to 2005. He was successively serving as First Secretary at the French Embassy in China from 1996 to 2000 and at the French Embassy in the United States from 2000 to 2002.

Kenneth Huang

Associate Professor, National University of Singapore

Dr. Kenneth Huang is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management (ISEM) and Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Journal and Strategic Management Journal, and is an associate editor/editorial board member of Organization Science (for a special issue) and a co-editor of Journal of Management Studies (for a special Issue). His research focuses on innovation and technology management; entrepreneurial and intellectual property strategy; global strategy; science and technology policy; open innovation/science; and institutional change particularly in emerging economies like China and ASEAN. His research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy, Nature Biotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Management Studies, and Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, and has been recognized by several international research and best paper awards from the Academy of Management (AOM), Strategic Management Society (SMS), DRUID, Academy of International Business (AIB) and INFORMS. His works have been featured by Reuters, CNBC, Economist Intelligence Unit, Business Times, MIT Technology Review, China Daily, Asian Scientist, Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, among other media outlets. At NUS, he designs and teaches courses such as Innovation and Entrepreneurial Strategy, Technology Management Strategy, and Corporate Strategy in the EMBA program. He has also taught in the Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership (MBA) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management. He is the recipient of several teaching awards such as the university-wide NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award (nominee) and Faculty Teaching Award Honors List (winner) from 2016 to 2017, and SMU LKCSB Dean’s Teaching Honor List (top 20 faculty members) every year from 2009 to 2015. He earned his Ph.D. in Technology Management and Policy from MIT.

Timothy Histed
Head, South & South East Asia at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), The World Group

Timothy Histed is Head of South & South East Asia at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), part of the World Bank Group, which he joined in 2013, and is based in Singapore. He is responsible for business development and client coverage in the region.Tim was a Director in Institutional & Corporate Solutions at Standard Bank in London for 3 years, where he structured and implemented the bank’s political risk and credit insurance purchasing programme. He was a Director in Structured Credit/ART at Dresdner Kleinwort in London for 11 years,concentrating on alternative risk transfer structures in relation to infrastructure projects and utility companies as well as asset backed transactions involving public finance, corporate credit, equity and insurance assets.Tim holds a BSc (Hons) in molecular biology and an LLB from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and an LLM from the University of South Africa. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Jeff Delmon
Senior Infrastructure Finance Specialist Infrastructure, PPPs & Guarantees at
World Bank, Singapore

Jeff Delmon has advised governments, sponsors and lenders on infrastructure finance and PPP across Western and Eastern Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Africa and Central America since 1994 and has been a senior PPP specialist with the World Bank since 2005. He is currently based in Singapore.

Prior to joining the World Bank, he spent 11 years in Paris and London advising on infrastructure and PPP projects globally at the law firms of Allen & Overy and Freshfields. He is author of numerous books, articles and blogs on PPP, including: Ricover and Delmon, A Decision Makers Guide to Public Private Partnerships in Airports (Routledge, 2020) [forthcoming], Public Private Partnership Projects in Infrastructure: A practical guide for policy makers (2ed, Cambridge University Press, 2017), and Private Sector Investment in Infrastructure: Project finance, PPP projects and PPP programs (3ed Kluwer International 2016). Jeff is adjunct associate professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and is a qualified mediator. 

Warren Woon, CFA, CFP, MBA

Chief Investment Officer, SCash Technologies

In the pursuit of his interest in finance and investments, Warren completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees, and subsequently went on to attain his charter as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and his certification as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

Warren has over 17 years as an investment manager and advisor. Some of his notable previous institutional clientele include Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Kamehameha School / Bishop Estate. Warren moved out of institutional management and began focusing on the High Net Worth market, offering wealth management and investment banking, comprising commercial real estate, oil and gas development projects, private equity and venture capital, as well as tax-advantaged programs such as conservation easements. His assets under management reached US$100 million over the broad range of asset classes and products. More recently, Warren has been actively involved in the FinTech industry, and is the Chief Investment Office of SCash Technologies based in Singapore.

H.E. Margriet Vonno
Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Singapore and Brunei

In August 2017, Margriet was appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Singapore and Brunei.

She studied International Relations at Utrecht University, and holds an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management. In 1990 she started her career at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held various positions in New York, Washington DC, Brussels and The Hague. Before becoming Netherlands Ambassador in Singapore she was Director at the Strategy and Policy Advice Department at the Netherlands Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment from 2014-2017 and Deputy Director of the Europe Department at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011-2014.

Margriet was member of the advisory board of Velocity, the international cycling conference that was held in the Netherlands in June 2017. She is also a board member of the Dutch Association of Public Management. She is married to Martin Vonno and they have one daughter, Leda.

Jieying HONG
Assistant Professor, Finance Department at
ESSEC Business School, Asia-Pacific

Jieying Hong is an assistant professor at ESSEC Business School. Her main research interest includes corporate finance, entrepreneurship, contract theory, and asset bubbles. Her current research interest focuses on the real implications of financial innovative products and financial technology. She publishes articles in wide range of international peer-reviewed journals. Her research articles have been selected into FMA semifinalist for best paper awards, FMA top 10 sessions, and SSRN Top download list. Jieying holds a Ph.D. from Toulouse School of Economics, a M.Ec from Peking University and B.Ec in Economics from Renmin University of China.

Srividya Jandhyala
Associate Professor, Management Department
ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific

Srividya Jandhyala is an Associate Professor at ESSEC Business School, Singapore. Her research examines the relationship between strategic choices of firms and government policy choices. She publishes in a wide range of international peer-reviewed journals and her research has won several awards. Her work has been funded by international grants, including from the Strategy Research Foundation, the Initiative d’excellence Paris, and the ESSEC Foundation.

Srividya was previously an Assistant Professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a fellow and visiting scholar at Princeton University. She holds a Ph.D. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and B.Tech. from the University of Madras.

Teh Keng Liang
Principal and Managing Partner, GJH Pte Ltd

Hospitality and Real Estate Development Consultancy

He was formerly the Chief Operating Officer of the Singapore Sports Hub, the consortium for development and operation of the S$1.33 billion mega-integrated sports facilities during its procurement and construction phase under the contractual Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework. This is one of the few infrastructure projects successfully undertaken by the collaborative efforts of both public & private sector, supported by multi-disciplinary government agencies, international financial institutions, specialist expertise, constructors and vendors.

Keng Liang spent three decades in the real estate and hospitality development in Singapore and Asia Pacific. He worked and lived in Shanghai and Bangkok, in job postings from global companies such as Intercontinental Hotel Group, IHG and Hilton Worldwide. Over the years, from graduation in 1985 with an engineering degree and Master of Science from the National University of Singapore, he undertook the management of wide-ranging, multi-portfolio asset class developments in Singapore and other countries as South Korea, China, and ASEAN countries.

Jamus Jerome Lim

Associate Professor, Economics Department
ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific

Jamus Lim is an associate professor of economics at ESSEC Business School, one of the top business schools in Europe, and the chief economist of the ThirdRock Group, a leading independent investment management firm overseeing more than 2.5 billion in assets. Prior to his return to academia, he was a lead economist at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority---where he oversaw economic inputs underlying tactical and strategic asset allocation for the sovereign fund's multi-hundred-billion dollar portfolio---and before that, a senior economist with the World Bank, where he led a number of initiatives on macroeconomic forecasts, along with analysis of trade, finance, and governance issues in East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

His research expertise and interests lie at the intersection of international macro-finance, political economy, and development economics, and his work has appeared in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Monetary Economics and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, along with policy flagships such as the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects and Global Monitoring Report. A seasoned communicator, his ideas have been featured in print media such as the Financial Times and Straits Times, and he also regularly shares his views on television outlets such as CNA. An old Rafflesian, he graduated with first-class honors from the University of Southern Queensland, and went on to graduate work at the London School of Economics, the University of California, and Harvard University.

Yew Heng Lim
Regional Head of Public Affairs, Grab

Yew Heng heads up Grab’s public affairs function. He leads a team that supports Grab’s engagement with our public and people sector stakeholders.His team’s work includes:

• Building partnerships with governments to drive their national building agenda
• Advocacy work with governments on harnessing emerging tech business models that Grab champions
• Driving thought leadership to contribute to dialogues that shapes Southeast Asia’s future.Prior to Grab, Yew Heng was a Managing Director and Partner of the Boston Consulting Group where he led the topic of Industry 4.0 across Asia Pacific, and is an expert in organisation transformation.

Prior to Grab, Yew Heng was a Managing Director and Partner of the Boston Consulting Group where he led the topic of Industry 4.0 across Asia Pacific, and is an expert in organisation transformation.

Jyoti Shukla
Director, Singapore Infrastructure and Urban Development Hub

The World Bank

Ms Shukla is Director of the World Bank in Singapore. The Singapore Hub comprises of 200 staff form the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA, and focuses primarily on improving infrastructure services and promoting smart urban development through public-private sector partnerships. Ms. Shukla joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1994 and has since held multiple positions, largely in the area of public-private partnerships in infrastructure. Her most recent position in the Bank Group has been as Director of the Global Water Practice. Ms. Shukla holds masters’ degrees from the Delhi School of Economics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Before joining the World Bank, she held a faculty position at Princeton University and worked with a development consulting firm in India.

Soo Yeon Kim
Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political Science 

National University of Singapore

SOO YEON KIM is Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. She is a former Fellow of the Transatlantic Academy, based at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (Washington, DC), and of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. Soo Yeon Kim holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University and BA in Political Science and International Relations from Yonsei University.

Her current research focuses on production networks, multinational firms, and the politics of free trade agreements in Asia; the politics of compliance in WTO disputes; and rising powers in the global economy. Soo Yeon Kim’s recent publications include “Global Value Chains and the Political Economy of WTO Disputes,” (2019, with Gabriele Spilker), 2019, Review of International Organizations; “The Regime Complex for Investment Governance: Overlapping Provisions in PTAs and BITs” (with Clara Lee), in Manfred Elsig, Michael Hahn, and Gabriele Spilker, Eds., The Shifting Landscape of Global Trade Governance (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); and and “ Yin and Yank: Public Opinion in Europe Toward the United States and China” (with Sophie Meunier and Zsolt Nyiri), 2016, Comparative European Politics. 

Randeep Melhi
Chief Operating Officer, Blockshine Singapore

Randeep is the Chief Operating Officer of Blockshine SG. Randeep has been helping large, complex organizations reconcile with blockchain technology for over 5 years. He has spearheaded projects in several industries finance, real estate, govtech, smart cities, supply chain, and clean energy. He was the founding member of KPMG’s blockchain practice in 2014 where he worked on helping Wall Street reconcile with the impact of blockchain technology on their business models. In 2018, he relocated from New York to Singapore to help drive further blockchain innovation in Asia. Randeep started his career as a structured products professional at BlackRock where he learned how Wall Street operates before turning to management consulting. Randeep holds degrees in Finance and International Business from NYU’s Stern School of business as well as a Masters in Global Finance specializing in FinTech from both NYU and HKUST.

Reuben Ng
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Reuben Ng trained as a behavioural scientist at NUS, Oxford and Yale. He spent 16 years in government, consulting, and research. In government, he was in the Prime Minister’s Office driving evidence-based policymaking through data analytics and Singapore's Smart Nation strategies. In consulting, he co-built the advanced analytics practice at a top firm, and implemented complex analytics capabilities across industries (e.g., government, banking, consumer goods) and functions (e.g., strategy, HR, operations). He teaches courses on data analytics, behavioural insights, and policy innovation, and works with senior executives (C-suite) on their organisations’ transformation strategy. He serves on the advisory boards of agencies in finance and homeland security.

Reuben is an expert in successful ageing, preventive health, psychometrics, the skills gap, and culture. He is credited with creating innovative techniques to measure societal perceptions/stereotypes that are applied to policy, and program evaluation. His research has been recognised by grants/awards from the US National Institute of Aging and American Psychology Association, and has been featured in major Singapore newspapers including The Straits Times, Business Times, TODAY, and Lianhe Zaobao. He is the first Singaporean to receive the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, the first non-British recipient of the UK Social and Economic Research Council (ESRC)’s Neville Butler Prize (runner-up) awarded at the Houses of Parliament in London, and the youngest winner of an Early Research Career Award from the International Council of Psychologists. He has over 50 journal/conference papers, has taught extensively in Asia and the United States, and was nominated for teaching awards at Quinnipiac and Yale.