With an illustrious career spanning three decades thus far, Datuk Yasmin Mahmood started her career as an analyst programmer before working her way up to CEO and senior positions within Malaysia of global brands such as Dell, HP and Microsoft.

The older generation would remember her for the “Malaysianising Microsoft” vision when she
aligned the strengths of what was then the world’s most powerful software company with
Malaysia’s national and development agenda.

In September 2014, she accepted the national calling of becoming CEO of MDEC. It was her
life purpose of serving the nation by making a difference and utilising her expertise and
experience for the betterment of Malaysia.

Datuk Yasmin as Malaysia’s Digital Economy ‘ambassador’ is also a seasoned speaker at internationally renowned platforms such as World Economic Forum (WEF), Forbes, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), The Economist, World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), CNBC and Bloomberg.

Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz is the Group Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director of CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, a leading ASEAN universal bank and a world leader in Islamic finance with presence in 15 countries worldwide. He is also the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director of CIMB Bank Berhad and Commissioner of PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk.

With over 21 years of experience in the financial services sector, specialising in Investment Banking, Zafrul’s last position was with Maybank Investment Bank Berhad and Maybank Kim Eng Holdings as Chief Executive Officer. He also held senior positions in Citigroup Malaysia, Kenanga Holdings Berhad and Avenue Securities. He also experienced being an entrepreneur by setting up Tune Money Sdn Bhd, Asia’s first “no-frills” online financial service provider.

Zafrul graduated from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Economics and Accounting and obtained a Master of Arts (MA) in Finance and Management from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. He also holds a Fellow Chartered Banker with the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers.

Firas Raad, a Jordanian National, is the World Bank Country Manager in Malaysia. He was formerly the Country Manager for Kuwait. Raad joined the World Bank in 2002 as a Senior Health Policy Specialist. More recently, he was working in the Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice. He has extensive health policy experience in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to 2009, Raad focused on implementing health sector reforms in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. He also served as the World Bank Human Development Coordinator for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Between 1997 and 2000, Raad was the Private Secretary for Health Affairs in the Royal Jordanian Court providing health sector reform policy advice.

Between 2009 and 2013, Raad took a leave of absence from the World Bank and worked in the Quartet Mission in Jerusalem, first as an Advisor and later as Head of the Mission, to support Palestinian economic development.

His primary research interests are in health equity, health financing and health systems reform. He is a founding member of several regional and international organizations dedicated to peace-building, sustainable development and global health. He has published several articles on public health and development. He has a PhD in International Health Policy and Economics from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Wai Ken has 10 years experience in investments and capital markets. He has accumulated asset management experience in the Investments division of Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Premium China Funds Management in Australia.

He has also gained capital markets experience at Affin Hwang Capital by serving in both its Corporate Strategy and Equity Capital Markets departments.

Wai Ken holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Economics from the University of New South Wales.

Nicholas Khaw is a development economist at Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign development fund, where he leads the economic development research track. His work at Khazanah covers a wide range of development issues including, but not limited to, industrial policy, cluster development, economic complexity, demographics and political economics. In addition, he also heads the knowledge management team at Khazanah, covering knowledge systems, events, and publications as well as the Khazanah Resource Centre.

Prior to Khazanah, Nick served as an economist in Malaysia’s Economic Planning Unit, where he was directly involved in several national development projects such as the 10th Malaysia Plan, the Economic Transformation Programme, and the Strategic Reform Initiatives. His research interests and intellectual passions are in the field of development economics particularly related to the long-term persistence of historical events and cultural factors on economic and public policy outcomes today.

Nick holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at Harvard College. He writes a monthly column for The Edge Malaysia. All his writings can be found at www.nicholaskhaw.com

Shakira Teh Sharifuddin is an economist with the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice at the World Bank Global Knowledge and Research Hub in Kuala Lumpur. One of her main responsibilities is leading the publication for one of the Bank’s flagship reports, the bi-annual Malaysian Economic Monitor and participating in the dialogue on several advisory and analytical engagements with the government. In addition, she also provides cross-country support to other World Bank’s country offices such as Myanmar and Lao PDR.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Shakira worked as an economist at Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) in the Monetary Policy Department. At the central bank, she led a team conducting surveillance and research of monetary and financial market developments. Shakira obtained her Masters degree from Columbia University, New York and have previously interned at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C.

As Fusionex’s Managing Director in New Technologies, Jacob has more than a decade’s experience in enterprise software project implementations.

He has overseen and been involved in Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence as well as Internet of Things projects in various industries, encompassing large volumes of business data and diverse data sources to provide in depth analysis of data and trends.

Jacob’s technical background coupled with his strong accumulated domain knowledge across manufacturing, market research, financial and asset management has led him to successfully execute and spearhead enterprise projects spanning across countries such as the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Holland, France, Hong Kong and the UK.

Amjad Rabi teaches development economics and human security at Nottingham university, KL campus, and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Canada. He is also an advisor for the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), tasked with the development of Malaysia’s Social Protection Consolidation blueprint.

Prior to this, he served as UNICEF Malaysia’s deputy representative and senior policy specialist. Amjad earlier served in the United Nations’ country offices including: Nepal, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Argentina, as well as Headquarter offices in both NY and Geneva. Amjad has authored and co-authored several publications and developed costing models that have been replicated in several countries. Amjad holds a Doctorate degree in International Relations, a Master’s in Public Policy, an MS. in Mathematics (Actuarial Science), and an MA in Economics.

Marina Che Mokhtar is an Executive Director in the Economics & Policy Practice of PwC. Since joining PwC, Marina has advised clients in the government and the private sector on a range of issues relating to public policy strategies, institutional reforms, public private partnerships, strategy development, policy and programme reviews as well as business planning. She is also experienced in feasibility studies, financial advice, financial viability review and project management. Prior to joining PwC, Marina has had experience providing audit, audit-related and business advisory services in London. Marina is a member of ICAEW and a Securities Commission’s Capital Market Services Representative’s License holder. She also graduated from London School of Economics.

Adil operates as a Product Development Lead and Blockchain Consultant in Blockchain Technology Malaysia, a young startup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia specializing in Blockchain consultancy and solutions development. He is a computer science graduate and has been working in the Blockchain space for over three years. His interest in distributed ledger technology stemmed from his early experience working in asset management and investment firms including stock exchanges and mutual fund companies.

He was exposed to and gradually immersed himself in Blockchain during his early years working in Fidelity Investments. He was involved in the analysis and development of a Blockchain pilot project for Fidelity Investment Management Technology (FIMT), dealing with execution of a trade life cycle on a Blockchain. This was followed by projects in Blockchain R&D for FinTech firms where he was able to test the scale and performance of the technology while working with large-scale production data. He has technical experience in multiple Blockchain platforms including Ethereum and Hyperledger along with a proven capability to analyze the feasibility of Blockchain in a wide range of business cases spanning across multiple industries.

A true innovator, through his work and study, he understands the potential of Blockchain, and its promise for disintermediation – removing middlemen and trusted third parties in our society, and instead placing trust on distributed networks secured by cryptography and consensus algorithms. He is passionate about concepts in Blockchain technology which helps garner adoption amongst the public – stablecoins, decentralized autonomous organizations, token curated registries and the building of token economies.

Wan Dazriq leads the Malaysia’s Social Inclusion & Vibrant Entrepreneurship (MasSIVE), a strategic unit under the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) that aims to create social impact through entrepreneurship related initiatives. He currently manages programs, strategic engagements and helps forge collaborations that focus on impact driven enterprise development as well as ecosystem building efforts for the impact entrepreneurship sector in Malaysia. Dazriq has served several portfolios under MaGIC. He was the MaGIC Social Entrepreneurship Program Manager and went on to head the strategic initiatives portfolio with the ASEAN Centre of Entrepreneurship prior to MasSIVE.

Dazriq also specialises in areas of change and transformation with many years of experience in strategy, execution and implementation for large scale nation building initiatives and transformation projects with various multinational companies. Dazriq holds special interest for matters relating to education equity and public health awareness.

Among his accomplishments and achievements in the social entrepreneurship space was managing the first social enterprise accelerator in Malaysia as well as instrumental in co – creating the Malaysia’s National Social Entrepreneurship Blueprint 2015 – 2018. He is currently the President of the Chamber of Social Entrepreneur Development Malaysia and a member of South East Asia Social Enterprise Advisory Board as well as currently working towards creating venture building initiatives for high potential and scalable social enterprises in Malaysia.

Vikram Singh practices law in Kuala Lumpur with Vikram Singh Associates. He is also the founder of ‘lawx.io’, a legal tech ‘qompany‘. Vikram first received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computing in Internet Technology before reading law for his L.L.B. degree.

He is deconstructing law to a ‘bit’, and is formulating a new theory of law in jurisprudence, in order to catch up with high technology. Vikram does not view ‘time’ as a linear occurrence, rather, that ‘time’, as we know it, is diluting. The world he says is in the race to dominate quantum computing and strong AI. Vikram seeks to remove the shackles of the human mind anchored down by classical physics, and to reroute human curiosity to our quantum future.

Lennise Ng is the CEO of Dropee.com – a B2B eProcurement marketplace where we empower businesses to grow and create more meaningful business relationships. Dropee strives to facilitate business transactions in a convenient and transparent manner.

She’s also one of the partners for Finnext Capital, a Fintech & IoT focused accelerator based in Cyberjaya. Prior to this, she was one of the founding partner for Job4Locum, a medical job portal company that was acquired by MIMS for RM 16m in less than 1 year.

Lennise started her entrepreneurship journey by opening a talent management company at the age of 19. She then pursued further in her studies in Melbourne, Victoria while part-timing with a Venture Capital company. Prior to graduation, Lennise was hired by YELP Inc as a Country Manager to launch their platform in Malaysia.

Adrian is the CEO and co-founder of MoneyMatch, an award winning FinTech startup that focuses on making cross border payments cheaper and faster for its retail and business customers. It recently placed 3rd in the ASEAN SME category in the prestigious Singapore Fintech Festival 2018, beating out over 50 shortlisted companies all across ASEAN.

Prior to founding MoneyMatch, Adrian spent 10 years in the treasury division of banks with a focus on derivatives. It was here that he discovered various gaps and opportunities in the banking industry that a fast moving, nimble and technology focused organization could exploit.

Melvin Poh is the founder of The Asian Entrepreneur, an  international business media organisation that seeks to facilitate the growth of the startup ecosystems in Asia through publication, education, community-building and various initiatives. From his work at The Asian Entrepreneur, Melvin has been exposed to the intricacies of business in Asia and has worked with notable non-profit partners and governments in creating and realising collaborative initiatives that foster entrepreneurship in the region. The Asian Entrepreneur has developed into a valuable contributor and supporter of startup development in Asia. Aside from The Asian Entrepreneur, Melvin is also an active investor involved with private equity in Southeast Asia and has worked with notable venture capital companies.

Prior to The Asian Entrepreneur, Melvin previously worked in the capital markets and was a corporate Barrister-at-Law specialising in corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions. Melvin is a Harvard HPAIR Scholar and also received his education from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College.

Melvin personally believes that Asia holds much opportunity for global impact and aspires to help build an inclusive region defined by active interconnection, open collaboration and seamless knowledge exchange.