LIT DISCO

Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Abraham Thomas,
Managing Director of IBM Singapore

In Abraham’s current role, he is responsible for the overall business and operations of IBM in Singapore. Prior to this, he was ASEAN IBM Global Business Services Managing Partner from July 2015 to September 2017 and the Country General Manager of IBM South Africa from July 2012 to June 2015.

In his 32 years with IBM, he has undertaken many roles including product management, sales, marketing and various management positions in many diverse markets and industries globally. These include his previous appointments as Vice-President of Systems and Technology Group for the IBM Growth Markets for Asia Pacific, Latin America, CEE and MEA regions, as well as the Managing Director of IBM India and IBM Global Services India and finally as Director, Financial Services Sector for IBM ASEAN/South Asia, overseeing and managing IBM’s operations, sales and marketing activities to banking, finance, securities and insurance organizations across six countries.

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David Gledhill,
Chief Information Officer and Head of Group Technology & Operations, DBS Bank

David Gledhill is Chief Information Officer (CIO), as well as Head of Group Technology & Operations at DBS Bank, a leading Asian bank and recognised by Euromoney in 2018 as the “World’s Best Digital Bank”. Under his leadership, the bank has consistently delivered business value through the innovative use of technology. In 2017 he was the recipient of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan CIO Leadership Award, becoming the first CIO from an Asian company to have won.

David brings with him over 25 years of experience in the financial service industry and has spent over 20 years in Asia. Prior to joining DBS in 2008, he worked 20 years at JP Morgan, holding senior regional positions in Technology & Operations.

As Head of Group Technology & Operations at DBS, David manages about 10,000 technology and operations professionals across the region and is focused on reimagining banking for our customers.  This is an all-encompassing journey and changing the culture and mindsets of our people, re-architecting in technology infrastructure, leveraging big data, biometrics and AI to make banking simple and seamless for our customers.  Executing against DBS’ strategy to be at the forefront of digital transformation, David also plays a lead role in driving the bank’s innovation agenda, which encompasses design thinking, agile methodology, data analytics, fintech partnerships, hackathons etc.  He also oversees procurement and real estate initiatives.

David is a Director of Singapore Clearing House Pte Ltd, Non-Executive Director of Singapore Airlines Ltd, as well as a member of IBM Advisory Board and National Super Computing Centre Steering Committee. He is also a Board Member of National University of Singapore (NUS) Institute of Systems Science, and Board Advisor to Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Information Systems and NUS School of Computing. A British citizen, David holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computing and Electronics, from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom.

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Kevin Wo,
Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore

Kevin Wo is Managing Director for Microsoft Singapore, and is responsible for developing and driving growth strategies for all of Microsoft’s business in Singapore. He leads his team to meet the needs of customers in their digital transformation and more than 1,000 partners and independent software vendors that sell or build on the Microsoft platform. Additionally, he ensures that Microsoft Singapore lives the company’s mission by creating local opportunities, growth and lasting impact in Singapore.

Beyond leveraging the resources of Microsoft, he believes that there is a critical role that the industry can play. This is the motivation for him to serve as a Board Member at IMDA, and other industry bodies such as  AmCham (Board of Governor), SICC (Board Member) and SGTech (Councilor).

Professionally, his career spans diverse roles including technical, business and sales management for leading organisations such as Microsoft, Avanade, Oracle, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and National Computer Board in the last 25+ years in the IT industry.

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Liu Feng-Yuan,
CEO & Co-founder of BasisAI

Feng-Yuan was Chief Data Scientist of the Singapore government, where he built the Govtech Data Science team and led key projects for the Smart Nation initiative. He graduated from Oxford University on a President’s Scholarship.

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PANEL SPEAKERS

Christopher Yeo,
CEO of Sentient.io

Christopher Yeo started his career as an officer in the Republic of Singapore Airforce. Graduating with first class honours degree in computer science and mathematics, Mr. Yeo subsequently worked in the Chief Defence Scientist Office of the Ministry of Defence, before embarking on a three-year scholarship to do his PhD in Decision Sciences. Before
completing his PhD, Mr. Yeo started his first start-up which developed one of the first internet-based supply chain software. Mr Yeo also did a stint as the CTO for rednano.sg,
Singapore’s local search and directory engine under the umbrella of Singapore Press Holdings, and was part of transformative management focussed on commercialising AI and other software technologies in NUS Enterprise and Exploit Technologies, the technology commercialisation arm of A*STAR. Mr. Yeo was also a co-founder of media analytics startup aSpecial Media which uses AI to profile consumer interests based on the content that they read.

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Rachel Lim,
Co-Founder of Love, Bonito

Having started her own online fashion business at the tender age of 19 when e-commerce was minimal, Rachel and the brand was immediately propelled to the forefront of the industry, revolutionizing and headlining the spheres of online retail and redefined the fashion scene in Singapore. The style maven continued to garner a strong following among women with her innate ability to engage, relate and connect with them.

In line with Love, Bonito’s mission to empower women’s confidence through style, she is able to further touch and impact the community of women she and the brand have created. With a personal mantra to live life on the edge and in seizing every opportunity, Rachel left school to grow the business. Today, Love, Bonito remains to be the leading fast-fashion label in Asia, designed specifically for Asian women’s fit. The brand has grown beyond Singapore to Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Australia. She believes that everyone has a unique purpose and she endeavors to inspire them to discover and live out their true purpose.

Rachel was recently honored by Forbes as Asia’s 30under30.

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Teo Ser Luck,
Entrepreneur, Investor, Member of Parliament, Former Minister of State

Mr Teo is the chairman, lead director and adviser to several Singapore and overseas listed companies and adviser to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Singapore and Singapore Fintech Association.

Elected member of parliament since May 2006, he was appointed as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. He was also promoted as the mayor of the North-East District and became chairman of the mayors committee.

He was promoted to Minister of State, Trade and Industry, covering international trade relations with China overseeing SME development and entrepreneurship. He was also appointed as the Minister of State for Manpower overseeing enterprise and industry development and productivity, lean enterprise development implementation in businesses, foreign workers, rank and file workers and progressive workplaces. He is recognised as a young global leader by the World Economic Forum.

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Dr Lillian Koh,
CEO of Fintech Academy

Dr. Lillian Koh is the Founder and CEO of Fintech Academy (Singapore). She was with the Ministry of Education, Singapore as a Senior Curriculum Specialist and was a faculty member at the National Institute of Education Singapore, which is an institute of the Nanyang Technological University. Advocating diversity in teaching and learning at the sole teacher training institute, Dr. Koh is also the champion of financial literacy in Singapore and was involved in spearheading financial and business education in Singapore schools. Using engaging pedagogies, technology and a model that has a great multiplier effect, she has positioned NIE at the forefront of the University’s work in seamless learning environment.

She was the Chair of the Center of Financial Literacy at NIE, NTU and also the founding President of the Association of Commerce Educators (ACES). She was Chair of the Education Advisory Board of MDIS College and was appointed a faculty associate at A*STAR as well as a consultant to various organizations like UNESCO, NHG, Pearson, MYOB, NETS, and Citi for education programmes. Besides leading FTA, she is also Director of the Center of Research and Innovation at NTUitive. She is also Advisor to the NTU Investment Interactive Club (NTU-IIC) and serves as a Mentor at Temasek LaunchPad.