Mentors and Speakers
Mentors and Speakers
The program leverages our expertise, resources, mentorship, business network, and technology verticals to help build trailblazing startups from the ground up.
Joanne Chow
Founder of Azalvo
Joanne is a mover and shaker who is adept at catalyzing businesses’ growth and strategic transformation. Her entrepreneurial successes span across manufacturing, design, lifestyle retail and financial governance, providing insights and support to both emerging designers and full-fledged brands. In 2019, Joanne was named one of Forbes Power Businesswomen.
Joe Wong
Co-Founder, GO Logistics & Storage (GOLS)
Joe is a serial entrepreneur and has over 20-years of experience advising and successfully executing on the vision and deliver on business strategies from start-ups to MNCs.
Joe has over 15 years of Investment Banking experience spanning corporate finance, sales and trading, private wealth, and institutional banking.
For the last 5 years, he has developed and grown his e-commerce logistics and fulfilment solution platform focused on the systemisation and streamlining of ecommerce fulfilment and fostering the sustainability of his clients businesses and operations through the efficient combination of innovation and technology with a touch of good old fashion hard work.
Most recently, Joe has been working on establishing MXA Group, which focuses on developing an ecosystem with three primary pillars of ecommerce (provision of goods to all), technology (driving productivity and sustainability) and social impact (simply making a difference)
Jeanne Lim
Founder and Ceo, Nama Institute and Board Director of Kami Intelligence and Hanson Robotics
Jeanne is the founder and CEO of Nama Institute which advocates a conscious approach to living, leading, and innovating. She is a board member and advisor of Kami Intelligence Limited., an AI company developing a conversational AI platform that powers customer service, advisory, talent management, and educational solutions.
She is a board member and former CEO of Hanson Robotics Limited, an AI and robotics company dedicated to creating socially intelligent machines that enrich the quality of people’s lives. She joined the company as the Chief Marketing Officer, and was the brand manager and co-character lead of Sophia the robot. Jeanne is a director of Himalayan Consensus Institute, an NGO involved in social enterprise development and climate protection.
Jeanne has over 25 years of marketing experience in the technology industry, as the Asia Pacific marketing director for Dell, Cisco, 3Com, as well as corporate marketing director for a Silicon Valley-funded internet startup.
She was the product and business manager for Apple in Asia Pacific, responsible for the launch of many of Apple’s groundbreaking products in the region.
She has a Ph.D. degree in integrated and holistic health, an MBA degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a BA degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
She is a certified yoga instructor and a life-long student of Buddhist and yoga philosophy, having completed Georg Feuerstein’s five-year Traditional Yoga Studies course. She has a passion for art appreciation, creative writing, photography, swimming, and hiking.
Derek Kwik
Managing Partner of BraveSoldier Venture Capital
Born and educated in Hong Kong, Derek is an early “returnee” to Asia with 25+ years of APAC market entry experience. Since the 90s, his early work in venture capital makes him one of the first investors involved with Asia based startups.
Starting with first gen internet companies, he has reviewed 15,000+ business plans and managed funds for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Singapore Govt Investment Corp (GIC), Sun Microsystems, Mitsui, Fujitsu, NTT Docomo and PCCW.
As one of the most respected community leaders, he is involved with nearly every accelerator/co-working space in HK. Since 2004, Derek is the Managing Partner of BraveSoldier Venture Capital. With a background in i-banking, direct investment and mgmt consulting, his fundraising experience includes seed, family office, Series A and IPOs.
He was COO of an electronic cigarette company which developed a proprietary vaping device in Shenzhen. He singlehandedly raised US$10M from high profile individuals and managed manufacturing across two factories.
As a result, the company rapidly commercialized the business across 13,000 retail outlets including c-stores chains like 7-Eleven and Kroger. Together with a national TV infomercial and ecommerce, the company generated nearly US$30M in sales and sold 500k units and 5M+ disposable cartridges in 24-months.
As CEO of a Chinese mobile payments company, he was credited for “leading from the front” from seed round to commercial responsibilities to investor exit. With 500+ “day trips” to the Greater Bay, Derek has manufacturing experience in e-cigs, robotics, telecoms, wearables and pc peripherals.
Cavan Chan
International Coaching Federation
Cavan is a passionate International Coaching Federation ACC coach & National Association of Sports and Medicine certified trainer with a keen interest in optimizing his mind & body performance through various psychological and physiological Bio-Hacking routines.
With an always-curious & life-long learning mindset, he is in constant pursuit of knowledge and refines his crafts (currently, he is pursuing to be a health coach from Functional Medicine Coaching Academy).
Combining the mind & body wellness management & leadership development, Cavan intends to empower everyone to take on being enduring leaders so they can touch, move, inspire others to live balanced and purposeful lives.
Andrew H. Chen
Managing Partner of Arion Ventures
Andrew H. Chen is Managing Partner of Arion Ventures. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he teaches a course on emerging technologies and entrepreneurship and is an Entrepreneur In Residence at the PolyU Innohub.
Currently he also advises numerous venture backed startups. Andrew is also currently a mentor and advisor at numerous startup accelerators in Hong Kong. In his spare time, he volunteers within various causes focused on entrepreneurship education, social enterprise and mentors recent graduates.
Justin Kung
Founder, Everyday Empathy
Justin supports creators, which includes entrepreneurs, founders, developers, freelancers; anyone with the urge to create and build. Through his experience working in startups and alongside founders in incubation/acceleration programmes, he has seen the challenges that those imbued with the ability and spirit to create have to overcome.
In launching Everyday Empathy, he helps creators to balance all aspects of their emotional and inner selves in meeting these challenges to achieve their vision and pursue their passion. His professional background spans roles in journalism, digital production, career coaching and innovation consultation.
Throughout his shifts across industries, his focus has always been on working with people to be the best versions of themselves, whether that meant telling a clearer story, creating a better product or implementing a better solution.
He is driven by his own experiences, both as a seeker and as a provider of mental health support, to help those who are struggling to harness the strengths and weaknesses in their mental well-being. He has worked with over 200 creators in one-to-one environments across advising, coaching and counselling work.
Tracy Ho
Frame & Fame Founder and Managing Director
Tracy is a leading personal branding strategist in Asia. She is the founder of Frame & Fame, an award-winning personal branding and content marketing firm. As a certified coach and a trained visual facilitator, Tracy helps entrepreneurs, startups, SME owners and corporate executives to present their ideas and stand out from the competition with their talents, passion and unique propositions.
William Ross
MD, Citi Bank Business Manager Digital Value Proposition, APAC
A proven digital transformation leader who delivers revenue growth by drawing upon deep domain experience in e-commerce, finance, and partnerships. Disciplined and insight-driven execution combining emerging technology with behavioural economics to materially increase & sustain the monetisation of user engagement.
Equally adept in pragmatically building upon an institution’s legacies, or leveraging the opportunities that can be captured by a startup. Committed to success by building the strongest of teams by engaging colleagues & clients through exceptional oral & written storytelling, extensive negotiation experience, mobilising the support of regulators, and analytical rigor.
Passionate about mentoring, the intersection of geopolitics, technology & commerce, and ensuring that the 4th Industrial Revolution is inclusive.
Prem Samtani
Angel Investor
Prem is the Senior Advisor & Stakeholder at AMILI, RemoteHQ, and BaseFood Inc. Prior to his current positions, he was the senior portfolio manager and CPP Investments and Executive Director of Cross Assets Strategies at Morgan Stanley.
Jackson Chow
CEO of Aussco
As CEO of Aussco, the internationally recognized trade and manufacturer renown for its innovative and solution-driven approach, Jackson oversees factories in China and Southeast Asia that service Global fashion labels including Maje, Sandro, adidas, Reiss, and Ted Baker. Jackson is also the co-founder of azalvo.
Giovanna Melfi
Founder, Metamorphosis Biz
Giovanna Melfi is the founder and managing director of Metamorphosis Biz, a consultancy that transforms businesses into more creative, efficient, adaptable and profitable versions of themselves.
She specializes in helping companies form talented and dynamic teams, transition into the digital world and provide an engaging customer journey. Born in Italy and based in Hong Kong, Giovanna has more than 20 years’ management experience with top luxury brands
Olivier Kunizer
Partner, Ekimetrics
Accomplished 10-year experience Manager with strong customer focus and business acumen. Recognised leadership in project and team management supported by remarkable interpersonal skills.Solid sales development track record with proven knowledge in forecasting and reporting. Advanced expertise Luxury, Retail, ITT, Energy and Transport sectors. Highly pro-active and eager to manage and support a team in view of expanding business opportunities.
Gary Chan
Greater China CEO of the CFO Centre
Gary started the CFO Centre business in Hong Kong in 2014 with a breadth ofexperience. Between 2015 and 2017, acting as the Corporate Finance director, hehelped TNG (Asia) Limited, a HK based Fintech company, in the company’s capitalraising exercises and led the successful application of the SVF license granted by theHKMA. Before he started the CFO Centre, Gary was a partner at Creat CapitalCompany Limited, an investment fund that focused on cross-border private equityopportunities between China and the rest of the world. Before that, he was amember of Goldman Sachs’ fixed income team in Hong Kong specialising on privateinvestments (both debt and equity) across Asia.Gary started his career with KPMG in Toronto, Canada in 1998 and practicedaccounting/auditing under the firm’s real estate division. He returned to Hong Kongin 2001 and joined Deloitte’s restructuring and corporate finance teams.Gary obtained his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree inaccounting from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He obtained hisChartered Accountant designation in Canada in 2000.Gary currently is the independent non-executive directors and holds the auditcommittee chairs
Andrew M. Yang
Partner, Addleshaw Goddard
Andrew is a partner in our Hong Kong office. He is qualified in New York and Hong Kong and has been practicing in Asia since 2003. Before joining Addleshaw Goddard, he was a partner in the Hong Kong office of a global law firm.
Andrew has extensive experience working with small to medium enterprises, listed companies, venture/growth funds and other financial institutions primarily located in Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Mongolia.
He primarily handles corporate finance matters ranging from venture capital/private equity, M&A, joint ventures, capital markets, bank finance and fund formation for a wide range of investors, companies and financial institutions. His capital markets expertise covers equity, equity-linked and debt (with a specialty in high-yield). In 2014, Andrew was named the “high-yield rising star” by the IFLR.
Andrew is active in the start-up community in Hong Kong and SE Asia. He works closely with a number of incubators and venture capitalists advising early stage companies primarily in the technology industry.
YEAR QUALIFIED
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2003- New York
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2011- Hong Kong
LANGUAGES
English and Mandarin Chinese
AWARDS/RANKINGS
Hong Kong Corporate (including M&A), Legal 500 – 2019
EDUCATION
Boston University School of Law – JD (2003)
The University of Chicago – BA (2000)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
None
Bei Xu
Investment Director
Ms. Xu is the Investment Director at China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund with over a decade of experience on investments, portfolio management and exits across hard, soft and social infrastructure sectors in ASEAN. Prior to joining CAF,
she was with the Ping An Bank in Shenzhen, China and Barclays Capital in USA.
Ms. Xu is a CFA charterholder. She holds Master of Applied Statistics from Cornell University and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from University at Buffalo
Krizia Li
CEO of Vermillion Lifestyle Holdings Limited
Krizia Li, CEO of Vermillion Lifestyle Holdings Limited, is a highly experienced Fortune’s annual Global 500 Consumer, Retail & Hospitality industry leader. She began her career in Audit at KPMG Greater China, Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley, then Investment Banking and IPOs at Merrill Lynch APAC.
Post-MBA in Boston, USA, she moved into Strategy Consulting for McKinsey & Company for Multinational Corporations across Asia, such as in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta, primarily managing client studies in their Hospitality, Consumer & Retail and Technology, Media & Telecommunications practices.
After assisting Chairman Raphael le Masne de Chermont of Richemont portfolio company Shanghai Tang to reset their global re-branding and e-commerce strategy, she joined LVMH to manage Global E-Commerce, Retail Marketing, and Partnerships for DFS Group, their Travel Retail multi-brand flagship. She then joined a former McKinsey client to launch Dream Cruises, the world’s first-ever Asian luxury cruise line brand, for Genting Group, as their global Head of Guest Experience.
Following a fellow Harvard Business School alumna, she was appointed Chief of Staff at Marriott International APAC, assisting their Chief Sales & Marketing Officer as her right-hand leader, to steer and implement the post-merger integration of Starwood Group and Marriott International.
Most recently, she was the Head of E-Commerce & Innovation at McDonald’s Greater China, a portfolio investment of CITIC Capital and Carlyle Group, where she led Carlyle Group’s sister portfolio company Golden Goose Deluxe Brand to form their Greater China go-to-market strategy. Krizia holds a Masters in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Oxford University and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Andy Ann
Founder and CEO of NDN Group
A digital conglomerate heavily invested in mobile advertisement network, social networking, digital out-of-home, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and ad tech, etc. He is also the founder and director of HOTMOB Limited, a premium mobile advertising network; and a co-founder of Klarity Analytics, a company providing services in analyzing social media data (whose product was acquired by Meltwater, a company providing media monitoring services in June 2017).
Andy is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has founded and bootstrapped multiple start-up companies. He is well known in the business start-up community for mentoring high-potential entrepreneurs and has been actively involved in multiple local and Silicon Valley incubators, including Google EYE, Founder Institute and more.
He is also one of the founding members at the TEDxWanChai, focusing on inviting inspirational speakers in areas of NGOs, Social Enterprise and Philanthropy.
Andy was awarded as Young Entrepreneur Winner of DHL and SCMP as well as Piaget in 2008 and 2013 respectively. In 2012, Andy was named one of the top 50 Chinese leaders across China alongside Li Ka Shing, Pony Ma and others.
He has been the keynote speaker for dozens of corporations and institutions, including UBS, HSBC, DBS, Bloomberg, Nike, L’Oreal, SwissRe, AIA, Richemont Group, Kering Group, Nuskin, LVMH and more.
Andy obtained a bachelor’s degree from University of British Columbia, Canada, and an Executive Masters in Business Administration from Chinese University, Hong Kong.
Kevin Johan Wong
CEO & Co-founder of Origami Labs
Kevin is responsible for the overall vision, direction, and partnerships of Origami Labs. His previous experience includes General Manager of Kowloon Watch Company, a global luxury watch manufacturing, and retail operation, with expertise in wearables and product and development.
Nio Liyanage
Venture Capital and Management Consulting
Formerly at Apple with deep experience in Venture Capital and Management Consulting, Nio specialises in growing technology startups through hands-on involvement in strategy, growth, market expansion and capital-raising. He personally holds equity in 10+ ventures, has advised 200+ startups, led 15+ accelerator programs, conducted 150+ workshops, and has guided dozens of companies to profitability, scale and market dominance. He is now the Founder and Managing Partner of STARTUPRIGHT.
Alvin Lam
Director of TusPark Hong Kong
Alvin was the first to join TusPark (Tsinghua University Science Park) Hong Kong since Nov 2018, focusing on project incubation, entrepreneurs advisory, inbound and outbound China soft-landing services and community building.
In the position, Alvin has strong experience in helping startups and entrepreneurs in business model and technology evaluation, fundraising, growth hacking and business expansion strategies. He has also helped TusPark Hong Kong to build a startup ecosystem from zero to one.
Aside from TusPark’s position, Alvin is also a mentor at various platforms like HKUST MentorHUB, Cyberport, Tecathlon 2020 and judges in various competitions like HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Competition, Technode’s Life’s a Pitch etc.
Mark Sims
COO, Xccelerate And Founder – The Global Advisory Program (GAP)
Alvin was the first to join TusPark (Tsinghua University Science Park) Hong Kong since Nov 2018, focusing on project incubation, entrepreneurs advisory, inbound and outbound China soft-landing services and community building.
In the position, Alvin has strong experience in helping startups and entrepreneurs in business model and technology evaluation, fundraising, growth hacking and business expansion strategies. He has also helped TusPark Hong Kong to build a startup ecosystem from zero to one.
Aside from TusPark’s position, Alvin is also a mentor at various platforms like HKUST MentorHUB, Cyberport, Tecathlon 2020 and judges in various competitions like HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Competition, Technode’s Life’s a Pitch etc.
Ben Wong
Assistant General Manager of Eureka Nova
Ben manages and drives the strategy of Eureka Nova, a leading open innovation platform that empowers technology startups to co-create within the New World Group ecosystem of culture, creativity, and innovation. Through our accelerator programs, open competitions, and sandboxes, participating startups work with New World Group’s business units and corporate partners to design innovative technologies that solve real business problems.
Prior to Eureka Nova, Ben founded Startup Launchpad, now Asia’s largest I.o.T. startup trade event. He has helped startups raise more than $2 million on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. He is an angel investor and regularly mentors in startup support programs.
He also holds positions as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Dongguan-Hong Kong Bay Area Association to drive innovation initiatives between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Ben graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Kiril Popov
Programs and partnerships lead at Explorium HK
Kiril Popov is the programs and partnerships lead at Explorium HK, Fung Group’s innovation hub in Hong Kong. Before joining Explorium, he was head of the Asia office for Fung Global Retail and Technology (now Coresight Research), where he oversaw the research practice and wrote about retail strategies and business model innovation. Kiril holds an MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and is passionate about enabling entrepreneurship.
Ben Chien
Adtech Founder
Ben Chien is an experienced adtech founder, corporate executive, automobile gymkhana enthusiasts, and father of two. Driven by the desire to disrupt the status quo, he takes pride in being the only service provider of advertising monetization services to online publishers in Hong Kong, which led to his startup being acquired by a Japanese tech company.
As an acqui-hired executive, his goal is to accelerate the growth of the Greater China business, and to expand services to the influencer marketing and video space. With a successful startup exit, Ben is now an active angel investor, mentor at startup accelerators, and supporters of early-stage funds.
Malcolm Ong
Product Management, Engineering, and Design
Malcolm is the SVP of Product — leading product management, engineering, and design — at the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a news-media subsidiary of Alibaba. He is also a Venture Partner at 500 Durians, a SE Asia focused fund part of the 500 Startups family.
Previously, he was a Product & Growth Manager at Lyft, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at 500 Startups, Co-founder & CTO of Skillshare, Product Lead at OMGPOP (acq. Zynga), a Senior Engineer at Razorfish, an E-commerce Specialist for IBM Global Services, and a part of IBM’s Extreme Blue incubator where he co-filed four patents.
Malcolm holds a B.S. in Computer Science with a double major in Business Administration and minor in E-commerce from Carnegie Mellon University.
He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and currently resides in Hong Kong.
Lukas Petrikas
Head of Innovation Lab, HKEX
The HKEX Innovation Lab explores and accelerates creative new applications of technology at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), one of the world’s most pioneering financial market operators.
Lukas’ team runs a portfolio of projects that apply targeted AI, smart automation and knowledge-based solutions to augment HKEX’s operations in areas such as IPO admission, listed company regulation, market data and surveillance.
The 2,700 companies listed in Hong Kong include some of the most exciting entrepreneurial growth stories of the modern era, and HKEX strives to use the full resources of this incredible network to make the city’s capital markets more open, more accessible to younger generations and, above all, more interesting to human and machine intelligence alike.
Lukas has been involved in a number of flagship initiatives that have put Hong Kong on the international markets map, including the acquisition of London Metal Exchange, China-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Bond Connect, and the landmark reforms of the city’s IPO regime that has propelled it to the #1 listing venue in the world over the past decade.
Before joining HKEX in 2012, Lukas was an investment banker with Rothschild focused on structuring bank bailouts during the global financial crisis, most memorably those of Lehman Brothers, Fortis, ABN AMRO and the Irish banking sector.
Leo Ku
Specialized in Entertainment, Media
15 years of experience in China, Asia, and US business; specialized in Entertainment, Media, and Digital business.
Strong track records in strategy and business development, with proven success in management and execution.
Specialties: Business development and growth strategies
Market entry and product go-to-markets
Merger and Acquisitions (M&A)
Partnership and JV formation
Business planning & incubation
Fund raising and business plans
People management and SWAT team formation
Professional communication in English (US education), Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional) and Cantonese.
Marco Chen
General Manager – Explorium
Marco focuses his energies on supporting corporates to accelerate learning, prototype future capabilities, and grow business value via open innovation and collaboration. He builds communities and ecosystems, nurtures partnerships with startups to co-create new solutions and business models, and explores future trends to generate insights for informed decision making.
Before joining Explorium, Marco has worked as an internal consultant in different nodes of the supply chain and has held multiple functional roles in different retailers at country and regional levels. Previously, he was also a part of a biotech and an e-commerce startup. He has professional experience in the United States, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and South East Asia serving brands such as Nike, Puma, Nivea, Toys’R’ Us, Target, PetSmart, Ribena, etc.
Billy Naveed
Head of Strategy at Zilingo.
Billy Naveed is Head of Strategy at Zilingo. Outside of tech and product strategy he oversees
Zilingo Labs and the firm’s sustainability efforts. Zilingo Labs builds products and services to
disrupt the future of Fashion leveraging the current Zilingo platform current and future
technologies such as IOT, blockchain and AI.Zilingo’s sustainability efforts are at the very heart of our strategic efforts to redefine the fashion
landscape and create transparency and fairness for all. By deploying technology across the
supply chain and enabling discovery we are leading the path in sustainability and ensuring a
brighter future for the industry and our planet.
Prior to Zilingo Billy spent 18 years investment banking, with the last 11 in Asia. He was at Credit
Suisse Hong Kong, where he was the co-head of Hedge Fund Sales and leading their Equities
digitisation efforts. In this role, he focussed on advising the world’s largest money managers on
their public and private investments in with a specialisation in technology and internet
companies.
On the tech side, he helped lead their Privates efforts and built relationships with many of the
largest private tech companies in Asia with a focus on SEA as well helping the bank IPO most of
the major tech companies that have listed in the Asia region in the last decade with different with
various responsibilities from distribution to helping IBD with company advisory.
Previously, he worked at Morgan Stanley in both HK and London in various roles from risk
trading to sales. Billy has a deep passion for entrepreneurship. He has founded three himself
during high school and university including a business developing software out of his bedroom
when he was 14 yrs old. He is currently Founder and non-executive chairman of Dream Maker
Collective, a company that provides immersive interactive experiences.
He is also very passionate about giving back. Five years ago he started Young Founders School,
a non-profit that helps high school students learn about entrepreneurship. The organisation
operates in HK, Shenzhen, Singapore and Bangladesh and has a vision to reach 1 million
students with their free entrepreneurship programme by 2025 with a focus on teaching social
entrepreneurship to underprivileged students.
Billy is a Milken Institute Young Leader and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Corporate
Directors. He studied Economics at Warwick University and Masters in Economics and Finance
at Warwick Business School in the UK
Malin Lundahl
Sustainability Manager H&M Greater China
Career Milestone
2019 Aug – Present Sustainability Manager, H&M, Greater China (Mainland, Hong Kong,
Taiwan & Macau
2019 Jan – 2019 Aug Sustainability Manager – Function Cosmetics, H&M Group, Global
Production Organization
2016 Sep –2019 Jan Supply Chain Project Manager – Cosmetics, H&M Group, Global
Production Organization
2013 Nov – 2016 Aug Product Developer – Cosmetics, H&M Group, Global Production
Organization
Malin is passionate about how successful business can and should have a positive impact on
the environment and people in its full value chain. Malin joined the H&M Group in 2013 to
focus on the development and production of the H&M brand’s new Beauty cosmetic line.
Previous to the Sustainability Manager role Malin has worked with sustainability, cosmetics, and material for H&Ms production organization. She has a diverse background in
bioengineering, skincare research, and new product development, and is a published
researcher.
Education
2007-2012 Master of Science in Biotechnology, Lund University, Sweden
2010-2011 Student exchange program, University of California Santa Cruz, USA
Meagan Dietz
COO, aMOD
Meagan Dietz, COO, aMOD Over the last 15 years, Meagan has deep expertise in helping medium- to large- sized companies define and execute business expansion strategies, with an extensive professional background across technology, consumer and retail industries in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to working with A Matter of Design, Meagan spent close to 7 years at McKinsey in the US.
She then furthered her career in Beijing, China and helped Godiva with its international expansion. She was based in Beijing and Shanghai for 8 years before relocating to Hong Kong. She currently oversees commercials and operations for aMOD’s expanding fashion and lifestyle retail portfolio, including Tom Dixon and BoConcept in Hong Kong, and Tom Dixon, Templa and Ski Project in PRC.
Meagan is an MBA graduate from both the Columbia University and London Business School. She has a BA in International Relations from University of Washington
Bruno Zysman
Expert in Retail Technologies
Expert in Retail Technologies, Loyalty scheme, Proximity Marketing, Digital Transformation and Digital Payment, with an axis on “relevant” consumer data analytics. With the raise of the omni-channel marketing, my focus is in helping the retail industry ecosystem to accelerate its digital transformation and I am passionated about the challenging re-invention of the new retail space, helping retails to sustain their business while covid19 using new technologies that have quickly emerged and accelerated with the pandemic.
I have started my career by developing loyalty and closed wallet solutions for MNCs, based on smart card technology when e-commerce just started in the 90’s. After having deployed hundreds of loyalty and closed loop wallet solutions worldwide with GEMPLUS (now Gemalto) I have turned to payment technologies in 2000 as a payment software Director at INGENICO group, specialized in EMV software development for contact and contactless INGENICO Payment terminals.
After the release of the first iPhone in 2007, I have started to work on mobile solutions to bring proximity “call to actions” to users in the brick and mortar retail ecosystem, for payment and for proximity marketing. The company became soon a NFC technical solution provider and test center for mobile manufacturers.
Founder of the omni-channel platform GoToMalls.com in 2014, helping the brick and mortars retail industry in shopping malls to get back the footfall and the ROI lost from the boom of e-commerce and the change of habits of new generations of shoppers. (Dominopos Pte Ltd).
In 2019, I have also founder of the RetailTech Singapore group at La French Tech, gathering experts of the retail technology and stack-holders of the Retail industry in South East Asia (Shopping Malls, Retail Brands, …)
I am now operating a retail tech agency in SIngapore: Mobiz technologies Pte Ltd. and I will have soon lunching a retail tech news site and newsletter TheRetailtech.com
Uptin Saiidi
Founder, UP10 Media
Uptin is currently the founder at UP10 Media. Prior to this, he was a journalist at CNBC.
Wynn
Electrical Engineering and Design
Wynn has a diverse and multi-disciplinary career. With a background in electrical engineering and design, he crosses silos to develop elegant solutions and build delightful experiences.
At Wynn Resorts (Las Vegas-based, no relation), Wynn helped redefine data analysis by building and operationalizing the integrated enterprise data warehouse; providing insights directly to division executives and C-suite. During his tenure he helped project manage components of the Encore Las Vegas (2000+ rooms) opening in 2008, reporting directly to the COO. He was also responsible for online booking channels (direct, online travel agencies), driving a full redesign of Wynn Las Vegas’ booking system that doubled conversion rates.
Wynn was an early employee at Playstudios, then subsequently went on to co-found Playstudios Asia based in Hong Kong as Head of Product. Wynn built and drove product and systems design, product operations, data science, monetization and economy design. They built the Hong Kong studio from the ground up to a team of close to 70 with high 8 figures USD in revenue. Playstudios Inc., with its global group of studios, is going public under the symbol MYPS.
Working with a family-owned winery in China, Wynn managed branding and operated direct-to-consumer channels. He created a skin care line based on grape seed oil (32 SKUs), and drove a full rebrand and relaunch of 10 alcoholic products. These together with an aggressive social media campaign and refreshed operations across Chinese ecommerce properties Tmall, JD, RED, Wechat etc drove 85% YOY growth.
Elaine Shiu
Serial entrepreneur, Fashion, pet tech, travel tech, innovation
Elaine is a serial entrepreneur in fashion jewellery pet tech, travel tech as well as innovation. She has received numerous international awards, including Hong Kong Outstanding Young Entrepreneur and the Asia Pacific Entrepreneur Award. Meanwhile, she is an influencer on social media and seeks to encourage youth development as well as women’s empowerment through public speaking and lectures.
Akina
Management, innovative technology, consulting, finance, hospitality
Akina has over 20 years of experience in change management, innovative technology, consulting, finance, hospitality and global sales operations management experience starting from the Silicon Valley to worldwide. She is now leading a new department at Great Eagle to execute digital transformation and innovation at the group level and across all subsidiaries globally. She is also part of the Investment Committee that evaluate start-ups in cutting-edge technology and disruptive business model across different industries.
In the short time she has been with Great Eagle, she has been able to push for IoT deployment, drone technology, ERP, HR and other transformation projects that resulted in receiving rewards like the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards 2019 and other awards for great leadership, digital transformation & innovation, social innovation and etc. She was one of the Executive that helped a startup in Hong Kong to become one of the Unicorn in 2017 with investors from FoxConn and Softbank.
She is a respected guest speaker, panel specialist and guest professor with notable media appearances on Bloomberg and Fox International. Her appearances as keynote speaker and panelist can be found at esteem summits around the world covering various topics, such as leading technology, digital transformation, big data, security, digital marketing, HR, IoT, Customer Experience, and others. Akina holds an GEMBA from USC and a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA.