ABOUT OUR
PRESENTERS
DAY 1's KEYNOTE: Mr Simon Taylor, CEO: MDK
Consultants Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Simon is CEO of MDK Consultants Singapore, a leading Asia Pacific communications
consultancy. MDK has championed strategic communications for companies across
the region, providing strategic counsel and highly effective communications
and marketing campaigns.
Simon has over ten years experience providing advice to CEOs, Government Ministers
and Boards of Directors. He was formerly the National Communications Manager
of New Zealand Post, an icon brand in New Zealand. He was involved in a significant
privatisation programme as Press Secretary to the New Zealand Minister of Finance
in the mid-1990s and has worked in the banking industry. He is passionate about
using measurement disciplines to improve the effectiveness of communications
and has spoken to audiences in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Ms Shauna Li Roolvink, Founder & Managing Director: BrandHub
Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Shauna
is the founder and Managing Director of BrandHub, a brand consultancy dedicated
to creating and building Leader Brands in Asia. She has over 10 years of experience
in brand strategy, business strategy, market research, customer experience, and
marketing strategy and planning in the Asia Pacific region.
Prior to setting up BrandHub, Shauna was the lead brand strategies for the re-branding
of Singapore Inc., a project she took on as a freelance consultant at another
brand consultancy. As an Associate Director of Brand Strategy at Interbrand, Shauna
founded and managed the first Brand Strategy practice in Asia. She created the
Brand Strategy Blueprint for many leading Asian brands including Osim, StarHub,
and Brand’s. She also worked with multinational clients such as Motorola, DuPont,
and GM in Greater China and the Asia Pacific region. Shauna honed her strategy
development capabilities at A.T. Kearney where she managed diverse strategy engagements
for clients such as GM, Deere, ARCO, Chugai Pharmaceutical, and Pacific Dunlop
throughout the Asia Pacific region. She started her career as an Account Executive
at Leo Burnett. Her clients included Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris, United Airlines,
Chase, and HP. Shauna is the creator and author of the Brand Leadership Matrix™
- a framework to analyze brand lifecycle and investment strategies. She contributes
brand related articles regularly to The Edge Magazine as well as other leading
business and marketing journals in Asia. She is also a frequent speaker at branding
and marketing conferences. She obtained her MBA from the Anderson Graduate School
of Management at UCLA and a BS in Business Administration from USC.
Mr Lawrence Chong, Chief Executive Officer: ACIVAR
Brand Consultants Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Lawrence is the Principal Founder and CEO of Acivar Brand Consultants. Acivar
specializes in helping Asian firms in implementing business strategies and brand
positioning. By focusing on the medium and small Asian enterprises (SMAEs), Acivar
is able to better at understanding these firms’ needs. Lawrence loves the challenge
of nurturing; helping companies to grow in the competitive business environment,
and seeing them outshine the market leaders. His passion is to assist visionary
leaders in the region to build large Institutional Brands. Therefore, a lot of
his time is spent on giving seminars and providing workshops on how small Asian
businesses can tap into their latent potential and join the ranks of the outstanding
brands. Currently, Lawrence is holding a one-year term as the chairperson of the
Future Brand Delivery Group, an R&D community that gathers professionals from
the IT, Business Management, HR and Customer Relation sectors. The group constantly
reviews & provides analysis on how complementary technologies can be used to effectively
help Asian brands grow exponentially. Lawrence is also the EXCO member of the
Designers Association of Singapore DAS, which is actively involved with the various
ministries and government agencies such as MITA, SPRING, IE Singapore and EDB
in enhancing and promoting the value of branding and design to the local industries
in Singapore. Lawrence recently accepted a new role as a judge for the Singapore
Promising Brand Award 2004.
Ms Karen Ho, Regional Sales Director: Activate
Interactive Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Karen is Activate’s regional digital marketing consultant with experience in Singapore,
Malaysia, China and Hong Kong markets. She has helped various brand-owners, telecom
carriers and media companies to increase profits through innovative multi-channel
marketing strategies. Some of these clients include M1, StarHub, Maxis, Sony,
Singapore Information Technology Federation, Pearson Education, UOB Life Assurance,
Schenker Singapore, Avaya, DBS Bank and Fuji Xerox, among others. Karen’s most
recent accomplishment was the implementation of Activate’s advanced cross-platform
interactive TV system for StarHub Cable, enabling users to interact with TV channels
via mobile (SMS/MMS and Java) and online interfaces. She was also instrumental
in the provision of Activate’s Integrated Marketing Platform for StarHub’s mobile
alerts and promotion services, which has powered creative campaigns for brand-owners
such as MTV and Burger King.
Activate is a leading digital marketing and entertainment provider that develops
innovative applications for all platforms and devices, enriching the daily lives
of the next-generation consumers, and helping brand owners, telecommunication
and media companies increase profits through revolutionary digital marketainment
concepts.
Mr Huw Hopkin, Managing Director: Ground8
(Singapore)
Huw is Managing Director, Ground8 an independent CRM consultancy and project management
group. Current Ground8 clients include Cisco Systems and Levi Strauss to whom
Ground8 offers strategic CRM and Loyalty consulting, also other Direct marketing
agencies who require data mining and customer analytics expertise, which Ground8
can offer. Huw has participated in CRM and Loyalty program strategy development
for many multi-nationals in UK and Asia. Before founding Ground8, his experience
ranged from CRM infrastructure implementation to one to one marketing communication,
including customer data mining and analysis. Huw's former loyalty program and
CRM clients include BMW, BT Cellnet now O2, Caltex Thanks, IBM, Sony and Tesco
Clubcard. He is a full member of the Institute of Direct Marketing and holds a
diploma in Direct Marketing. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of
Marketing and the Direct Marketing Association of Singapore. He is also a frequent
speaker at marketing conferences.
Ms
Chong Yoke-Sim, CEO: NexLabs
Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Yoke-Sim is the CEO of NexLabs Pte Ltd which provides intelligent technologies
such as personalization, tracking, categorizing, summarizing, searching and alerting
to meet the growing needs of organizations for Competitive Knowledge Management.
Yoke-Sim is
also currently serving as Marketing Director (ASEAN) at Cisco Systems. Previously,
she was the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Aretae Interactive Limited
where she was responsible for driving Aretae's business in the Asia Pacific region,
managing and growing the consulting services, e-business solution development,
application and systems integration businesses. Prior to joining Aretae, Yoke
Sim was the E-Business Manager at Intel Asia and Group Manager of the Internet
and E-commerce group at Microsoft. At Intel, Yoke Sim was involved in the planning
and implementation of e-business and web services for its channels and business
partners throughout the Asia Pacific region. At Microsoft, Yoke Sim was responsible
for developing Microsoft businesses on all e-commerce, broadband and Internet
related technology in the South East Asia region. She had initiated and engaged
in major projects for the planning and deployment of broadband services for Singapore
together with strategic infrastructure providers like Singapore Telecom & Singapore
CableVision; around the region, she had also driven major telecommunication and
Internet projects in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
Ms
Satvinder K Sandhu, Director: Bluegill
Communications Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Satvinder is an entrepreneur and a communication-oriented enthusiast. She enjoys
shaping market and media perceptions through public relations and marketing communications
programs. Having started out her career as an English Language teacher, she eventually
pursued her need for diverse experiences by being a consultant and entrepreneur
for the past nine years. Her personal philosophy is: A fantastic communication
program is only as good as it looks on paper unless it delivers immediate returns
of investment for the client. Her philosophy is encapsulated in her programs.
Satvinder has consulted with major organizations, a start-up and industry groups
focused on the technology and hospitality industry. She is currently a Director
with Bluegill Communications, a boutique public relations and marketing communications
consultancy that is part of the ECCO network, one of the world’s Top 20 PR and
marketing networks and the 3rd largest in Europe. Bluegill provides its services
to clients and ECCO members in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Los Angeles. Bluegill
adds to ECCO’s largest network of specialist affiliates worldwide that has members
and affiliates in more than 60 countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East,
Africa and Asia Pacific and employs over 650 staff worldwide. Satvinder is also
the Chapter Director for WITI - a Professional Association comprised of individual
and corporate members throughout the United States, in Australia, and in Europe
that inspire women in and through technology and the business of technology. Satvinder
speaks regularly at conferences and lectures at private educational institutions.
When time permits, she teaches yoga and is an avid windsurfer and enjoys snow
skiing. She can be reached via email at satvinder@blue-gill.com
DAY
2's KEYNOTE: Mr Jeff Zweig, Chief Guru:
Web Guru Asia (KL,
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo & Bangkok)
Jeff is Chief Guru of Web Guru Asia, an award winning
Internet consulting
firm specialising in interactive marketing and web solutions development. He
is responsible for all of Web Guru Asia's activities in Southeast Asia. Jeff
has been instrumental in growing Web Guru Asia from a two-man operation based
solely in Kuala Lumpur to a more than 25-person operation with offices in Kuala
Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Bangkok that has served clients across
the Asia-Pacific region. Web Guru Asia's client portfolio includes more than
20 of the world's most recognisable brands, including Walt Disney, Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz
and Sony, amongst others.
In Singapore, Jeff has led interactive marketing work for organisations such
as Singapore Airlines, AOL Time Warner, CNBC, Singapore Tourism Board, The Ministry
of Manpower, The Ascott Group and others. Prior to working with Web Guru Asia,
Jeff worked eight years as a systems integration consultant with Accenture (formally
Andersen Consulting).
Mr Rob Stanley, Sales Director South Asia: DoubleClick
International Asia B.V. (South Asia)
Rob has worked at senior levels in sales and planning in several leading Interactive
Marketing technology companies, and currently leads DoubleClick Technologies
in South Asia. He has helped many brands such as Citibank, ESPN, MTV, Singtel,
StarHub, and Zuji among others, enabling them to utilize the online medium to
target their customers in a less expensive way with better results.
After selling his own consulting business in Canada he came to Asia with Vignette
where as Sales Director, he launched the first office in Asia. His time in servicing
local and Asian regional clients served to strengthen his appreciation and understanding
of cross-cultural issues. Rob has worked with clients in Australia, Hong Kong,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and across North
and South America. His personal mission is to play a leading role addressing
the challenge of helping companies to utilize technology to build their brands
and create a one-to-one dialogue with their customers.
Matthew Talbot is Head of Asia- Full Service, Mobileway. He recently joined Mobileway
to develop and build its Full Mobilization Service line of business in Asia. Prior
to Mobileway, Matthew was based out of Beijing as the CEO of MIG (Mobile Internet
Group), a leading Wireless Application Service Provider and Co-Publisher based
in Asia providing a white-labeled software infrastructure for the deployment and
delivery of content, applications and services to mobile users through its international
network of operators. Matthew built the client base of MIG's mobilized customers
to include major brands such as Sony Pictures, Disney, MSN, TV shows like "Who
Wants to be a Millionaire" and "Big Brother", as well as NBA All-Star Yao Ming.
Matthew grew MIG from 3 to over 40 people spanning Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong,
London, Sydney and the U.S. MIG is funded by Sun Microsystems and leading technology
investors including Allen & Buckeridge (Australia), Network Asia (Hong Kong) and
MINT (China).
Prior to joining MIG in February 2001, Matthew was with Tattersall's, Australia's
largest privately owned company and gaming and entertainment leader, as Marketing
Strategic Planning Manager. Whilst at Tattersall's, Matthew led the development
and launch of Tatts.com and PhoneLotto - the company's online and IVR based gaming
brands, and was part of the successful bid team for the South African National
Lottery. Matthew holds a Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Arts (Chinese) and
a Graduate Certificate in e-Commerce from Monash University, Australia.
Mr Ho Chee-Yue,
Founding Partner & Managing Director (Singapore): AKQA
Inc. (Singapore)
Chee-Yue is Founding Partner and Managing Director, Singapore of AKQA Inc. He
has over a decade of brand-building, advertising and service marketing experience
in the financial, information technology, telecommunications and travel industries.
Before the founding of AKQA Inc., he was Managing Director of the AdInc, a creative
marketing company that builds and markets brands such as Palm, Lycos Asia, Beenz
and Home Box Office.
Michael
brings a strong background in radio and television production, reporting and
journalism. Having worked for TVB (Hong Kong), Public Radio International, Metro
Broadcast (Hong Kong) and the Associated Press (Philippines), Michael is multi-talented,
not only producing shows but also reporting and appearing on camera for television.
From
1997 to 2000, Michael was the Financial Producer and Reporter for TVB, where
he produced the daily Financial Report seen on TVB's English language channel.
He also reported and produced 5-minute features for Money Magazine, a weekly
half-hour program. Concurrently, Michael was the Hong Kong correspondent for
The World, a co-production of Public Radio International, the BBC World Service,
and WGBH. The World can be heard across the United States. Michael produced
in-depth features on Asian politics, economics and culture. From 1996 - 1997,
Michael was the Business Editor for Metro Broadcast 1044 AM (HK), with responsibility
for all business content.
Michael
has served as a freelance journalist for Monitor Radio (US), the Christian Science
Monitor (US), Blue Danube Radio (Austria), National Public Radio (US) and the
Associated Press (Manila, Philippines). His work has been published in the Chicago
Tribune, the Toronto Star and the Commercial Appeal. He served in the Peace
Corps as a math teacher in Niger and Gabon. Michael
is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of Cantonese and Hausa plus
the basics of Mandarin. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Tufts University with
a BA in History and received his MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public
and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Ms
Norliza Kassim, Managing Consultant: Molecule
Consulting
(Singapore)
Norliza has
extensive experience in managing large Consumer Brands. In 1987, she began her
career in Advertising Agency, McCann-Erickson, servicing clients such as Coca
-Cola and Northwest Airlines. In 1990-1994, Ms Norliza was the Senior Brand
Manager in Unilever, responsible for the P&L management and successfully launching
of new brands such as Dove, Lux Shower Cream, Organics and Rinso Ultra. Between
1994-1999, Ms Norliza enjoyed a successful career at Citibank N.A. as Vice President,
Marketing, where she successfully launched CitiDirect Internet Banking as well
as Channel & CRM strategies. She was also Citibank's Country Branding Officer.
In 1999, Ms Norliza was the Director for Internet Marketing, Asia-Pacific in
Dell Computers. Most recently, she was Virgin Mobile Asia's Chief Marketing
Officer and launched the first MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) model
in Asia as well as the first Virgin branded business in Singapore.
Norliza is the 2002/3 Chairperson for Singapore Women in Technology Association
and an Exco Member of SBPWA, Singapore Business and Professional Women's Association.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pure & Applied Physics from the National
University of Singapore. Norliza is often featured in the media and more recently
in HerWorld and AsiaOne.
Mr
Michael Switow, Managing Director: