Conference on Digital Transformation of Financial Markets 2024

Professor Timothy CLARK

Provost, Singapore Management University

Prior to becoming Provost of SMU, Dr Timothy Clark was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Social Sciences and Health) at Durham University, United Kingdom, where he was also Executive Lead for Computer and Information Services (CIS) and Estates and Buildings.

Dr Clark joined Durham University as Professor of Organisational Behaviour (2002-19), becoming Chair of the Board of Studies (Head of Department) at Durham University Business School (2007-10). He was appointed Dean of Graduate School and Internationalisation at Durham University (2010-12), and Dean and Deputy to Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) (2012-15). He also served as Executive Lead for Computer and Information Services (CIS) and Estates and Buildings from 2018.

Before joining Durham University, he served as a Research Fellow in International Management at the Open University and a Reader in Management at King’s College London.

Mr TEO Ser Luck

President, Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants

Mr Teo Ser Luck is an entrepreneur, investor and started his own companies in different sectors relating to e-commerce technologies, healthcare, nutrition, fitness, wellness, fintech, edutech, brands and software development.

He spent 15 years in the private sector working in companies including Nike and DHL, overseeing and managing multi-national companies and operations in the Asia-Pacific region before being elected as a Member of Parliament of Singapore in 2006 and appointed as a full-time Minister of State and Mayor in the Singapore government. He returned to the private sector in July 2017 to build his own companies and remained as a Member of Parliament till June 2020.

Mr Teo was recognised as a young global leader by the World Economic Forum and was thrice conferred the Nanyang Alumni Awards - the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award, the Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award and the Nanyang Distinguished Alumni Award from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Apart from having his own companies, Mr Teo is also the Chairman of 2 public-listed companies on the main board of SGX.

Mr Teo’s public service extends into the industry sectors. He is the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants(ISCA) and also Advisor to the Singapore Fintech Association.

Mr Teo graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy from NTU. Mr Teo loves to read, plays music, workout daily and participates in endurance races.

Professor CHENG Qiang

Dean, SMU School of Accountancy and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Accounting, Singapore Management University
 

Dr Cheng Qiang is Dean and Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Accounting at School of Accountancy at the Singapore Management University.  He joined Singapore Management University in 2011 as the Associate Dean (Research) at School of Accountancy.  Dr. Cheng graduated from Tsinghua University, Beijing and received his PhD in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US in 2002.  He has previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Washington.

An award-winning researcher and teacher, Dr Cheng has published over thirty articles in leading scholarly accounting and finance journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Financial Economics.  He conducts research on various financial reporting and disclosure issues, including how corporate governance and family ownership affect corporate decisions, how investors use accounting information for valuation purposes, how executives affect financial reporting and disclosure decisions for their self-interests, and how security analysts help disseminate information in the capital markets. His current research focuses on the impact of digitalization on corporate decisions and ESG-related disclosure issues.

Dr Cheng previously served as an editor of The Accounting Review and a Council Member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA). He currently serves on the Research Committee of the American Accounting Association (AAA).  He served as the president of the Chinese Accounting Professors' Association of North America from 2009 to 2010.

Mr Benjamin LEE

Lecturer of Accounting, SMU School of Accountancy
 

Benjamin Lee is a Lecturer of Accounting, Director of Student Matters, and SMU-X Academic Champion at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University. He received his Master of Science with Distinction in Business Analytics from the Surrey Business School, University of Surrey in 2017 having previously graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy from Singapore Management University. He is also a Chartered Accountant of Singapore.

As part of furthering his research, he is concurrently pursuing his doctoral studies at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow in the PhD in Management programme under the Strategy and Technology Management research cluster. His doctoral research explores how Accounting Firms build dynamic capabilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as they pursue Digital Transformation.

His teaching and research interests are in the adoption of AI and ML for Data Analytics, specifically in solving accounting problems including cashflow management, cost allocation, credit risk analysis, financial forecasting, fraud prediction, and inventory control. He is a strong advocate for the SMU-X experiential learning pedagogy, teaching the Accounting Analytics Capstone at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as actively sharing about SMU-X in various settings such as TEDx and conferences.

He is co-author of "Accelerating Digital Transformation of SMEs" published by World Scientific in February 2023. The book seeks to help SMEs embark on their own journeys of digital transformation while remaining agile in responding to industry and consumer needs. He regularly publishes Teaching Cases in the SMU Case Series and Harvard Business Publishing Education, while also using a variety of such cases to enhance students' learning and appreciation for practical approaches to using AI and ML for Business Analytics through case method teaching. As a contributor to The Business Times, Zaobao, and the ISCA Journal, he writes on the need for accountants to embrace AI and ML in a fast-changing world so they can create value for businesses. 
 
Prior to joining SMU, he was a consulting data analyst at the Accountant-General’s Department (Singapore) working on applying ML to improve internal auditing processes.

Mr Ken GUO

CEO and Founder, Reluvate Technologies

Ken Guo is the founder and CEO of Reluvate, and a double degree holder in business management and information systems from Singapore Management University. With a decade of expertise in finance, strategy, and digital transformation in consumer goods, Ken has become a leader in the field.

At Reluvate, Ken is breaking ground, serving a diverse range of clients from MNCs to non-profits across 28 industries in three markets. The company has a robust focus on AI and automation, and has recently expanded its work with large language models like GPT. Additionally, with a strong commitment to internationalization, Reluvate is establishing the North Asia headquarters in Japan, further solidifying their presence in the region.

Ken’s mission is to transform companies into autonomous entities, empowering employees to focus on high-impact work through the strategic use of AI and automation. 

Dr Vincent LIM

CEO, Eco Sustainability Group

Vincent Lim is the CEO of Eco Sustainability Group and an Associate Faculty member at the Singapore Institute of Technology. Previously, he served as the Apac CFO at Datalogic S.p.A. (Borsa Italiana: DAL.MI), Deputy Group CFO at Hi-P International Limited (formerly SGX: H17), and Director of Finance for Asia at Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI).

Vincent is involved in various committees and organizations, including the ISCA, where he is on the CFO committee and a former ISCA Exco, Treasurer, and Council member, and ACCA where he is a former ACCA SME Transformation Committee Chairman and Singapore Network Panel member. Vincent holds a PhD in General Management from SMU, and he is a FCCA, FCA Singapore, ACA. Additionally, he has various sustainability-related qualifications, including GHG Accounting Lead Verifier (ISO14064).

Mr Fabiano Suifi

Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft ASEAN

Fabiano Siufi is the Chief Financial Officer for Microsoft Asean. In this role, Fabiano provides the overall financial and strategic leadership to the company in the region. He leads all aspects of financial planning, performance management, investments, business operations, tax, and controls & compliance.

Fabiano held several finance and business roles across Microsoft’s Australia, South Korea, and Singapore offices since joining the company in 2010.

Earlier on in his career, Fabiano spent several years at Roche, a biotech-healthcare conglomerate. There, he served in a wide range of roles, including finance, business development and sales, and amassed extensive international experience in England, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia.

A Brazilian-Australian national, Fabiano holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Universidade de Sao Paulo and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. He currently resides in Singapore with his wife and 2 kids.

Mr Anand SACHDEV

Managing Director, Country Manager for ING Bank Singapore

Anand Sachdev is managing director, country manager for ING in Singapore where he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of ING’s wholesale banking business for Singapore. 

Anand is a seasoned banker with over 19 years of experience in senior leadership roles across Australasia and Asia, spanning Wholesale Banking, Consumer and Business Banking and Enterprise functions. He has deep experience in executing various strategic and transformational change initiatives, setting up new business lines, operations and technology transformation, and embedding risk and governance disciplines. 

Prior to joining ING, Anand was chief executive officer, Singapore and chief operating officer, Asia Pacific at Westpac Banking Corporation. 

He is a Fellow (FCA) of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand, Member of Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, and holds a Master of Business Administration from University of Technology, Sydney, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Mumbai University.

Professor ZHANG Hong

Director, The Sim Kee Boon Institute (SKBI) for Financial Economics
Keppel Professor in Financial Economics
Professor of Finance, Singapore Management University

Professor Hong Zhang is currently the Keppel Professor in Financial Economics at Singapore Management University (SMU) and the director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI). Before joining SMU in 2022, he was the Phoenix Chair Professor of Finance at PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, and had also worked at INSEAD and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). 

Professor Zhang's research covers a broad range of topics, including investments, corporate finance, international finance, behavioral finance, institutions and culture, and green finance. His recent work explores the ramifications of big data and machine learning on the financial industry, the dynamics of investor leverage, and the impact of environmental policies. His research is widely published in top finance journals such as the Journal of Finance,Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has held the esteemed position of Senior Fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER) since 2018.

Professor Zhang also has extensive experience in teaching, business education, and case development. He has won teaching awards for various executive education programs (2016, 2017), and was honored with the university teaching award from Tsinghua University in 2018.

Professor Zhang received his Ph.D. in Financial Economics from Yale University in 2004.  Before his finance studies, he pursued physics at New York University and Fudan University. He won a national gold medal at the 8th Chinese Physics Olympiad in 1991 and was the national champion in the experimental category. Additionally, he obtained the national first prize in the 1991 National High School Mathematics Competition.

Ms Jenny TAN

Global Head of Internal Audit, CapitaLand Investment
President, ISACA SG Chapter

Jenny Tan is currently leading a global internal audit practice, including IT audit, with a global real estate fund management MNC. Jenny is the former PwC Risk Assurance Partner where she led the IT Audit & Advisory and Business Resilience Practices. She was PwC Singapore’s CIO and DPO. Jenny is the winner in The Cybersecurity Award 2023, 2022 Top Woman in Security (SG & Asean), 2022 Women Program of the Year Award (Asia), 2021 Women in IT Outstanding Contribution Award (Asia) and 2021 SG 100 Women in Tech recipient. She has also received the Top 20 Cybersecurity Women in Singapore, 2020 award.

Outside of work, Jenny volunteers heavily in the technology community space where she actively promotes technology (including cyber) awareness and adoption to both the business and IT professionals and organisations. She is currently the President of ISACA SG Chapter. Jenny spearheaded the ISACA’s SheLeadsTech programme in Singapore in 2019 and has since framed the programme as a cross-border female leadership experience & knowledge sharing platform. She has also successfully launched the 2021 SLT Mentorship Programme with dedicated mentor-mentee engagements to guide the career development of our SLT members accordingly. Jenny has also pioneered the Conversion Programme to achieve private-public-nonProfit objectives of bringing more women into the tech workforce. Feedback on both programmes were excellent! Her effort paid off as she is recognized by ISACA Global as one of the four 2021 Outstanding Chapter Leader Award global recipients and SLT Programme has also won her two Ally of the Year 2002 i.e. Best Program (International) and Best Contributor (Asia). Minister for Communications and Information, Josephine Teo, has also recently commended the Conversion Programme at the Cybersecurity Awards 2022 event. Jenny is also a finalist for Advocacy of the Year with the Women in IT, Asia 2023 award.

Jenny graduated with several degrees, master degrees and post-graduate diplomas in both IT and Business faculties. And she is currently a PhD candidate with Singapore Management University. She is currently serving as Audit Committee Member National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC), Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) and as a Board Member cum Finance Committee Member with School of the Arts (SOTA). Jenny also serves on ISCA’s Artificial Intelligence Taskforce's AI Solutions Sub-Committee and CSA’s Professionalisation Advisory Group.

Mr Richard KOH

Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft ASEAN, Global Partner Solutions

Richard Koh is the chief technology officer of Microsoft ASEAN, Global Partner Solutions. In this role, he leads the technology strategy of the Microsoft ASEAN partners ecosystem, helping partners leverage relevant technology innovations for their digital transformation in creating new products and services with Microsoft technologies.

Richard’s past professional experience spans the Asia and North America regions, as well as in multiple functional areas including R&D, IT, product management, marketing, business development and sales operations. He is deeply passionate about the promises that the Internet, Cloud and AI can bring to communities and countries.

Richard started his technology career and spent close to 12 years at Hewlett-Packard, with stints at the company first in Singapore, then in Cupertino and Palo Alto, in California, where he gained wide experience in R&D, business development and product management of emerging Internet/web-services and telecommunications technologies, as well as people and global organizations management.

He then joined Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, in 2006 where he led product teams as director of technical product management in Microsoft’s Office business, Servers & Tools business, as well as telecommunication solutions business, andeventually became part of the founding product team for Microsoft’s flagship productivity cloud services suite – Office 365.

He then relocated to Singapore in 2011, and spearheaded Emerging Markets strategy for Microsoft Operations as the operations team unit lead working on Microsoft’s cloud services launch efforts in China. He then took a stint as the senior director for Emerging Businesses & Strategy under Group Enterprise at Singtel. There, he led a team of intrapreneurs, products managers, product marketers, architects, software engineers and data center engineers to catalyze new businesses, products and platforms in Cloud services, the Internet of Things, machine to machine, education and healthcare, before re-joining Microsoft Singapore as its Chief Technology Officer. And recently in late 2023, he was appointed as the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft ASEAN Global Partner Solutions.

Richard is also currently serving on the board of directors of Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs’ Home Team Science & Technology Agency (HTX), Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth’s National Heritage Board (NHB), and Income Insurance Private Limited. He also serves on Sentosa Development Corporation’s Digital Transformation Advisory Panel, and past chairman of SGTech’s AI & HPC Chapter. 

Richard graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science & Information Systems. Richard is a proud father of two rambunctious boys. He loves to work with passionate people who wants to change the world for the better, and enjoys running, skiing, reading, action sci-fi movies and tinkering with tech gadgets.

Mr KOO Sengmeng

Head of LearnAI, AI Singapore
Senior Deputy Director, Office of Deputy President (Research & Technology), National University of Singapore

Koo Sengmeng is a seasoned public sector professional in AI certification and AI standardization efforts. Currently serving as the Head of LearnAI at AI Singapore, he and his team spearhead the development and implementation of Generational AI Capability Development programmes. Their efforts empower working professionals to #PLUSskill themselves, facilitating organizational transformation to stay competitive in the digital economy, and help schools to prepare students to thrive in a future AI world. 

With a background spanning 25 years in private and public sector, Sengmeng has excelled in research and development (R&D) and business portfolio management. Notably, his works influenced the growth of the Asia Pacific technology sector, contributing to the success of homegrown unicorns like Garena (now SEA Limited) and supporting NVIDIA in establishing its global network of AI Technology Centres, headquartered out of Singapore. 

In addition to his role at AI Singapore, Sengmeng holds positions in national taskforces and advisory councils. As a member of the PDPC Regulators Roundtable, he played a key role in releasing Asia's first Model AI Governance Framework at the World Economic Forum in January 2019. Furthermore, as a member of the Global Data Commons International Task Force, he contributed to the creation of the first draft of the Global Data Commons at the World Government Summit in February 2019.

In 2020, Sengmeng founded the AI Professionals Association with support from AI
Singapore, key opinion leaders, and industry partners. Through this association, he
successfully trademarked the "Chartered AI Engineer®" professional qualification, aiming to foster the growth of a globally recognized community of qualified AI engineers and practitioners and paving the way for real-world AI governance practices.

Sengmeng holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in technology management with specialization in innovation and entrepreneurship. His professional qualifications include PMP® (Project Management Professional), CSM® (Certified ScrumMaster), Advanced CSPO® (Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner), and he is a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society.

Mr Ramesh MOOSA

ASEAN and Singapore Forensic & Integrity Services Leader, EY

Ramesh Moosa is the EY Asean and Singapore Forensic & Integrity Services Leader. His international experience spans the US, Greater China, and other Asia-Pacific countries. He serves public sector and corporate clients across industries to enhance Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) practices, and in times of crisis, assist in incident response and conduct of forensic investigations. 

His area of expertise extends to investigations into fraud and corruption, financial crime and cybercrime, dispute and litigation support, expert witness, digital forensics and eDiscovery, forensic data analytics, and cybersecurity services. He has led digital forensic teams working alongside HK regulatory bodies in their enforcement raids to collect and analyze digital evidence. He has also provided expert witness testimony in relation to software copyright violation and authenticity of emails related to a shipping dispute.

Prior to joining a Big Four accounting firm in 2000, Ramesh was a senior officer in the Singapore Police Force where he conducted criminal investigations and managed the agency’s technology infrastructure. He is a fellow at the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, sits on the ISCA Financial Forensic Accounting Oversight Committee and was a founding council member of the Association of Information Security Professionals (AiSP).

Mr Shameek KUNDU

Executive Director, AI Verify Foundation

Mr Shameek Kundu is a Data and Analytics Leader with over 20 years' experience in financial services (Group Chief Data Officer at Standard Chartered Bank), AI safety and testing (at Trustworthy AI start-up TruEra) and Consulting (at McKinsey). He is now focused on open source efforts around AI testing, as Executive Director at the AI Verify Foundation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

Until 2020, he was Group Chief Data Officer at Standard Chartered Bank, where he helped the bank explore and adopt AI in multiple areas (e.g., credit, financial crime compliance, customer analytics, surveillance). Outside his day job, Shameek is closely involved in regulatory initiatives around AI governance.

He is a member of the Singapore Government's Advisory Council on AI and Data Ethics, co-chairs the data governance working group at the Global Partnership on AI and was one of the authors of the MAS' FEAT guidelines on Responsible AI.

Professor ZHANG Liandong

Deputy Dean, SMU School of Accountancy
Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Accounting

Dr Liandong Zhang is Professor of Accounting at School of Accountancy at the Singapore Management University. He joined Singapore Management University in 2017 as the Associate Dean (Research) at School of Accountancy. 

Dr Zhang graduated from Tsinghua University, Beijing and received his PhD Degree in Accounting from Nanyang Technological University in 2008. He has previously taught at the Concordia University in Canada and City University of Hong Kong. 

His current research interests include financial reporting quality, corporate governance, and taxation. He currently teaches Accounting Theory.