GARK TAN
Director, Marketing, Asia Pacific,
Research In Motion

As Director of Marketing, Asia Pacific, Research In Motion, Gark is responsible for strategic marketing initiatives as well as the development and execution of integrated marketing campaigns that help drive the growth of BlackBerry business within the region.

Based in Singapore, he leads a team of marketing managers and specialists across Asia Pacific region. His organization is responsible for providing key carrier, channel and business partners with go-to-market and in-life marketing support/programs which aim to increase mindshare with BlackBerry proposition as well as to drive greater market awareness and demand for BlackBerry products and services.

Gark Tan's career spans 21 years in information technology and communications industry. He has held senior management positions in sales & marketing, engineering, IT and product development. Prior to joining RIM in March 2007, he was the head of Brand Management and Promotions, Communications and Wireless Handheld Group, with Intel Asia.

Gark Tan graduated with an M.B.A. (Financial Management) from Nanyang Business School (Singapore) and holds a B.E.E.E. degree in Computer Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).

HENRY NG
Head of Professional Services, Asia
Verizon Business

Henry Ng has worked in the IT industry for 14 years. He is currently Head of Professional Security Services, Asia, within Verizon Business. Henry joined Verizon Business following the acquisition of Cybertrust by Verizon Business in July 2007. The team is responsible for providing project management, integration services, and ebusiness solutions covering all aspects of security and privacy. His key role is to manage and lead the Professional Services team and business within Asia including countries such as China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan.

Henry has been the project manager and team lead for many security assessment consulting engagements for Hong Kong government departments. He reviewed information security for clients, identified potential risks and vulnerabilities and proposed corresponding measures to mitigate identified problems. One of the government projects was to lead a team of security consultants to assess the security risk for a major government network, refine its security policies, draft an incident handling guideline and perform incident handling services for government departments.

Henry was also involved in implementing and architecting IT security solutions for customers, especially for Internet related projects. He had been a key infrastructure team member in a number of Internet-related engagements. Henry was the security and solution architect for several local Internet banking systems, as well as playing the role of security architect for an Internet data center design. In addition to his extensive experience in designing security and infrastructure solutions for Internet-related systems, he also helped these clients implement the solutions by deploying Internet and firewall systems such as B1-level Internet security gateways.

Prior to working at Cybertrust, Henry spent nine years at Hewlett-Packard HK SAR Ltd as the security team leader and senior consultant of the HP Consulting and Integration security practice team.

ITZHAK (ITCHE) WEINREB
Vice President APAC Sales
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Itzhak Weinreb, VP of APAC Sales for Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., has vast experience from management and sales roles with a great understanding of the Asian and European markets. In his present role, his accumulated skills and experiences from operative management as well as the responsibility for the whole process of pre-sales, sales and post-sales, are highly valued.

Mr Weinreb joined Check Point in 2008 after a succesful career at Comverse Network System, a leading provider of software and system enabling enhanced services for wireless and wireline communications service providers. Itzhak Weinreb first joined Comverse Network System as Account Manager for South East Asia in 1999, moved over to the EMEA division in 2000, and left in 2008 as the COO of the European Division. In between, Itzhak Weinreb held the positions Director of Account Management for South East Asia and VP and Technical Director for South Europe.

Mr Weinreb holds a MBA from the Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba, and has studied Political Science and Computer System Analysis in Tel Aviv

IVAN TANG
Sr. Vice President, Sales
CPCNet Hong Kong Limited

Mr. Ivan Tang joined CPCNet in February 2004 as Sales Director of General Business unit and was promoted as Senior Vice President, Sales in March 2007, supervising sales teams in both Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Prior to joining CPCNet, Mr. Tang worked for Legend Expert Limited, subsidiaries of Lenovo group, as the Managing Director of Hong Kong region. In the past 18 years, he has extensive experience of working in companies in Hong Kong, such as AT&T, Olivetti and Standard Chartered Bank. He has managed businesses of different aspects, such as e-commerce, government and education, as well as corporate market. His experience spans from banking to IT and telecommunication sectors.

Mr. Tang has graduated from the University of Toronto majoring in Computer Science.

SANJIV AIYAR
CEO, Global Markets & Wholesale
Singapore Telecommunications Limited

Sanjiv Aiyar joined SingTel in August 2007 as CEO, Global Markets & Wholesale. He leads SingTel’s growth in the global markets - delivering Telecom solutions to customers worldwide through the Global Offices. He also drives SingTel’s Wholesale business growth with international carriers and service providers.

Prior to joining SingTel, Sanjiv was President of Emerio Corp., an IT Managed Services company headquartered in Singapore with operations in 11 countries. He co-led the company with the founder CEO.

He spent 18 years with Hewlett Packard prior to this. He started with DIGITAL and stayed with the company through the Compaq-HP merger. He held several senior management positions in the Asia Pacific region. His last position was VP and Managing Director SE Asia region, overseeing the financial performance of the operations in ASEAN and some of South Asia countries.

His prior assignments included VP, Strategy & Development, Asia Pacific & Japan, driving transformational growth in China, India and Japan; VP, Marketing (Enterprise Systems Group), Asia Pacific region, where he successfully led marketing transformation. He also managed the high-end server and Telecoms businesses, Finance industry practice, Industry marketing, Channels development, Services P&L and Singapore sales. Prior to HP, Sanjiv worked in SI/Services companies focused on DIGITAL, Wang and Prime/IBM.

Sanjiv spent over 27 years in the IT industry of which 25 years have been in Singapore. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Bhopal, India and received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is the President of IIM Calcutta Alumni Association in Singapore. He is married and has two children.

STEPHEN YEO
World Wide Strategic Marketing Director
IGEL Technology

Mr Yeo is an international thought leader in the field of IT, server-based computing and thin clients with over 15 years of industry experience. Before IGEL he was Marketing Director at both Wyse Technology and Dell UK. From the UK, Mr Yeo holds degrees in Engineering from Manchester University, England, and also a Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Business Informatics from Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

TIMMY SHUM
Senior IT Director for Corporate Networks and UM Services
Juniper Networks, Asia Pacific

Timmy Shum joined Juniper Networks in August 2000 and currently serves as Senior IT Director for Corporate Networks and Unified Messaging (UM) Services. He is responsible for driving the strategy, operations, and service development on Worldwide IT Networks and UM for APAC, EMEA, and US. Timmy also leads Corporate IT services (infrastructure and application services) for Sales and R&D operations in APAC.

Prior to this role, Timmy led Juniper's APAC IT for five years, managing the company's global information services for APAC region. Prior to joining Juniper Networks, Timmy was APAC IT Manager for Marconi Communications, where he built and managed the company's regional IT infrastructure and application services.

Timmy started his career in 1991 as MIS Engineer for Global Sources, focused on consultant and database development. He holds a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems and Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin in United States.

ANTHONY LAM
IT Director, Asia Pacific and Japan
Invitrogen Corp.

Anthony Lam joined Invitrogen Corp in March 2005 astheir Regional IT Director for Asia Pacific and Japan. Anthony brings with him over 25 years of industry experience and prior to joining Invitrogen, he worked in Hewlett Packard as their regional service delivery manager and Sybase as the regional support manager.

Based in Hong Kong, Anthony leads a team of IT managers, business analysts, project manages and engineers across the region to provide application deployment and infrastructure structure support for Invitrogen. His team manages system implementation and integration across different aspects from supply chains, web enabling, e-commerce to electronic interface with third party suppliers/partners.

Anthony set the strategic direction for Invitrogen IT to transform from a technical centric organisation to align and with focus on business directions. This led him to successful helping their Greater China business team to optimize their organisation and function to accomplish growth of more than 40% in this year and allows their South Asia team to continuously expand their e-channel in growing the business.

Mr Lam earned his Master degree of Information Technology in Australia.

CARSTEN PAASCH
Head of Strategy
Group Information Security, Standard Chartered Bank

Mr. Carsten Paasch has been with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) since 2002 in various roles in information security. After having spent a few years as information security risk manager for North East Asia and advising projects and business lines on information security risk exposure and mitigation, Carsten has spent 1 year from 2005 until 2006 as Chief information Security Officer in Standard Chartered First Bank Korea. Since late 2006, Carsten has been heading the strategy team in SCB’s Group Information Security (GIS) department. In this role, Carsten is responsible for:

• Setting the strategic direction of GIS in line with SCB’s overall business direction, the company’s IT aspirations as well as the company’s risk appetite, and communicate it to the relevant stakeholders
• Managing the information security aspects in the ongoing integration efforts of SCB’s recent acquisitions including Korea First Bank (Korea), Hsin Chu Bank (Taiwan), Union Bank (Pakistan), and most recently American Express Bank
• Coordinating issues pertaining to information security with regulators in NEA
• Assisting the Group CISO in managing the global information security team

Prior to working with SCB, Carsten worked in Dresdner Kleinwort for 7 years from 1994 until 2001 in various roles in IT development, IT infrastructure and was last the Head of Information Security for Asia-Pacific ex Japan.

Carsten holds a master’s degree each in Computer Science and Information Systems from Technische Universitaet Branschweig (Germany), an MBA in Finance from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), an MSc in Engineering (E-commerce) from the University of Hong Kong, and a PhD in Information Systems from HKUST, his dissertation being in the field of fraud detection using methods of artificial intelligence.

In his spare time Carsten enjoys the Hong Kong country parks hiking, plays the piano, studies Korean and Cantonese language, and spends time with his wife and 2 children.
Carsten is a German citizen and has been living in Hong Kong since 1992.

CHEE SING CHAN
Editor-In-Chief
Computer World Hong Kong

Chee Sing Chan is the Editor-in-Chief of Computerworld Hong Kong, having joined the territory's leading technology publication in 2001.

Chee has over 7 years' experience in the Hong Kong IT industry and has a degree in Economics and Mandarin Chinese from Leeds University, UK.

During his time at Computerworld Hong Kong, he has covered local technology news across a wide range of topics.

Currently he specializes in feature stories covering networking, telecommunications/IT, Web services and enterprise integration, utility computing and outsourcing.

The expertise in these areas of enterprise IT has led him to chair various technology conference discussions and CIO-level roundtable discussions.

Prior to joining Computerworld Hong Kong, Chee served as senior consultant at a Hong Kong-based PR agency.

Accounts under his management included Nortel Networks, 3Com and Novell, which involved development of PR campaign strategy, overseeing execution and a range of marketing related writing duties.

CHRIS LAU
Director of Future Services
SmarTone-Vodafone

Chris Lau is the Director of Future Services at SmarTone-Vodafone. Mr. Lau has over 20 years' experience in telecommunications products and services development. Before joining the Group in 1992, he had held various product development positions in both mobile and fixed network operators in North America and Hong Kong. He was appointed to his present position in October 2001. In his current role, he is responsible for development of mobile voice and non-voice new products/services, development of advanced corporate services for corporate customer as well as sourcing new technology for new mobile services. Mr. Lau is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, UK and Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canada. Mr. Lau holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Institute of Science & Technology, University of Manchester, UK and High Diploma of Management Studies from City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.

DAVID LAU
Director of IT
Lee Kum Kee International Ltd.

David Lau is currently the IT Director of Lee Kum Kee (LKK) International Limited, responsible for managing the global IT operations in the LKK group, with offices and factories in HK as well as China, US, Europe, and South East Asia

David has been working in IT for over 25 years, holding management positions in various companies covering a wide range of industries in government, banking, insurance, utility, trading and manufacturing. During his career, David has demonstrated leadership in business and technology strategy development, IT governance and business alignment, large scale ERP implementation, as well as major system development.

David holds a MBA degree and is a Chartered Engineer of the UK Engineering Council.

DENIS CHANG
Regional IT Director
Asia - Pulse Components Ltd.

Denis Chang, Regional IT Director, currently heads the Information Technology teams in Asia. In this capacity, Denis is responsible for managing the IT operations in Pulse manufacturing facilities in PRC and Vietnam, and oversea offices in Singapore and Taiwan.

Denis joined Pulse since 1996 as IT Manager, and as the Regional IT Director since 2000, overseeing and managing overall business computing and communications resources and business requirements in the Far East region, including local and regional network infrastructure, voice and messaging systems, application development, implementation and supports, strategic planning and budgeting, security and business continuity, and talent and staff development.

Denis has over 20 years' experience in the IT field. Prior to joining Pulse, he was the project leader in Fuji Photo Film B.V (the Netherlands), a leading photographic manufacturing company from Japan.

EMILY CHAN
Director of IT
Hong Kong Disneyland

Emily Chan currently heads the Information Technology team of Hong Kong Disneyland. In this role, Emily is responsible for leading all of the technology activities related to resort operations.

Emily joined Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 as Manager, Technology Operations with main responsibility in overseeing the planning, design, installation, maintenance and development of telecommunications, resort-wide communications, wireless technologies, network technologies, hardware and IT security aspects of Hong Kong Disneyland's technology operations.

Emily has been working in the IT field for 20 years and prior to joining Hong Kong Disneyland, Emily was the CIO North Asia of JTI (China) Limited, a global manufacturing company, with a leading role of all IT activities in the region.

FRANCIS FUNG
CTO
Midland Realty Group

Francis Fung had been working in Midland Group as Chief Technology Officer 5 years. The IT department had 100 staff in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Macau. The company employed the Metro IP data network, with Critrix and Thin Clint to manage over 300 branches and 5,000 end users in Hong Kong.

Before joining Midland Group, he worked in an Integrated Call Centre of Hong Kong Government as Executive Manager. Also, he was the Principal Consultant of PWC in CRM focus in call center and telecom projects in Singapore and Indonesia.

He has the degree of BSc..(Hons.) in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, MBA and Diploma in Marketing.

Mr. Lam earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in Australia. He also has MBA & MSc degrees from the Hong Kong Universities during his career development.

GARY SUEN
Head of IT
Asia Airfreight Terminal

In his role as the head of the Information Technology Department at Asia Airfreight Terminal in Hong Kong, Gary Suen is responsible for the overall IT strategy and directions of the company, driving operational efficiency and delivering business values through the increasing adoption of technology.

Mr. Suen has over 10 years' of experiences in Information Technology industry locally and internationally, with the last 4 years specialising in logistics IT. Prior to joining Asia Airfreight Terminal, Mr. Suen has held senior technical and project management positions in Hong Kong and in the United States, with companies such as OnePort Limited (Hong Kong), Cambridge Technology Partners (USA) and Northrop Grumman Corporation (USA).

Mr. Suen graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in the United States with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, and received a Master's degree in Information Systems Management from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He also held professional certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and an ITIL Service Manager.

LAWRENCE WONG
Associate Partner
McKinsey & Company, Singapore

Lawrence Wong is an Associate Partner based in Singapore. He joined McKinsey & Company in New York in 2003 and moved to the Asia Pacific region from Silicon Valley, California in 2007. He is one of the leaders for McKinsey's Business Technology practice in Asia and serves banking and high-technology clients on a broad range of transformational Operations and Technology issues.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Lawrence co-founded a venture backed enterprise software and services company. Lawrence holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

LORIE LAM
CIO
Ma Belle Jewellery Co. Ltd.

He joined Ma Belle since 1997 to develop the company's IT renewal strategy. In this role, Mr. Lam is responsible for providing strategic direction for the IT operations, infrastructure and core operating applications across the corporation. Ma Belle is operating as the Retail Chain of fine diamond Jewelry over Hong Kong and China regions. Previously he spent 8 years in the IT consultancy works for the clients in various industries. Through his leadership and vision, IT is focused on utilizing and leveraging information technology to transform how MaBelle do business with customers.

Mr. Lam earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in Australia. He also has MBA & MSc degrees from the Hong Kong Universities during his career development.

MARCUS VASS
Partner
Bird & Bird

Marcus Vass is a partner in and head of Bird & Bird's Corporate/Communications, Media & Technology Group in Hong Kong and Beijing. He has been based in both Hong Kong and Beijing since 1999 and has led landmark technology and communications focused projects in several Asian jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and China.

Marcus has been elected to the Hong Kong Management Association (Telecom Users Group) which lobbies the government and the regulator on telecoms matters. He is also a member of the IT and Telecoms Committee of the Beijing EU Chamber of Commerce.

Marcus is highly regarded as one of the best practitioners in the CMT practice area in the Asia region and represents many multinational companies in the CMT sector seeking to enter the market or to expand their operations in Greater China and other parts of Asia. As stated in a commentary of Asia Pacific Legal 500 2006/7, Marcus 'delivers extremely technical advice in a down-to-earth and pleasant manner'. Marcus is also a “recommended?lawyer for China and a "recognised" lawyer for Hong Kong according to PLC Which Lawyer? Telecommunications Handbook 2007.

In the most recent PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook published in 2008, the CMT practice of Bird & Bird was "highly recommended" for Telecommunications in China, and the sole firm ranked as "highly recommended" for IT and E-commerce in Hong Kong.

MICHAEL CHAN
Chief Information Officer
Asia Pacific (Capital Market) and Hong Kong

Michael CHAN is the Chief Information Officer for Asia Pacific (Capital Markets) and Hong Kong in CALYON, the investment banking division of the eighth world largest bank Credit Agricole in term of tier one capital. Over 14 years of investment banking experiences, he is specialized in the areas of leading multi-national scale of I.T. projects for capital markets business development, trading technologies, data center setup, operation risk management and IT outsourcing. With his business hat, Michael is the closer partner with investment bankers for developing new capital markets activities and products in Asia region. His track records cover full cycle implementation of critical trading/pricing/execution platforms, front-to-back/accounting/risks platforms integration, workflow industrialization and optimization for wide ranges of capital markets activities in Asia and other regions. With his technology hat, he oversees capital markets I.T. architectures, infrastructure, trading technologies and innovations, regional data center, dealing facilities and offices setup. In term of crisis management, he succeed to make happen the urgent transfer of Eastern Europe regional data center to Hong Kong during Prague flooding crisis and helped out New York during 911 and Blackout crisis to prepare on secondary trading platforms in Hong Kong. In 2006, he has setup two outsourcing centers in Asia to support and develop globally for the excellence of practices.

MICHAEL K. M. LEUNG
Senior VP and CIO
China Construction Bank (Asia) Ltd.

Michael Leung was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Bank of America (Asia) in March 2000 . In this capacity, he manages the Bank’s IT function in its entirety, including business systems design and development, project management, as well as production systems support and data center operations. In addition, Mr Leung is also in charge of operations planning, product services and corporate administration departments of the Bank.

Mr Leung has over 28 years' local and international experience in information technology, specializing in the banking and finance industry. Before joining Bank of America (Asia), he was a senior manager at Standard Chartered Bank, overseeing service delivery systems as well as acquisition & merger activities for its Consumer Banking division in the Asia Pacific region. Previously, Mr Leung was the head of the Business Research and Development department at the Dao Heng Bank , responsible for developing new business models and distribution channels for retail banking products and services.

Prior to his banking assignments, Mr Leung was a managing consultant at IBM Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse Management Consulting Services in Hong Kong and Australia. Immediately after his post-graduate study in Holland, Mr Leung spent nearly 10 years with the Dutch Philips Telecommunications and Data Systems, involving in the development and pre-sales support of banking terminals and transactions processing systems.

Mr Leung holds a Master degree in Engineering from The Netherlands Universities Foundation and a Bachelor of Science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In his over two decades of professional career, Mr Leung has attended executive training at London Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, an honor diploma from Graduate School of Retail Bank Management of University of Virginia, among others. He is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society and member of several professional bodies, and a seasoned speaker on a range of business and IT topics in regional conferences.

MICHAEL MA
Corporate VP
IT, AIA Company Ltd

Michael Ma has been in the Information Technology industry for over twenty years in both North America and Asia Pacific.  He has extensive experience in project management, consulting, systems integration and systems development, in addition to his sales, marketing and management expertise. His experience spans many industries including airlines, IT and consulting, banks, insurance, clearinghouse, warehouse & distribution, utilities, and the public sector. Mr. Ma has held various technical, management and executive positions with such large global enterprises as IBM (Canada & Greater China Group), Unisys Asia, Canadian Airlines International, and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and Sun Life Financial.

Mr. Ma is currently a Corporate Vice President, Regional Information Technology, American International Assurance Company, Limited (AIA). AIA is the life insurance division of one of the largest financial services companies in the world, American International Group Inc. (AIG). Mr. Ma has responsibilities spanning across Asia Pacific covering 12 countries in 14 business units.

Prior to joining AIA, Mr. Ma was the Corporate Vice President and Regional Chief Information Officer for Sun Life Financial, Regional Headquarters, responsible for regional Information Technology and Operations.

PATRICK SLESINGER
Director and CIO
Wallem Group Ltd

Patrick joined Wallem in December 1992. He is responsible for Information Technology, including business process management, for the group worldwide. In 2000 he was responsible for establishing Wallem Group's Software Development and Business Process Off-shoring Centre in the Philippines, WIS Clark. This facility provides Wallem, its clients and third parties cost effective world class systems development and process management. Patrick is the past Chairman of the Intertanko IT Committee, and a keen advocate of intra-industry Information Technology and software development collaboration.

PERRY LAI
Vice President - IT
Langham Hotels International Limited

Mr Lai is an IT professional with over 18 years' experience in regional IT strategies formulation and consultancy, system integration, project management, technical support, system design and development and eBusiness in the Asia Pacific region. Joined the Group in January 2005, he is responsible for facilitating the improvement of the Group's business opportunities and operation efficiency through technology. Mr Lai previously worked for multi-national corporations, including Dow Jones Telerate in Australia, Unisys Corporation, Logica Limited and Deloitte & Touche Management Solutions Limited.

PETER CHAN
Director, Regional Head of IT
INVESCO HK Ltd.

Peter Chan is Director - Regional Head of IT of INVESCO Hong Kong Ltd, in which he has served for over 19 years. Mr. Chan is responsible for overall IT strategy and operations in INVESCO in Asia Pacific region, covering offices in HK, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, & Australia.

Mr. Chan received his Master degrees in Information Technology Management from Macquaire University, NSW, Australia. He has over 24 years of experience in IT industry.

PETER SMITH
Director of IT
CSL Hong Kong Ltd.

Peter Smith is the Director of Information Technology at Hong Kong CSL. His current responsibilities include setting the overall company IT strategy, development & support of CSL's business and operational support systems, together with management of CSL's IT infrastructure.

Prior to joining CSL in 2001, Peter worked for Telstra based in Australia. He held various senior management roles at Telstra, providing support across a broad spectrum of Communications Products and Services.

Peter has 21 years of experience in the Communications industry, and is a regular speaker at ICT conferences and seminars globally. Mr. Smith is a member of the TeleManagement Forum Billing & Customer Experience Council, and is an Executive Committee member of the HK Computer Society CIO board.

SIM CHOO
VP Regional CIO
Asia Pacific , Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sim has more than twenty years of experience in Information Technology. He is originally from Malaysia and worked and lived in Australia for sixteen years before relocating to Hong Kong where he has been based since 1998. Sim has worked for the Victorian Government in Australia, Federation Insurance, Monsanto, Campbell Soup, and is currently the Asia Pacific Regional CIO for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) where he has served for nearly ten years.

Sim successfully built the regional Asia Pacific IT organisations for both Campbell Soup and Sony Pictures Entertainment from the ground up. Sim has been instrumental in driving SPE towards stable, standard, easily-supported global systems and infrastructure, which allows his team to concentrate on business partnership and add value by delivering on projects to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Despite being responsible for the entire Asia Pacific region, Sim believes in maintaining a small, tight staff where teamwork and information-sharing is the key to success. Sim's message to his team is that they work for the business, not IT, and this can only be achieved through a deep understanding of business processes.

Sim is married with two children and enjoys pursuing photography in his spare time.

SIMON TSUI
Director of International Information Technologies
Time Warner Hong Kong

Simon Tsui is the IT Director of Time Warner Hong Kong, Limited. In his current capacity he oversees the IT Operations in the Asia Pac region. He brings a client focused perspective to IT Operations born from his beginnings as a Systems Engineer and serving the company for more than ten years. His growth within the company has allowed him to build vast institutional knowledge of IT within the media industry which he is using to transform IT from a utility provider to a valued business partner. Convergence within the media industry, IT field, and broadcast operations makes his mission more relevant than ever.

Prior to his career with Time Warner Hong Kong and its child company Turner International, he earned a Bachelor's degree in Applied Science from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. He has fulfilled various other roles as a Product Marketing Executive, Apple Solutions Sales Representative, and Presales Technical Support for various products.

Sirsij Peshin
Vice President
Business Technology-Japan, Pfizer Japan Inc

Sirsij Peshin is currently Vice President - Business Technology for Pfizer Japan.

Sirsij has been managing a variety of IT Leadership roles across Pharmaceuticals, Telecom, Chemicals and Leather industry verticals. His past experience includes Corporate Planning, Sales Management and Clinical Data Management start-ups.

Sirsij champions 'Business/IT alignment’ and 'Deliver business value'’ approaches while implementing small to multi-million dollar and high-ROI initiatives. He possesses extensive experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategic Outsourcing, Business Process Re-engineering and Cost Reduction/Service Improvement initiatives. Sirsij has also demonstrated success in implementing a number of ERP, CRM, SCM and other strategic initiatives.

Sirsij has spoken at numerous Global IT conferences and has been recognized with a number of awards.

STEPHANE VIDART
Regional CIO
AXA Asia Life

After a career as Network Engineer, in 1991 Mr. Vidart was appointed CIO of Direct Assurance greenfieldlaunch, implementing a client centric IS for Direct P&C.

In 1994 Mr. Vidart became CIO for Canada. Running through mergers, he consolidated teams from 3 companies to form AXA Canada Tech. From 1998, he launched Programs for worldwide DataCenterconsolidation and IT Rationalization. He performed e-Business Strategic investments diligences through AXA network of preferred Venture Capital firms. From 2002 he performed as a Transversal Officer overseeing IT strategy and key investments in Southern Europe and since 2005 in Northern Europe. Scope includes BPO, Mergers and global Productivity programs.As of July 2007, stephane is Regional Chief Information Officer, AXA Asia Life, running IT operations and shared Information System for 8 countries including China, India, Singapore and Honk Kong.

MS Telecom Engineering Paris and MS Statistics from Texas A&M. Currently residing in Hong Kong, Mr. Vidart is married and has 3 children.

SUK WAH KWOK
CIO
Aon Hong Kong Ltd

I am currently the CIO of Aon Hong Kong, which is the regional headquarters for Aon Asia - the 15-country Asian arm of Aon Corporation. Worldwide, Aon is the largest reinsurance broker and, in 2006 also went from the second largest to become the largest insurance broker in the world in terms of brokerage revenue. It operates in more than 120 countries with over 36,000 employees working in more than 500 offices. Its 2007 global revenue is ranked among the top 250 companies on the Fortune 500.

I joined Aon Hong Kong in 2001 as their first CIO, and have witnessed the crucial change of IT taking on more a strategic role, rather than just an operational one. Increasingly so, CIOs are expected to become a business partner and an opportunity enabler. And the exciting expansion of Aon within Asia has truly demonstrated the importance of IT in facilitating business growth.

I graduated with a First Class Honors Degree in Computer Science from the University of Sydney. I also hold an MBA Degree majoring in Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney.

I spent the early years of my IT career in application development, specializing in Object Oriented design and development, mainly in banking, finance, and government sectors in Australia.

I then returned to Hong Kong to lead an OO development project for the New Chek Lap Kok Airport.

After the new Airport move has completed, I joined Sun Microsystems. It was also at this stage when my career changed direction to focus more on network architecture and infrastructure, which subsequently led me to other career ventures involving setting up and running commercial data centers. The experience in both application development and network infrastructure has provided me with the breadth and depth of IT knowledge and experience, which has proved very useful, given the variety of issues and challenges faced by CIOs.

Putting aside IT as my major personal hobby, I am also a member of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force, and have a strong passion for various sports including skiing and motor cycling.

SUNNY W. K. LEE
Executive Director - IT
The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Mr Sunny W K Lee joined The Hong Kong Jockey Club as Executive Director, Information Technology in July 2006. Mr Lee heads a team of over 430 IT professionals, to provide innovative technology solutions that contribute significantly to the Club's mission and strategic objectives.

Mr Lee has extensive IT experience gained in both Hong Kong and overseas. Prior to joining the Jockey Club, he spent 10 years at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) where he was an Executive Committee Member and held a number of key positions at the Company, including Chief Information Officer of the Group and Chief Executive Officer of two strategic diversification businesses, iCare.com Limited and Towngas Telecommunications Company Limited.

Between 1990 to 1996, Mr Lee was Vice President and Systems Director of the Bank of America in Hong Kong, where he played a key role in building up IT capabilities to support the Bank's business expansion in Asia. He has also previously held key IT positions in the financial, management consulting and manufacturing industries in the USA.

Mr Lee takes time to serve in many high level advisory committees in the academic, professional and community arena, and is currently President of the Hong Kong Computer Society as well as a member of the Hong Kong SAR Digital 21 Advisory Committee. In 1999, he was a recipient of Hong Kong's Ten Outstanding Young Digi Persons Award for his contributions to IT. He has received two CIO Awards from CIO Asia Magazine, the first in 2002 and again in 2007 for the Club's Veterinary Management Information System. Mr Lee is also a recipient of the 2007 China Top CIO Award, awarded by CEOCIO China Magazine and IDC (China).

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is one of the largest racing organisations in the world. Horse racing is the most popular spectator sport in Hong Kong and the Club is the only authorised operator of horse racing. The Club also operates the Mark Six lottery and under Government authority, offers betting on football matches held outside Hong Kong.

The Club is also the largest single taxpayer in Hong Kong - HK$12.64 billion in 2006/07, an estimated 8.2% of all taxes collected by the Government Inland Revenue Department. A unique feature of the Club is its not-for-profit business model whereby its surplus goes to charity. Through the past decade, the Club has donated one billion Hong Kong dollars every year to hundreds of charities and community projects. Today, the Club ranks alongside organisations such as the Rockefeller Foundation as one of the biggest charity donors in the world.

SUSAN POON
IT Director
Asia Pacific & Global Demand Management, Rockwell Automation

Susan is the Director of Information Technology for Asia Pacific at Rockwell Automation, world leader in automation control providing industrial automation control and information solutions designed to give customers a competitive advantage.

She moved to Hong Kong from the Silicon Valley in 2001 to manage IT organization supporting Lucent Worldwide Services operation in Asia Pacific with increased responsibilities over the 3 years.

In early 2004, she joined Rockwell Automation. She is in charge of all IT services for the Asia Pacific region including China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Southeast Asian countries. Susan strongly believes that Information Technology is the enabler of business growth and productivity improvement and continues to drive the organization to become strategic business partners to deliver greater value to the corporation.

Fluent in Mandarin, English and Cantonese, she received her bachelor degree in Finance and later a joint Executive MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2004. She is the proud mother of two girls, Claire and Amelia.

SZU-JEN LU
Senior Vice President, Information Technology
Sa Sa International Holdings Limited

Ms. Lu has over 25 years' experience in information technology field. Before joining Sa Sa, she has severed various management roles for multinational companies such as EDS, one of the world’s leading information technology consultant and services providers. Prior to that, she was the Chief Technology Officer of Softbank Hong Kong.

THOMAS NG
GM - IT
Dah Sing Bank

Thomas has been a General Manager and Head of IT of Dah Sing Bank since joining in 1997 and is responsible for the bank’s Information Technology Division. Prior to joining the bank, Thomas held various positions as a management consultant in Coopers and Lybrand and system manager in Chase Manhattan Bank. He graduated from New York University with a Master degree in Business Administration.

THOMAS PARENTY
MD
Parenty Consulting Ltd.

Thomas Parenty, Managing Director of Parenty Consulting Limited (Hong Kong), has twenty five years of experience in the computer security and cryptography fields, including employment with the United States National Security Agency. He has designed and evaluated the information security protections of numerous national and global systems, including those for banking, electronic commerce, credit card processing, healthcare, manufacturing, and nuclear command and control. In addition, Parenty has designed security features in enterprise software applications that are currently used by governments and businesses across the globe.

Mr. Parenty has testified five times before the United States Congress on global competitiveness, national security, law enforcement, and encryption export controls. On behalf of the National Academy of Sciences he assessed the quality of the information security work done by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He advised the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection on information security research directions and the protection of telecommunications networks.

He has been featured in international media ranging from CNN's Global Office to The Economist and has lectured throughout the world, including the University of California at Berkeley, the National Cryptologic School (NSA), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Harvard Business School Press published Parenty's book, Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets.

TOA CHARM
Chairperson, Business Intelligence Special Interest Division,
Hong Kong Computer Society
Regional Head of BICC, Asia Pacific, HSBC

Mr. Toa Charm ("Toa" in short) has over 20 years of management, marketing and consulting experience in the information technology industry. Currently, Toa is the Regional Head of Business Intelligence Competence Centre (BICC), Asia Pacific, HSBC. His mission is to empower HSBC Asia Pacific to compete and operate effectively with world-class business intelligence best practices and transform the company into a data-driven enterprise.

Before joining HSBC, Toa was the General Manager of Oracle Business Intelligence where he managed the business intelligence solutions business and operations in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan for Oracle. Oracle is the largest enterprise software company in the world. Before joining Oracle, he was the General Manager of Kingdee Software Asia Pacific. Kingdee is the 2nd largest ERP software company in China and is listed in Hong Kong Main Board. Before joining Kingdee, he was the Managing Director of Hyperion Solutions Greater China. Hyperion is the largest performance and financial management software company in the world. Toa also worked for Jardine Pacific and a few major US-based software companies in various management, marketing and technical positions.

Toa actively serves the Hong Kong, China and Asia Pacific communities through participating major business, IT and academic associations in these regions. He is the founder and current Chairperson of the Business Intelligence Special Interest Division of the Hong Kong Computer Society. In addition, Toa is an appointed member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council - China Trade Advisory Board, an appointed advisor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Department of Computing, an appointed Honorary Associate of the Hong Kong Baptist University - the School of Business, a visiting lecturer of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a visiting lecturer of the Open University of Hong Kong.

Toa possesses a M.A. degree in Business Administration and B.Sc. degree in Computer Science. He is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree in Business Administration (DBA).

Vincent Chan
Partner, Technology & Security Risk Services
Ernst & Young Advisory Services Limited

Vincent is the Partner in charge of Ernst & Young's Technology & Security Risk Services in Hong Kong, where he leads a team of technology risk professionals in the delivery of IT audits, IT risk management advisory, IT project risk advisory and information security advisory services to a variety of clients.

Vincent has over fifteen years' experience in the IT audit, controls and security industry. In the late 1990's, he was an early adopter of a number of international leading practices, including ISO27001 security management framework implementation services and WebTrust assurance service, on various local and international organizations. In recent years, Vincent's focus has been on assisting companies establish Enterprise IT Governance.

Vincent has also been actively involved as a director of the Information Systems Audit & Control Association ("ISACA")’s Hong Kong Chapter since he returned Hong Kong to join Ernst & Young in late 1996. Before taking up his current role as the Chapter President three years ago, he has been in the positions of Vice-President, Chapter Secretary, as well as CISA Coordinator responsible for promoting and assisting members in exam preparations for Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), the globally recognized qualification for IT audit and control professionals.

Vincent is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA Australia), Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Practicing Accountant (HKICPA), as well as a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). Besides being the President of ISACA (Hong Kong Chapter), and Vincent is the Deputy-Chair of HKICPA's Members Services Committee, as well as the Convener of the institute's IT Interests Group.

DR. WINNIE TANG
President
Internet Professional Association (iProA)

Dr. Winnie Tang holds a Ph.D. degree from The University of Hong Kong. She is the Founder and CEO of ESRI China (Hong Kong) Limited, one of the international offices of ESRI. ESRI is one of the world top 100 software companies, and the 4th largest privately-owned software company in the world.

With her vision that Geographic Information System (GIS) can make a difference, Dr. Tang is one of the pioneers in bringing the latest GIS solutions to the public and private sectors in Hong Kong, which has significantly contributed to high performance for organizations and betterment of our lives. Some of the major GIS applications she introduced include the very first "Ecological Database for Hong Kong", "Country Park Information System", "Air Pollution Index Study", and "Red Tide Monitoring System". The company is now a preferred supplier in GIS applications and handles over 90% of the Hong Kong SAR Government GIS projects, and is one of the market leaders in the private sector.

Dr. Tang is a frequent guest speaker and guest professor for universities in Hong Kong and abroad. She is enthusiastic about the development of Geographic Information System (GIS) and has published over 50 research papers, books and journals, including "Connecting Our World: GIS Web Services" and "Spatial Portals: Gateways to Geographic Information". Serving the community and industry, Dr. Tang is a member of the Information Technology Election Committee Subsector, member of the Advisory Council on Food and Environmental Hygiene, member of ‘'Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee', member of Town Planning Board of the Government of Hong Kong SAR and President of Internet Professional Association (iProA).

Dr. Tang received the “Ten Outstanding Young Digi Persons Selection Award” in 2001, the “Women of Influence – Young Achiever of the Year Award” from the American Chamber of Commerce in 2004, and the "Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award" in 2006.