Meet our Guest Panelists

About the event     Our agenda

Michele Kythe Lim

President & CEO
Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM)

Michele brings with her a wide spectrum of leadership and advisory experience, over a career spanning 30 years, particularly on corporate governance-related matters, which includes board evaluation, director development and education, remuneration and succession planning, legal and compliance, sustainability and corporate performance.

Under her leadership, ICDM has embarked on a series of director development programmes, board advisory services, as well as research and advocacy projects to support the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)’s vision to build and strengthen the country’s corporate governance culture. She works closely with boards, the director community, regulators, and other key stakeholders in the corporate governance ecosystem to enhance board and director effectiveness and professionalism in Malaysia.

ICDM currently serves a wide range of clients from both the government and the private sectors, from public-listed companies to small and medium enterprises.

Prior to her current role, Michele had held senior leadership and board positions in IHH Healthcare Berhad and Proton Holdings Berhad group companies. At IHH Healthcare Berhad, she was also a member of a subsidiary board, as well as the Chief Sustainability Officer leading the sustainability reporting and practices for the Group.

Michele holds a LLB Hons degree from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (1991) and is a Barrister-at-Law at Middle Temple, London, England. She completed the Senior Management Development Programme of Harvard Business School in 2009 and is also a Licensed Company Secretary.

Terence Quek

CEO
Singapore Institute of Directors

Terence Quek is the CEO of Singapore Institute of Directors, the national association for company directors uplifting the directorship profession and championing good governance. He spent 13 years with the Singapore Navy as a Naval Combat Officer before becoming an entrepreneur for 15 years. He co-founded a strategic communications consultancy group, led it through an M&A with the American subsidiary of Emergenetics, and grew it regionally as its APAC CEO before his planned exit. Terence completed training at the prestigious Britannia Royal Naval College, UK and graduated with an honours degree in Psychology from the University of Sheffield, UK. He later received a scholarship from SMU-WDA-IPRS to complete a Master of Science in Communication Management. A lifelong learner, he went on to be certified by Association for Talent Development (USA) as ATD Expert Coach and ATD Master Performance Consultant, was accredited by Singapore International Mediation Institute as a Mediator and earned an SMU-SID Executive Diploma in Directorship.

Terence volunteers actively with numerous organisations in Singapore and overseas, sitting on Boards or Board-equivalent positions, serving different organisations in various capacities for as long as 17 years. Among the roles he has taken up, he continues to serve as District Councillor of both South East and South West Community Development Councils, member of the management committee of SAFRA since 2011 and was Chair of Executive Committee of several clubhouses. He also sits on the Alumni Philanthropy Council and co-chairs the Alumni Advisory Council at Singapore Management University. He is Director of non-profit Project Happy Feet which fundraises for education of underprivileged children in the region, a Board Member of charity organisation Bone Marrow Donor Programme, and member of Outram Secondary School Advisory Committee. He sits on the Advisory Board of World Institute of Action Learning (Washington DC) and was Special Advisor to China Enterprise Coach Federation (Beijing).

For his active contribution to the community and to Singapore, he was named Honouree for JCI The Outstanding Young Person Award in Humanitarian and/or Voluntary Service, awarded the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Medal for his role in the International Coalition to Combat Piracy at Sea at the Gulf of Aden, NSman of the Year, and two Singapore national day awards, the latest being the Public Service Star in 2021 presented by the President of Singapore.

Mark Rigotti

Managing Director & CEO
AICD

Mark joined the Australian Institute of Company Directors as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in 2022. His previous roles included Partner and Senior Adviser of Global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). Mark served as the Global CEO at HSF for two terms over 2014-2020. He was also Chair of the firm's Global Executive, Chair of the Global Diversity & Inclusion Group and a Member of the HSF Global Partnership Council. He was responsible for developing and implementing the “Beyond 2020” strategy. Prior to becoming the Global CEO of HSF, he was a member of the management team having led a number of practice groups including the Banking and Finance Group as well as the Corporate Group.

Mark was the Chair of the Open Society, Common Purpose taskforce, whose members include the CEOs of the Law Council of Australia, PwC Australia, Settlement Services International, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and academics from The University of Sydney. The taskforce was established late 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark is the chair of Redkite Children's Charity and is a Board Member of the European Australian Business Council. Additionally, Mark is a member of the Business Council of Australia and the Financial Services Institute of Australia. Mark was based in London from 2013 until 2020.

He is a graduate of the University of Sydney; Melbourne University (Mt Eliza), Harvard University and Singularity University.

Lake Dai

Founder and Managing Partner, Sancus Ventures and Adjunct Professor, Applied AI, Carnegie Mellon University

Lake Dai is a venture investor, an AI Professor, and a seasoned operator in technology. She is Founder and Managing Partner of Sancus Ventures, a venture firm focused on early-stage investments in software infrastructure of AI and Blockchain.

Lake began her early career in product and engineering. After two years of product marketing experience at Apple, she decided to join the infant-stage internet industry in 1999 and led the product team at Alibaba as employee #84. She and her team built the Alibaba B2B marketplace, a $1.2B business, from the ground up, and drove new product innovations such as Auction, Travel, and Messenger.

After Alibaba, she joined Yahoo! in 2002 and grew Yahoo!'s market share from 7% to 23% in a quarter. In 2004, Lake joined Overture and moved to the US. After Overture was acquired by Yahoo! for $1.63B, she rejoined Yahoo! and led the global partnership product solution. She has launched operations in China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, India, and Israel throughout her career at Overture, Yahoo!, and various technology startups.

After 20 years of operation roles, Lake wanted to explore new ways to share her knowledge and scale her impact to more companies. She decided to become a VC to invest and grow early-stage tech companies and a professor teaching the young generation Applied AI at Carnegie Mellon University.

Lake has served on the boards of various private tech companies in the fields of autonomous driving, neurotech, and bioinformatics. She is a Board Governor and member of the Audit & Risk Committee and the Lab & Research Committee of GIA, the largest gem and jewelry research, education, and laboratory services organization in the world. She also serves on the board of Kubit which provides cloud-native product analytics platform built for product and data teams.

Lake is dedicated to making a positive impact in the tech industry and is involved in several non-profit organizations. She served as Chairwoman of HYSTA, one of the largest non-profit organizations empowering Chinese American tech founders, and is a member of the executive team of Stanford Women on Boards, leading the technology experience group with over 600 members of board directors and candidates.

Lake holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, a B.S. in Economics from Beijing International Studies University, and has studied in the Computer Science MS program at Stanford University. She is the inventor of 5 U.S. patents in search algorithms, recommendation algorithms, and text tokenization.

Lily Cheng

INED, Swire Properties Ltd, Chow Tai Fook Jewellry Ltd, Octopus Cards and Global Council member of Herbert Smith Freehills LLC.

Lily is the founder of a technology think tank and tech incubator, Hubel Labs, and serves as an independent Non-Executive Director of Swire Properties Limited, Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Limited and Sunevision Limited.  In addition to public directorships, Lily is also an independent board director of Octopus Cards, a board member and advisor to private-equity backed European business, Hotelbeds Group as well as an external Global Council member of international law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills LLC.  Prior to 2016, Lily was the President of Asia Pacific at TripAdvisor and held various senior executive roles at Expedia spanning across Beijing, Singapore, London and Hong Kong.

Lily holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering, a Master of Engineering degree with distinction from the University of Cambridge and holds a graduate certificate in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University.

Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar

Independent Non-Executive Director, 
Chairperson,
Climate Governance Malaysia, Dutch Lady Milk

Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumara professional independent director and a strong advocate of the importance of governance in general and risk management in particular.

She is the Chairman of Bursa-listed Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, independent non-executive director of Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, MCIS Insurance Berhad (a member of the Sanlam group) and Zurich General Insurance Malaysia Berhad, as well as a trustee of 6 charitable foundations.

She is also Adjunct Professor in Climate Governance and Sustainability at Unitar International University, Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia, member of the Global Advisory Board of Nottingham University’s School of Business, sits on the External Advisory Committee for Sunway University’s Master in Sustainable Development Management and is the workstream lead for government policy for the CEO Action Network, an industry-led sustainability initiative.

Ian Rumsby

Managing Partner
Aeio & Co.

Ian is the Managing Partner of Aeio & Co.

Based in Sydney, he is one of Australia’s most experienced agency leaders and corporate communications advisors. For the past 25 years he has worked in the technology, healthcare, infrastructure and petro-chemical industries, and in the public sector, providing clients with advice and counsel in issues-rich environments.

He is a former board member at Cure Cancer Australia.

In 2020, Ian launched his own communications and social impact consultancy, a business that was subsequently acquired by Stonehaven.

Previously, Ian was APAC Chief Strategy Officer at one of the world’s largest communications agencies. He led the firm’s change management consultancy focusing on the design, development and delivery of cultural transformation initiatives. Simultaneously, he held the position of Chairman of the firm’s operations in Australia, and led the firm’s Social Impact program in Asia Pacific, providing support to non-profit organizations in areas of technology; education; and environment and sustainability.

Ian authored and contributed to a number of the firm’s more significant research initiatives and was the architect of the company’s Engaging Cities report, an extensive examination of the reputation of eight cities in Asia Pacific.

He is a recipient of PRWeek’s Asia Pacific PR Leader of the Year award.

Ian was formally an officer in the Royal Navy where he trained as a navigator, and pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. He lives in Sydney, and is married with two sons.

Sunil Rai

Senior Partner
Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP

Named as a Leading Individual by Legal500 for Startups and Venture Capital in 2023, Sunil Rai is a lawyer who actively advises various start-ups and venture-backed companies throughout their growth cycle, including issues related to incorporation, venture fundraising, corporate governance, commercial contracts, strategic partnerships, day-to-day operations, and M&A transactions. His clients include start-ups in a broad range of industries, including fintech, blockchain/Web3, enterprise and consumer software, digital health, and life sciences.

Sunil also represents venture capital and private equity funds and corporate venture arms as they look to back promising high-growth emerging companies.

In addition to his corporate practice, Sunil acts as mentor to founders and early stage entities and also maintains an active pro bono mediation practice and he is also a grassroots leader.

Dharma Chandran

Chief People Officer
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Dharma was appointed to the role of Chief People Officer at the ABC in October 2021.  Dharma joins the ABC with a broad range of experience in senior human resources, strategy, legal and corporate communications roles as a consultant, corporate executive and non-executive director across Australia, Asia and the Middle East.

Dharma’s previous roles include Partner within Boyden Australia’s Leadership Consulting Practice, Partner in Charge of KPMG Australia’s People Advisory Practice, Managing Partner of Ernst & Young’s Far East Area Performance & Reward Practice (based in Hong Kong), Leader of Towers Perrin’s Asia-Pacific Financial Services Practice (based in Singapore) and Leader of Hewitt Associates’ Asia-Pacific M&A Practice (based in Kuala Lumpur).

He has also held permanent and interim senior executive roles at McKinsey & Co, Westpac, Suncorp, Leighton Holdings, GFG Alliance and Emaar (based in Dubai).

Dharma has been a member of the Advisory Board or Panel for several NSW Government institutions, including iCare NSW and Service NSW. He has served on the Board of Mortgage Choice as a Non-Executive Director, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Audit and Risk Committee and is currently a Non-Executive Director of 7-Eleven Australia and the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

Sutapa Banerjee

Board Director
Zomato, Godrej, JSW & Behavioural Insights Advisor

Sutapa Banerjee has over three decades of professional experience. She spent 24 years in the financial services industry across 2 large multinational banks (ANZ Grindlays and ABN AMRO), and a boutique Indian Investment bank (Ambit) where she built and headed several businesses. A well recognized thought leader in the Wealth Management space having headed and successfully built from scratch the Private Wealth businesses in both ABN AMRO Bank and Ambit Capital, Sutapa was voted one of the ‘Top 20 Global Rising Stars of Wealth Management’ by the Institutional Investor Group in 2007 - the only Indian and one of only two winners from Asia. As CEO she led Ambit Private Wealth to ‘Best Private Bank in India in the 2013 AsiaMoney polls. In 2012 she was shortlisted in the ’50 most Powerful Women’ by Fortune India.

Currently she serves as an Independent Director on the boards of Zomato Limited, Godrej Properties, Polycab Industries, JSW Cement, Axis Capital, Camlin Fine Sciences, ideaForge Technologies and Satsure Analytics. She has been a Director on the board of Oxfam and represented Women’s World Banking as their Nominee Director in India. In addition, she works as a Decision Coach for senior leadership talent.

Sutapa is an Advanced Leadership Fellow (2015) at Harvard University. She teaches, consults, trains, writes and speaks both internationally and in India on Behavioural Insights in Decision-making and the use of Design interventions. As a Visiting Faculty with IIM-Ahmedabad she taught an elective on Behavioural Biases in Decision making and its impact on Corporate Practices with a focus on Gender titled ‘A Gender Lens on Corporate Policies’, a first for any business school anywhere. Sutapa is also an adjunct faculty with IICA – the Government of India think tank under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Sutapa is a gold medalist in Economics from the XLRI school of Management in India, and an Economics major from Presidency College Kolkata. She has served on the CII National Committee on ‘Women’s Empowerment’ and ‘The Indian Women Network’, the CII National Committee on ‘Integrity and Transparency in Governance’ and the Advisory Panel of the ‘India Responsible Business Forum’.

Poh Mui Hoon

Co-founder & Board Director
Esseplore

Poh Mui Hoon is a Co-founder and CEO of foodtech startup, Esseplore. A CEO for many years, she has broad execution experience across various businesses. She chairs the SID Board Services Committee. Mui Hoon serves on the board of Singapore Eye Research Institute. She previously chaired the audit and finance committee at Sistic.com, the technology advisory panel of Singapore Pools and the digital committee of SATA CommHealth. She is a board member of London-based Criticaleye and NTUitive’s investment committee for strategic research innovation. Mui Hoon was conferred the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award by the Institute of Systems Science, NUS in 2011 and is a Fellow of Singapore Institute of Directors and Singapore Computer Society. She was selected as one of the SG100 Women in Tech for 2023.

Jenifer Thien

Independent Non-Executive Director
UEM Edgenta Bhd, AEON Co. (M) Bhd, Jadestone Energy plc, Olam Agri Holdings Ltd

After 30+ years of international and C-suite experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, Jenifer established “Grit and Pace” through which she advises corporations on what  it  takes  to  drive  change,  particularly  in areas  of  business  strategy  &  culture, operational excellence, organizational development, ESG and sustainability. She currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the board of UEM Edgenta Berhad (a public listed company in Malaysia), AEON Co. (M) Berhad (a leading retailer public listed in Malaysia), Olam Agri Holdings Ltd (a market leading global food, feed and fibre agri- business listed in Singapore) and Jadestone Energy plc (an oil & gas entity listed on the
AIM in the UK); as well as an Advisory Board Member of Lucta S.A.

Jenifer has spent 25 years of her career with Mars Incorporated. In her last role with Mars Inc., she was the Global Chief Procurement Officer based in Chicago, US – the first woman and first Asian to be appointed to this vital leadership position with a diverse team of more than 400 based in 30 countries. Concurrently, she also served on the Mars Global Services Leadership Team in transforming and unlocking efficiencies from shared services across the enterprise.

Prior to Mars Inc., Jenifer was attached with Cadbury Confectionery Malaysia and Sime Darby Plantations in various Manufacturing and R&D roles. With Mars Inc., she has spent a number of years in business leadership, supply chain, procurement, risk management and sustainability. The opportunity to live and work in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Singapore and the US has enabled her to comfortably navigate through diverse cultural and business settings. Jenifer has also partnered extensively with government and regulatory agencies in various countries to drive compliance, policies and standards development, as well as advance the industry’s priorities.

Jenifer is a passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion; and has played a pivotal role in championing women in STEM within Mars Inc.  The ‘Sustainable in a Generation’ program in Mars Inc. was shaped over a number of  years based  on partnerships with the supplier base, government and non-government organizations, and industry groups – she is proud to have the opportunity to co-develop the strategy for this signature program.   Jenifer has successfully led a number of complex business transformation and change programs through her deep understanding of the business enterprise, the ability to bring the right capability and capacity together, as well as intensive stakeholder engagement.

Through “Grit and Pace” today, aside from partnering with corporations, Jenifer contributes her views in speaking engagements and lends her support as an investor in various start-ups.  Jenifer continues to pay it forward through contributing and participating in organizations such as LeadWomen Malaysia, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia.  Jenifer is currently a Council Member of Climate Governance Malaysia.

Jenifer graduated from University Putra Malaysia with a degree in Food Science & Technology.  She is also an alumnus of executive programs at the London Business School, INSEAD, Harvard Business School and Center for Creative Leadership.

Matangi Gowrishankar

Independent Director
Greenlam, Cyient

Matangi Gowrishankar has over four decades of experience in senior leadership roles in business and HR, both in India and overseas. She has experience across diverse industries with leading multinational corporations – Standard Chartered Bank, Reebok , GE, and Cummins Inc. Most recently she was with BP plc, (British Oil & Gas major) where her last role was Global Head of Capability Development (Downstream businesses) & Director of the Global Leadership Academy.

Matangi is an experienced Independent Director and currently sits on a number of boards in India across diverse industries ranging from financial services, IT and manufacturing companies.

A career business & human resources professional, Matangi also has an independent Executive Coaching & Human Resources Consulting practice. She has deep expertise in business processes, and the full spectrum of Human Resources and Organization Development practice areas. She holds a BA in sociology and a post-graduate degree in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur a premier business school of India. She is passionate about building high-performance teams and is actively involved in coaching and mentoring top leaders across several organizations.

Peeyush Gupta AM

Non-Executive Director
National Australia Bank

Peeyush Gupta AM is the Chairman and non-executive Director on a range of commercial, public sector and not-for-profit boards including as Chair of Charter Hall Long Wale REIT and Direct Property Management Ltd, and as a Director of National Australia Bank, Special Broadcasting Corporation SBS, Link Administration, Quintessence Labs, NSW Cancer Council, the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation (NTAIC) and Institute of Chartered Accountants ANZ.

Peeyush was the co-founder and inaugural CEO of IPAC Securities, a wealth management firm providing financial advice and institutional portfolio management in Australia and internationally.

Peeyush holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from the University of NSW, and is also an alumnus of Harvard and the London Business School. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2019 for significant service to business and the community through governance and philanthropic roles.

Keki Mistry

Vice Chairman and CEO
HDFC

A Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Mr Keki Mistry brings with him over four decades of varied work experience in the Banking & Financial Services domain.

In 1975, Mr Mistry began his career with AF Ferguson & Co, followed by short stints with Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Indian Hotels Company Ltd.

In 1981, Mr Mistry joined HDFC Ltd., India's premier housing finance company. Over the years he held several responsibilities, prior to being inducted onto its Board as Executive Director in 1993. He was appointed as the Managing Director in 2000, as the Vice Chairman & Managing Director in October 2007 and was the Vice-Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation with effect from January 1, 2010. With the amalgamation of HDFC Limited with HDFC Bank, Mr Mistry superannuated from HDFC Ltd and has been appointed as an Additional and Non-Executive Director on the Board of HDFC Bank from June 30, 2023.

Mr Mistry is the Non-Executive Chairman of HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company. He is also currently on the Board of HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd, HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Torrent Power Ltd, The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd, Griha Investments - Mauritius, Griha Investments Pte Ltd – Singapore and Flipkart Private Limited – Singapore. He is a Senior Advisor to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), a Canada based pension fund. Mr Mistry has been appointed as a Strategic Advisor for Cyrus Poonawalla Group’s Financial Services Ventures.

Mr Mistry has been a Consultant to the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in Thailand, Mauritius, Caribbean Islands and Jamaica and a Consultant to the Mauritius Housing Company and Asian Development Bank.

He is a Member of the Primary Market Advisory committee (PMAC) constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He is the Chairman of the Sub-Group constituted by SEBI and was the Chairman of the Sub-Group constituted by SEBI to ‘Review the SEBI Buyback Regulations.’

Mr Mistry is a member of the Expert Committee constituted by SEBI for facilitating ease of doing business and harmonisation of the provisions of ICDR and LODR Regulations.

Mr Mistry was a Member of the Corporate Governance Committee constituted by SEBI in 2017.

He was the Chairman of the Cll National Council on Corporate Governance for five years (2016-17 to 2017-18 and from 2019-20 to 2021-22) and a Member of the CII Economic Affairs Council from 2023-24.

Eva Chau

Advisor at Micro Connect, Chairperson and board member of Governance and Membership Committee of Senior Citizen Home Safety Association

Eva Chau is currently an Advisor in Human Resources of Micro Connect (H.K.) Investments Limited which has developed a new investment model that connect global capital with China’s vast landscape of micro and small businesses and pioneer an economically inclusive and socially impactful financial market. Prior to this, Eva was the Group Head of Human Resources and a member of the Management Committee of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX). She was the Secretary of HKEX’s Board Remuneration Committee. Before joining HKEX, she spent over two decades working for US financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch, including regional head of human resources roles.

Eva is currently a board member and the Chairperson of the Governance and Membership Committee of Senior Citizen Home Safety Association in Hong Kong. She was also the Board Chair of CareER which was an NGO focusing on employment opportunity for highly educated people with disability and Community Business which focused on diversity.

ZiLi Shao

Founder and Chairman of MountVue Capital Management

Mr. Shao served as an independent director of a number of multinational companies. He is currently an independent director of Yum China Holdings., Inc., listed on NYSE/HKEX, EDP (Energias de Portugal), listed on EURONEXT Lisboa, and Bank of Montreal (China) Limited. He is also a senior advisor to Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Borsch Group, and Houlihan Lokey. Besides, he is the founder and Chairman of MountVue Capital Management, a private equity fund manager in China.

Previous senior positions Zili had taken over the years including Co-Chairman of King & Wood Mallesons China, Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan China, Vice Chairman of J.P. Morgan Asia, and Managing Partner of Asia Pacific for Linklaters.