Brand Finance Asia Pacific Forum 2016

Debbie Goldingham is Head of Marketing, South East Asia.

In this role, Ms. Goldingham is responsible for developing the marketing communications strategy and building the MasterCard brand across South East Asia. She drives the sub-region’s marketing priorities which include Customer, Merchant, Consumer and Digital Marketing. She is tasked with spearheading consumer led strategies as well as researching and analyzing strategic opportunities for MasterCard to grow its brand in South East Asia.

Ms. Goldingham previously helmed the development and implementation of MasterCard’s regional Marketing Asset Platform (MAP) across Asia/Pacific Middle East & Africa (APMEA). MAP is a business-tobusiness digital platform which was established to enable information sharing between MasterCard and its customers, supporting MasterCard customers’ marketing needs. It was identified as regional best practice and adopted by the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region in 2011. Further, she managed and launched the first pan-regional travel micro-site for global accounts to drive cross border marketing programs across seven markets, and also implemented the global B2B Marketing “One Voice” strategy in APMEA across the product and marketing teams.

Ms. Goldingham joined MasterCard in 2003 in Hong Kong as Principal Regional Consultant with MasterCard Advisors and took on the role of Vice President, Business Development in 2005. In 2006, Ms. Goldingham joined the Regional Marketing team in APMEA to manage the Customer Marketing function.

With a global career spanning over 20 years across brand, marketing, communications, consulting and financial Industry, Samir has a wealth of experience across global strategy, research, IP management, corporate communication, PR, global brand management, M&A branding, and advertising.Previously, as a global brand controller at Standard Chartered Bank, Samir managed the global brand agenda with strong focus on global brand strategy, global brand tracking research/KPIs, internal communication, brand and business integration and brand architecture & alignment during M&A.In his various roles across marketing communications and advertising, Samir has worked across industry segments including FMCG, retail, hospitality, industrial products, automobiles, electronics, beverages, mobile telephony, pharma & healthcare, NGOs, airlines etc.Samir is an i-advisor with IE Singapore, an external speaker, contributes to teaching and curriculum inputs at Marketing Institute if Singapore and at other reputed management institutes.In the past 12 months, Samir has been driving marketing and business acceleration strategies for B2B and B2C segments alike, across industry and consumer segments like pharma, insurance, banking and finance, education, retail, internet/on-line and advertising communications.

Bhavik is an international award winning brand consultant with a career spanning over 15 years across Asia. With his multi-disciplinary experience, he has helped create and grow some of the most successful corporate brands and their portfolios.

Thriving in diversity, of both the region and industries, Bhavik has worked with brands like DBS Bank and Singapore Management University in Singapore, Maybank and Nestle in Malaysia, Telkomsel and Phillip Morris in Indonesia, Cebu Pacific Airlines and Smart Telecom in the Phillipines, and Reliance Group and the Taj Group of Hotels in India.

In everyday practice Bhavik focuses on three key areas. First: creating value through innovation and compelling experiences. Second: bringing sound design thinking to thorough analytical solutions. And third: making teams possible across strategic, creative and digital capabilities.

Bhavik is currently the Strategy Director at The Bonsey Design Partnership, one of Asia’s most respected brand consultancies. He is also the Honorary 1st Vice President at the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the national body for marketing and sales professionals.

Neeraj Kumar is a Consumer Marketing, Commercial Sales and Business Strategy Leader with 22 years in brand building, commercial acumen and strategy. He is currently the Marketing Director at Beam Suntory Asia, the 3rd largest spirits company in the world. With nine of the world’s top-100 premium spirits in its portfolio, the company’s brands hold global & national leadership positions in key categories, including Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek bourbon collection Teacher’s Scotch, Laphroaig, Bowmore & Ardmore Scotch Malts,  Sauza Tequila; Canadian Club Canadian whisky; Courvoisier Cognac, Larios gin, Yamaziki, Hibiki Japanese whisky, Pinnacle Vodka, Connemara Irish Whiskey and others. Kumar has vast experience developing brands and managing global brand portfolios. Besides being responsible for the marketing of Beam Suntory portfolio in Asia, Kumar’s previous roles include Global Brands Director at Beam Suntory Australia and in India. Other past employments include Pepsico & Electrolux. An ardent lover of music, Neeraj is widely travelled, a foodie & enjoys reading & photography. He lives in Singapore with his wife and 2 sons.

Robin is an award-winning strategist, with over 25 years of experience in developing brand, marketing and creative communications strategies for many of the world’s leading corporations: among them Visa, BMW, Caltex, DBS Bank, M1, Adidas, Corona, The Ritz-Carlton, AIA and both Sony’s consumer electronics and TV networks. He has been the global strategic leader for both Standard Chartered Bank and Singapore Airlines for close to ten years. Over the years, Robin has been responsible for nurturing some of the finest disruptive thinkers to emerge in the region. He also leads the group’s consulting unit, is a member of the agency’s management team in Singapore, has been leading the evolution of Disruption across South East Asia while raising the quality of strategic planning across all of its regional offices. Robin has been with TBWA for 17 years and has been based in Asia since moving from the UK in 1991.

Mr Cheng is responsible for designing and implementing the IP infrastructure master plan to ensure a conducive environment to sustain IP growth in Singapore. These include public awareness and education initiatives, capability and capacity development of IP professionals and the build up of IP management capabilities in both the private and public sectors.

Concurrently, Mr Cheng oversees the development and implementation of strategic policies and programmes within IPOS to facilitate its progress as an employer of choice through a culture of excellence. His supervision of finance and administration, human resources, information technology, knowledge management and public relations helps IPOS to grow for business excellence.

Mr Cheng brings with him over 20 years of applied IP experiences to IPOS. As an inventor and entrepreneur, he had patented, managed and commericialised IPs, co-founded software companies and ran business operations in start-ups, research and development labs and listed companies.

Mr Cheng holds a Bachelor of Computer and Information Science degree (Second Upper) and Masters in Computer Science degree from the National University of Singapore.

Warren Fernandez is the editor of The Straits Times. He has been a journalist with The Straits Times since 1990. He was previously the deputy editor and also the foreign editor of The Straits Times, before leaving the paper in late 2008 to take up the post of Regional Director for Global Communications Strategy in Shell’s Asia Pacific Hub in 2008. Fernandez rejoined The Straits Times on 6 February 2012, and assumed the editorship of the paper on 15 February 2012.

Warren Fernandez had his education at Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore and Hwa Chong Junior College. He is a Politics, Philosophy and Economics graduate of Trinity College, University of Oxford with First Class honours and has a master's degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was the first recipient of the Singapore Press Holdings' Undergraduate Scholarship in 1987 and the first SPH Master's Scholarship holder in 1999.

He served as the paper's news editor, foreign editor and deputy editor, until 2008, when he left to join Shell as its Global Manager for its Future Energy project. He returned to the Straits Times as its editor in February 2012.

Fernandez is also the author of several books, including Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas, Without Fear or Favour: 50 years of the Public Service Commission, Thinking Allowed: Politics, Fear and Change in Singapore, and most recently, Men for Others.

He was on several government committees including the Cost Review Committee, and the Remaking Singapore committee. He served on several boards, including the National Environment Agency, Compass, the National Heritage Board and the National Parks Board.

In 2015, The Straits Times marked its 170th anniversary, with Fernandez at its helm. The ST was named the Best News Website by the World Association of Newspapers, and won a prize for Newspaper Redesign from the Society of News Design.

Fernandez continues to write the Thinking Aloud column in The Sunday Times.

As Chairman of ONE Championship (ONE), Sityodtong has been instrumental in the promotion's success, driving the company with passion, fervor and a keen sense of business. Sityodtong credits martial arts for guiding him throughout both his business and personal life and is a firm believer of hard work and perseverance.

He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, supporting himself through college by working various jobs while teaching Muay Thai on the side. Due to his tremendous business acumen and insatiable will to succeed, Sityodtong was truly destined for greatness. After university, Sityodtong moved to Silicon Valley and built a software company from the ground up, which eventually sold for millions of dollars. After leaving Silicon Valley, Sityodtong moved to New York to establish a multi-million dollar hedge fund on Wall Street.

Despite his success in the United States however, Sityodtong felt compelled to return to Asia which is where he came up with the idea of uniting the entire region, bringing the people together through sport. He inevitably returned to martial arts, building ONE Championship from a promising, young upstart to becoming the largest sports media property in Asian history. Today, ONE Championship holds exciting live shows in iconic cities across Asia, showcasing the region's best talent on a platform that provides action and excitement unlike any other Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world.

ONE is currently broadcast to a potential 1 billion homes in over 118 countries worldwide. It has forever changed Asian sports history and is further continuing to push the boundaries of how MMA is delivered to the fans.

Sityodtong is an integral part of ONE affirming its status as a Global MMA powerhouse.

Website: www.onefc.com 

Karl is the Co-Founder of SGAG which started in 2012 and today, it has reaches over 2 million Singaporeans weekly through its 6 content distribution channels. Armed with the mission to bring a smile to every Singaporean’s face by creating quality content that engages and entertains, Karl will be sharing candid insights into SGAG’s journey, what it takes to reach the local audience, what drives their brand today and big data social insights.

Karl is also the advisor for cardiothoracic & neonatology programs established with Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia since November 2013. His past experiences include being an Associate Director at Nixon Real Estate.

He graduated with Bachelor of Science, majoring in Economics and Strategic Management with the Singapore Management University.

Mr Roger Wang is the current President of the Marketing Institute of Singapore since 2014.  He had previously served as the Honorary Secretary of MIS before being elected as the President. Roger is also the current President of Karate-do Union of Singapore (KUS), Managing Director of Essential Werkz Pte Ltd and President of Pixel Inc. Marketing Pte Ltd.   In June 2016, Roger was appointed as the Chief Representative for The China Council for Promotional of International Trade (CCPIT) Commercial Sub Council for Singapore.

With more than 25 years of industrial, marketing and event management experiences, Roger has a phenomenal reputation as an entrepreneur.  From the development of marketing strategies to market research, his ability to create innovative and breakthrough ideas, products and events enable him to stay abreast of the MICE industry.  The wealth of marketing and event management knowledge and skills Roger has amassed over the last 17 years have proven him to be an invaluable leader in the MICE industry.  

As a firm believer of lifelong growth and upgrading of both academic and practical knowledge, Roger is also a regular guest speaker for the Executive Certificate in Event Management course organised by MIS and University of Technology, Sydney.