Judges
Mr Chia Hock Lai
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Chia Hock Lai is the co-founder of the GlobalFintech Institute, CEO of Switchnovate and Senior Blockchain Advisor of Tembusu Partners. He has two decades of experience in the financial and technology industries, having worked in Singapore’s GovTech and NTUC Income.
An alumnus of NUS and NTU, he is the co-chairman of the Blockchain Association Singapore, and former & founding president of Singapore Fintech Association. He is a council member of and strategic advisor to numerous tech start-ups and organizations such as Bondevalue, RootAnt Global, RegTank, Morpheus Labs and IEEE Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Standard Committee. In addition, he is also an Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Fellow for digital transformation and a Fintech Fellow at the Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS).
Mr Chun Hsien Peng
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Chun Hsien is the Head of Seller Solutions & Acceptance within Visa Asia-Pacific Merchant Sales & Acquiring. He is focused on expanding Visa acceptance across the region by cultivating innovative payment acceptance solutions across multiple channels for sellers that operate in both traditional and non-traditional segments.
His responsibilities include stimulating the growth and deployment of in-store and face-to-face solutions, as well as implementing strategies and programs that expand Visa’s acceptance footprint in e-commerce. His team supports the Seller Side ecosystem with a strong focus on merchants and enablers, including Acquirers, Payment Facilitators, PSPs, ISVs, and gateways.
Chun Hsien has over a decade of experience in Payments with an extensive background in banking, real-time payment systems, card acquiring, and ATMs. He has held many senior leadership roles in his career across Visa, Ant Financial and Citi, spanning the finance, tech and payments industries.
Mr Ho Sing
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Mr Ho Sing is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Office of YTL Starhill Global REIT Management, the Manager of SGX listed Starhill Global REIT which has a portfolio of regional commercial properties valued at S$3.1 billion. He has over 27 years of leadership and management experience with multinational companies in engineering, medical, infrastructure, and real estate. These included senior positions in the Singapore Technologies Group, Dornier Medical, Sembcorp Industries and Guocoland Limited. Mr Ho holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin, USA. He also completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University in 2002.
Mr Michael Velten
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Michael is a real estate tax partner with Deloitte Singapore and is the firm’s Southeast Asia Investment Management and Real Estate Leader.
He has 35 years of tax experience; almost 30 years of which have been spent working in Asia having been based in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Michael started his career in Melbourne; he was a senior associate with a leading Australian law firm.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Michael had held senior tax roles with global financial institutions and leading professional firms in Asia. He has also held academic appointments at the University of Melbourne and National University of Singapore.
He is qualified as both a Solicitor (Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia) and a Certified Public Accountant (Australia). Michael is an Accredited Tax Adviser: Income Tax and GST (Singapore), a Certified Tax Adviser (Hong Kong) and a Trust and Estate Practitioner. He is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong, and an Associate of the Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia and The Tax Institute (Australia). Michael is a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Laws and Master of Taxation from the University of Melbourne. He also holds a Master of Laws from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Business Administration from the University of New England. Michael recently completed Comparative Tax Policy and Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Mr Simon Wong
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With a background in mechanical engineering, Simon has been working with German and Swiss companies at the forefront of building innovations. Simon joined Geberit in 2015, the Swiss-listed brand and European market leader in bathroom and sanitary technology. With his vast experience in managing projects involving cutting-edge building innovations, he currently leads the team in Geberit North and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Geberit, Simon held several management positions for 10 years at REHAU, the leading service provider for polymer-based solutions in construction, automotive and industry.
Mr Mark Yip
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Mr Mark Yip currently oversees the growth of over 4,300 associates and overall expansion of the company as Chief Executive Officer of Huttons Group. Since coming onboard, he has launched several initiatives such as Millionaire Associate Program, Millennial, Recruitment Challenge and revamped the training for associates. Huttons also won numerous awards in 2021.
Mr Mark Yip was appointed as City Developments Limited (CDL)’s Chief Marketing Officer in 2014, heading the Marketing & Sales, and Leasing operations of residential, retail and commercial spaces. On 1 February 2018, Mr Yip was re-designated Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for driving revenue growth and revenue-generating activities through departments & countries. In addition, Mr Yip was also CEO of CDL China Limited, an appointment held since April 2016.
Prior to joining CDL, Mr Mark Yip held various key leadership positions across a range of industries. He was at Far East Organization where he was Deputy Director overseeing sales planning and operations. CEO of Royal Sporting House (Malaysia), Director of PUMA, Executive Director of Circle Freight (Brunei), Eagle Global Logistics Corporation and General Manager of ComfortDelGro Bus.
Mr Yip holds a Bachelor and Masters of Business and was recipient of the Logistics Management Group Prize from RMIT in Melbourne. He completed the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School and Asia Pacific Advanced Management Programme from the National University of Singapore.