The IOT event series draws on interviews with dozens of C-level executives in some of the world’s most powerful companies to deepen the understanding of the impact of digital transformation across 12 industries – including healthcare, hospitality, mining, and retail.

Each episode delivers practical insights from those on the front lines of major digital transformation, and explores how current and emerging technologies will transform leadership, business models, customer experience, revenue streams and power tomorrow’s industries and societies.

See past event highlights here.

 

PAST SPEAKERS

Akon

Akon, a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum selling artist, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropistAkon isan American-Senegalese RnB singer and producer. Brought up in a family of musicians, he spent his early childhood in Senegal before leaving at the age of seven to live in the USA in Union City, New Jersey.Akon is one of the world’s most influential voices in music today, in addition to having two multi-platinum albums, 27 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and over 150 guest appearances with artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Eminem and Gwen Stefani. Akon is the first artist to accomplish the feat of holding both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.Drawing upon his recognisable celebrity combined with pride of his heritage and passion for supporting Africa and youth, Akon formed in 2007 the Konfidence Foundation to improve the quality of life for people in Africa and the United States.In 2014, Akon co-founded with two partners, Malian entrepreneur Samba Bathily and Senegalese-US youth leader Thione Niang, Solektra International. Incorporated in New York and with offices in numerous African countries, Solektra International aims at providing clean, renewable and affordable solar solutions in rural and off-grid areas. The company has developed an innovative prefinancing model which has led to impactful results. Solektra International is now operational in 17 African countries with a wide offer of solar equipment including solar street lamps, micro-grids and domestic kits. Solektra also created the first Solar Academy in Africa and the first “made in Africa” solar street light assembly plant both based in Mali.The son of two Senegalese natives, Akon was born Aliaune Badara Thiam, in St. Louis and raised in Senegal, West Africa until age 7. His father, Mor Thiam, a well-respected Senegalese percussionist and jazz musician, and mother, Kiné, a renowned African singer, dancer and humanitarian, helped to foster a general love of the arts in Akon as well as a deep appreciation of his heritage and homeland. Their influences were truly ingrained within Akon and fuelled his desire to create a better future for Africa, beginning with empowering its youth.

Caglayan Arkan

Çağlayan Arkanis general manager of manufacturing industry, a Microsoft team that covers the automotive, high-tech, electronics, industrial equipment, aerospace, chemicals, and agrochemicals verticals on a global level. Arkan leads the development and execution of Microsoft’s global manufacturing strategy, including the prioritization of industry solutions and their alignment to Microsoft’s worldwide partner ecosystem and its digital platform. The team is chartered with transforming customer engagements globally, from technology to business value, as well as with delivering digital transformation. Previously, Arkan was the country manager for Microsoft Turkey, and –prior to Microsoft –worked at Siemens Business Services in several capacities, including country manager and international business development executive. Earlier in his career, Arkan served in various sales, sales leadership, and general management roles, including 10 years as an entrepreneur.

Sunita Bottse

Sunita Bottse is the Managing Director of SUPERNAP (Thailand). She is an executive leader with P&L responsibility building and managing Tier IV data centers. She has successfully delivered a total of 270,000 square feet and 28 megawatts of distributed power across datacenters. She has also led all aspects from blueprint to go-live encompassing technical and commercial functions. She has achieved year-on-year business growth objectives within start-up and rapid-change environments.At SUPERNAP (Thailand) she is responsible for managing all business-related aspects, including setting the strategy and vision, and creating annual operations plans that support the strategic direction and drive sales to ensure the long-term financial viability of SUPERNAP Thailand. Prior to joining SUPERNAP (Thailand), Sunita was the Vice President of Ctex data center where she successfully managed overall data center operations and assisted in attaining Tier IV certification (both design and constructed facility), as well as ISO9001: 2008 for the facility. Furthermore, she was part of the project management office and oversaw the construction of the data center and its commissioning activities.In her spare time Sunita is actively involved with volunteer work, helping service clubs with achieving their social philanthropical goals and coaching young professionals. She firmly believes that creating a better corporate world starts with educating young people to be tomorrow’s leaders.

Tong Hsien Hui

Mr Tong Hsien-Hui brings with him, in-depth knowledge and experience in the Business Development and Venture Capital spaces in Australia, Europe, Singapore and the US.As the Head, Venture Investing, Hsien-Hui oversees SGinnovate's investments efforts, which target high-potential, deep technology startups working on areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, MedTech and Blockchain.Prior to joining SGInnovate, he was the Managing Partner, Asia Pacific for Wassax Ventures. He has also served as the CEO of the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) and Vice President at Staples. In the early 2000s, he co-founded a data mining company, which was sold to a global bank two years later.Hsien-Hui graduated in 1998 from NUS with a Bachelor of Engineering.

Sri Jegarajah

Sri Jegarajah is a CNBC Senior Correspondent based in Singapore. An experienced business and financial markets correspondent who specializes in commodities since 1997, Sri follows global energy developments closely.Covering financial markets for more than 15 years, Sri has reported on major global events including including the 2016 Jakarta attacks, 2008 financial crisis, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami disaster from Tokyo. He twice received the Bronze Medal in 2009 and 2013 for Best News Correspondent by the New York Festivals International TV & Films Awards.Prior to joining CNBC in 2005, Sri was an energy reporter for Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg News in Singapore.

Chng Kai Fong

Mr Chng was appointed Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) on 1 October 2017. He was the Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the Prime Minister (PM) from 1 September 2014 to 30 September 2017. Before his appointment as PPS to the PM, Mr Chng served various roles in the Public Service. He was Director of Communications Group at the Prime Minister’s Office, where he oversaw strategic communications and coordinated communications strategy across Government agencies. He was also Director of Resource Industry at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where he coordinated the Government’s efforts to drive productivity growth, and Director of the Institute of Public Sector Leadership, which runs leadership development programmes for public sector leaders. Mr Chng also served in the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Communications and Information. Mr Chng was also seconded from 2008 to 2010 as a Senior Management Consultant to Shell in its Downstream Strategy Division. Mr Chng graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master in Engineering in 2001, specialising in signal processing. In 2011, Mr Chng was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship. He is also a Sloan Fellow with a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Mr Chng is married with two daughters and a son. In his younger days, he freelanced as a Euphonium player and an amateur conductor. These days, he waves his hands when classical music is playing on the radio, to the bewilderment of his children.’

Karen Morgan

Ms Morgan is the President and CEO of Dynamic Energy Networks ("DEN"), an industrial platform established to own and operate microgridand distributed energy networks. Ms Morgan has more than 25 years of experience in the energy and industrial financing industry and leadership. Prior to founding DEN, Ms Morgan was the CEO of RET Capital, a private financial sponsor-backed aggregator of utility-scale solar and wind power generation assets in the U.S. and Canada. During her tenure at RET Capital, Ms Morgan and her team built the platform to over 420MW of operating and developments assets with an enterprise value of over $750M. Prior to RET,Ms Morgan founded AC Solutions which advised and financed the development of over 500MW of distributed solar generation assets in the US. Earlier in her career, Ms Morgan also served as a managing member of GlobalNet Partners, an international finance andadvisory firm and as CEO of PetroChemNet where she operated one of the first commodity chemical trading platforms. Ms Morgan holds a BS in Biology from Boston University.

Deon Newman

Deon Newman is the Chief Marketing Officer responsible for IBM Asia Pacific marketing, and head of IBM Strategy for the AP region. With a proven track record of delivering breakthough results, 20+ years of marketing, sales and leadership experience in the IT industry and build successful teams that innovate, problem solve and drive outstanding results. He is a regular public speaker, client evangelist and company spokesperson.International experience has spanned roles based in Sydney, London, Paris, New York and now AP headquarters in Singapore leading teams responsible for local, geographic and worldwide results.Recent roles have included Internet of Things and the intersection with AI, Blockchain and digital transformation.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire

Jean-Pascal Tricoire joined Schneider Electric in 1986. He was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in 2006 and named Chairman and CEO in April 2013. His career at Schneider Electric has developed largely outside France in operational functions in Italy, China, South Africa and the USA. Within the General Management, he served as Vice Executive President of the International Operating Division from 2002 before being appointed in 2004 Chief Operating Officer (COO).Moreover, Jean-Pascal has been President of the France-China Committee since 2009. Jean-Pascal holds a degree in Electronic Engineering and an MB.

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