Contributors

Pratap Nambiar

Pratap Nambiar is the Chairman of Thought Perfect Pte Ltd, a Singapore based leadership coaching and consulting company. As the Chairman of Thought Perfect I help CEOs and Business leaders live their professional and personal lives with greater satisfaction, to spread joy and well being, to elevate and educate and maximise their performance potential.

Prateek A. Rastogi

Prateek is the Principal Consultant for Trustwave in Asia Pacific. He has more than twelve years of information security experience. His role involves delivery
of all compliance (PCI DSS, PA DSS, CoBIT, ISO 27001) and information- security related assignments in the region, as well as performing many speaking
engagements.

Prateek Dayal

Prateek Dayal is the Chief Strategy Officer of Aqilliz, a blockchain solutions provider that looks to restore trust, transparency, and efficiency to a fragmented digital marketing ecosystem.

With over 15 years of international experience in the financial services sector, Prateek was previously the Senior Vice President of APAC Innovation and Client Solutions at HSBC Bank in both London and Singapore. There, he helped to spearhead client and regulatory initiatives in blockchain for payments, working on notable institutional projects such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Ubin, as  well as the Bank of Thailand’s Project Inthanon and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Lionrock. With his expertise in building and leading cross- unctional teams across the innovative sectors of payments, mobile, and digital, Prateek’s career spans across leading organisations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank, and McKinsey & Company.

Pri Sandhu

Pri Sandhu is manager of the IT division at Robert Walters Singapore.

Priya Lakshmi and Gaurav Arora

Priya Lakshmi
Head of Startups, ASEAN, Amazon Web Services

As the Head of Amazon Web Services’ Startup business across ASEAN, Priya Lakshmi leads a team committed to supporting the region’s most exciting startups, helping founders and entrepreneurs succeed on the journey from inception to IPO. 

Priya’s team helps startups leverage the latest technology to bring a great business idea to life, and scale it quickly and cost effectively. Having grown multiple businesses from the ground up, she is passionate about the innovation and wide-reaching impact that startups can achieve by building on AWS. Priya has particular expertise on topics like Amazon’s Culture of Innovation, hiring best practices, and AWS initiatives designed to support startups throughout their lifecycle. 

Priya’s career spans 20 years in the technology and IT industries, comprising sales and business development roles across India and Southeast Asia. Before joining AWS in 2015, she held positions with multinational technology companies working with a broad range of businesses across startups, small businesses, enterprises and more.

Priya holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration Strategy and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies.

Gaurav Arora
Director & Head of Startup Business, Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services

As the Director & Head of Amazon Web Services’ Startup business across Asia Pacific and Japan, Gaurav Arora leads a team committed to supporting the region’s most exciting startups, helping founders and entrepreneurs succeed on the journey from inception to IPO. 

Gaurav’s team helps startups leverage the latest technology to bring a great business idea to life, and scale it quickly and cost effectively. Gaurav is passionate about the innovation and wide-reaching impact that startups can achieve by building on AWS, and speaks regularly at key startup events on topics like emerging technology trends, Amazon’s Culture of Innovation, hiring best practices, and AWS initiatives designed to support startups throughout their lifecycle. 

With deep roots in the regional startup ecosystem, Gaurav and his extended team work closely with the leading venture capital (VC) firms, accelerators, and incubators, to support their portfolio companies as mentors and advisors at every stage from building the best technology solutions to leveraging the broader Amazon network to unlocking new go-to-market and expansion opportunities.

Before joining AWS in 2013, Gaurav gained international VC experience as an investor at Prime Ventures in the Netherlands. He has also held positions at multinational tech companies such as Intel, AMD, and Texas Instruments.

Gaurav holds an MBA in Strategy and Finance from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Prof Alfred Huan

Prof Alfred Huan is the Executive Director of both the A*STAR Graduate Academy and the Institute of High Performance Computing. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 1983 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1987 from the University of Oxford. Following two years of military service, he took up a Lecturer position at the Department of Physics, National University of Singapore in 1989 and was appointed as Deputy Head of Department in 2004. In 2005 he co-started the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University.

Prof Sattar Bawany

Prof Sattar Bawany is the CEO & Master Executive Coach of Centre for Executive Education (CEE Global).

Quan Yao Peh

Senior Research Analyst, Euromonitor International

Quan Yao Peh is leading Euromonitor's Channels practice for Southeast Asia. With his interest in the impact of retail digitalisation and evolving business models, Quan Yao helps clients to better understand industries’ competitive landscapes, market trends & strategic outlook through his content on Euromonitor's Passport database, external publications, & client and industry conference engagements. 

Quentin Pak

Quentin Pak is a Director responsible for running Burford’s office in Singapore and expanding Burford’s presence in Asia and Australia.

He joins Burford with 20 years of experience in finance and law, most recently as Head of Commodities (Asia) at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Singapore. His previous experience includes senior positions at major global financial institutions including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Before going into banking, he practised law for a number of years with Allen & Overy in both London and Singapore.

Quentin graduated from the University of Bristol and College of Law in the UK.

Rachel Woolley

Rachel Woolley, Global AML Manager at Fenergo, has over 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, having worked primarily in the funds industry and retail banking. She has a strong background in regulatory compliance, particularly in the areas of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF).

Rachel holds a BSc (Hons) Degree in Applied Accounting from the Oxford Brookes University and is an ACCA Affiliate. She currently holds three professional designations: Licentiate of the Association of Compliance: Officers in Ireland (LCOI), Certified Financial Crime Prevention Practitioner (CFCPP) and Certified Data Protection Officer (CDPO).