Speaker and Panelist Bios
James Andrade, PhD
Vice President, Research & Development, Mondelez
Dr. James Andrade is Vice President, Research & Development for Mondelēz International Asia Pacific covering Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, NZ and SEA. In addition to R&D, he also oversees the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Nutrition, Packaging and Quality divisions. During his 30 years in the food industry, James has held a variety of management positions including R&D, marketing, consumer insights and strategy. In addition to his senior leadership role with Mondelēz International, Dr. Andrade is the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce, Singapore and serves as an adjunct professor with Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. James holds a B.A. from Roger Williams University, an M.S. in Psychopharmacology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Howard University.
Natalie Chan
Associate Director Employer Engagement, Asia, INSEAD
Natalie joined INSEAD’s Career Development Centre as Associate Director, Employer Engagement Asia in 2013. She currently leads a team of five Employer Engagement Specialists tasked with deepening employer relations within Asia Pacific (especially Hong Kong, China and Singapore) and providing career advice to MBA students, specifically for the Retail Luxury & Consumer portfolios. Natalie has spoken at several panels on hiring trends in APAC.
Prior to INSEAD, Natalie worked in the Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) which is the lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre. Natalie then spent several years in SEDB’s Human Resources Division, developing Campus Recruitment and Internship strategies, then was promoted to Head, Marketing & Communications. Natalie graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BS in Life Sciences. She speaks English, Mandarin and German.
Suzie Custerson
Regional Head of Talent Acquisition, Manulife
Suzie Custerson is an experienced Asia Pacific HR leader with specialist knowledge across the areas of Talent Management, Recruitment & Resourcing, and Regional HR Shared Services Operations (Employee Relations, Learning, HR Operations & Payroll). Her experience includes 13 years in the Banking & Financial Services industry heading up various HR and Talent Acquisition functions, largely at ANZ Banking Group & Credit Suisse.
Suzie joined Manulife two years ago as Regional Head of Talent Acquisition and is responsible for driving Asia’s Talent Acquisition function ( teams in place across 10 countries) to deliver on Manulife’s Global Talent strategy and significant Asian growth plans. Suzie holds a Master’s degree in Business Strategy & Innovation from Australia and a Business Degree from the UK.
Markus Dolder
Head of HR Marketing, International Committee of the Red Cross
Markus Dolder, who joined The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1992, worked for seven years as a field delegate in Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan. After being in charge of the ICRC's assistance activities in Uganda between 1999 and 2001, Mr. Dolder became Head of Sub-delegation in Jerusalem for all activities in the West Bank, before serving as deputy head of the delegation in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005. He subsequently became deputy head of operations for South and Central Africa until 2009. Markus Dolder is currently Head of HR Marketing in Geneva.
So-Young Kang
CEO of Gnowbe, Catalyst at Awaken Group
So-Young Kang, a serial entrepreneur, is the CEO / Founder of Gnowbe, a mobile transformational learning app that builds learning journeys for professionals and Catalyst / Founder of Awaken Group, a multi-disciplinary Transformation Design (TD) firm that integrates strategy, leadership and innovation to design experiences that catalyze change. So-Young has 20 years of experience advising and training leaders globally and is a sought-after speaker in the US, Asia, the Middle East and Africa on topics across leadership, innovation and transformation.
Ms. Kang and her team work with individuals, teams and organizations to align what’s on the inside (e.g., core values, underlying motivations) to what’s on the outside (e.g., strategy, user experience, business models, leadership). Simply put, So-Young and her team and collaborators serve clients holistically.
So-Young is committed to serving the community and founded The Young Professionals’ Group (YPG) in 2000, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students achieve their professional dreams. She sits on the boards of Open University West Africa and Love North Korea Ministries. She is a TED-ster, has been a TEDx speaker and is author of Inside Out, a book on global leadership and innovation. In 2014, she was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
So-Young holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA dual degree with honors in International Relations and East Asian studies from University of Pennsylvania, with a minor in Music Theory. Prior experiences include McKinsey & Company, Citigroup, and Chiba Convention Bureau in Japan.
Rosaline Chow Koo
Founder and CEO, CXA
Rosaline Koo is the founder & CEO of CXA, Asia's first insurance wellness marketplace. Rosaline has 25 years of P&L and operational experience leading start-ups & corporate turnarounds in Asia and the US, delivering significant growth through launching new business models, products, countries and distribution channels. She supervised P&G factory lines in Iowa before working in 8 different roles during her 8 years at Bankers Trust Company in New York. Rosaline launched two technology start-ups in Asia during the dot-com boom, before moving to her client ACE to lead alternative distribution channels for A&H Insurance. She also ran Mercer Marsh Benefits' 14 countries across Asia Pacific, growing the business by 800% over 8 years. Rosaline graduated from UCLA with a Cybernetics degree and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
Jason Jones
Founder and MD, Operating Partners
Mr. Jones is the founder and MD of Operating Partners. He is a global operating and investment executive with experience leading P&Ls in both public and privately- held companies. Jason has leadership experience with a proven track record of increasing shareholder value through successful M&A transactions, turnarounds, re-structuring, integration and organic growth initiatives. He is passionate about creating shareholder value, with demonstrated entrepreneurial success in a range of industrial, financial services and technology market segments. Jason possesses deep experience and demonstrated ability to identify, recruit and develop talent into strong management teams. Mr. Jones has gained extensive Asia Pacific experience, including mainland China and SE Asia, since 1995. Jason is a graduate of Texas A&M University’s College of Engineering, GE’s TLP and Corporate Audit Staff Programs.
Jason Lawrence
Director for Market Development, GMAC
Jason Lawrence is the Director for Market Development (ASEAN), for the Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®). Based in Hong Kong, Jason is charged with working with business schools and other organizations to develop graduate management education within the region. Jason currently manages 10 markets: Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to joining GMAC in June 2012, Jason worked at KAIST College of Business for 6 years, where he served in faculty and staff roles. At the same time, he managed the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools. He has a total of almost 13 years work experience in Korea.
Jason has experience in managing sales teams in Japan and Korea. Additionally, he has held numerous teaching/training roles in Korea and Australia. These roles include training executives from Korea’s leading chaebol, such as Electronics, KIA, Hyundai, Samsung and SK, as well as foreign firms located in Korea.
Jason Lawrence possesses a Master of International Business, Bachelor of Business (HRM), as well as having completed executive education courses with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and Columbia Business School.
Lewis Lim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor o Marketing Practice, Nanyang Business School and Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian Consumer Insight
Dr. Lewis Lim is Associate Professor of Marketing Practice at Nanyang Business School (NBS) and Deputy Director of the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI). He received his doctorate at the Kelley School of Business. Prior to academia, he was a Product Manager and Steel Trader at BHP Steel Asia, selling to manufacturing industries in Southeast Asia. Earlier, he worked in sales for Sony International (Singapore) Limited, handling channel development in emerging West African markets.
At NBS, Lewis specializes in teaching Marketing Strategy and Product/Pricing Management courses at all levels. Trained in participant-centered learning pedagogy at HBS, he is an expert in simulation-based teaching. Dr. Lewis has received six major education awards from 2010 to 2015 – the Nanyang Education Award, the Nanyang Award for Excellence in Teaching, the NBS Nanyang Fellows MBA Teacher of the Year Award, the NBS Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award, and the Marketing Division Teaching Excellence Award.
Lewis has been part of curriculum development projects, co-leading a major revamp of the NBS Marketing specialization curriculum as part of the University’s Blue Ribbon Commission project. In 2005, he won the ISBM Doctoral Support Award. His works have appeared in prestigious journals.
Dr. Lim oversees research on Asian consumers and firm strategies to penetrate Asian markets. He regularly speaks at industry conferences/company workshops and contributes thought leadership articles for the business media.
Andy Mok
Managing Director, Red Pagoda Resources
Andy Mok, has significant experience in business management, private equity and public policy. Over the past 20 years, he has attained a number of noteworthy achievements including: Establishing a private equity group for a prominent Hong Kong family, including formulating investment strategy that resulted in early-stage investments in companies such as Sohu.com; providing oversight for successful acquisition of one of Asia Pacific’s first and most well-known executive search firms; and, conducting research into China’s technological and economic development at the RAND Corp under the leadership of Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN, resulting in publication of a widely-read study titled “The United States and a Rising China: Strategic and Military Implications.”
Recently, Andy has advised family offices and institutional investors on business and real estate investment opportunities in China, including representing the family office of a well-known Seattle entrepreneur in discussions with peers in Asia.
Andy holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he was awarded the Loe Fellowship for Excellence in China Studies. He is also a CPA and has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Maryland.
Leesa Rawlings
APAC Staffing Leader, Google
Respected and dynamic talent acquisition leader with over 25 years of experience in recruitment strategy and operations, Leesa started her career as an agency recruiter moving to national management roles in Australia and then regional management roles across Asia for companies such as Kelly and Adecco, before moving to in-house talent acquisition. She was APAC TA regional head for Mercer for three years prior to joining Google in 2014. She currently heads up the APAC staffing team for Google based in Singapore, leading a team of 35 recruiters focused on finding top sales talent for Google's business.
Leesa conveys passion for driving and deploying innovative recruitment strategies to meet business talent needs and has proven expertise managing high-performance teams using performance metrics linked to all aspects of the recruitment.
Chris Reed
CEO, Black Marketing
Chris has an official LinkedIn Power Profile that is one of the world's most viewed LinkedIn profiles, with over 36,000 followers and one of the region’s top social sellers on LinkedIn. He is a serial entrepreneur, having created marketing businesses in both Europe and now in Asia Pacific with Black Marketing - enabling LinkedIn for you which now has a presence in Singapore (HQ), ANZ, North America, China, Hong Kong, Manila, Cambodia, South Africa and the UK.
Mr. Reed has also led a variety of digital and partnership marketing agencies and is CMO of social media consumer brands in both London and Singapore. Chris is one of the region's most influential bloggers, has been featured in books, regularly speaks and chairs at events and is a mentor for the CMO Council SMU Marketing Graduates and is, uniquely, co-chair of both BritCham and AmCham business groups.
Annette Thia
Head of Recruitment, Lazada
Ms. Annette Thia joined Lazada in 2014 as VP Head of Recruitment where she is responsible for the recruitment activities of the Lazada Group. Lazada is South East Asia’s Leading e-Commerce player and has been recruiting actively for MBA Graduates.
Before joining Lazada, Annette was a manager at Robert Walters Singapore, where she headhunted mid- and senior-level executive talent for supply chain roles across different industries. Annette also worked for over 8 years for the AP Moller Maersk group, holding different functions across the shipping and logistics divisions in Singapore, China and Belgium.
Annette holds a bachelors degree from the National University of Singapore and is a trained Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
Annie Yap
Group MD, AYP Group
Annie Yap manages the company’s business interests across the Asia Pacific region. Under her leadership, AYP Group was awarded The Singapore HR Awards 2015 for Leading HR Practices in Management Consultancy Services, and two Silvers for Best Recruitment Innovation and Best Recruitment Agency of the Year at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2015.
A proven business leader, she is a regular speaker at conferences and contributes insights to The Business Times. Her career accolades include The Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2006 and Leading CEO Award.
James Andrade, PhD
Vice President, Research & Development, Mondelez
Dr. James Andrade is Vice President, Research & Development for Mondelēz International Asia Pacific covering Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, NZ and SEA. In addition to R&D, he also oversees the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Nutrition, Packaging and Quality divisions. During his 30 years in the food industry, James has held a variety of management positions including R&D, marketing, consumer insights and strategy. In addition to his senior leadership role with Mondelēz International, Dr. Andrade is the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce, Singapore and serves as an adjunct professor with Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. James holds a B.A. from Roger Williams University, an M.S. in Psychopharmacology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Howard University.
Natalie Chan
Associate Director Employer Engagement, Asia, INSEAD
Natalie joined INSEAD’s Career Development Centre as Associate Director, Employer Engagement Asia in 2013. She currently leads a team of five Employer Engagement Specialists tasked with deepening employer relations within Asia Pacific (especially Hong Kong, China and Singapore) and providing career advice to MBA students, specifically for the Retail Luxury & Consumer portfolios. Natalie has spoken at several panels on hiring trends in APAC.
Prior to INSEAD, Natalie worked in the Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) which is the lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre. Natalie then spent several years in SEDB’s Human Resources Division, developing Campus Recruitment and Internship strategies, then was promoted to Head, Marketing & Communications. Natalie graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BS in Life Sciences. She speaks English, Mandarin and German.
Suzie Custerson
Regional Head of Talent Acquisition, Manulife
Suzie Custerson is an experienced Asia Pacific HR leader with specialist knowledge across the areas of Talent Management, Recruitment & Resourcing, and Regional HR Shared Services Operations (Employee Relations, Learning, HR Operations & Payroll). Her experience includes 13 years in the Banking & Financial Services industry heading up various HR and Talent Acquisition functions, largely at ANZ Banking Group & Credit Suisse.
Suzie joined Manulife two years ago as Regional Head of Talent Acquisition and is responsible for driving Asia’s Talent Acquisition function ( teams in place across 10 countries) to deliver on Manulife’s Global Talent strategy and significant Asian growth plans. Suzie holds a Master’s degree in Business Strategy & Innovation from Australia and a Business Degree from the UK.
Markus Dolder
Head of HR Marketing, International Committee of the Red Cross
Markus Dolder, who joined The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1992, worked for seven years as a field delegate in Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan. After being in charge of the ICRC's assistance activities in Uganda between 1999 and 2001, Mr. Dolder became Head of Sub-delegation in Jerusalem for all activities in the West Bank, before serving as deputy head of the delegation in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005. He subsequently became deputy head of operations for South and Central Africa until 2009. Markus Dolder is currently Head of HR Marketing in Geneva.
So-Young Kang
CEO of Gnowbe, Catalyst at Awaken Group
So-Young Kang, a serial entrepreneur, is the CEO / Founder of Gnowbe, a mobile transformational learning app that builds learning journeys for professionals and Catalyst / Founder of Awaken Group, a multi-disciplinary Transformation Design (TD) firm that integrates strategy, leadership and innovation to design experiences that catalyze change. So-Young has 20 years of experience advising and training leaders globally and is a sought-after speaker in the US, Asia, the Middle East and Africa on topics across leadership, innovation and transformation.
Ms. Kang and her team work with individuals, teams and organizations to align what’s on the inside (e.g., core values, underlying motivations) to what’s on the outside (e.g., strategy, user experience, business models, leadership). Simply put, So-Young and her team and collaborators serve clients holistically.
So-Young is committed to serving the community and founded The Young Professionals’ Group (YPG) in 2000, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students achieve their professional dreams. She sits on the boards of Open University West Africa and Love North Korea Ministries. She is a TED-ster, has been a TEDx speaker and is author of Inside Out, a book on global leadership and innovation. In 2014, she was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
So-Young holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA dual degree with honors in International Relations and East Asian studies from University of Pennsylvania, with a minor in Music Theory. Prior experiences include McKinsey & Company, Citigroup, and Chiba Convention Bureau in Japan.
Rosaline Chow Koo
Founder and CEO, CXA
Rosaline Koo is the founder & CEO of CXA, Asia's first insurance wellness marketplace. Rosaline has 25 years of P&L and operational experience leading start-ups & corporate turnarounds in Asia and the US, delivering significant growth through launching new business models, products, countries and distribution channels. She supervised P&G factory lines in Iowa before working in 8 different roles during her 8 years at Bankers Trust Company in New York. Rosaline launched two technology start-ups in Asia during the dot-com boom, before moving to her client ACE to lead alternative distribution channels for A&H Insurance. She also ran Mercer Marsh Benefits' 14 countries across Asia Pacific, growing the business by 800% over 8 years. Rosaline graduated from UCLA with a Cybernetics degree and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
Jason Jones
Founder and MD, Operating Partners
Mr. Jones is the founder and MD of Operating Partners. He is a global operating and investment executive with experience leading P&Ls in both public and privately- held companies. Jason has leadership experience with a proven track record of increasing shareholder value through successful M&A transactions, turnarounds, re-structuring, integration and organic growth initiatives. He is passionate about creating shareholder value, with demonstrated entrepreneurial success in a range of industrial, financial services and technology market segments. Jason possesses deep experience and demonstrated ability to identify, recruit and develop talent into strong management teams. Mr. Jones has gained extensive Asia Pacific experience, including mainland China and SE Asia, since 1995. Jason is a graduate of Texas A&M University’s College of Engineering, GE’s TLP and Corporate Audit Staff Programs.
Jason Lawrence
Director for Market Development, GMAC
Jason Lawrence is the Director for Market Development (ASEAN), for the Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®). Based in Hong Kong, Jason is charged with working with business schools and other organizations to develop graduate management education within the region. Jason currently manages 10 markets: Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to joining GMAC in June 2012, Jason worked at KAIST College of Business for 6 years, where he served in faculty and staff roles. At the same time, he managed the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools. He has a total of almost 13 years work experience in Korea.
Jason has experience in managing sales teams in Japan and Korea. Additionally, he has held numerous teaching/training roles in Korea and Australia. These roles include training executives from Korea’s leading chaebol, such as Electronics, KIA, Hyundai, Samsung and SK, as well as foreign firms located in Korea.
Jason Lawrence possesses a Master of International Business, Bachelor of Business (HRM), as well as having completed executive education courses with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and Columbia Business School.
Lewis Lim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor o Marketing Practice, Nanyang Business School and Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian Consumer Insight
Dr. Lewis Lim is Associate Professor of Marketing Practice at Nanyang Business School (NBS) and Deputy Director of the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI). He received his doctorate at the Kelley School of Business. Prior to academia, he was a Product Manager and Steel Trader at BHP Steel Asia, selling to manufacturing industries in Southeast Asia. Earlier, he worked in sales for Sony International (Singapore) Limited, handling channel development in emerging West African markets.
At NBS, Lewis specializes in teaching Marketing Strategy and Product/Pricing Management courses at all levels. Trained in participant-centered learning pedagogy at HBS, he is an expert in simulation-based teaching. Dr. Lewis has received six major education awards from 2010 to 2015 – the Nanyang Education Award, the Nanyang Award for Excellence in Teaching, the NBS Nanyang Fellows MBA Teacher of the Year Award, the NBS Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award, and the Marketing Division Teaching Excellence Award.
Lewis has been part of curriculum development projects, co-leading a major revamp of the NBS Marketing specialization curriculum as part of the University’s Blue Ribbon Commission project. In 2005, he won the ISBM Doctoral Support Award. His works have appeared in prestigious journals.
Dr. Lim oversees research on Asian consumers and firm strategies to penetrate Asian markets. He regularly speaks at industry conferences/company workshops and contributes thought leadership articles for the business media.
Andy Mok
Managing Director, Red Pagoda Resources
Andy Mok, has significant experience in business management, private equity and public policy. Over the past 20 years, he has attained a number of noteworthy achievements including: Establishing a private equity group for a prominent Hong Kong family, including formulating investment strategy that resulted in early-stage investments in companies such as Sohu.com; providing oversight for successful acquisition of one of Asia Pacific’s first and most well-known executive search firms; and, conducting research into China’s technological and economic development at the RAND Corp under the leadership of Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN, resulting in publication of a widely-read study titled “The United States and a Rising China: Strategic and Military Implications.”
Recently, Andy has advised family offices and institutional investors on business and real estate investment opportunities in China, including representing the family office of a well-known Seattle entrepreneur in discussions with peers in Asia.
Andy holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he was awarded the Loe Fellowship for Excellence in China Studies. He is also a CPA and has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Maryland.
Leesa Rawlings
APAC Staffing Leader, Google
Respected and dynamic talent acquisition leader with over 25 years of experience in recruitment strategy and operations, Leesa started her career as an agency recruiter moving to national management roles in Australia and then regional management roles across Asia for companies such as Kelly and Adecco, before moving to in-house talent acquisition. She was APAC TA regional head for Mercer for three years prior to joining Google in 2014. She currently heads up the APAC staffing team for Google based in Singapore, leading a team of 35 recruiters focused on finding top sales talent for Google's business.
Leesa conveys passion for driving and deploying innovative recruitment strategies to meet business talent needs and has proven expertise managing high-performance teams using performance metrics linked to all aspects of the recruitment.
Chris Reed
CEO, Black Marketing
Chris has an official LinkedIn Power Profile that is one of the world's most viewed LinkedIn profiles, with over 36,000 followers and one of the region’s top social sellers on LinkedIn. He is a serial entrepreneur, having created marketing businesses in both Europe and now in Asia Pacific with Black Marketing - enabling LinkedIn for you which now has a presence in Singapore (HQ), ANZ, North America, China, Hong Kong, Manila, Cambodia, South Africa and the UK.
Mr. Reed has also led a variety of digital and partnership marketing agencies and is CMO of social media consumer brands in both London and Singapore. Chris is one of the region's most influential bloggers, has been featured in books, regularly speaks and chairs at events and is a mentor for the CMO Council SMU Marketing Graduates and is, uniquely, co-chair of both BritCham and AmCham business groups.
Annette Thia
Head of Recruitment, Lazada
Ms. Annette Thia joined Lazada in 2014 as VP Head of Recruitment where she is responsible for the recruitment activities of the Lazada Group. Lazada is South East Asia’s Leading e-Commerce player and has been recruiting actively for MBA Graduates.
Before joining Lazada, Annette was a manager at Robert Walters Singapore, where she headhunted mid- and senior-level executive talent for supply chain roles across different industries. Annette also worked for over 8 years for the AP Moller Maersk group, holding different functions across the shipping and logistics divisions in Singapore, China and Belgium.
Annette holds a bachelors degree from the National University of Singapore and is a trained Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
Annie Yap
Group MD, AYP Group
Annie Yap manages the company’s business interests across the Asia Pacific region. Under her leadership, AYP Group was awarded The Singapore HR Awards 2015 for Leading HR Practices in Management Consultancy Services, and two Silvers for Best Recruitment Innovation and Best Recruitment Agency of the Year at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2015.
A proven business leader, she is a regular speaker at conferences and contributes insights to The Business Times. Her career accolades include The Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2006 and Leading CEO Award.
