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Speakers:
Michael MacFarland, CEO & Co-founder, Nehitek Foundation: Michael MacFarland is the CEO & Co-founder of the Nehitek Foundation, which focuses on bridging the gap between large capital pools and small businesses using open finance. He was Chief Architect and Head of operations for Common Securitization Solutions (CSS)/Fannie Mae. Michael was responsible for the design and operation of the Common Securitization Platform, which manages a $16 trillion security portfolio.

Suruchii Gupta, CEO & Founder, GIANT Protocol ($5M raised): Suruchii Suresh Gupta is a technologist and systems-builder whose work sits at the intersection of connectivity, digital infrastructure, and economic participation.
She founded GIANT Protocol after questioning a system most people take for granted: billions of people spend on connectivity each month, yet almost none of that economic value flows back to them. GIANT transforms everyday connectivity into a new global asset class, enabling users and communities to share in the value they help create.

A two-time venture-backed entrepreneur with an MS in Computer Science and early roles at Juniper Networks and Amazon, she brings deep technical expertise and a track record of building scalable technology solutions that deliver fair value for diverse stakeholders. She has co-authored G7 policy briefs and spoken at global forums including the UN Science Summit, serves on the Advisory Board for UC Santa Barbara’s Women in Leadership Program and mentors entrepreneurs at Founders Space.

Eng Soon Liau, Cluster Director, Digital Utilities Cluster, IMDA ($36M ARR): Eng Soon joined IMDA from A*STAR in May 2020 as Cluster Director for Trade & Connectivity (T&C). He led the Industry Development Group (IDG) in A*STAR, where T&C was part of the portfolio. During his time in A*STAR, he worked with both MNCs & local enterprises, including SMEs, helping them with technology innovations and productivity improvement. He strongly believes that technology and digitalization will help our companies gain competitive advantages in the marketplace.

Eng Soon assumed Cluster Director for Digital Utilities in Apr 2020. He oversees the Digital Utilities Strategy, as well as the development of IMDA’s current suite of Digital Utilities – E-Invoice, TradeTrust and SGTraDex. He is also concurrently the CEO of SGTraDex Technologies Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of IMDA.

Eng Soon is an Aeronautical Engineer by training and he spent 20 years in the Republic of Singapore Air Force as an Air Engineering Officer. He joined IMDA after spending 8 years in A*STAR.

Mark Sin, President, SingaporeConnect: Mark Sin is a systems integrator with a broad interest in bridging people, technology and policy. He is President of SingaporeConnect, a social networking club for Singaporeans and friends of Singapore, based in the SF Bay Area.

Mark spent 22 years at Apple across roles from engineering manager to architect. He interfaced between teams, building highly-integrated products including the iMac Pro, iPad, Mac Pro and Mac mini, and created processes for systematic design, validation and test used across Mac.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon and MIT’s computer engineering and policy programs, Mark has initiated several events bridging tech and policy including workshops and panel discussions. He sees AI as an agent to catalyse the adoption of digital utilities by efficiently connecting resource pools together.

Alex "Sandy" Pentland, Fellow, Stanford HAI: Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland is Fellow at Stanford HAI, and previously helped create and direct the MIT Connection Science, the Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited computational scientists in the world, and Forbes declared him one of the "7 most powerful data scientists in the world" along with Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States.

He is has been advisor to the UN Secretary General’s office, co-led the World Economic Forum discussion in Davos that led to the EU privacy regulation GDPR, and was central in forging the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. He has received numerous awards and prizes such as the McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review, the 40th Anniversary of the Internet from DARPA, and the Brandeis Award for work in privacy. Recent invited keynotes include annual meetings of OECD, G20, World Bank, and JP Morgan.

Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive, IMDA ($36M ARR): Mr Kiren Kumar assumed the appointment of Deputy Chief Executive (Development) of IMDA in Jan 2021. He spearheads the development of Singapore’s digital economy and drives the implementation of the ICT industry strategy across both industry verticals and economic horizontals. He oversees both the Sectoral Transformation Group and Digital Industry & Talent Group to accelerate digitalisation across the industries and businesses to grow Singapore’s digital economy, and leads human capital development to provide the right skillsets for ICM sectors to raise the digital literacy of Singapore’s workforce.

Prior to holding office as DCE (Development) in IMDA, Mr Kiren was Assistant Chief Executive (Digital Industry and Talent) at IMDA and Executive Vice President (Digital Industry) at Economic Development Board (EDB). He graduated with a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign, a Masters of Science from Stanford University and an MBA from MIT.

Mei Lin Fung, Chair, IEEE Technical Committee on Sustainability

Brought to you by:
Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA): Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is a statutory board under Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information that develops and regulates the country’s infocomm and media sectors while driving Singapore’s digital economy and digi