IFoA Asia Conference 2020 confirmed guests and speakers

The Honourable Mr. Lim Guan Eng, Minister of Finance, Malaysia

Mr Lim assumed the position of the Minister of Finance of Malaysia on 21 May 2018. Since assuming the position, Mr Lim has set about applying his vast experience in governance and economic management at the federal level in Putrajaya.

In his time as the 4th Chief Minister of Penang from March 2008-May 2018, Mr. Lim put clean leadership and good governance at the core of his administration. Based on the principle of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT).

Penang has managed to reverse the gradual decline of the State and is now the leading state in Malaysia.

His Excellency Charles Hay MVO 

Charles Hay started as the British High Commissioner to Malaysia in March 2019 in succession to Vicki Treadell CMG MVO.

Prior to Malaysia, Mr Hay was the British Ambassador to South Korea from 2015 to 2018. 

Charles was also the Director of Consular Services in London, responsible for assisting British nationals and in crisis management worldwide. Before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993, he was a Captain in the British Army.

Adam Driussi – CEO, Quantium

Adam Driussi is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Quantium, widely regarded as Australia’s leading data science and artificial intelligence firm.

Established in 2002, Quantium now has 800 staff working with many of the world’s leading brands to power new business possibilities via data, analytics and technology.  Quantium recruits many of the brightest minds in data science and technology from within Australia and across the globe.

In 2013 Adam was awarded Actuary of the Year by the Actuaries Institute in Australia for his work in data analytics.

Prof Benjamin Horton, Chair, Asian School of the Environment

Prof Benjamin Horton joined NTU June 2017. In July 2018, he assumed the appointment of Chair, Asian School of the Environment. In 2019 he was awarded the President’s Chair in Earth Sciences. 

Professor Horton was previously a Professor at Rutgers University and an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Horton obtained his BA from the University of Liverpool, UK, and PhD from the University of Durham, UK.

Professor Horton has won a number of awards in his career. For excellence in research, he has received awards from European Geosciences Union (Plinius Medal), American Geophysical Union (Voyager Award) and the Geological Society of America (W. Storrs Cole Award). He was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2013 and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2018. Professor Horton was an author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report and is a Review Editor for the new 6th Assessment Report. Professor Horton’s research was cited by President Obama in his 2015 State of the Union Address at the United States Capitol on January 20th 2015.

Professor Horton has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including 26 articles in high profile journals such as Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Geology. Professor Horton is supervising or has supervised 24 students to the degree of PhD and 20 postdoctoral scientists, of which 15 now have permanent academic positions.

Dr Renard Siew, Founder of Accelerating Climate Action and the Climate Change Advisor to CENT-GPS.

Dr Slew serves on the International Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Working Committee and was a taskforce member of UNEP FI’s Collective Climate Goal. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral teaching fellow and a researcher at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) where he has worked on  a number of portfolios including sustainability/ integrated reporting, ESG integration, socially responsible investment (across different asset classes: equities, infrastructure and property/real estate), climate change and sustainable construction for the building/infrastructure sector.

Renard is a graduate of Cambridge University and UNSW. In 2013, he was selected as one of 15 international scholars to attend the PhD Academy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). He has published in many international refereed journals. In 2014, he won a Highly Commended Paper award by the Emerald Literati Network and was inducted into the prestigious Global Young Academy as recognition of his research impact.

Tan Bin Ru (陈敏如), CEO (APAC & UAE), OneConnect Financial Technology

Tan Bin Ru is the CEO (APAC & UAE) of OneConnect Financial Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE: OCFT), a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. OneConnect is an associate company of Ping An Group which ranks 29th on 2019 Fortune 500 and 7th on Forbes 2019 Global 2000. In her role, Bin Ru is responsible for expanding OneConnect’s fintech solutions internationally outside of China.

Bin Ru has over 20 years of experience in Sales and Operations, and has driven successful sales strategies and operational improvements at MNCs and startups. At Microsoft, she was the Regional Sales Director for One Commercial Partner and Small, Mid-market Corporate Customers for Southeast Asia.

She also worked at Hewlett Packard for 10 years where she held various roles in Singapore and Houston in the area of Sales Strategy, Alliance Management, Business Planning, Worldwide Operations, and Strategic Management.

At the Singapore FinTech Awards 2019, Bin Ru has been recognized as one of the “Top 5 Women in FinTech” for her exceptional contribution to the Singapore fintech industry, and “Asia FinTech Leaders” for her leadership in building a sustainable company amidst its rapid expansion in the region.