Speakers

Jennifer Alejandro

Director, Communications APJ, Okta

Strategic thinker and collaborative. Skilled at both the art and science of PR, she is creative with a clear head for business.

A high-calibre PR, thought leadership strategist, corporate communications, content marketing and integrated marketing communications senior executive. From ideation, conceptualisation, planning, execution and delivery- she works on compelling stories, events and assets that engage audiences with real business results. She is also an executive coach.

Jennifer's work portfolio includes marketing communications, media relations, public relations, executive communications , internal/employee communications, customer marketing and content marketing. She has worked for some of the leading names in enterprise and B2B tech such as SAP, Workday and Okta.

A former news anchor, television journalist, public speaker and broadcast media executive, she is a two-decade media industry veteran. Her experience spans a wide range of areas including international and business news, entertainment (TV, film, theater) and digital media.

Jennifer is a well-rounded and highly experienced Public Relations, Customer Marketing and strategic Content Marketing pro with a consistent record of delivering outcomes.

She is a University of Oxford fellow and visiting scholar.

Punitha Aranha

Director Of Communications, Innovative Medicines APMA, Novartis

As Director of Communications & Engagement, APMA, Punitha is responsible for leading internal, executive, and external communications in the region to support Novartis’ ambitions as a focused medicines company.

Punitha is passionate about transforming and safeguarding the reputations of brands and leadership teams. She is a strong leader with a track record of building high-performing teams and establishing communications infrastructures.

She has over 15 years’ experience of developing and executing communications strategies within regulated industries for world-leading organizations. Prior to joining Novartis, Punitha held communications roles of increasing responsibility at GSK, Takeda, and Johnson & Johnson, including Head of Communications for GSK China Pharma and Vaccines, and Head of Access to Medicines Communications at Takeda.

Before joining the industry, Punitha worked for the UK government. She holds a Master’s degree in International Business from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor’s degree in International History from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Punitha has lived and worked in six countries across Asia, Europe, and South America.

Shruti Bose

Head of Communications Asia Pacific, Roche

Shruti Bose is the Head of Communications & Public Affairs for the Asia Pacific region at Roche Diagnostics. In this role, she is responsible for leading the regional corporate communications function, spanning public affairs, digital communications and employee ambassadorship. A trusted partner to the business, Shruti advises senior leaders on executive communication and external engagement activities. 

A firm believer in the power of integrated communications, Shruti oversees programs that help to shape the company’s reputation and thought leadership. Many of these have won industry recognition and awards including for Best PR Campaign of the Year. Before Roche Diagnostics, Shruti spent 10 years at leading global communications agencies, including Edelman and Weber Shandwick.

Mabel Chiang

Managing Director, Archetype

Mabel is the Managing Director of Archetype Singapore, an award-winning marketing communications agency committed to delivering magnetic work for magnetic brands. She has over 22 years of industry experience in agency and in-house roles, cutting across brand, product marketing, strategic communications, corporate and employee communications, regional hub management, and stakeholder relations. She has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the technology, hospitality and consumer sectors, including the likes of Lenovo, Symantec, Swissotel Hotel Group, OPPO, Far East Organization and Zebra Technologies. Under her leadership, Archetype Singapore has seen consistent growth and been recognised as an Agency of the Year twice in the last three years and one of the region’s best firms to work for – all while undergoing transformation into a fully integrated consultancy.

HS Chung

Asia President, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

HS brings over 28 years of marketing and communications experience working for integrated marketing  agencies DMB&B, McCann-Erickson and in-house PR and marketing at The Westin Chosun and The Ritz-Carlton Seoul hotels prior to setting up Synergy Communications in January 2000 which later became Synergy Hill+Knowlton Strategies in 2002. HS also worked for major Korean broadcasting station, MBC-TV for over two years prior to starting her career in the marketing and communications industry.

Currently HS leads a team of close to 250 staff across Asia including Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan and manages affiliate relationships across markets in Asia offering services in Corporate, Marketing Communications, Government, Public Affairs, Technology, Consumer Healthcare and Crisis and Issues Management practices. HS also spearheads specialized service offerings for the Korean government and conglomerates going global including LG Electronics and has been involved in a number of government led Olympic projects including the most recent 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

HS has a strong background in corporate, integrated communications and digital having worked for many blue-chip multinational clients throughout her career including Coca-Cola, Nestle, P&G, Johnson&Johnson, Audi, Mercedes Benz, Novartis, GSK and many others. She also has deep understanding of Asian conglomerates and their business needs and has provided C-suite counsel on global PR strategy and framework set up to numerous conglomerates including LG, POSCO, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Company. HS is recognized as Campaign APAC’s Women to Watch 2020.

A graduate of Yonsei University, majoring in Mass Communications, HS served as the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, “The Yonsei Annals,”  and won “The Korea Herald’s Best Article Award.” HS also participated in the “Young Korean Journalist Program” hosted by USIS and Center for Foreign Journalist in Washington DC, USA.

HS is a member of the KPRCA (Korea Public Relations Corporate Association) and is also on the board of the PRCA SEA.

Ferry de Bakker

Adjunct Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Devyani Dutt

APAC Lead for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, LinkedIn

Devyani is a Diversity & Inclusion and Human Resources enthusiast with experience across industries and geographies. She currently leads Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging programs for LinkedIn across the Asia Pacific Region. In this role, she builds and runs programs focused on increasing the representation of underrepresented groups in our workplace, limiting bias across the talent life cycle, and creating an environment of belonging for all employees. Devyani spent most of her growing up years in India and moved to Singapore 5 years ago. When not at work, Devyani spends her time doing classical Indian dance and crochet.

Suzy Goulding

Head of Sustainability, APACD & MEA, MSL

Meenu Handa

Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs, Google Asia-Pacific

Ken Hong

Executive Vice President, Client Experience, Weber Shandwick

Linda Lee

Director, Communications & Marketing, Docquity

David Lee

Integrated Marketing Communications Lead, Singapore Maritime Foundation

David has over 20 years of experience in communications and currently leads integrated marketing communications for the Singapore Maritime Foundation, which was founded in 2004 to promote Singapore as an international maritime centre and to build talent for the industry. Campaigns that David managed have won or been nominated for the Effie, MARKies, and the APACD awards.

Harold Li

Vice President, ExpressVPN

David Lian

Managing Director, Asia, Growth & Innovation, Zeno Group

David Lian has worked in the public relations, social media & digital communications industry for nearly two decades in a career spanning regional and local roles with various global agencies.

In his current role, David leads Zeno Group’s Growth and Innovation efforts across Asia – spanning eight Zeno offices – developing new methodologies, capabilities and evolving the firm’s communications approach for clients.

Previously as Managing Director of Zeno Group Malaysia, David grew the office from 2 to 36 people and added top clients include CIMB Bank, Touch N Go Digital, Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, Proton, Lendlease, Taylor’s Education Group amongst others to the agency roster.

Under his leadership, Zeno Malaysia was awarded PRWeek Asia’s New Consultancy of the Year in 2015, attributed to the firm’s exponential growth since beginning operations in 2013.

In his previous role as Asia Pacific Digital Lead, Text100, David was responsible for building the agency’s Digital Hub – based in Malaysia – as well as overseeing the agency’s digital product and service development, team skill enhancement and client consulting.

Earlier in his career, David pioneered social media programmes with clients in the region, notably the award-winning Nokia Ranger & Insider influencer outreach and DiGi Broadband launch programmes.

He graduated from Murdoch University with a double-major degree in Mass Communication (PR and Journalism) and Culture and Communication.

Allison Lim

Vice-President of Corporate and Public Affairs, Alliance to End Plastic Waste

Allison has traversed the communications discipline from journalism to corporate and public affairs and has also worked in public policy. As the Vice-President of Corporate and Public Affairs at the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, she partners her colleagues to achieve the organisation’s core strategic and aspirational objectives - investing in infrastructure and innovative solutions to help end plastic waste in the environment.

Allison joined the Alliance from Tetra Pak where she drove the company’s public policy strategy in the Asia-Pacific. She has steered programmes across the wider sustainable development agenda and has contributed to policy development on a range of issues such as circularity, Extended Producer Responsibility, biodiversity and climate change. 

Allison also spent more than 15 years in communications and public affairs consulting in Asia and the Middle East, where she specialised in government relations and issues management, NGO advocacy, and stakeholder engagement.

Allison began her career as a journalist in Singapore and in the Middle East and North Africa. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the National University of Singapore.

Adam Najberg

Head of Communications, Tencent Games Global (IEGG)

Adam Najberg is the head of communications at Tencent Games Global. He joined in early 2021 after five years as head of international media relations and global content at Alibaba Group, as well as editor in chief of its award-winning content hub, Alizila.com. He started his second career as a PR professional at drone-maker DJI in 2015. Before that, he was a journalist for 25 years – 21 of them at Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent and editor in Asia, Europe and the U.S. While at the WSJ, he worked as a writer, director and producer on two feature-length documentaries. He began his media career as a radio reporter for ICRT in Taiwan and a regular contributor to Marketplace on American Public Radio, worked at The Associated Press and has had bylines in more than a dozen publications, including Barron’s, The Indianapolis News, Newsweek on Campus, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, The Denver Post and others. He and his teams have won multiple awards for their work, including several South Asia Publishers’ awards, a Webby and a SABEW. He’s the author of two works of fiction.

Joe Peng

APAC Chief Digital Officer, BCW

With more than 15-years of integrated marketing, communications, and digital media experience, Joe Peng leads the strategic development and growth of BCW’s digital and social media business in Asia-Pacific.

Gaurav Poola

Data & Analytics Director, Zeno Group Singapore

With a developer background & over ten years of experience in data analytics and digital marketing, Gaurav has helped various clients in designing & implementing analytical frameworks, setting up data pipelines and visualization/reporting formats for measuring the effectiveness of their marketing and communications strategy.

Gaurav leverages on data to generate actionable insights to aid in design decisions and streamline communications strategy, keeping digital goals & business objectives in mind.

Over the years he has worked across a broad spectrum of B2B/B2C clients - from major financial and insurance institutions, automotive, beauty and skincare, telecommunications, FMCGs to ecommerce, powering his clients to be ahead of competition, to leverage on data for storytelling, trend-spotting opportunities and measuring impact across communication channels.

Some of his recent clients include UPS, Lenovo, Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Melissa & Doug, Sentosa, Far East Organization and HSBC.

Emily Poon

President, Ogilvy PR Asia

Chris Pratt

Managing Director of Better Impact, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Chris is a Managing Director in H+K’s London office and has worked in communications consultancy for the last 20 years. Chris leads a specialist energy + industrials practice and is a founder of H+K’s sustainability offer, Better Impact.

Chris’ work in sustainability began through his work to support organisations in their efforts to reduce their impact on climate change. In the energy sector, this has included work for renewables clients to help establish frameworks of support from the government to support growth in renewables. He has also worked with several oil and gas companies to communicate their strategies to reduce carbon and methane emissions and to identify key ESG metrics to measure this performance. More recently he has led our work with the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative to support their members’ efforts to set international commitments in place to reduce and mitigate the impact of oil and gas and difficult to decarbonise industrials sectors like cement.

Helping organisations to change behaviours of employees, consumers and the general public has been a particular focus for Chris and his team. This has included work on improving energy efficiency for E.ON and several mass campaigns on smart meter usage and the promotion of electric vehicles for the UK government’s Go Ultra Low campaign. His work in low emission mobility has also extended to supporting Anglo American on the promotion of government policies to support the growth in hydrogen as an important low carbon replacement fuel.

Chris has worked with several clients to set, report and communicate their sustainability strategy including clients like Duracell and Anglo American. And with clients like GSK to understand and communicate on environmental impact.

He has helped clients with broader ambitions to lead sustainability, to set and advance their agendas. He has recently worked with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to help to launch new methods to measure and finance the growth of the circular economy. He has also supported E3G on their efforts to set the international agenda on climate change via the UNFCCC COPs.

Chris is currently supporting the launch of a new sustainability standard for the US cotton industry and has led efforts to contextualise the standard in relation to wider sustainability efforts of brands and retailers.

Chris graduated from Kingston University, England with an honours degree in Business Studies and completed his Masters in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge.

Arnab Roy Choudhury

Senior Director, Head of Communications and Enablement, Information & Cyber Security, Standard Chartered

 

Vanessa Seow

Head of Communications, Lazada Group

Currently serving as Lazada Group Head of Communications, Vanessa works with the C-suite to ensure strategic alignment on the company’s narrative across six Southeast Asian ventures in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Vanessa is a Singaporean based in Singapore since 2012. Before that, she spent close to a decade in China and witnessed the explosive use of mobile technology in everyday life and use of social media as a mass communication tool before it became mainstream.       

Vanessa has led crisis management teams for a range of issues, including social media-fueled vitriolic attacks against personnel or companies, food safety issues, hostility from civil society stakeholders and regulatory bodies, mass boycotts, product failures/recalls, lawsuits related to IPR, M&A, labor malpractices, workplace deaths, factory workers’ strikes etc. 

Vanessa has been featured in Forbes for her opinions in marketing and crisis management. She has also been guest lecturing at Singapore Management University since 2019, including co-hosting a Masters in Communications module for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business on bridging internal and external communications.

Elan Shou

EVP & Managing Director, Ruder Finn Asia & Greater China

As the head of Ruder Finn’s Asian offices, Elan leads a team of over 620 individuals across 24 offices in Greater China, South East Asia and India.

Elan has transformed Ruder Finn’s Asia-Pacific business from a US$10 million traditional public relations agency in 2013 to the US$50 million integrated marketing powerhouse it is today.

She also serves as the Global Chief Growth Officer for Ruder Finn and has introduced numerous top Chinese brands – such as Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, Xiao Mi and Tik Tok – to audiences around the world. 

Under Elan’s leadership Ruder Finn Asia is continually recognized for creating stand-out communications content and was named 2020 Regional Network of the Year and 2019 Multi-Market Consultancy of the Year by the Gold Standard Awards.

Elan believes in giving back to the community  and serves as the lone board member representing Asia on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Board of L’Oréal.  She has also been on the Board of Directors for the China International PR Association (CIPRA) for over eight years.

Elan graduated with honors in the MBA program from the University of Chicago, and has dual bachelor’s degrees from Shanghai Jiaotong University. 

The clients she represents include some of the world’s leading brands: Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Tencent, Amazon, IKEA, MHD, Hermes, Cartier, Montblanc, Emirates, Shanghai Disney Resort, Singapore Tourism Board, Twitter, Roche, Abbott, GSK, Dyson, and Visa. 

A native of Shanghai Elan speaks Chinese, English and the Shanghai dialect.

Leela Stake

Senior Partner and Global Lead of True MOSAIC, FleishmanHillard

Leela Stake is a senior partner at FleishmanHillard, where she leads the firm’s global diversity, equity and inclusion practice and purpose work. She has worked with more than 100 of the world’s most influential companies and organizations on pressing ESG issues facing people and our planet. Under her leadership, FH4Inclusion, the agency’s global award-winning pro-bono initiative, has engaged more than 1,000 employees to provide 35,000 hours of service. Leela was previously chair of the Global Sustainable Growth & Corporate Responsibility practice at APCO Worldwide and worked at The Asia Foundation in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines. Leela graduated from Stanford with an MA and BA with honors and distinction and helped develop Stanford’s first social entrepreneurship curriculum. She was awarded the Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy and the Lyons Award for Service from Stanford and serves as vice chair of the National Advisory Board at Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service. Leela was recognized as a Purposeful Agency Pro and Woman to Watch.

Arun Sudhaman

CEO/Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media

Arun Sudhaman is CEO and editor-in-chief at PRovoke Media.

In this role Arun oversees PRovoke Media's global content offering, including its analysis and insight into reputation, public relations and communications trends and issues. Since joining PRovoke Media in 2010, Arun has comprehensively redefined the title’s content platform, which includes its digital presence and new products such as the Influence 100 compendium of key global influencers, the Global PR Agency Rankings, the Global Creative Index, and the PRovoke Media podcast. He also led the rebrand of the Holmes Report to PRovoke Media in 2020.

Arun has also played a pivotal role expanding PRovoke Media's coverage into Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets, and has helped steer the company’s international events programme, particularly the Global Public Relations Summit — which has featured such luminaries as Sir Martin Sorrell, P&G’s Marc Pritchard, Chuck Porter and IBM’s Jon Iwata. 

He brings to the position more than a decade’s experience as a journalist and digital content specialist, most of which has been spent analysing the media, marketing and communications industries. His career has encompassed coverage and analysis of reputation and leadership issues in numerous countries across the world, including the US and UK, Russia, China, India and South Africa. 

Prior to joining the Holmes Report, Arun spent more than seven years with Haymarket Media in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. He joined Haymarket title PRWeek UK in January 2009, after covering Asia’s media and marketing landscape at sister Haymarket title Campaign Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Before Haymarket, Arun spent one year at public relations firm Weber Shandwick during its tumultuous mergers with Weber and BSMG. During his career as a journalist he has appeared on BBC News and has also contributed to The Guardian and the South China Morning Post, where he began his career as a business reporter.

In 2015, Arun became the youngest-ever inductee into the ICCO Hall of Fame. He is also a Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations and a PRCA Fellow. At the 2022 PRCA Asia-Pacific Awards, Arun was named Journalist of the Year.

Azmar Sukandar

Head of Communications & Society, Diageo Asia-Pacific

Azmar is based in Singapore and is the head of communications and society, Asia-Pacific for Diageo, providing strategic counsel and support to Diageo's Asia-Pacific business. Azmar was previously Asia-Pacific director of strategic communications and marketing for The Nature Conservancy. Prior to the Nature Conservancy, where she spent almost seven years, Azmar headed the Asia-Pacific communications function for the Financial Times, after holding senior comms roles at Time and Fortune magazines, and with Microsoft's MSN division. Azmar is also a founding board member and current President of the Asia-Pacific Association of Communication Directors.

Mel Tyndale-Biscoe

Senior Director Communications & Public Affairs Asia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson

Mel Tyndale-Biscoe is Vice President APAC Corporate Affairs, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.  Mel serves as a member of the Consumer Health Asia Pacific Leadership team and Global Consumer Health Communication Leadership team.  Mel has also been a member of the Johnson & Johnson Diversity and Inclusion Board Asia Pacific. She has over twenty years of experience in areas such as corporate affairs, executive counsel, strong people development, marketing and stakeholder engagement.

Under her leadership, Mel has built a high-performing team of corporate affairs professionals across Asia Pacific to develop and implement pan-regional strategies that shape corporate reputation and strengthen stakeholder engagement throughout the Asia Pacific region. She has evolved the function and business to embrace new and innovative ways of connecting with a broad range of stakeholders that ultimately amplify the voice and relevancy of its brands to drive consumer preference.

Mel joined Johnson & Johnson in 2010 as Director Strategic Marketing and Communications for Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Device business in Australia and since then has held a variety of market and regional roles. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Mel spent fifteen years in finance in marketing and corporate affairs roles for organizations such as Macquarie Group and N M Rothschild & Sons.

Mel holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University in Ancient History and Classics and has participated in archaeological field work through the University of Tel Aviv.  Mel has also completed the Executive Development Tuck – SMU Brand Reputation Programme and the Johnson & Johnson ASCEND Women’s Leadership Programme EMEA.

Rob van Alphen

Director of Strategy and Innovation, Sandpiper

Rob is the Director of Strategy and Innovation at Sandpiper, an award-winning strategic communications and public affairs consultancy headquartered in Singapore. He has over a decade of agency and in-house experience helping B2B and B2C market leaders in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia move to a more relevant and effortless digital and customer experience.

As a member of the executive team at the largest luxury retailer in the Middle East he established and led digital communications for a portfolio of 80+ fashion and lifestyle brands including Gucci, Armani and Bloomingdale’s.

In his 13 years in the industry, Rob has provided strategic advisory, digital marketing, branding and communications services to companies across industries including the likes of Stratasys, Trouw Nutrition, Mastercard, Toyota, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson.

You’ll find Rob to be passionately curious. He’s excited by the future of work, the creator economy and the metaverse.