Scott Rafer | Benjamin Joffe | Dr Gang Lu | Dr Lai Kok Fung | Wong Hoong An | R. Chandrashekar | Reza Behnam | Dan Neary | Tahn Joo Chin | Sten Tamkivi
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CurrentCEO at Lookery |
PastCEO at MyBlogLog.com (Sold to Yahoo!) |
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Scott Rafer was CEO of blogger social site MyBloglog.com until its acquisition by Yahoo in January 2007. Hisis also a co-founder and director at Mashery and has been helping Internet publishers and users find What’s Right Now! since 1995. At Mashery and as chairman of Winksite, Rafer helps deliver services for media publishing and discovery. Both sites offer unique features: Mashery that the basics of great web services are available to all providers, while Winksite helps publishers assemble active mobile communities around their brands and content.Previously, Rafer was CEO of Feedster from 2001 to 2003 and co-founded WiFinder, an online tool for finding public wireless access; BookBroadband, the broadband hotel finder; Fresher Information, a real-time search engine using RSS back in 1999; and FotoNation, a creator of connected photography solutions.Before the 1995, Rafer headed-up the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking at Needham & Company, and graduated from the management of technology program at the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Benjamin Joffe was selected among the “China’s TOP 100 Mobile Industry Influencers” in 2007 and 2008 and frequently quoted in various online and offline media such as CNN.com, AdAge, Asian Business Leaders and many more. Joffe’s specialties are in Asian Innovation, SNS, Mobile and Internet industries, social networks Web 2.0 in Asia, 3G services and many more. |
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CurrentCo-Founder at OpenWeb Asia
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PastAsia Business Development Director at Netvibes.com |
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Gang Lu [Universe, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter] - MSc, PhD in wireless communications, Internet expert, known speaker, co-founder of Open Web Asia Workgroup. Open Web Asia is the first independent workgroup focusing on Asia Internet industry, and is also the organizer of Open Web Asia conference which is the first truly pan-Asia web technology event bringing together executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from throughout Asia. With strong academic background in wireless communications, years of research and development experience in mobile industry and international business management in web industry, Gang Lu is very passionate about the Open Web concept and plays very active role in building efficient channels among Asian local markets as well as between Asia web and global industry. Gang Lu was the Asia Business Development Director of Netvibes.com, the world leading personalized homepage and widget technology provider. Prior to joining Netvibes, he was in charge of research and development of Multimedia Messaging Service platform and 3G applications in Dialogue Communications Ltd. a leading mobile messaging service provider in UK. Gang Lu is also a recognized tech blogger. He is the guest editor of the world top web 2.0 blog ReadWriteWeb.com, and his personal blog Mobinode.com covers the Internet market news in Asia especially in China, was also voted as the best China Tech Blog in 2007. |
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CurrentCo-Founder and CEO at Buzzcity |
PastResearcher at Kent Ridge Digital Labs (I2R) |
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Dr Lai Kok Fung is co-founder and chief executive officer of BuzzCity, a developer of global wireless communities and consumer services. Established in 1999 in Singapore, BuzzCity today operates the world’s largest wireless community - mygamma.com - for two distinct audiences: the newly connected emerging middle class in developing markets and the blue collar sector in developed regions. These “unwired” consumers are accessing the mobile Internet on their phones due to widespread and affordable wireless access. Prior to founding BuzzCity, Dr Lai worked as an applied researcher in laboratories funded by the Singapore government, specializing in pattern recognition and text retrieval. He graduated with First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore and obtained his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. |
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CurrentFounder at HungryGoWhere.com |
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Wong Hoong An is responsible for the Sales and Marketing, and Finance at HungryGoWhere.com. Prior to being a founding member of one of Singapore’s most popular food websites, Hoong An was the Head of Strategy at a mainboard-listed IT company which built defense technologies. As the Head of Strategy, Hoong An was responsible for business planning, market communications and investor relations. Hoong An also spent about two years with the Ministry of Defense as a research analyst. He was previously an intern at Capitol Hill in Washington DC where he was exposed to policy-making and was also an award winning sales person at Southwestern Company. Hoong An is a member of the International Thespian Honor Society and has a pension for the Fine Arts. While he graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Economics in 1998, his learning in the real world only began after that and he regards himself as a student for life. |
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CurrentFounder and CEO at Fusion Garage |
PastFounder and CEO at Radixs |
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Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan is the founder and CEO of Fusion Garage Pte Ltd. Previously, he founded a start-up called Radixs Pte Ltd. Which he from a two man foundership to a 70-man outfit and raised $20 million in Venture Capital. Radixs innovated the world’s first mobile operating system, MXI (Motion Experience Interface), that could run PC-based applications written for Windows, Java and Linux without any redevelopment on handheld devices. Chandra holds a patent in this area. Chandra has presented at events such as 3GSM, DemoMobile03 and “D” Conference (”All things Digital” 04). |
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CurrentPartner at IDG Ventures Vietnam |
PastManaging Director at Yahoo! Southeast Asia |
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Reza is a Venture Partner focusing on regional investments within South East Asia. Previously, Reza served as Managing Director of Yahoo! Southeast Asia in Singapore. He oversaw Yahoo!’s operations and P&L across the six markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. He was in charge of running end-to-end operations including strategic planning, sales, partnerships, marketing, distribution, product-development, and engineering for all six markets. Prior to joining Yahoo!’s international operating management, Reza was the Director of Global Alliances at Yahoo!’s headquarters in the United States where he successfully managed a business development and solutions-delivery team. In this role Reza played a lead role in devising Yahoo’s “Digital Home Strategy” which later culminated into the “Yahoo! Go for TV” product suite. In addition, Reza played an integral role in developing and deepening partnerships with companies such as Connexion by Boeing, Dell, Philips, Sony, and HSBC. Reza also has over nine years of experience as a management strategy consultant to Global 500 companies and Internet start-ups. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Intel’s head quarters in California as a corporate marketing strategist/scientist. Reza is a graduate of Boston University with a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics and a M.A. in Economics. Reza is an Iranian and American dual citizen and has lived in UK, Greece, India, Iran, US, and Singapore. |
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CurrentVice President and GM at Skype APAC |
PastVice President of Emerging Markets at eBay |
| As the Asia Pacific (APAC) Vice President and General Manager for Skype, Dan Neary is responsible for the development of Skype’s business across the APAC region. Dan has over 20 years of executive level experience in both US-based and international roles. Most recently he was eBay’s Vice President of Emerging Markets, overseeing eBay’s various Marketplace businesses in Southeast Asia and India. Dan joined eBay in 2002 and was previously the Head of the Collectibles business unit in the U.S. before relocating to Singapore in 2005.
Prior to eBay, Dan was the COO of Vendio – a leading eCommerce software solutions start-up. He began his career at the Kellogg Company where he spent over eight years in various marketing and management roles. During his tenure he ran Kellogg’s operations in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. In his last role, Dan was the General Manager of the company’s Greater-China business and was based in Guangzhou, China. In his free time, Dan is active in the entrepreneurial community and helps advise tech start-ups on a range of issues from fund raising to business development. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) which functions as the Chief Information Officer for the Singapore Government. |
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CurrentManaging Director at Hina Singapore |
PastPartner at WIIG-TDF Partners LLC |
| Ms. Tahn-Joo Chin is Managing Director of Hina Singapore. She was a Co-founder and Partner of Venture TDF since 1996, and subsequently a Partner with the WIIG-TDF Partners LLC, based in the Silicon Valley.
She has proven fund management experience and an investment track record of more than 35% IRR. She has managed three venture capital funds with a total of $120 million under management. Investments made by her include Alibaba.com, Webex (WBEX), Sina.com (SINA), GRIC Communications (GRIC), Redback Networks (RBAK), Brokat (BRJ.FNM), Oramir (acquired by Applied Material, AMAT), and Mediaring (MRNG.SI). Ms. Chin was the Co-founder and subsequently CEO of the Information Technology Institute (ITI), which is a leading IT research institute affiliated with the National Computer Board (NCB). ITI spun off more than twelve technology companies with venture capital funding, including Mediaring, listed on the Singapore Exchange. Ms. Chin earned a MS in Computer Science Computer Engineering from Stanford University; a Diploma in Management Studies from the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, a MS in Industrial Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) with first class honors from the University of Singapore. She was a Loke Scholar. |
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CurrentChief Evangelist and GM at Skype Estonia |
PastBusiness Development Director at Helmes |
| Sten Tamkivi is Skype’s Chief Evangelist, building relationships with engineering communities, media, governments and academia around the world. Based in Tallinn, he also looks after Skype Estonia, our largest office globally as local General Manager.Sten joined Skype in 2005 and has held various executive positions as the Head of Operations, overseeing our sites and servers, internal IT, security, and productivity tools; as manager of the engineering for Skype Devices; General Manager of Skype’s eCommerce activities, responsible for developing next-generation commerce around Skype’s core communication offering; and more recently as GM of Desktop clients, focussing on the development of landmark Skype 4.0 for Windows release.
Prior to Skype, Sten was business development director at Helmes, a Tallinn-based software development and IT-consulting company. His client roster included major regional financial institutions, telecoms and utilities. Having begun his career as a programmer and web designer, Sten co-founded and managed Halo Interactive DDB Estonia, the country’s first full service digital media agency. It was at Halo, while working on a web portal project, that he first met the future founders and core engineers of Skype. Sten has studied Public Relations and Communication at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He lives in Tallinn where he cooks gourmet meals for his wife, son and daughter. |
