EVOLVE APAC Investment Summit 2022

H.E. Bilahari Kausikan
Chairman, Middle East Institute,
National University of Singapore;
Former Ambassador-at-Large,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore

Bilahari Kausikan is a Singaporean academic and retired diplomat. He was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former ambassador to the UN and Russia. Bilahari is currently Chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

Bilahari Kausikan joined the civil service in 1981. He was appointed as Singapore’s ambassador to the newly formed Russian Federation in 1994, and subsequently as ambassador to the United Nations (1995 – 1998). Bilahari was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001, and promoted to Permanent Secretary in 2010.

After a 37-year career in Singapore’s foreign relations, Bilahari is known to speak his mind about the issues confronting the country and the wider region. He believes the civil service has become too accomodative and argues that ‘when you are polite, nothing gets done.’ He has called for Singapore to be more muscular in its own declicate diplomatic relations, saying that true neurality means ‘knowing your own interests, taking positions based on your own interests and not allowing others to define your interests for you by default‘. Furthermore, he warns of the danger of passivity in relation to the current US-China split, saying there is no ‘sweet spot’ to keep both the Chinese and Americans ‘happy’.

Bilahari studied political science at the University of Singapore before receiving a scholarship to embark on a PhD in international relations at Columbia University. However, he decided against an academic career and retured to Singapore to join the Foreign Ministry. He is the author of Singapore is Not an Island: Views on Singapore Foreign Policy (2017).

Federico Donato
President, Eurocham Singapore;
Board Member,
Global Compact SG Network.

Federico is Executive Director at Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia Pacific. A senior banker with extensive experience in the wide spectrum of the wealth management industry and an expert in family business, Federico advices Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, Institutions and Pension Funds, beside managerial duties. He is President of the European Chamber of Commerce Singapore and board member of various institutions including Singapore Business Federation, ACCORD (Council on Community Relations, Ministry of Defence Singapore), National Wage Council and EU Asean Business Council. In 2019 he designed and developed the Eurocham Sustainability Program & Award partnering with Ministry of Sustainability, Ministry of Trade & Industry, Singapore Exchange and Singapore Business Federation on top of the EU Commission and many government agencies that are showing a mounting interest in this subject. Following the intense effort in this field, in 2021 Federico joined the Management Committee of the UN Global Compact Singapore Network.

A regular speaker, author and contributor to many seminars and conferences including but not limited to Trade Association Symposium @ APEX, APEC Business Summit 2022, Singapore Regional Business Forum, Federico is considered an established voice in the sustainable space. He graduated in financial markets at Bocconi University in Finance and was visiting student at Stern School of Business, New York University.

Rejina Rahim
Founder,
Wahine Capital Sdn. Bhd

Rejina started off her career in stock broking before joining the fund management industry in 1998.

She has under her belt, 25 years in the Malaysian capital markets, spent mostly in the investment management industry. Up till end 2021, Rejina was the Founding MD for the Malaysian office of Nomura Asset Management which she grew from scratch to over USD7 billion in assets under management.

She remains involved with the industry through her role as External Advisor to Nomura Asset Management in Malaysia as well as various industry committees including climate change taxonomy, Islamic finance and women leadership.

She was one of the inaugural 2021 Listee of the Kindness & Leadership 50 Leading Lights Asia Pacific and was also named by Asia Asset Management magazine as 25 industry leaders of the Asian asset management industry.

She recently started Wahine (pronounced Wa-hee-nay) Capital as a means of securing the financial future of women. She is in the midst of building her MVP.

Cherine Fok
Partner, KPMG ESG,
KPMG, Singapore

Cherine Fok is a Partner for KPMG ESG in Singapore and drives the local ESG efforts. She has more than 15 years of experience in a wide range of consultancy projects, specialising in ESG strategies and frameworks, social and economic development, sustainable finance, climate change and ESG measurement, reporting and assurance. By championing cross-functional collaboration and expertise, she helps corporate and public sector clients to address complex ESG and decarbonisation topics.

Robin Tsui (Moderator)
APAC Gold Strategist and
SPDR Gold Sales Specialist,
State Street Global Advisors

Mr Robin Tsui (CAIA, CA ANZ, HKICPA) is the APAC Gold Strategist and SPDR Gold Sales Specialist for Hong Kong at State Street SPDR ETFs of State Street Global Advisors. In his capacity as APAC Gold Strategist, Robin supports institutional and intermediary sales efforts in APAC to increase investor awareness of SPDR Gold ETFs and to grow their market shares through the development of research, education, product positioning collateral and client engagements. In his capacity as SPDR Gold Sales Specialist, Robin leads the sales strategies for the SPDR Gold ETF business in Hong Kong. Prior to this role, Robin served as the Interim Head of SPDR ETFs for Hong Kong.

Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors, Robin held the position of Manager, Investment Product & Research at the World Gold Council, the market development organization of the gold industry. Before joining the World Gold Council, Robin was the Associate Director and Metals and Mining Equity Research Analyst at Bank of China International (BOCI), covering precious and base metals mining companies. Prior to joining BOCI, Robin was the Metals & Mining Equity Research Analyst at Haitong International Securities Group. Robin began his career at EY in Melbourne, Australia.

Robin holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation (CAIA) and is both a Chartered Accountant in Australia & New Zealand (CA ANZ) and a Certified Public Accountant in Hong Kong (HKICPA).

Julia Lee
PDR ETF Equity Strategist APAC,
State Street Global Advisors

Julia Lee is the SPDR ETF Equities Investment Strategist covering Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan & Australia. She has over 20 years’ experience in financial markets. Julia has worked in various roles including Chief Investment Officer for Australian Equities Fund, Equities Strategist at Bell Direct for 11 years and Head of Fundamental Analysis at Hubb Financial.

Julia is one of Australia’s best know financial experts providing commentary to Bloomberg, CNBC, ABC, BBC, Sunrise and on the radio and newspapers. Julia has also hosted several share market shows including “Your Money, Your Call” and “Equity Investor” on Sky News and the Sky Business Channel. She is a regular contributor to industry publications and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Julia is on the board of directors for the Australian Stockbrokers Foundation. She has her Master of Business in Finance, is an accredited Derivatives Adviser (ADA2(ASX)) and is RG 146 compliant.

John Reade
Chief Market Strategist,
World Gold Council

John Reade joined the World Gold Council in February 2017 as Chief Market Strategist. He is responsible for producing strategy and developing insights on the gold market; leading our global dialogue by engaging with leading economists, academics, policy makers, fund managers and investors on gold; and leading our research team.

John has over 30 years’ experience in the gold industry and related fields, most recently as a partner and gold strategist with Paulson & Co for the past seven years. Prior to that, he worked as a precious metals strategist at UBS for 10 years; a gold equity analyst in South Africa for 5 years; and over 8 years held various positions in production and project evaluation in the gold division of Gencor, then a leading South African mining house.

John has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, a constituent of Imperial College, London.

Steve Brice
Chief Investment Officer,
Standard Chartered Bank

Steve Brice is the Bank’s Chief Investment Officer and has over 25 years of financial markets experience in senior positions. He leads a team of more than 20 investment professionals and chairs the Bank’s Global Investment Committee, which is responsible for forming the cross-asset investment views for the Private Bank and Retail segments.

His previous roles include Chief Economist (SE Asia), Head of Research (Middle East and South Asia) and Head of Global Markets (Southern Africa), all with Standard Chartered Bank. He started his career at I.D.E.A. Ltd, a financial consultancy in London, where he was Regional Head of FX (Europe) before joining SCB. He has a Masters from the University of Liverpool.

Steve’s views are widely sought by both clients and the media. He regularly contributes articles to newspapers and magazines and frequently appears on TV and radio stations such as CNBC, Bloomberg, Channel News Asia and Dubai Eye.

Steve is based in Singapore and, pre-pandemic, travelled frequently around Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East to share his views with both clients and the media. Steve is originally from the UK, but has lived in Asia, Africa and the Middle East for the past 24 years. Steve is an ardent sports fan focusing on cricket, rugby and Liverpool FC.

Mansoor Mohi-uddin
Chief Economist,
Bank of Singapore

Mansoor Mohi-uddin is a macroeconomist and financial market strategist with two decades experience covering institutional investors around the world. Mansoor speaks to policymakers and central bankers and maintains links with think-tanks in Washington and Beijing. He appears on CNBC and Bloomberg Television, his work features in The Economist and he has written for the Financial Times.

Mansoor was most recently at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s investment arm, NatWest Markets, where he was the Asia region's Macro Strategist and previously the bank’s Global Head of FX Strategy. Prior to joining RBS, Mansoor spent 17 years at UBS in London, Zurich and Singapore where he was also Global Head of FX Strategy from 2002 to 2014.

Mansoor holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. He was tutored by Professor Charles Goodhart, a former Chief Adviser at the Bank of England.

Joanne Murphy (Moderator)
Managing Director, Asia Pacific,
CAIA Association

Jo has been in Asia for 25 years and has held senior Asia Pacific wide management positions, successfully leading sales, business development, marketing, and client relationship management divisions; and has both built and managed large and effective regionally located teams.

Jo was expatriated to Hong Kong with Morgan Stanley and has worked for several global institutions including HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Triple A Partners. Jo’s roles have covered intermediary, buy and sell side as well as entrepreneurial groups, and now is Managing Director, Asia Pacific for the CAIA Association.

Jo enjoys the reputation of being hard-working, capable, committed, and commercial; is a seasoned presenter and sought out moderator, regularly contributing to leading forums addressing topical aspects of the financial services sector, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific private markets landscape. Jo was a founding executive committee member of AIMA Hong Kong and now sits on its Education Committee, and holds corporate and NFP advisory board directorships, is a Fellow of Singapore University of Social Sciences and is an advisory council member of UPACA Gurukul (India).

Jaspar Crawley
Head of Institutional Investor Relations, APAC (ex China),
World Gold Council

Jaspar Crawley is the Head of Distribution, APAC ex-China and joined the World Gold Council in August 2018. Jaspar is responsible for building long-term relationships with institutional gold investors.

Jaspar has over 10 years’ experience in the gold industry and related fields, working as a precious metals sales trader at UBS and Deutsche Bank. Formerly a Captain in the British Army, Jaspar holds a degree in History (BA Hons) from Newcastle University, the STA Diploma in Technical Analysis and is a CAIA charter holder.

Yvonne Chan (Host)
Former CNA News Anchor and Media Trainer

Yvonne Chan is a multi-hyphenate – a versatile news presenter and highly skilled moderator with 20 years of experience. She has led many high-profile discussions including ministerial forums discussing issues in geopolitics, finance, renewable energy, and topics related to ESG and sustainability.

Most recently, she was the moderator for a discussion on the new economy featuring philanthropist and former New York City mayor, Mr Michael Bloomberg. She has chaired many keynote dialogues for the finance sector featuring speakers such as Singapore senior minister, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr Ravi Menon, MD of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, among others. During her decade at Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Yvonne was the station’s business news anchor and the co-anchor of CNA’s flagship weekday breakfast programme, First Look Asia.