Contributors

Abhilash Purushothaman

With over 20 years of experience in software sales, pre-sales, and marketing, I am a seasoned leader and a passionate advocate of digital transformation. I have a proven track record of building and growing profitable, predictable, and sustainable SaaS-led businesses across Asia Pacific and Japan, working with global conglomerates, financial institutions, fintechs, digital natives, and service providers.

As the Vice President & General Manager for Asia at Rubrik, I am responsible for all go-to-market functions in the region, where we are on a hyper-growth journey with a mission to secure and protect the world's data, wherever it lives. I lead a diverse and cross-cultural team of sales, pre-sales, marketing, and channel professionals who are customer-obsessed and committed to delivering value and outcomes for our clients. I leverage my expertise in cloud data management, data monetisation, and DevOps to help customers solve their most critical challenges in securing their mission critical data and thereby accelerate their digital transformation journey.

Amanda Murphy & Steve Hughes

Amanda Murphy is head of Commercial Banking, South and Southeast Asia and Co-Head of Commercial Banking for Asia Pacific, HSBC. 

She oversees HSBC’s commercial banking teams in ANZ, ASEAN and South Asia. Amanda was previously Head of Commercial Banking UK and has worked for HSBC in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Steve Hughes is the Head of Commercial Banking for Australia and New Zealand and HSBC.

Andy Ng - Veritas Technologies

Andy Ng is the Vice-President and Managing Director for Asia South and Pacific region at Veritas Technologies. In this role, he is responsible for leading Veritas' overall business strategy, sales operations and continuous growth across ASEAN and Pacific region.

An industry veteran with over 25 years of experience, Andy has held senior leadership roles across different domains in the technology space, including client management, business and practice development and project management. Before his present role, Andy was leading the Technical Sales and Services across the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region for Veritas, where he was responsible for charting the overall strategy and partnership between the technical and sales teams, delivering outstanding sales and market share growth, and ensuring technical excellence within the organisation.

Prior to Veritas, Andy was with Symantec Corporation. He was instrumental in championing the transformation of the consulting business, building high-performing APJ Architect and Advisory teams, and growing new routes to market for sales to drive opportunities through consultative selling.

Andy holds a Master of Engineering in Engineering and Management from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Boston University. Andy is fluent not only in English and Mandarin, but numerous Chinese dialects and conversational Japanese as well.

Anouska Ladds

Anouska Ladds is the Executive Vice President of Commercial & New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, based in Singapore. During her tenure of over 17 years at Mastercard, Anouska has held numerous leadership roles across disciplines and markets including Sales, Market Development, Consultancy and Product Development.

Most recently, she was the Senior Vice President for Business Strategy, Excellence & Operations for Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Europe at Mastercard. Prior to this, Anouska spearheaded various businesses across markets in the company, including the consumer marketing division in Australasia, alongside the core Business Development function and Travel, Transit and Leisure sectors in UK&I And Europe.

As a leader, Anouska is dedicated to comprehending how every aspect of a business intertwines to achieve the best outcomes. Her success is rooted in her partnership-first approach, which unites everyone on the journey. Anouska prioritizes her team members, helping them view their roles as steppingstones to greater opportunities. This commitment has led her to spearhead the Women in Leadership network at Mastercard and advocate for young professionals across the UK market.

Anouska joined Mastercard in 2007 from Barclaycard, where she specialised in Strategy Development for the Commercial, SME and Acquiring division, Barclaycard Business, and led the Customer Experience, Communications and Strategy division. Beyond work, Anouska has a keen interest in arts and physical fitness.

Brian Thung

Brian is the EY ASEAN Financial Services Leader and is responsible for leading the EY financial services organization (FSO) across Southeast Asia. 

He is also a member of the EY Asia-Pacific regional leadership team where he focuses on providing strategic counsel across the key ASEAN markets, managing people and talent development, as well as ensuring alignment across the global and regional organizational strategies and business outcomes.

Brih Aguilar

Dhawal Shah

Dhawal Shah is the co-founder and driving force behind 2Stallions Digital Marketing Agency, a full-service digital marketing agency established in 2012. With over a decade of success, Shah is passionate about helping businesses achieve tangible growth through strategic, AI-enabled, data-driven marketing solutions.

With expertise in lead generation, brand awareness, and virtual selling, Shah leads a team committed to delivering real impact for its clients across Singapore, Malaysia, APAC and beyond. From startups to SMEs and multinational brands, the company has turned bold strategies into measurable success.

Doris Wu

As a senior brand strategist, Doris enjoys working and playing in the space where analytics meet creativity, crafting brand strategies that reflect their unique nuances.

With a deep passion for problem-solving and a keen eye for building impactful brands, Doris's experience spans across corporate and consumer brands. These include sectors such as Telecom, Finance & Banking, Hospitality, and Luxury, with notable clients like HSBC, UOB, Bank of America, Marriott Group, LVMH, and Richemont Group.

Within these partnerships, she has worked on the merger of Malaysia's leading telecom companies, Celcom and Digi. Her expertise helped establish an impactful and future-facing new brand, CelcomDigi, in the industry.

Dr. Sabine Schaffer

Dr. Sabine Schaffer is Co-Founder of Pro-invest Group, a leading integrated real estate platform within Australasia covering all aspects of development, asset management as well as day-to-day operations. The Group has in excess of $3 billion AUD across hospitality and commercial assets and is setting new benchmarks in ESG, with all assets within the Pro-invest network have some of the highest environment ratings ( including the very first-carbon neutral hotel according to NABERS ratings). Sabine’s career spans from looking after Private Equity investments at 3i into retail schemes, working on high profile projects with McKinsey & Company focusing on Finance and Public Affairs, to being Director of Investments at a GCC based Private Equity firm. Sabine holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University as well as PhD in Economics from Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria.

Ian Tandy

Ian Tandy is Co-Head of Global Trade Solutions, Asia Pacific at HSBC based in Singapore. Ian has held senior trade and commercial banking roles for HSBC in the UK and Asia.