Speakers - Digital Marketing Asia 2026

MEET THE 2026 GROWTH DRIVERS

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Tony Fernandes

Chief Executive Officer, Capital A, Co-Founder, AirAsia

Tan Chuan-Jin

Entrepreneur and Advisor

Nir Eyal

New York Times Bestselling Author and Behavioural Designer

NirAndFar.com

Kelly Toh

Lead of Business Development

AdTech Innovation

Linda Lee

Lead of Regional Strategy

AdTech Innovation

Nikki Taylor

APAC Marketing and Communications Director

Analytic Partners

Naohiro Yamaura

Chairman and CEO

Ayudante APAC

Khang Nguyen Trieu

Group Head of Digital and Technology

Banyan Group

U-Fong Chua

E-commerce Director, MU ASEAN

Beiersdorf

Gerald Tjan

Asia Commercial Director

Braze

Aniko Andras

Global Marketing Director

Charles & Keith

Andrew Hill

Digital Acceleration Strategy and Enablement Senior Director

Coca-Cola ASEAN and South Pacific Operating Unit

Jaslyin Qiyu

Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience, Singapore and Australia

Cigna Healthcare

Shermaine Wong

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Cult Creative

Joel Neoh

Founding Partner

First Move

Candyse Yip

Head of E-commerce (Singapore and Malaysia)

Fossil Group

Adora Sarah Chou

Chief Marketing Officer

Guzman y Gomez Singapore

Mayank Dutt

Head of Customer Propositions and Lifecycle Management

HSBC

Catherine Loh

Digital Experience Director

JLL

Grant Gudgel

Chief Marketing Officer

Locala

Louis Sim

Global Marketing Lead, Nomad eSIM

LotusFlare

Mila Strokova

Global Business Development Director

M+C Saatchi Performance

Jacqui Lim

Chief Commercial Officer

Mediacorp

Vasily Popravko

Senior Director, Data SEA

Monks

Jinyoung Park

Senior Data Specialist

Monks

Jeremy Lee

Head of Middle East and South Asia

Pop Mart

Alex de Leon

Group Vice President, AI Transformation and Growth

PropertyGuru Group

Sonal Aggarwal

Head of E-commerce SEA

PUMA

Douglas Goh

Head of Creative and Director of Digital Creative

Samsonite

Chris Pok

Divisional Director, Marketing and Guest Experience

Sentosa Development Corporation

Deirdre Chew

Director of Sales, SEA

StackAdapt

Kelvin Koh

Managing Director

Truescope Singapore

Mihir Deshpande

Senior Director, Commercial, Chemical Analysis Division, Asia Pacific and Japan

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Inez Fun

Global Digital Director, Beauty and Wellbeing

Unilever

Paulene Ong

Marketing Director

Uniqlo Singapore

Marcus Chew

Managing Director Group Retail Banking Marketing

UOB

Mark Khoo

APAC Digital Activation Lead

Versuni

Janine Diaz

Regional Media Lead – APeC

Volvo Cars

Ng Kok Hwee

Chief Marketing Officer

Zespri International

Goh Theng Kiat

Moderator

Mira Bharin

Moderator

Peilin Lee

Moderator

Rohan Mathur

Moderator

Soumik Chakraborty

Moderator

Rezwana Manjur

Editor-in-Chief

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

A’bidah Zaid Shirbeeni

Senior Journalist

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

Dhanya Vimalan

Journalist

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

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Tony Fernandes

Chief Executive Officer, Capital A

Co-Founder, AirAsia

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, is a co-founder of AirAsia. He was appointed as a non-independent executive director and chief executive officer of Capital A Berhad (formerly known as AirAsia Group Berhad) on 30 March 2018.

Fernandes is one of Asia’s most recognisable entrepreneurs, best known for co-founding low-cost carrier AirAsia and democratising air travel in the region.

In December 2001, Fernandes, together with Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, Dato’ Pahamin Ab Rajab and Dato’ Abdel Aziz @ Abdul Aziz bin Abu Bakar, acquired struggling domestic airline, AirAsia, and with the help of Conor McCarthy, relaunched it as a pioneer of budget travel in Asia, building AirAsia into the world’s best low-cost carrier.

He studied in the UK and qualified as an Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991, then as a Fellow Member in 1996. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). An accountant by training, he began his career in Virgin Group before returning to Malaysia as Warner Music Group’s vice president for Southeast Asia before venturing into the airline business.

Fernandes has received numerous honours and awards over the course of his career. These include the Honour of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire, conferred by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, and the Commander of the Legion d’Honneur, awarded by the French Government for outstanding contributions to the economy of France through the aviation industry. He also received the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) award conferred by Yang Di Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, which carries the title Tan Sri.

Tan Chuan-Jin

Entrepreneur and Advisor

Tan Chuan-Jin believes people, not systems, are the real constraint on any transformation effort, digital or otherwise. Get the capacity-building and people dimension right, he argues, and organisations become far better equipped to solve the harder, domain-specific problems in front of them, from digital marketing to workforce transformation. He calls this the “heartware” dimension, and has spent his working life studying how to unlock it — from coordinating Singapore’s humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to building teams inside a fast-scaling fintech business today.

He is an entrepreneur with businesses spanning payments fintech, data centers, and leadership training, and advises companies across sectors internationally. He previously served as Speaker of Parliament of Singapore, a Cabinet Minister, Deputy Chairman of Mandai Wildlife Reserve, President of the Singapore National Olympic Council, and a Brigadier-General in the Singapore Armed Forces, experience that spans government, policy, military, and business at scale.

At this event, his starting point is that if you get the people part right, the digital marketing solutions will follow. Not the other way around.

Nir Eyal

New York Times Bestselling Author and Behavioural Designer

NirAndFar.com

Nir Eyal is a globally recognised authority on behaviour change and human potential. His frameworks have empowered millions to build better habits, enhance focus, and unlock greater agency in their lives and work. A former lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, Eyal has collaborated with leaders and organisations worldwide to boost performance through behaviour design.

He is the New York Times bestselling author of the international bestsellers Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, which have sold over one million copies in more than 30 languages. His third book, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results, became an instant New York Times best-seller and reveals how to identify and replace the hidden beliefs that define our limits.

As a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor, Eyal has backed multi-billion-dollar companies, including Canva, Kahoot!, and others. In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, his writing has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and Psychology Today.

Kelly Toh

Lead of Business Development

AdTech Innovation

With over seven years of experience in digital marketing, Kelly Toh has worked with globally renowned brands across diverse industries and markets. Her expertise spans regional marketing planning, performance-driven media buying, strategic influencer marketing, and navigating the complexities of China’s digital ecosystem. She has strong familiarity with China’s digital marketing landscape, including leading platforms such as Xiaohongshu, WeChat, and Baidu.

With a strong understanding of both regional and cross-border audiences, she develops integrated, data-led marketing strategies that connect brands with consumers across multiple markets. Whether planning and scaling regional campaigns, adapting strategies to meet local market needs, or leveraging localised insights to drive growth, Toh brings together data, creativity, and cross-cultural expertise to deliver measurable results and build impactful brand narratives in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Linda Lee

Lead of Regional Strategy

AdTech Innovation

Linda Lee leads regional strategy at AdTech Innovation, advising multinational and regional brands on growth, market strategy and integrated marketing across Singapore and APAC, spanning both international and China digital ecosystems. With over eight years of experience across agency, media and brand environments, she has led 360° strategies covering digital, programmatic, social, influencer, out-of-home and content, translating business priorities and audience insights into market, channel and investment decisions.

Her career includes The Walt Disney Company, Mediacorp and The Goat Agency, giving her a cross-disciplinary perspective on how brands build relevance and drive growth across increasingly fragmented media ecosystems. She works closely with senior and C-suite stakeholders on regional strategy, market expansion and cross-channel growth.

Her focus is on connecting consumer behaviour, media and commercial objectives to help brands make sharper decisions on where to play, how to engage and where to invest across Asia.

Nikki Taylor

APAC Marketing and Communications Director

Analytic Partners

Nikki Taylor is APAC marketing and communications director at Analytic Partners and has over 20 years’ experience across Asia-Pacific. She specialises in building marketing engines that drive measurable commercial growth and C-suite credibility.

She has led senior marketing and communications roles at global organisations including Google and UPS, working across complex, multi-market environments spanning B2B and B2C. Taylor’s expertise sits at the intersection of brand, performance and commercial strategy, helping organisations connect marketing investment to revenue and long-term value. She is a regular keynote speaker across APAC on marketing effectiveness, measurement and growth.

Naohiro Yamaura

Chairman and CEO

Ayudante APAC

Naohiro Yamaura is a professional digital marketing consultant specialising in Google Analytics 360 and Google Marketing Platform. A trailblazer in online advertising, he has trained over 1,200 professionals through Google’s Analytics IQ course and taught as lecturer at universities like Rikkyo University. With eight publications on digital marketing, Yamaura has contributed to trade magazines, online media, and numerous seminars. His expertise spans education, writing, and advancing digital marketing practices across industries.

Khang Nguyen Trieu

Group Head of Digital and Technology

Banyan Group

Khang Nguyen Trieu is group head of digital and technology at Banyan Group, an independent global hospitality company with a purpose. In this role, he leads the Group’s digital and technology agenda, strengthening its hospitality management platform, advancing digital architecture, data capability and systems integration, and defining how technology and AI can create genuine positive impact for Banyan’s associates, hotel guests, local communities and the planet.

With more than 25 years in technology across Europe and Asia, Trieu’s career has been built at the intersection of large-scale transformation and responsible innovation. Beyond his role at Banyan Group, Trieu chairs the Robotics Taskforce within the Singapore Hotel Association’s Hotel Innovation Committee, champions the Singapore Tourism Board’s T-Cube innovation workgroup.

U-Fong Chua

E-commerce Director, MU ASEAN

Beiersdorf

U-Fong Chua is the e-commerce director for MU ASEAN at Beiersdorf and was recognised as one of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Top 25 E-Commerce Leaders in Asia. He also recently served as a judge for the Asia E-Commerce Awards 2025. He leads Beiersdorf’s e-commerce growth strategy across Southeast Asia for brands including NIVEA, Eucerin, Hansaplast, and La Prairie, overseeing a regional organisation of more than 50 e-commerce professionals across ASEAN.

With over a decade of experience in FMCG and e-commerce, Chua previously held leadership roles at The LEGO Group, P&G, and L’Oréal. His leadership philosophy is simple: stay bold, stay adaptable, and never stop reinventing.

Gerald Tjan

Asia Commercial Director

Braze

Gerald Tjan leads Braze’s commercial business across Asia, partnering with brands to drive growth through more intelligent, data-driven customer engagement. He works closely with both high-growth startups and established enterprises to rethink how they acquire, retain, and build lasting relationships with their customers.

With deep experience in Asia’s fast-evolving digital landscape, Tjan focuses on helping companies move beyond fragmented marketing efforts toward cohesive, lifecycle-driven strategies that deliver measurable business impact. His approach combines strategic clarity with hands-on execution, ensuring that customer engagement is not just a function, but a competitive advantage.

He is a strong advocate for building human, empathetic connections in an increasingly automated world, believing that when customer engagement is done right, it should feel intuitive rather than engineered.

Outside of work, Tjan enjoys life at home with his Cavapoo, Louie, whose energy and personality provide a daily reminder not to take things too seriously.

Aniko Andras

Global Marketing Director

Charles & Keith

Aniko Andras is global marketing director at Charles & Keith, where she shapes the brand’s global marketing strategy, deepening brand love and elevating the customer experience as the company continues to grow its presence across markets worldwide.

She brings two decades of experience across some of the world’s most respected global brands. Prior to joining Charles & Keith, Andras spent nine years in senior client and marketing leadership roles at Meta across the Asia-Pacific region, partnering with global luxury and technology brands to drive their business growth. Before that, she held senior marketing and retail program roles at Apple in Singapore, leading key regional initiatives including product launches and Apple’s retail expansion.

Earlier in her career, Andras built a strong foundation in brand management at L’Oréal, spending six years across roles in Germany and at the Group’s global headquarters in Paris. She also held a global brand management role at Reckitt Benckiser’s global headquarters in the UK.

Andras holds deep expertise in brand strategy, digital marketing, luxury, and consumer engagement, bringing a truly global perspective shaped by her experience across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

A resident of Singapore for 14 years, Andras lives here with her husband and two sons. Outside of work, she draws inspiration from art and music, and stays active through tennis, cycling, and hiking.

Andrew Hill

Digital Acceleration Strategy and Enablement Senior Director

Coca-Cola ASEAN and South Pacific Operating Unit

Andrew Hill is the digital acceleration senior director for the ASEAN and South Pacific operating unit at Coca-Cola. Based in Singapore, Hill leads the team who orchestrate a consolidated view of how technology is used to build efficiencies and effectiveness into the business, the role data plays to measure performance, deliver insights and to execute their programs, design programs to build the knowledge and capability of their teams as digitisation changes the way they operate, and to execute experiments then scale key digital initiatives.

Unlocking and accelerating current opportunity and agitating to evolve partnerships to expand future value is core to Hill’s role. His background in brand, retail and creating disruptive growth business models has formed the basis for his creative approach to solving problems and bringing the right stakeholders and partners together to create fundamental change.

Jaslyin Qiyu

Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience, Singapore and Australia

Cigna Healthcare

Jaslyin Qiyu is chief marketing officer and head of customer experience, Singapore and Australia for Cigna Healthcare, where she leads brand strategy and customer experience initiatives across the region.

With over 20 years of B2B and B2C brand, marketing and communications experience across diverse industries, she specialises in brand building, customer experience management, change management, MarTech and AI adoption strategy, content strategy, multi-channel performance marketing, and mobile engagement and optimisation.

Prior to joining Cigna Healthcare, Qiyu founded and led her own marketing consultancy. She has managed regional marketing teams across Asia Pacific for global MNCs including Citibank, EY, JLL, Kantar, Credit Suisse, and State Street, where she drove marketing transformation, built go-to-market strategies, and established high-performing marketing teams from the ground up.

A keen advocate for ethical and inclusive marketing, Qiyu holds a masters in management with University College Dublin and was conferred an honorary doctorate in marketing by Azteca University for her contributions to the industry. She’s also an advisory board member of the global Customer Experience (CX) Network.

Shermaine Wong

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Cult Creative

Shermaine Wong is the founder and CEO of Cult Creative, Southeast Asia’s leading creator marketing platform that connects brands and creators through storytelling, data, and technology.

A branding expert turned martech visionary, Wong has over a decade of experience working with global brands such as Cartier, H&M, Sulwhasoo, and Disney, and has evolved Cult Creative from a pandemic-born startup into a profitable, fast-scaling regional company serving clients across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and beyond.

Under her leadership, Cult Creative is redefining how creators and brands collaborate — building an infrastructure that blends data precision with authentic storytelling. The platform empowers creators to thrive while helping brands achieve authentic engagement at scale.

Celebrated as one of the region’s most influential award-winning agency leaders, Wong is a leading voice for women-led innovation, inclusive creativity, and the professionalisation of ASEAN’s creator economy.

Her work and leadership are rooted in one belief: creativity is ASEAN’s next economic engine — when powered by collaboration, data, and purpose.

Joel Neoh

Founding Partner

First Move

Joel Neoh is the founding partner of First Move, a founder-led venture capital firm backing more than 50 start-ups across Asia in consumer and AI.

A serial entrepreneur and investor, Neoh has spent the past two decades building and scaling businesses across digital media, e-commerce, fintech, consumer health, and AI. He founded Fave, growing it to more than 12 million users across Southeast Asia and India before its acquisition by Pine Labs. Prior to that, he founded Says.com, one of Malaysia’s leading digital media platforms, and Groupsmore, which later merged with Groupon, where he went on to lead Groupon Asia Pacific across 12 markets.

Beyond entrepreneurship, Neoh was an early investor in Prenetics and later joined the company as managing director, helping scale CircleDNA into one of Asia’s leading consumer genetics platforms. He also co-launched IM8 alongside David Beckham.

His contributions to entrepreneurship and innovation have earned him recognition as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.

Candyse YipHead of E-commerce (Singapore and Malaysia)
Fossil Group

Candyse Yip is a distinguished leader in fashion and FMCG e-commerce, bringing over 15 years of experience to the forefront of the industry. Renowned for her strategic acumen and results-driven approach, she has consistently delivered transformative commercial outcomes powered by deep analytical insights. Her expertise in retail strategy and e-commerce has elevated brands to new levels of success, while her extensive regional experience has equipped her with a nuanced understanding of diverse markets.

Adora Sarah Chou

Chief Marketing Officer

Guzman y Gomez Singapore

Adora Sarah Chou is chief marketing officer of Guzman y Gomez Singapore, where she leads brand, marketing and commercial performance across the brand’s current 24 restaurants. She stepped into the role in January 2026, a newly created position at GYG, after serving two years as director of marketing. Her remit spans brand strategy, revenue and profitability, marketing communications, digital and performance marketing, guest engagement, loyalty and innovation. Chou has spent more than 15 years in branding, marketing and strategy across the food and digital sectors.

Before GYG, she led digital guest experience across Asia Pacific for Restaurant Brands International, where she worked on ordering and in-store technology for Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons. She also headed strategic accounts at foodpanda across 12 markets. Earlier roles include Baker & Cook, Pezzo and McDonald’s.

Chou is known for community-first marketing that keeps guests, restaurant crew and neighbourhood partnerships at the centre of how the brand grows.

Mayank Dutt

Head of Customer Propositions and Lifecycle Management

HSBC

With over 24 years of experience spanning banking, payments, and financial services, Mayank Dutt is a seasoned marketing leader with deep expertise in customer propositions, digital transformation, and growth strategy.

He currently serves as head of customer propositions and lifecycle management at HSBC, where he leads the development of customer value propositions and lifecycle strategies across the wealth continuum. Working closely with cross-functional teams, he drives customer engagement, portfolio growth, and digital initiatives that enhance the banking experience for clients across diverse markets.

Prior to HSBC, Dutt spent more than 16 years at Citibank in senior leadership roles across product, portfolio, and marketing, delivering transformative customer acquisition strategies and digital innovations across multiple markets. He also served as chief marketing officer for Mastercard Southeast Asia, where he led marketing strategies that strengthened brand leadership and accelerated business growth across the region.

Combining strategic thinking with a customer-first mindset, Dutt is passionate about building meaningful customer experiences that drive sustainable business growth in an increasingly digital world.

Catherine Loh

Digital Experience Director

JLL

Catherine Loh brings 20 years of digital marketing expertise and a combination of strategic rigour and data fluency to the discipline of customer journey. As a digital experience director at JLL, she is architecting a global personalisation strategy from the ground up — a process she approaches with a deliberately data-first mindset, mapping behavioural patterns and intent signals before even deciding on the platform. Loh believes that contextual signals aren’t missing—they are hiding in data organisations already own, waiting for someone to ask the right questions.

Grant Gudgel

Chief Marketing Officer

Locala

Grant Gudgel is chief marketing officer at Locala.

His career spans AI, media, corporate strategy, and emerging business models across the adtech industry. He co-founded and exited Vidcoin, held senior roles at Teads, Kargo, and Verve, and has advised on strategy and M&A diligence for multiple ad tech transactions.

Today, Gudgel focuses on separating signal from hype in AI and agentic systems, and on how these technologies can create real value for brands, agencies, and the adtech platforms that serve them.

Louis Sim

Global Marketing Lead, Nomad eSIM

LotusFlare

Louis Sim is the global marketing lead for Nomad eSIM at LotusFlare, where he shapes the brand, acquisition, retention, and product marketing that drive the company’s growth and expansion into new markets. His focus sits behind the scenes — in the operating models, processes, and team structures that turn an ambitious growth strategy into something that can hold its shape as the business scales and competes globally.

At his core, Sim is driven by innovation and growth, and by a belief that great brands are built to last. In his view, that means staying ahead of how new technology, AI included, is reshaping the way marketing teams think and work. His path has moved between tech brands including Google and Microsoft, spanning product, brand, and B2B marketing, and the Singapore government, where he worked on digital technology and manpower policy.

Mila Strokova

Global Business Development Director

M+C Saatchi Performance

With over a decade of expertise in performance marketing, Mila Strokova is a driving force behind brands achieving sustainable, measurable growth through data-driven digital strategies.

Currently at M+C Saatchi Performance, Strokova partners with some of the most recognised brands across APAC and EMEA, crafting tailored performance marketing solutions that consistently deliver measurable outcomes.

Strokova’s approach is rooted in a deep understanding of marketers’ unique challenges and opportunities. By aligning performance marketing strategies with business objectives, she empowers brands to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing digital ecosystem. Her expertise and insights make her a trusted partner for brands looking to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape.

Jacqui Lim

Chief Commercial Officer

Mediacorp

Jacqui is chief commercial officer at Mediacorp, Singapore’s national media network, where she leads the commercial group in driving revenue growth, strengthening client partnerships and shaping the organisation’s commercial strategy. Working closely with business units and partners, she plays a key role in developing innovative, targeted solutions that harness Mediacorp’s extensive portfolio of content, intellectual properties and platforms to create greater value for audiences and advertisers.

With more than two decades of experience in the media and advertising industry, Lim brings deep expertise in business growth, client engagement and strategic leadership. Her career spans senior leadership roles across leading global agency networks, including Havas Group, Publicis Media and Omnicom Media Group.

Prior to joining Mediacorp, Lim served as CEO of Havas Media Group and regional chief growth officer of Havas Group. Under her leadership, Havas Media Group achieved sustained industry recognition, including eight consecutive years of Media Agency of the Year accolades from 2016 to 2023, while consistently ranking as Singapore’s leading media agency by RECMA.

Vasily Popravko

Senior Director, Data SEA

Monks

Vasily Popravko is senior director of data at Monks, based in Singapore, where he leads the data and digital analytics division across Southeast Asia. He and his team specialise in architecting and implementing first-party data solutions spanning digital analytics, machine learning, personalisation, cloud automation, business intelligence, and consumer data platforms for major regional and enterprise clients.

With a PhD in Sociology, Popravko brings a unique perspective that bridges human behaviour with technical analytics. With a sharp focus on ROI and business value, Vasily’s work has been recognised in MARKETING-INTERACTIVE and ITNews Asia .

Jinyoung Park

Senior Data Specialist

Monks

Jinyoung Park is a senior data specialist at Monks, bringing over six years of cross-functional experience in product management, digital marketing, and data consulting. As a strategic advisor, she specialises in translating complex business objectives into high-impact data solutions for enterprise brands across travel and retail. She recently relocated to Singapore from South Korea, where she led a regional team at Monks and previously served as an enterprise data consultant at Concentrix, partnering with major South Korean companies to deliver advanced analytics solutions.

Jeremy Lee

Head of Middle East and South Asia

Pop Mart

Jeremy Lee is the head of region for Middle East and South Asia at Pop Mart, where he now leads the company’s international growth strategy in these regions. This comes after two years of retail expansion across key SEA markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Lee has spent his career building brands like LEGO and Johnson & Johnson, scaling businesses across Asia through a combination of digital innovation, retail expansion, and strong local market partnerships.

His work sits at the intersection of brand storytelling, fandom culture, and data-driven marketing—turning niche IP into global consumer phenomena. With over two decades of experience across business development, brand partnerships, and regional leadership, Lee brings a pragmatic perspective on what it really takes to localise brands, build communities, and scale businesses across diverse international markets.

Alex de Leon

Group Vice President, AI Transformation and Growth

PropertyGuru Group

Alex de Leon is group vice president, AI transformation and growth at PropertyGuru Group, where he leads group-wide AI transformation alongside growth, consumer, and B2B marketing across Southeast Asia.

His current work focuses on deploying AI across the enterprise, spanning product, engineering, operations, sales, HR, and marketing. Before PropertyGuru, de Leon co-founded the Google Philippines business and held regional leadership roles at Meta and HBO.

de Leon holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Boston College.

Sonal Aggarwal

Head of E-commerce SEA

PUMA

Sonal Aggarwal is an experienced e-commerce leader who has spent over a decade building and scaling online businesses across India and Southeast Asia.

Her career spans some of the largest marketplace platforms in the region, including Lazada, Shopee, Amazon, Flipkart, and TikTok Shop. This deep cross-platform experience gives her a unique, on-the-ground perspective on what it takes to drive actual profitability and operational efficiency in modern commerce.

Known for her focus on finding and developing new growth strategies, sustainability initiatives, and execution, Aggarwal successfully manages cross-border teams to transform market complexities into scalable business growth.

Douglas Goh

Head of Creative and Director of Digital Creative

Samsonite

Douglas Goh, a humble creative born in Kuala Lumpur and now based in Singapore, has an undying passion for marketing, advertising and all things creative. With over two and a half decades of experience and an extensive client portfolio, he has garnered numerous accolades across various international creative advertising and marketing effectiveness awards. In his previous agency life, Goh spearheaded creative teams at Ogilvy, Creative Juice, McCann, BBDO, Leo Burnett and TBWA.

Beyond the awards in the industry, Goh mentors aspiring talents through talks at art colleges and universities. Currently, he leads Samsonite’s creative department regionally across APAC and the Middle East elevating creative standards, production efficiencies as well as regional cohesion for Samsonite, American Tourister, TUMI and Gregory.

Chris Pok

Divisional Director, Marketing and Guest Experience

Sentosa Development Corporation

Chris Pok is the divisional director of marketing and guest experience at Sentosa Development Corporation, where he leads integrated marketing, branding, communications, digital, and guest experience strategies to enhance Sentosa’s positioning as a world-class leisure destination.

With over two decades of experience spanning aviation, travel retail, hospitality, and destination marketing, Pok brings a strong track record in omnichannel transformation and customer-centric growth. Prior to Sentosa, he served as CEO of KrisShop, where he helped redefine the airline retail model through digitalisation and innovation, and spent more than 17 years at Singapore Airlines in senior international leadership roles.

Known for his storytelling-led approach to marketing and experience design, Pok focuses on building compelling brand narratives while delivering meaningful, end-to-end guest experiences across both physical and digital touchpoints.

Kelvin Koh

Managing Director

Truescope Singapore

Kelvin Koh is a leader in media intelligence, technology, and public communications. As managing director of Truescope Singapore, he has guided the company’s growth into one of Singapore’s leading media monitoring firms, delivering analytics and insights to a broad range of clients, including major public sector organisations.

With experience spanning strategic media planning, crisis management and integrated communications across sectors such as government, finance, healthcare and logistics, Koh brings a balanced approach that combines real-time data with practical guidance. He is also committed to developing the industry and supporting future professionals. Koh teaches communications measurement at Nanyang Technological University and serves as membership head at the Institute of Public Relations Singapore. Recognised as a voice in Southeast Asia’s media intelligence space, he is known for his thoughtful perspectives on AI, analytics and industry change, with a focus on building trust and driving meaningful outcomes.

Mihir Deshpande

Senior Director, Commercial, Chemical Analysis Division, Asia Pacific and Japan

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Mihir Deshpande is senior director, commercial for the chemical analysis division at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is responsible for driving commercial growth and strategic execution across Asia Pacific and Japan. In this role, he leads regional market development, customer engagement, and go-to-market strategies across diverse industries including environmental monitoring, food safety, industrial manufacturing, energy, and life sciences.

Deshpande brings over 20 years of experience across life sciences, healthcare, and analytical technologies, with leadership roles spanning Asia, the United States, and global markets. Prior to his current role, he led strategy and commercial operations for Thermo Fisher Scientific in Asia Pacific, building regional operating models that strengthened commercial execution, digital transformation, and channel partnerships across multiple countries. Deshpande has previously held leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson and Merck Sharp & Dohme.

Deshpande is passionate about building strong customer partnerships and advancing Thermo Fisher Scientific’s mission: enabling customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer.

Inez Fun

Global Digital Director, Beauty and Wellbeing

Unilever

Inez Fun is global digital director, beauty and wellbeing at Unilever, where she leads the innovation, development and scaling of AI and social-first capabilities globally. With over 20 years of experience spanning brand marketing, digital transformation, commerce, media and creative strategy, she has consistently been at the forefront of marketing innovation.

Paulene Ong

Marketing Director

Uniqlo Singapore

Paulene Ong is the marketing director of Uniqlo Singapore, leading product marketing, digital marketing, digital strategy, public relations and creative initiatives. With a career spanning Unilever, Shiseido and Nestlé, she has held local, regional and global roles – including six years in Tokyo – where she honed her expertise in creative marketing, product development and digital transformation. Her strategic approach has driven business growth and earned her multiple marketing accolades throughout her career.

A firm believer in lifelong learning, Ong recently graduated with an executive master’s in business administration from INSEAD. Outside of work, she enjoys pilates and spending time with Buddy, the shih-tzu.

Marcus Chew

Managing Director Group Retail Banking Marketing

UOB

Marcus Chew has over two decades of experience building consumer brands, scaling digital platforms, and driving customer transformation across Asia.

His career spans global consumer brands, financial services, and large digital ecosystems, where he has led brand growth, customer strategy, and business transformation across diverse and fast-evolving markets. Over the course of his career, Chew has held leadership roles with organisations including Lazada, Income, Adidas, Unilever and many others. Beginning with a strong foundation in brand building and commercial leadership, he progressed into regional leadership roles across Southeast Asia and China, managing complex markets, multicultural teams, and large-scale growth initiatives.

As his career evolved, Chew expanded his focus beyond marketing to lead broader customer and growth transformation. He has built and led integrated regional teams across brand, media, creative, social, product, digital, and data, helping organisations modernise how they connect technology, customer experience, and commercial strategy to deliver sustainable business growth.

Chew is a strong advocate for breaking down organisational silos. He believes sustainable growth is achieved by aligning brand, digital platforms, customer experience, and data within a unified operating model—enabling organisations to move beyond short-term campaigns and build lasting customer relationships, stronger capabilities, and long-term competitive advantage across markets.

Mark Khoo

APAC Digital Activation Lead

Versuni

Mark Khoo is a senior digital marketing leader shaping how brands grow in the age of AI, retail media, and distributed influence. As digital activation lead at Versuni (Philips Home Appliances), he leads APAC strategy across seven markets, driving sustained business growth through AI-powered media, full-funnel commerce, and next-generation measurement frameworks.

Khoo is known for challenging traditional marketing models—pioneering approaches that connect media, data, and content into unified growth systems. His work spans scaling ecommerce through integrated creator ecosystems, advancing AI search readiness, and building data infrastructures that tie media investment directly to brand and commercial outcomes. With leadership experience across Kimberly-Clark, Resorts World Sentosa, PayPal, and WPP, he brings a unique perspective at the intersection of brand, performance, and commerce. He’s also a father to two lovely girls, an aspiring carpenter and a horrid golfer and boxer.

Janine Diaz

Regional Media Lead – APeC

Volvo Cars

Janine Diaz is a regional media leader with over a decade of experience driving performance and digital excellence across APAC. Her career spans media strategy, activation, and operations—starting from agency-side roles and evolving into a key leadership position at Volvo, where she now leads media performance for the APEC region.

In her current role, Diaz focuses on optimising paid media, enhancing performance measurement, and shaping digital transformation frameworks that scale across diverse markets. She is passionate about building systems that balance global consistency with local adaptability, ensuring that media efforts deliver both efficiency and real business impact.

Diaz is known for her ability to bring structure to complexity, clarity to data, and alignment to cross-market teams—making her a trusted partner in navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Ng Kok Hwee

Chief Marketing Officer

Zespri International

Ng Kok Hwee was appointed chief marketing officer in October 2025, bringing over two decades of brand marketing leadership across global FMCG and fresh produce sectors. Since joining Zespri International in 2017, she has held key roles including global general manager marketing, senior marketing director for Greater China, and global marketing director.

In her previous role, Ng played a pivotal role in shaping and executing Zespri’s brand-led growth strategy, driving deeper consumer engagement and elevating the brand’s global leadership. Prior to Zespri, Ng held senior leadership positions at Procter & Gamble and Mondelēz International, where she led global brands across diverse categories including Cadbury, Toblerone, SK-II, and Olay. She is passionate about harnessing the power of brands as a transformative force for good – unlocking value and creating meaningful impact for growers, consumers, communities, and people.

Based in Singapore, Ng holds an executive MBA (distinction) from INSEAD and a bachelor of business administration (hons) from the National University of Singapore.

Goh Theng Kiat

Moderator

Goh Theng Kiat is a senior business leader with more than 30 years’ experience in marketing, communications, and business management. Most recently, he was chief customer officer at Prudential Singapore, where he led brand, marketing, customer segmentation, business generation and customer experience. He championed customer-first initiatives, and advanced digital strategies to strengthen Prudential’s position as a trusted life insurer. Goh now sits on the board of three companies, a Finternet company and two sports promoter companies providing strategic steer and governance to these companies. Goh is recognised for aligning brand and business objectives, building stakeholder trust, and delivering impactful growth through insight-driven and innovative approaches. Before joining Prudential, Goh was in global, regional and local management positions in organisations including OCBC Bank, Akzo Nobel Decorative Paints, Imperial Tobacco and Proctor & Gamble.

Mira Bharin

Moderator

Mira Bharin is a senior marketing executive with 20+ years of experience building and transforming brands across FMCG, luxury beauty, destination marketing and digital banking. She has held senior executive leadership roles at Trust Bank Singapore, Sentosa Development Corporation, NTUC Enterprise, L’Oréal and P&G, with extensive regional experience across APAC.

Known for connecting brand strategy with measurable business growth, Bharin brings deep expertise in integrated marketing, brand and digital transformation and growth leadership. She combines commercial rigour with creative thinking to build brands that are distinctive, relevant and designed to deliver impact.

Peilin Lee

Moderator

Peilin Lee is a marketing and brand strategist, coach and TEDx speaker with over 20 years of experience across leading global brands, including Nespresso, Johnson & Johnson and Heineken. As former head of marketing at Nespresso Singapore, she led teams across brand, consumer experience, CRM, loyalty and consumer insights, creating connected, omnichannel experiences across retail, e-commerce and consumer touchpoints. During COVID, she helped lead Nespresso’s pivot from boutique-led to digital customer journeys, building on existing CX foundations to respond to rapidly changing consumer behaviour. Today, she helps leaders strengthen their communication and influence through PositiveLeePeilin.

Rohan Mathur

Moderator

Rohan Mathur enables leaders to navigate crossroads of rapid change and accelerate topline growth via Keynotes, AI adoption, and as a fractional CMO. He brings over 18 years of VP-level commercial marketing at The LEGO Group and Procter & Gamble, and as a certified AI leader, builds agentic AI hands-on. Known for strong consumer-first and commercial acumen, he synthesises the complex and gets things done.

Throughout his corporate career, Mathur has driven transformative brand growth, including 3x topline expansion, a 10x surge in e-commerce, and the successful retail expansion of over 27 stores across key markets like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. He has spearheaded over 100 iconic marketing campaigns and IP partnerships across pop culture, entertainment, and gaming, winning more than 10 global and regional industry awards. He also built high-performing teams of over 30 FTE across 11 APAC markets.

Today, as founder of Crossroads Navigator, he bridges commercial strategy and AI execution to drive measurable business transformation such as the 2-3x productivity gain in RAS AI Lab. He is a TEDx speaker and has delivered more than 50 keynotes and workshops.

Soumik Chakraborty

Moderator

Soumik Chakraborty is a seasoned digital marketing and transformation consultant bringing over 18 years of experience in marketing leadership and technological innovation. With a robust background in evolving digital marketing strategies—spanning programmatic advertising, search engine optimisation, and data-driven execution— Chakraborty has consistently guided organisations through complex digital shifts.

Currently, his work sits at the intersection of academic excellence and advanced automation, with a deep focus on the application of Agentic AI workflows. He is passionate about re-engineering traditional business operations into interconnected, multi-agent networks that eliminate bottlenecks and drive parallel execution. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI theory and practical corporate realities, Chakraborty empowers both established enterprises and the next generation of business leaders to adapt legacy systems for a multi-agent reality.

As an industry mentor and consultant, Chakraborty combines rigorous frameworks with extensive hands-on experience, dedicated to helping businesses navigate the intricacies of concurrent execution, real-time system coordination, and sustainable digital growth.

Rezwana Manjur

Editor-in-chief

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

Rezwana Manjur has more than a decade of experience under her belt, first joining MARKETING-INTERACTIVE in 2012 as a journalist. Over the years, she has risen through the ranks in the newsroom, working across markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong. During her time with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, she has interviewed several high-profile individuals, from Sir Martin Sorrell to Gary Vaynerchuk and Russell Simmons.

In her current role, she oversees the overall direction for the MARKETING-INTERACIVE brand working closely with the editorial, production and commercial teams across online, new media, print, social and events. She also oversees MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s branded content division to ensure editorial integrity in all of the content produced, while fostering close collaboration with clients.

When she’s not writing and editing, she is also a familiar face to many of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s audiences, hosting the brand’s awards and conferences.

A’bidah Zaid Shirbeeni

Senior Journalist

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

A’bidah Zaid Shirbeeni is a senior journalist at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. With a focus on the dynamic landscape of Southeast Asia, she delves into the realms of marketing, advertising, tech and business. Her interest lay in covering stories around new media, influencer relationships and the intersection between marketing and legal.

Before her foray into the world of marketing, A’bidah was an entertainment journalist. Her knack for storytelling led her to interview some of Hollywood’s most illustrious figures such as Harrison Ford, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, and brought her audience closer to the stars.

Beyond the headlines, you’ll likely find her soaking up the sun by the pool or unwinding at home with a captivating movie.

Dhanya Vimalan

Journalist

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE

Dhanya Vimalan is the social media journalist at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, and the go-to voice for all things trending in the world of social.

From crafting engaging content strategies to driving the brand’s social media presence, she plays a pivotal role in shaping MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s digital narrative. Vimalan also keeps a close pulse on the Singapore market, reporting on the latest in advertising, marketing, and business developments for both the site and the daily newsletter.

Before diving into the marketing beat, Vimalan began her editorial journey at MS News, a Singapore-based online platform, where she covered everything from breaking news to lifestyle and entertainment, building a strong foundation in digital journalism.

When not in the newsroom, you’ll probably catch her hunting down the perfect matcha in Singapore or powering through a gym session like it’s her side hustle.