Tun Musa Hitam, who is currently Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation was Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister until 1986. In the course of his service in the Malaysian government, he held various positions including Minister of Home Affairs, Education, Primary Industries and Trade and Industries and Chairman of the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA). Among his major official activities were as Leader of Malaysian Investment Missions to Europe, United States and Japan, Leader of the Commonwealth Observers Delegation to the Malawi and Pakistani general elections and Member of the Commonwealth Ministers Action Group Delegations to Nigeria, Fiji and the Gambia. He also represented Malaysia at UN, UNESCO and United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) related negotiating and regular conferences. He was also elected for one term Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Since Tun Musa’s retirement from politics in 1987, he held Chairmanships of three Public Listed Companies and various business related institutions both at domestic and international levels. He was Chairman of the Malaysia – China Business Council, Co-Chair of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of the ASEAN – China, 15 year economic cooperation programme and Chairman of the EPG to draft the ASEAN Charter. Currently, Tun Musa is Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of CIMB Bank, Chairman of the International Selection Panel of the Royal Award on Islamic Finance and member of the Advisory Panel of the Iskandar Development Authority as well as member of the High-Level Group (HLG) on Commonwealth Governance. He also represented the Malaysian Prime Minister to the 32nd ASEAN Summit 2018 in Singapore.

Tun Musa holds a BA from the University of Malaya and an MA from the University of Sussex and held a resident Fellowship at Harvard University. For his services to the nation, The Yang Di Pertuan Agong, King of Malaysia, conferred him Malaysia’s highest award which carries the title ‘Tun’.

Ameya Salatry is the Founder of, and practicing lawyer at, Legal Minds LLP. Legal Minds LLP is the first of its kind as a full service legal firm in Goa, India, with an associated Pan-India presence. Ameya focuses on the areas of corporate law, real estate law, intellectual property and litigation services. He has worked for over a decade in regions including India, United States and Middle East.

With his extensive global experience and working in-house for multinational companies as a general counsel, he has been advising several companies and individuals on a variety of issues such as restructuring, investment into startups and legal structure, commercial contracting, real estate investments and litigation.

His clientele currently includes companies in sectors such as manufacturing, information technology, construction and real estate, e-commerce, venture funds and education.

Jan Lambrechts is the Chief Executive Officer of CXS International, Malaysia. CXS International owns Scandinavia’s oldest education technology organisation. It provides talent analytic solutions to enterprises, education institutions and governments across Singapore, Malaysia and Scandinavia. CXS is also in the process of setting up entities, running pilots and establishing customer base with identified local partners in Netherlands, Estonia, Mexico, India and Turkey, as part of key operational activities in 2018.

After establishing CXS International in Singapore in 2016, he saw the potential of Malaysia as a market which could leverage CXS technology to rapidly develop its workforce to be able to take its place at the forefront of the digital economy, hence making the move of its global headquarters to Cyberjaya in Malaysia. CXS is actively exploring opportunities with credible partners in the various countries and regions.

Razif Aziz is the Acting Group Chief Executive Officer of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd and was appointed as chief operations officer of the organisation since 2016. He’s a senior executive with over 23 years of experience in a variety of different roles. He is passionate about the dynamics between business, government and technology acquired through roles in both the public and private sectors.

He has written extensively in Malaysian daily newspapers on the impact technology, policies, regulations and public sector frameworks have on the growth of business. He has participated in the development of the Malaysian converged telephone company, broadcast and biotechnology sectors. His access to government and its engagements with the industry have enriched his experience in building conducive ecosystems.

Razif studied law at Coventry Polytechnic and is a Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn, London.

Ebrahim Patel is the Managing Director of TransAfrix Holdings and serves on various company boards. He is a South African entrepreneur with a passion for business who started a number of successful ventures. He’s the current National President of the Minara Chamber of Commerce, Deputy Chairperson of Business Forum South Africa, International Advisory Member of the World Islamic Economic Forum, Chairman of the WIEF Young Leaders Network, trustee of the eThekweni Community Foundation and Advisory Board Member of the University of KwaZulu Natal ELC.

Ebrahim serves on the KwaZulu Natal Economic Council which advises the provincial government on economic strategy and is a lead member of the KZN Halaal Hub Task Team. He is passionate about youth and entrepreneurship and is regularly asked to speak on various platforms locally as well as internationally.

Nasser Munjee is the Chairman of Development Credit Bank (DCB) Bank Ltd, India. He sits on 15 corporate boards in India including Tata Motors, Tata Chem, Britannia Industries, Cummins India, ABB India and Ambuja Cements, now part of the HOLCIM group. He’s also Chairman of other Aga Khan institutions in India – Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and Muniwar-Abad Charitable Trust (MACT).

He was the President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is the city’s oldest chamber of commerce. He has also served on numerous government task forces on housing and urban development.

He holds an MSc in economics from the University of Chicago.

Norhizam Abdul Kadir is the Vice President of the Growth Ecosystem Development Division of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). He brings with him almost 20 years of experience in multi-market technology and energy industries in various markets across Asia Pacific. He was with Intel, Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems before joining MDEC in 2015.

He’s currently championing the growth of digital entrepreneurial ecosystem in Malaysia and manages the development of the Malaysia Digital Hub, a programme that recognises startup ecosystem development in co-working spaces. He’s also responsible in enriching Malaysia’s startup ecosystem by engaging with global ecosystem players such as key internet companies, accelerators, talent providers, venture capitals and startup communities.

Sachin Karnik is the President of Mumbai Angels Network in India. He has over 20 years of experience in diverse domains ranging from consumer electronics, e-commerce, retail and IT across companies like Onida, UTV Interactive and the then Aditya Birla Minacs, where he was Vice President of operations.

Sachin has led e-commerce startup teams right from the start and worked closely with startups in India as well as the United States where he leveraged his diverse functional experience across vendor development, product management, business development, operations and strategy. His accomplishments in supporting high growth initiatives include clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups and unicorns.

He is a Certified Private Equity Professional (CPEP), a certification awarded by Private Equity Investor’s Group (PEIG) and is a certified mentor for startups. Sachin studied production engineering at the University of Mumbai, India.

Farheen Sayed is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Brushflicks, a digital platform for uploading, sharing and monetising any creative content, to help people with creative talent make a living. In 2017, she founded a sub product of Brushflicks, Boxifer, a clean tech-based product that converts acrylic plastic waste into unique packaging boxes with the Internet of Things (IoT) integrated technology.

She’s also a columnist in the in-business section with Goa's leading daily Herald and has been featured in over 60 magazines and newspapers. She was also a leading speaker with state innovation council covering over 50 institutes with over 4,500 students in the last year.

She is the recipient of many awards including the GEMS Innovation Award 2018. Boxifer has also represented India on clean-tech in World Environment Day 2018.

Jatin Chaudhary is the Co-founder of eChai Ventures, one of the largest offline-online startup social networks in India. He has conceptualised and hosted eChai programmes in over 40 cities to provide a platform to young entrepreneurs across India. Every month over 5,000 entrepreneurs, professionals, students and mentors come together at various eChai programmes. They connect, share and collaborate with each other to get eChai's CoRise experience.

Jatin was selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. He was also selected by the leading daily Ahmedabad Mirror as one of the top 35 Agents of Change of Gujarat, India and won the GCCI-Youth Wing Business Idea Award 2011 in the presence of the Chief Minister of Gujarat and leading industry icons.

Becky Kux is Portfolio Manager at 500 Startups, one of the most active seed stage venture capital firms on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs globally. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Becky is the touchpoint for the 160 Southeast Asian portfolio companies throughout their lifecycle with the regionally focused fund, 500 Durians, monitoring and reporting on their progress and aiding in access to later stage capital.

Prior to joining 500, Becky led Customer Success for startup TrustedCompany across South America and Asia, providing her with the insights on operating a startup with a global footprint, her first foray into entrepreneurship after being an active concert pianist in Toronto, Canada.

Anisa Hassan is the Founder of Joompa, a mobile dating and matchmaking app for Muslim singles in Southeast Asia. She is also the Founder of Date High Flyers and is an award-winning entrepreneur better known as Asia’s ultimate matchmaker to millionaires and high net worth individuals. For the last 15 years, she has paired more than 1,000 couples through her international luxury matchmaking service Date High Flyers.

Anisa is a regular columnist on regional publications, from Singapore to Jakarta and Bangkok, and is also the author of two guide books on dating and relationships. She was a former news anchor with Channel NewsAsia based in Singapore and is active in the startup space as she has taken her business from idea to implementation.

Anisa holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in International Relations from the National University of Singapore.

Gourav Jaswal is the Founder and Director of Prototyze based out of Goa, India. Prototyze is among India’s handful of tech-focused venture-builder incubators that handhold’s a venture through the first 36 – 48 months of its journey. It has spawned multiple digital-economy ventures. He is also Founder and Director of another entrepreneurial ecosystems called Private Unlimited. Private Unlimited is a cluster of knowledge-capital companies including Synapse, ScreenRoot, Visual JuJu and Junoon Ventures which are focused on storytelling and user experience design (UXD).

Gourav has been a serial entrepreneur for over 22 years. He is responsible for strategic direction, fund-raising and implementing the organisational culture.

Swapnil Tripathi is the Chief Operating Officer of Decotarium, India, which is a cloud design studio focused on workspace décor. He has over 19 years of experience across sales, operations, supply chain and marketing. He embarked on his entrepreneurial journey as Chief Operating Officer at Buildzar.com and also co-founded a farm-to-fork venture.

Swapnil was among the first six employees at InfoEdge (Naukri.com) and spearheaded the growth of the venture for over 10 years, from the first operations from the founder’s apartment until the point where the venture employed over 5,000 employees. He also served as Head of Consumer Operations at an online travel organisation, Ibibo.

He is an MIT Sloan School of Management alumnus.

Hetal Sonpal is the Business Head of Seynse Technologies, India. He has had an incredible journey of more than 20 years, across some of the biggest names worldwide, excelling in sales, alliances, marketing and strategic leadership.

Hetal started his career with Wipro, an Indian information technology services corporation in India and then went on to play key roles at Microsoft, LinkedIn and Intel. He then founded his own venture, WigZo Technologies Pvt Ltd. He has been an angel investor for more than three years and has advised and mentored numerous startups.

Hetal holds an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), India.

Pranav Shirke is the Chief Executive Officer of TempoGO! Which is a digital platform for road and freight transportation in India. Pranav has over 10 years of experience at Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and American hedge fund QVT.

Before TempoGO!, Pranav was the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of healthcare operations venture Care At My Home. For the past 3 years, he has led the TempoGO! through a series of transformations and has helped the venture successfully find a product market fit. He is focused on growing the Internet of Things (IoT) Software as a Service (SaaS) platform using analytics for the transportation sector.

Pranav is an engineer with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta.

Rishi Kapal is the Global Strategist and Chief Executive Officer at the Global Edtech Startup Accelerator (EDUGILD). He currently holds a portfolio of more than 15 edtech companies and invests in sweat equity as a business strategist, sales and marketing game-changer. Rishi has spearheaded strategic and operational roles in Sony, Qualcomm, Ericsson, BP Castrol, Avaya and HCL.

Having received several awards and accolades for his professionalism and speed of execution, his last corporate assignment was as the Vice President and Interim Managing Director of Sony Mobile Communications. Rishi is a Stanford LEADer and was a speaker at the United Nations in New York. He has co-authored research papers with laureates of Oxford University and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He holds dual master degrees in management from the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi and Savitribai Phule Pune University, India.

Abhijith Naraparaju is a co-founder of an agrifuturetech start-up, iCognitiveGlobal, a cognitive social-developing protocols on blockchain for the agri-market places, crop insurance and microfinance.

He is working as Director of research and development for Global Blockchain Foundation. He is on the advisory board of blockchain based startups like Fintrux (P2P lending) and LAToken.

Abhijith has formulated valuation metrics for the token structure of blockchain based projects. He was region head for Blockchain Eductaion Network.

Shekar Nair is Partner and Co-founder of Upekkha, a business accelerator for early stage Software as a Service (SaaS) startups. Shekar was part of two startup exits in the United States. As part of the inception team at Xylan Corporation in the United States, he was instrumental in its successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) and its acquisition by Alcatel.

Shekar also Co-founded Allegro Networks and sold the India operations to Juniper Networks. He was an entrepreneur in residence with Thomas Weisel Venture Partners and helped evaluate and invest in early stage opportunities. Control4 is one such successful investment trade in NASDAQ. He was previously President and General Manager of NetApp’s Indian operation.

Amarsh is the Director of Transerve Technologies, India, which is a geospatial technology company specialising in smart city solutions and advanced data collection technology for data democratisation. It was incorporated with a vision to provide India-centric smart technology solutions for cities. His team created an intelligent city application stack, which primarily uses modern technology for city operations like revenue, water supply and sanitation, solid waste, slum mapping and municipal asset management.

Prior to incorporating Transerve, he worked with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), an investment management company, as a Business Analyst in Delhi. Amarsh has been working in the field of geoinformatics and has been instrumental in building technology and execution of projects within Transerve.

He studied civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.

Akash Bhavsar is the Chief Architect of the Sustainable Development Goals Accelerator (SDGA). The SDGA identifies and supports disruptive innovations and startups that can radically transform businesses and industries in high impact areas like Agriculture and food, water, health, energy and information and communications technology.

He is also the Co-founder of the SkyQuest Technology Group and WaterQuest Hydroresources Management India. The SkyQuest Technology Group specialises in scouting, assessment, incubation and acceleration of innovative technologies and ventures operating across 16 countries, working for MNCs, R&D organisations, governments and startups alike. WaterQuest Hydroresources Management India is an AI-based water source development company.

Akash chairs the Innovation and Competitiveness Task Force of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Sustainable Business Network in Thailand and Commercialisation Advisor to the International Federation of Inventors Association in Geneva.

Jyothi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HiveMinds Innovative Market Solutions, an online marketing strategy and services firm based in Bangalore, India. HiveMinds was acquired by Madison Media, the second largest media agency in India.

Over the last 12 years, Jyothi has built, seen and supported many products and businesses perfect their business journey from the ground up. She has gained vast experience working with startup founders and venture capital on rapid growth startups.

She is an entrepreneur, angel investor, marketer, engineer and a mother with an interest in pre-schoolers’ education. As a renowned marketer, she has been the key marketing strategist and consultant for many Indian startups. Few of her early and long standing engagements include TutorVista, Dailyhunt, MobiKwik, Hoopos, BigBasket, Simplilearn, RedBus.in, NewsCred, Voonik, TaxiForSure and many others.

Tanmay Modi is the Chief Executive Officer of Private Unlimited which is a group of three independent agencies that offer storytelling, multimedia and digital product design services for enterprise clients. Tanmay leads its cluster of companies ScreenRoot, Synapse and Visual Juju. ScreenRoot is an interaction design firm, Synapse is a storytelling media and Visual Juju amplifies the efficacy of communication via memorable multimedia.

Tanmay started his career in 2002 with Synapse and spent the next eleven years in London, Shanghai, Dubai and Cape Town holding senior roles that offered knowledge-capital services for enterprise clients. He is also credited with having run the world's largest metering publication and Africa's leading mining magazine.

Dr Ajit Parulekar is the Director of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), India. He is also the Chairman of the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) at GIM and sits on the governing board of the Mineral Foundation of Goa (MFG) and the advisory council of the SMRC Hospital. He has taught at leading business schools in India and at the Antwerp Management School in Belgium, University of Kansas in the United States and University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Dr Ajit Parulekar is the Director of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), India. He is also the Chairman of the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) at GIM and sits on the governing board of the Mineral Foundation of Goa (MFG) and the advisory council of the SMRC Hospital. He has taught at leading business schools in India and at the Antwerp Management School in Belgium, University of Kansas in the United States and University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Dr Ajit Parulekar is the Director of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), India. He is also the Chairman of the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) at GIM and sits on the governing board of the Mineral Foundation of Goa (MFG) and the advisory council of the SMRC Hospital. He has taught at leading business schools in India and at the Antwerp Management School in Belgium, University of Kansas in the United States and University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Jose Manuel Noronha is the Chairman of Goa’s Public Service Commission (GPSC) and Goa State Innovation Council of the Government of Goa, India. He’s also a member of the Incubation Centre of the Economic Development Corporation.

He previously held positions as Chairman of the Goa State of Environmental Impact Assessment Authority and Chairman of the Programme Advisory and Monitoring Committee at the Ministry of Science and Technology, India. His experience includes 24 years of teaching in various capacities and over three years of industrial experience. He is also a Member of the Institutions of Engineers, India.

He holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Goa University, India and a postgraduate diploma in human rights law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

Jignesh Jain is the Director of Ygen Technologies Pvt Ltd, India. He is currently acting as a coach and mentor and advises many startups across the globe. He is associated with a few acceleration and incubation programmes across India, United States, Russia and the Nordic countries.

Jignesh focuses on helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals by providing technology consulting and raising funds through his network. He plays a significant role in building go-to market strategies along with appropriate product messaging that helps leverage today’s modern technologies.

His achievements include acquiring Cristiano Ronaldo’s CR7 digital rights, consulting for brands such as Pepsi, HTC, Tata Motors and Walt Disney.

Rohan Khaunte is the Minister of Revenue, Information Technology, Labour and Employment of the Government of Goa, India. He was also appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) and the Chairman of Information Technology Goa (ITG). He is the youngest Member of the Goa Legislative Assembly and is an independent candidate from the Porvorim constituency in Goa, India.

As a politician, Khaunte believes in transparency, accessibility and hard work which has made him become an admired figure by youth in the state today. As a businessman, he has been actively involved in the family business and contributes to its sustainable growth.

For his exemplary contribution to the Indian democracy he was conferred the Adarsh Yuva Award by the Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad Foundation, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner of India T. N. Seshan.

Hatim Kantawalla is the Chief Product Officer of Prototyze in India and has been with Prototyze since its inception in 2014. Prototyze provides strategic guidance and technical expertise to each venture team for planning and executing their individual product roadmaps and direction. He’s also the Chief Product Officer of HandyTrain, a Prototyze incubated venture, which is a mobile Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for corporate training.

Hatim is an engineer with experience in customer hardware. He ran a technology media company in Dubai for seven years and was part of a data visualisation startup. He then headed a cluster of products namely Burrp, Tech2 and Overdrive at Web 18. Web 18 is the internet and mobile arm of Network 18, one of India’s leading media conglomerates.

Jan-Cayo Fiebig is the General Partner of 3B Ventures, the impact venture capital fund investing in high growth tech ventures to scale in Southeast Asia. 3B Ventures combines Nordic expertise with the Southeast Asian market opportunities to generate above the market financial and social returns.

With his venture, CodersTrust, Cayo created the largest online workforce in Bangladesh and scaled the venture to 12 frontier markets. He is the Founding Partner at the Nordic Impact Investing Network and is frequently invited to speak at conferences about the future of work, impact investing and value creation in emerging markets.

Prathibha Sastry is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PS: This Matters, a global media production company that aims to impact the lives of independent women through videos on topics of health, wealth and career.

In a career spanning over 17 years, Prathibha has launched a film magazine, hosted a film-based radio talk show and co-founded a mobile app based on the Indian entertainment industry. She also launched Digital Desh and discovered 35 hardware startups during her travels in India which exposed her to the burgeoning innovation and startup ecosystem. Prathibha has helped entrepreneurs fulfil their dreams through stints at Microsoft and the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSPIRT).

She is currently building the content brand and platform, The PS Show, to bring together innovative women entrepreneurs to celebrate their successes.