Current location site: China

Rohit Sipahimalani is the Chief Investment Officer at Temasek and is also Head of South East Asia, directly responsible for investments in the region. He joined Temasek in 2008 as Head of Telecom, Media & Technology investments. In 2012, he was appointed co-Chief Investment Officer and has since held various roles including Joint Head for Investment Group, Joint Head of Portfolio Strategy & Risk Group as well as Head, India, before assuming his current position in January 2020.

Prior to joining Temasek, Rohit spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley holding senior positions across its Mumbai and Hong Kong offices, including Co-Head of the Asia Pacific M&A business in Hong Kong, before his appointment as Managing Director and Head of South East Asia Investment Banking in Singapore.

Rohit started his career with Citibank, Mumbai, after which he spent a few years with McKinsey & Company in India as a management consultant, before he joined Morgan Stanley.

Mr Sipahimalani graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi University with a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degree and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Prof Cheong Koon Hean is currently Practice Professor and Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (Singapore University of Technology and Design) and Chairman of the Centre for Liveable Cities’ Advisory Panel (MND). She has extensive experience in land use planning, conservation of built heritage, the real estate market, public housing, governance and policy.

She has served on numerous advisory panels including the World Economic Forum Council and is currently on the international advisory panels on Asia Sustainable Infrastructure and Urban Solutions and Sustainability. She is a board trustee of the National University of Singapore, Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize’s Nominating Committee, Senior Advisor on Public Sector Sustainability (MSE), a Fellow(Life) and Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects and Institute of Planners respectively.

Prof Cheong has been conferred numerous awards, notably the Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding public service and is the first Asian to receive both the 2016 Urban Land Institute’s Prize for Urban Visionaries and the Lynn S Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

David Su is a Founding Managing Partner of Matrix Partners China. David has been investing in China for the last two decades and some of his investments include Baidu, DiDi, Xpeng, Bona Film, Focus Media, Kanghui Medical, Kingfriend Biochemical, China Youzan, AAC Technologies, Heptagon, ele.me, CloudDr., Guomai Culture Media, etc.

Before founding Matrix China, David was a Founding General Partner of TDF Capital and KPCB China. Prior to joining the venture capital industry, David worked at Lotus Development, IBM Software Group for seven years and was last responsible for Lotus software and services business in the Greater China Region.

David Su has been awarded the Annual Most Influential VC Investor by China Renaissance in 2019 and the Top 100 Best Investors by Forbes in 2020. He has also been recognized as Top 10 China Best Healthcare Investors by 36Kr in 2020. In 2021, David has been named the Top 50 Best Venture Investors by China Venture and Annual Top 50 Investor by Yicai Media.

Huey Lin is a Venture Partner with GGV Capital where she supports and advises the fund's portfolio companies. She also leads special projects at Terraformation whose mission is to catalyze global forest restoration to solve climate change.

Huey is an experienced fintech operator. She was the founding Chief Operating Officer at Affirm (NYSE: AFRM). She was responsible for building the Finance, Compliance, Legal, HR, G&A, Business Operation, Client Success, and Customer Service teams. During her tenure, Affirm scaled from 5 to 500 employees, 0 to 1000+ merchants, and 3 million+ active consumers.

Huey began her career at PayPal as one of the company’s first product managers. She subsequently spent more than a decade at the firm where she led China and Asia-Pacific operations in addition to serving in key leadership roles in product, international risk, and policy strategy.

Most recently, she was the President of Asia at Flexport, a modern freight forwarder and one of the fastest-growing companies in global trade. She led all activities for Flexport across Asia, the company’s most strategic market.

Huey holds a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and an A.M. from Stanford University. Huey is currently an active board member, advisor, and angel investor.

Jeffrey Paine is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, an early stage technology venture capital fund based in Singapore investing in Southeast Asia with over US$175 million under management investing in over 45 companies since 2012.

Jeff started and manages the Founder Institute in Singapore where he is currently overseeing its expansion in Southeast Asia, and Japan. Since 2010 the Founder Institute in Singapore has graduated over 100 companies. He is a recipient of the Founder Institute Director Award 2012 for “Greatest Ecosystem Impact” Worldwide (Singapore).

He is a Singapore native and graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration (Information Systems) from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Jon Creyts is the Chief Program Officer of RMI, where he manages the strategy and execution of RMI’s global research and collaboration activities. He is an internationally recognized leader on global energy issues and climate change.

Jon has been a senior leader at RMI for over a decade, where he has helped grow the institution more than tenfold in size, and multiples larger in impact. He has extensive knowledge and practical experience using market catalysts like finance, digitalization, and technology to support the rapid decarbonization of infrastructure and industries globally. Among his many roles at RMI, Jon helped build RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity Program, playing a leadership role in the formation of entities like the Electricity Innovation Lab and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. He founded RMI’s China Program and worked extensively with senior Chinese leadership on the energy transition components of the 13th Five-Year Plan. He is a digital innovator who helped build and grow the Energy Web Foundation, the world’s largest energy-focused blockchain consortium. And he created RMI’s Breakthrough Technology Program, cofounding its Third Derivative global climate technology venture platform. He now works alongside fellow managing directors to steward all 14 major RMI programs and support RMI’s market affiliates.

Prior to joining RMI, Jon was a partner with McKinsey & Company for 11 years in the global energy practice. He cofounded the sustainability practice at McKinsey and was one of the principal authors of the “McKinsey cost curve” for greenhouse gas abatement. Before that, he was a designer in the energy and aviation industries, and is an alumnus of Lockheed Martin’s renowned Skunk Works prototyping facility.

Jon currently serves as the chair of both the Energy Web Foundation and WattTime boards, two digital innovators whose tools support a decentralized and decarbonized grid.

Lucy Thomas, a Chartered Geologist and Specialist in Land Condition, has over 20 years’ experience in sustainable risk-based remediation in the property, energy, waste and chemical sectors globally. Lucy is former chair of the Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment (SoBRA) and of the National Brownfield Forum, a collaboration of industry, academia and government, that advocates for sustainable land management in the UK. Lucy was also recently elected to the Council of the Geological Society. Lucy is RSK Group’s Chief Scientist, Managing Director of RSK’s Centre for Sustainability Excellence in Singapore and RSK’s operations in Africa. RSK is a family of over 130 environmental, engineering and technical services businesses who work together to provide practical solutions to some of the greatest challenges societies have ever faced. RSK operates in most sectors of the economy, including many of those most critical to future global sustainability, such as water, energy, food and drink, infrastructure, urban development, mining and waste.

Lee Chee Koon is the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CapitaLand Group and serves on its board of directors. Since Chee Koon was appointed as President and Group CEO of CapitaLand in September 2018, the Group has moved towards what he calls “CapitaLand 3.0”. This term denotes a CapitaLand under its third leadership team since its listing in 2000. It describes a vision for a focused and agile real estate company, that is balanced and diversified across asset classes and geographies, with a strong resolve for growth.

The most noteworthy change that has taken place under Chee Koon’s leadership is the Group’s acquisition of Ascendas-Singbridge in 2019, which saw CapitaLand diversifying into the business park, industrial and logistics real estate segment and gaining significant scale in India – now one of CapitaLand’s core geographies. Following the acquisition, CapitaLand is currently one of the largest diversified real estate companies in Asia. It is also the largest real estate investment manager in Asia and one of the Top 10 globally.

Prior to becoming Group CEO, Chee Koon was Group Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and was responsible for identifying growth opportunities and capital allocation across the Group. Since joining CapitaLand in 2007, he has held several appointments within the Group, which includes his role as CEO of The Ascott Limited (Ascott) and Managing Director for Ascott in China.

Chee Koon was presented with the Business China Young Achiever Award by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2017, for his contributions towards strengthening Singapore-China relations through Ascott. In 2016, he was also conferred the prestigious National Order of Merit (Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite) by the President of the French Republic for Ascott’s contributions to France.

Chee Koon holds a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, United Kingdom.

Prof Cheong Koon Hean is currently Practice Professor and Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (Singapore University of Technology and Design) and Chairman of the Centre for Liveable Cities’ Advisory Panel (MND). She has extensive experience in land use planning, conservation of built heritage, the real estate market, public housing, governance and policy.

She has served on numerous advisory panels including the World Economic Forum Council and is currently on the international advisory panels on Asia Sustainable Infrastructure and Urban Solutions and Sustainability. She is a board trustee of the National University of Singapore, Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize’s Nominating Committee, Senior Advisor on Public Sector Sustainability (MSE), a Fellow(Life) and Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects and Institute of Planners respectively.

Prof Cheong has been conferred numerous awards, notably the Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding public service and is the first Asian to receive both the 2016 Urban Land Institute’s Prize for Urban Visionaries and the Lynn S Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Rohit Sipahimalani is the Chief Investment Strategist at Temasek and is also Head of South East Asia, directly responsible for investments in the region.  He joined Temasek in 2008 as Head of Telecom, Media & Technology investments.  In 2012, he was appointed co-Chief Investment Officer and has since held various roles including Joint Head for Investment Group, Joint Head of Portfolio Strategy & Risk Group as well as Head, India, before assuming his current position in January 2020.

Prior to joining Temasek, Rohit spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley holding senior positions across its Mumbai and Hong Kong offices, including Co-Head of the Asia Pacific M&A business in Hong Kong, before his appointment as Managing Director and Head of South East Asia Investment Banking in Singapore.

Rohit started his career with Citibank, Mumbai, after which he spent a few years with McKinsey & Company in India as a management consultant, before he joined Morgan Stanley.

Mr. Sipahimalani graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi University with a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degree and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Dr CHEONG Koon Hean is the Chair of the Centre for Liveable Cities (MND) and the incoming Chair of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (Singapore University of Technology and Design). She was formerly CEO (Housing and Development Board) from 2010 to 2020, overseeing the development and management of some 1 million public housing flats and introduced a new generation of well designed, community centric, sustainable and smart public housing. She was CEO(Urban Redevelopment Authority) from 2004 to 2010 and concurrently Deputy Secretary ( Ministry of National Development) from 2001 to 2016, playing key roles in major urban transformations such as Marina Bay and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City. An active participant  internationally on urban issues, she serves on numerous advisory panels including the World Economic Forum and was the former Deputy President/current Council member of the International Federation for Housing & Planning and Chair of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize’s Nominating Committee. She is currently a board trustee of the National University of Singapore and was formerly on the boards of URA, HDB, JTC, Jurong Port, NHB and CSC. In addition, she was appointed the 5TH SR Nathan Fellow (NUS), Endowed Professor (NTU); Fellow(Life) and Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects and Singapore Institute of Planners respectively.

Dr Cheong has received numerous awards, notably the Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding public service and is the first Asian to receive both the  Urban Land Institute’s Prize for Urban Visionaries and the Lynn S Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 2016.

Rushad Nanavatty leads RMI’s Urban Transformation program, focused on helping cities around the world simultaneously reduce emissions, enhance urban liveability, increase resilience, and advance social equity. The Urban Transformation program offers cities targeted technical assistance, capacity building, analytical capabilities, and facilitation support to help them turn their climate and environmental justice commitments to action.    

At RMI, Rushad also helped establish and lead the Global Cooling Prize, a global innovation competition to develop a climate-friendly residential cooling solution, and the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), a partnership between RMI and Grid Singularity to develop promising applications for blockchain technology in the energy sector.

Prior to joining RMI, Rushad served as the founding COO of WeGen Energy, a start-up developing off-grid energy solutions and virtual power plants in the Philippines and Vietnam, utilizing a mix of distributed solar and battery energy storage.

Before WeGen, Rushad spent six years at McKinsey & Company as a member of the firm’s sustainability, infrastructure, and private equity practices, working on projects across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Rushad has a Master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor’s degree from St. Stephens College at the University of Delhi.

Chris Luebkeman’s career to date has spanned professions and geographies. His multidisciplinary education (geology, civil engineering, structural engineering, entrepreneurship and a Doctorate in Architecture) was encouraged by his Mid-Western family of educators. His journey included Vanderbilt, Cornell and the ETH in Zurich. He became an academic gypsy teaching courses on Design and on Technology at the University of Oregon, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at MIT.

He joined Arup in London to lead the Research and Development group in 1999 and became a corporate intrapreneur by founding the Foresight, Innovation and Incubation teams.  He established the Drivers of Change program and is proud to have been accused by the Guardian to have a mindset “in league with the future”. He is deeply passionate about curating constructive dialogue, insatiably curious, relished the opportunity to discover the opportunities which will be created by change and, perhaps most importantly, to evolve positive solutions to the profound challenges we face today. For twenty years he travelled the globe sharing his observations and insights by leading projects focused on the future for Arup, Arup’s clients and for many of the world’s leading institutions. For example, he has spoken at TED, hosted conversations at, and for, WEF and keynoted dozens of conferences around the world.  He is a member of the nominating committee for the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, the external advisory Board of the URA and of Brain Trust of the Climate Music Project. He returned to the ETH in Zurich in 2020 as a strategic advisor to the President and Executive Board.

Lynette is responsible for elevating CapitaLand Group’s sustainability strategy and policies, and integrating them into its business and operations to drive strategic environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts and deliver long-term economic value to the Group’s stakeholders. She is a member of the CapitaLand Executive Committee.

She concurrently serves on the boards of Singapore’s National Environment Agency and Singapore Green Building Council, advisory board of Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business and advisory committee of National University of Singapore’s School of Design and Environment.

Lynette has over 25 years of international experience and a proven track record of growing new businesses to reach unprecedented levels and pushing boundaries in business approaches and models. Her prior appointments at CapitaLand Group over the past 12 years include CEO and Executive Director of CapitaLand Commercial Trust Management Limited, CEO, CapitaLand Commercial and Chief Business Innovation Officer. Prior to joining CapitaLand, she was CEO of Ascendas South Korea. Before that, she acquired extensive experience in real estate acquisitions, asset management and fund management from being stationed for eight years in the London, New York, Chicago and Asian offices of LaSalle Investment Management. Lynette began her career in banking and finance at Standard Chartered Bank and United Malayan Banking Corporation.

Lynette holds a Master of Science degree in Real Estate and a Bachelor of Science degree in Estate Management from the National University of Singapore.

Ben Powell, CFA Managing Director, is the Chief Investment Strategist for APAC within the BlackRock Investment Institute. He is based in Singapore. The institute leverages BlackRock's expertise and produces proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics, and long-term asset allocation -all to help clients and portfolio managers navigate financial markets.

Mr. Powell is a contributor in the formation of the Institute's tactical investment views across the whole portfolio. He has the responsibility of communicating the team's macroeconomic and financial market outlook to investment professionals and the media throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Powell is a frequent contributor to financial news media and appears regularly on Bloomberg TV and CNBC.

Before joining BlackRock in 2019, Mr. Powell was co-Head of UBS Investment Bank Multi-Asset APAC Sales. Prior to that he worked for Barclays Capital. Mr. Powell has 20 years of experience in capital markets including over a decade in Asia.

Mr. Powell is a graduate in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Bristol. He is also a CFA Charter holder.

Steve is an award-winning tech entrepreneur with 28 years’ building businesses and start-ups in Asia and Europe. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, climate change and social equality.

In 2007, Steve co-founded PropertyGuru in answer to his own personal house-hunting frustrations. He led the business as CEO for first 10 years, growing it from 2 people into a leading proptech unicorn, backed by TPG and KKR, used by 25 million people in 5 countries today. Steve serves on the board.

Steve founded Planet Rise in 2019 to help companies tackling climate change and social inequality using tech to achieve impact at scale. The portfolio comprises start-ups in clean energy, clean water, clean air, clean food, migrant worker rights and women-led enterprises. He’s a member of Asian Venture and Philanthropy Network (AVPN) and Top Tier Impact (TTI), sponsor/mentor for HabitatForHumanity’s Sheltertech affordable housing accelerator, Capitaland’s Sustainable Buildings accelerator and judge/investor for Temasek Foundation’s The Liveability Challenge, recognising the best sustainability tech companies globally.

Steve has supported the development of South East Asia’s start-up ecosystem over the last 16 years and is an active angel investor, board advisor and mentor. He is an angel investor in 26 start-ups and been an LP and part time venture partner at Wavemaker Partners, one of South East Asia’s leading VC’s, since 2018. Prior to PropertyGuru, Steve invested in and then led ComiAsia as CEO, a Singapore mobile content start-up. Previously, he founded Business2Profit in UK to help large enterprises to innovate, and support start-ups with funding/scaling. Prior to this, Steve held leadership roles in the telco sector for 10 years, his last position was director of a $500 million turnover business at Cable & Wireless.

In 2007, Steve was awarded the “Spirit of Enterprise Award” in recognition of contributions to entrepreneurship in Singapore. He is a keynote speaker and regularly interviewed by media on start-up, VC and sustainability topics.