![](https://medtechforum.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cropped-favicon03.png)
Over 80 leaders from 30+ countries gathered to share, inspire, and explore the vision of patient centricity in the Asia Pacific region.
APACMed Board Chairman, John Collings, will officially kick off the forum providing an overview of the Forum, elaborate on its theme, and introduce the concept of the three E’s. Through insightful reflections, he will share a roadmap for the forum, offering valuable perspectives on advancing innovation in the healthcare sector.
Bringing in the Patient Perspective
In her role as President of the Brain Tumour Society (Singapore), Melissa brings patient representation to this session, sharing a heartfelt and sincere narrative of the potential, challenges, and even pitfalls of medical innovation. It’s a compelling story that sheds light on the profound influence of MedTech innovation on patients’ lives.
Chairman, APACMed
President, Stryker, Asia Pacific
President
Brain Tumour Society (Singapore) Limited
As the global CEO of a MedTech giant, Thomas will elucidate the significance of innovation and the three E’s in the MedTech industry, also providing valuable insights into Roche’s unique innovation strategy, its evolution and implications for patients and talent.
Chief Executive Officer
Roche Group
Sharing candid insights into the significance of innovation in MedTech Industry, Lance reflects on Roche’s innovation strategy, including both its triumphs and tribulations. Both speakers jointly highlight the critical role that industry plays in shepherding medical innovation.
Head of Region
Roche Diagnostics Asia Pacific
CEO
APACMed
Step into the forefront of medical innovation with Dr Jordan in this enlightening session. Discover the vast potential of medical innovation as he provides a glimpse into the future with forward-looking predictions and how we can unlock innovation’s potential by upgrading human capital.
Author
A Human's Guide to the Future
This fireside chat delves into the implications of Innovation for the MedTech industry. A senior executive shares insights on their company’s balance between innovation and real-world adoption, aligning with the three E’s model. The subsequent dialogue between Jordan and the industry leader explores whether we’re pushing medical innovation too far in the Asia Pacific, and discusses practical approaches to aligning human skills with innovation, identifying key opportunities and risks.
Strategic Advisor
APACMed
Explore the Asian MedTech perspective with Terumo, a unique multinational rooted in the region. Sato San will take us on a journey through Terumo’s evolution, charting its progression from its origins in Asia to its current global stature, uncover essential elements that contributed to success in the Asian context, emphasizing the pivotal role of talent.
Global Group President & CEO
Terumo Corporation
Managing Director and Senior Partner
Boston Consulting Group
Session Moderator
Innovation is at the heart of MedTech, exploring new frontiers and revolutionizing the landscape of patient care.
Our Panel session on “Medical Innovation: Fulfilling Our Promise” will explore the complexities surrounding medical innovation in this thought-provoking panel discussion. Industry leaders will dive into the transformative power of innovation, the ecosystem’s readiness to embrace MedTech innovations and its impact on healthcare workforce, patients and healthcare industry as a whole.
Chief Medical Officer
GWS Medical
National Clinical Lead - AI and Digital Workforce, UK
NHS
General Manager & Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific Health Catalyst
Founder and former CEO
Syndromes Without A Name (SWAN) Australia
Sr. Vice President Clinical Operations, Asia Pacific
bioMérieux
Vice President, Asia Region-Led Markets for Global Regions
Medtronic
Asia Pacific Japan President
Siemens Healthineers
Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Asia Pacific
KPMG
Session Moderator
Embark on the journey of embracing innovation and human potential in this dynamic panel session.
Join the MedTech industry leaders addressing the challenges of embracing innovation, its impact on human potential, delving into what innovation signifies for each participating organization and industry’s pivotal role in advancing innovation.
President, Greater Asia
Becton Dickinson
Senior Vice President & President, Asia Pacific
Boston Scientific
Vice President, Asia
Baxter International
VP / General Manager, Asia
embecta
Senior Partner, Head of APAC Healthcare & Life Sciences
Bain & Company
Session Moderator
Commencing with an overview of MedTech Innovator Awards, this session will feature compelling pitches from top-selected start-ups. The session will also witness an enlightening dialogue with industry leaders, sharing their cutting-edge product/services, providing valuable insights into the collaborative dynamics shaping the MedTech landscape.
CEO Asia-Pacific
Olympus
VP, Strategic Alliances
MedTech Innovator
Head of R&D, APJ region and Global Special Contact Lens Research, Vision
Johnson & Johnson MedTech
President APAC
Teleflex
SVP Operations
BBraun Medical
Asia Pacific Japan President
Siemens Healthineers
Director, Government Affairs and Market Access
APACMed
Divisional Vice President Government Affairs, Asia Pacific & Japan
Abbott Laboratories
Manager, Government Affairs and Market Access
APACMed
Senior Partner, APAC Healthcare and Life Sciences
Bain & Co
Sustainability & Environment Director
MedTech Europe
Policy Manager
Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA)
Expert Senior Manager, Sustainability
Bain & Co
Session Moderator
Market Access, and Public & Government Affairs Senior Manager
bioMérieux
Managing Director
Vista Health Pte Ltd
Manager, Government Affairs and Market Access
APACMed
Senior Director Health Economics & Reimbursement, OUS
Abbott
Deputy Director of Research,
St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne;
Associate Professor,
Melbourne Medical School
Head of Market Access & HEOR, APAC
IPSOS
Session Moderator
Country Lead, India
APACMed
Chair of Public Affairs Committee, Orthopaedics Committee, and Strategy Management Office, AMDD
Chair of Healthcare Committee, and Vice-Chair of Govt Affairs Committee, ACCJ (American Chamber of Commerce Japan)
Managing Director, APAC
Avalere Health
Session Moderator
Senior Director, Market Access and Medical Affairs, APAC
Glaukos
China Lead
APACMed
VP, Health Practice
EDB
Head of Enterprise Risk Services KPMG Asia Pacific
China Life Science Advisory Partner
KPMG China
Director of Policy and Strategic Planning
Malaysia Medical Device Authority
Head of Team for Supervision and Certification of Medical Devices Distribution Facilities
Indonesia MoH
Group CEO
ARQon
Chief Medical Officer
GWS Medika
Chairman and CEO
Ustar
Director, Venture Creation and Growth, Innovation & Enterprise Group
A*STAR
Director
The Voices Project Asia
Health System Innovator
Independent
Chair and Research Professor, Global Health Department, School of Public Health;
Associate Dean, Institute for Global Health and Development
Peking University
Session Moderator
China Lead
APACMed
Professor, Dean, School of Medicine and Health Management Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Executive Director, Research Institute of NHSA
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Professor, Dean, School of Medicine and Health Management Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Executive Director, Research Institute of NHSA
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Assistant Director
MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation, Singapore
Partner
L.E.K. China
Session Moderator
Researcher, HUST Sub-Base
National Institute of Healthcare Security
Principal and Head of Real-World Evidence, Asia Pacific
IQVIA
Session Moderator
Reviewer
Division of Clinical and Biostatistics I, Center for Medical Device Evaluation (CMDE), NMPA
Global Press Officer; Deputy Director for Investment Promotion Department
Hainan International Economic Development Bureau
APAC Director, Regulatory Affairs, Quality And Compliance
Abbott
Session Moderator
Regulatory Affairs Manager
APACMed
Senior Regulatory Counsel, International Affairs
US Food and Drug Administration, IMDRF
Deputy Director-General of Health (Health Regulation), Assistant Commissioner (Cybersecurity – Healthcare)
Ministry of Health, Singapore
Principal, APAC
Clarivate Consulting
Head of Digital Health and Innovation Policy
Roche Diagnostics
Senior Regulatory Specialist,
Digital Health Branch,
Medical Devices Cluster,
Health Products Regulation Group
Health Sciences Authority, Singapore
Principal Reviewer
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device Agency, Japan
First Assistant Secretary
Therapeutics Goods Administration, Australia
Assistant Director
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea
Reviewer
National Medical Products Administration, China
Principal, APAC
Clarivate Consulting
Session Moderator
Team Lead, Regulatory Convergence and Networks
World Health Organisation
Head Regulatory Policy Asia Pacific
Global Regulatory Policy & Intelligence
Roche Diagnostics
Deputy Director of Therapeutics Devices
Health Sciences Authority, Singapore
CEO
Medical Device Authority, Malaysia
IMDA Officer
Infrastructure and Medical Device Adminisration (IMDA) - Ministry of Health of Vietnam
IMDA Officer
Infrastructure and Medical Device Adminisration (IMDA) - Ministry of Health of Vietnam
First Assistant Secretary
Therapeutics Goods Administration, Australia
Principal Reviewer
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device Agency, Japan
Head of Regulatory Affairs, Asia Pacific, Vision
Johnson & Johnson MedTech
Session Moderator
Head of Regulatory Affairs, Asia Pacific, Vision
Johnson & Johnson MedTech
APAC Regulatory Affairs Director
Varian Medical Systems (a Siemens Healthineers Company)
Head Regulatory Policy Asia Pacific
Global Regulatory Policy & Intelligence
Roche Diagnostics
APAC Director, Regulatory Affairs, Quality And Compliance
Abbott
Regulatory Affairs Manager
APACMed
Session Moderator
Manager, Diagnostics Projects
APACMed
Strategic Advisor
APACMed
Director Market Access, Asia Middle East and Africa
Illumina
Deputy Chair, The Lancet Commission on Diagnostics
Professor and Vice Chair, Dept of Pathology, University of Colorado
Director, Dept of Pathology & Lab Services Denver Health
CEO
FIND
VP, Outreach and Talent
Diagnostics Development Hub
Founder
Research For Impact
Chair and Research Professor, Global Health Department, School of Public Health; Associate Dean, Institute for Global Health and Development
Peking University
Associate Director, Diagnostics
Clinton Health Access Initiative
Senior Director
Vista Health
Session Moderator
Director
Rare Cancers Australia
Associate Professor (Clinical), Department of Clinical Oncology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs
Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA)
Guardant Health AMEA
Director
Rare Cancers Australia
Senior Consultant and Chairman, Division of Pathology
Singapore General Hospital;
Academic Chair, Pathology Academic Clinical Programme
SingHealth Duke-NUS
Senior Director
Vista Health
Session Moderator
Manager, Diagnostics Projects
APACMed
Director, Digital Health
APACMed
Head of Health Innovation
WisDM, the Institute for Digital Medicine at the NUS School of Medicine
Founder and former CEO
Syndromes Without a Name (SWAN) Australia
Chief Operating OfficerIHH Healthcare Singapore;
Chief Executive Officer
Mount Elizabeth Hospital
General Manager & Senior Vice President
Health Catalyst
Regional Director - Asia Pacific, Health Economics & Reimbursement
Abbott
Head, WHO Collaborating Centre for Digital Health
World Health Organization
Chief Digital Transformation Office & Expert Advisor of Health Technology to the Minister of Health
Ministry of Health, Indonesia
Director General, Benefit Listing Department
Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), Korea
Medical Director, Head, Medical Portfolio Management
Prudential Assurance Company Singapore
Strategic Advisor
APACMed
Session Moderator
Global Vice President AI
Styker
Head (Financing Redesign & mindline.sg)
Senior Consultant
MOHT
Founder
Health Parliament and Digital Health Academy (India)
Head of the WHO Innovation Hub
World Health Organisation
Head Global Digital and Regulatory Policy
Johnson & Johnson
Head of Life Sciences
KPMG Asia Pacific
Session Moderator
Assistant Manager, Digital Health
APACMed
Partner-in-Charge, Sydney and Japan
Jones Day
Partner-in-Charge, Singapore
Jones Day
Provost's Chair Professor,
Director, The Institute for Digital Medicine
National University of Singapore
Counsel
K&L Gates Straits Law LLC
Deputy Director-General of Health (Health Regulation) Assistant Commissioner (Cybersecurity – Healthcare)
Ministry of Health, Singapore
Vice President, IT Asia Pacific
Stryker
Regional Senior Editor
Tatler Gen. T
Session Moderator
Opening Remarks
Begin Innovation Day by with an overview of the day’s agenda and expectations, insights from the APACMed Start-up Committee, and the significance of community engagement in fostering innovation.
MedTech Innovation Build vs Buy Landscape
Expect a deep dive into industry trends, enlightening case studies, and valuable insights in a comprehensive presentation on the MedTech innovation build-vs-buy landscape in the Asia Pacific. In addition, a snapshot of insights observed from the APACMed matchmaking database will be released.
President, Asia & Latin America
ResMed
Head of SEA Healthcare & Life Sciences
LEK
Strategic Advisor
APACMed
(Session Moderator)
Embark on an insightful journey with a Start-up founder sharing
the remarkable story of Gauss Surgical, a patient monitoring start-up and its evolution into a fully-integrated business unit of Stryker.
Following the presentation will be a fireside chat exploring the intricacies of the journey and provide valuable insights for start-ups looking to make that corporate pitch.
Global Vice President AI
Stryker
Founder & CEO
NousQ
Engage in a dynamic panel discussion that delves into the “Realities of Matchmaking in the Asia Pacific”. Our expert panelists will share insights, experiences, and best practices, providing a comprehensive exploration of the challenges and successes within the region’s matchmaking landscape. Discover key strategies for community activation and gain practical insights to enhance your approach in the diverse and dynamic Asia Pacific market.
VP, Strategy & BD, APAC
Stryker
President, APAC
TMG Search
Principal
Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow
Head of New Business Development, China
Johnson & Johnson MedTech
Head of SEA Healthcare & Life Sciences
LEK
Session Moderator
Experience the convergence of ideas and solutions at the Inaugural APACMed Corporate Challenge Statement. Witness curated start-up matchmaking with 5-minute compelling pitches from each start-up, followed by Q&A session, dedicated time for fostering meaningful connections and collaboration within the MedTech ecosystem.
Head of R&D, APJ region and Global Special Contact Lens Research, Vision
Johnson & Johnson MedTech
General Manager and Head of Finance
ResMed
National Clinical Lead - AI and Digital Workforce, UK
NHS
General Manager - Asia Pacific
Oliver Healthcare Packaging
Investment Director
Coronet Ventures
Marketing Director - Asia / General Manager - ANZ
embecta
Strategic Advisor
APACMed
VP, Strategic Alliances
MedTech Innovator
Over 80 leaders from 30+ countries gathered to share, inspire, and explore the vision of patient centricity in the Asia Pacific region.
Asia Pacific's Leading MedTech Conference is proudly powered by WordPress
John Collings is a senior-level leader with more than 20 years of experience in the medical technology and pharmaceutical industry. He started his career with Stryker in 2016, and he was appointed to President of Stryker Asia Pacific in 2020 after assuming leadership roles with increasingly expanded responsibilities.
John is focused on driving and developing high-performing teams across the region. Having lived and worked in seven different countries, John embraces diversity and inclusion. This lays the foundation in developing mission-driven, diverse and inclusive teams that has been key to Stryker’s success. Together with Stryker’s customers, the dynamic team delivers customer-centric and differentiated innovation that drives optimal patient outcomes.
Dr. Thomas Schinecker has been Chief Executive Officer of the Roche Group since 2023. He began his career at Roche in 2003 as part of a management development program. This was followed by various roles across six countries and three continents. Throughout his time at Roche, he served as Head of Marketing and Sales in Austria, Lifecycle Leader for Diagnostics’ Sequencing Solutions and General Manager of Roche Diagnostics in Sweden as well as in Germany. For two years, he led Roche Diagnostics’ largest business unit including Research and Development, before taking over the Diagnostics Division, which he led from October 2019 to December 2022. Dr Thomas Schinecker was born in Germany with German and Austrian citizenship and grew up in Singapore. He studied genetics in Salzburg, Austria, and received his PhD in molecular biology from New York University in 2003.
Harjit was appointed CEO of APACMed in February 2019. Founded in 2014, the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association is the only regional association to provide a unified voice for the medical technology industry in Asia Pacific.
Formerly she was EVP and CEO of Philips ASEAN & Pacific until October 2015. In this role, she managed a turnover of US$2 Billion and a team of 10,000 people in ten countries across its Healthcare, Lighting and Consumer Lifestyle sectors. Harjit spent twenty-five years with Philips holding a variety of international roles in General Management in Holland, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.
Dr Jordan Nguyen is a leading Australian engineer, inventor and innovator, who is committed to improving as many lives as possible, as well as becoming a driving force behind both human and technological evolution as we move into the future.
An internationally renowned engineer for humanity, Jordan designs life-changing technologies to transform the lives of people with disabilities and the elderly through his role as founder of Psykinetic, a social business committed to bringing positive, sustainable and life-altering change. He also shares his adventures through documentaries across the world. Inspired by human endeavour, Jordan has big ambitions to see our world step consciously and creatively into a better future.
Chris Hardesty has dedicated his career and passion toward the health/care field. Having had the good fortune of working across more than 50 countries, he believes there is something to teach and something to learn from the various health system designs. His particular area of emphasis is around fostering public-private partnerships such that we can bring safe, effective, and economically-viable medical innovations to those in need.
Mr. Shinjiro Sato has been the President and CEO of the company since 2017. Previously, he served as the Director and Managing Executive Officer from 2015 to 2017; Director and Senior Executive Officer from 2012 to 2015; Senior Executive Officer from 2012 to 2014; Group President of Cardiac and Vascular Business Group from 2011 to 2012; and Executive Officer, General Manager of Strategic Planning Dept. from 2010 to 2011. Mr. Sato served at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting (currently PwC Japan Group) from 1999 to 2004. He started his career at Joined Toa Nenryo Kogyo KK (currently JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation) in 1984.
Sam Karita is a core member of Boston Consulting Group’s Marketing, Sales & Pricing, Health Care, and Consumer practices.
He is also a Fellow at Bcg Henderson Institute (BHI) and BHI Japan lead.
Since joining BCG in 1997, Sam has worked closely with clients in a wide variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, med-tech, consumer goods, media, entertainment, technology, and telecommunications. He has developed particular expertise in corporate / business strategy, innovation, large scale transformation, operational excellence across the value chain from R&D, manufacturing & supply chain and sales & marketing. He also has deep experience in supporting clients undertake transformation in digital and advanced analytics, working closely with Digital BCG colleagues.
Before joining BCG, Sam worked for the Industrial Bank of Japan, currently Mizuho Financial Group, where he was in charge of corporate finance for several major accounts. He is also a semiprofessional musician who records music and performs live in Tokyo.
Farhana Nakhooda, GM & SVP Health Catalyst, Asia Pacific, leads the overall vision and growth strategy of the Health Catalyst business across Asia Pacific. She is passionate about improving healthcare outcomes, access to care as well as decreasing healthcare costs across the APAC region. She has extensive experience with engagement at the intersection of medicine, technology, AI and analytics. Prior to joining Health Catalyst, Farhana was the IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences solutions leader for Asia Pacific for 18 years where she played a key role in digitally enabling healthcare transformation projects across Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Middle East/Africa. She has more than 25 years of international experience in the healthcare and life sciences industry as a medical researcher and as a subject matter expert. Farhana has a Bachelor of Science degree (with Honors), in which she majored in Biology and Biochemistry, at the University of British Columbia. She completed her MBA at Monash Mt Eliza Business School in Melbourne, Australia.
Heather Renton is the Founder and former CEO of Syndromes Without a Name (SWAN) Australia, a support group that provides information, connection, support and advocacy to families caring for a child with an undiagnosed or rare genetic condition. Heather is the mother of two neurodiverse children, one of whom has a rare genetic condition called FOXP1 Syndrome.
Heather is a consumer representative on a number of different advisory groups and committees and is a passionate disability and health advocate, particularly around genomic technology.
Saurabh was born in Mumbai, India and holds business degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and The Fuqua School of Business (Health Sector of Management), Duke University.
Prior to joining bioMérieux, Saurabh worked with Johnson & Johnson in India and the United States for its Pharmaceutical and OTC businesses. He started his career with J&J and held several positions for over 10 years in Marketing, Sales, and Strategic Marketing etc.
Saurabh commenced his career with bioMerieux in 2009 in Delhi, India as Chief Marketing Officer. In 2016 he took over as the General Manage / Vice President for bioMérieux’s South Asia operations. In 2020 in midst of the pandemic, Saurabh moved to Singapore, to take on the role as Senior Vice President – Asia Pacific (Clinical Operations).
Saurabh and his team in Asia Pacific is focussed on achieving bioMérieux’s mission of providing diagnostic solutions which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. bioMérieux’s products are mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases and detecting microorganisms in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
Feng Dong is the Vice President of Asia Region-Led Markets for the Global Regions. He has been in the medical and healthcare industry for more than 30 years, and since joining Medtronic in 2004, has held several strategic positions, most recently serving as the Vice President and Managing Director of Medtronic Korea and Vice President for the Peripheral Vascular Operating Unit (OU) in Japan.
He is strongly committed to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion and is a firm believer that fostering a culture of inclusivity and respect can create innovative teams and make a positive impact on the lives of our patients.
Born in China, Feng Dong holds a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Chinese Medicine School and spent five years in orthopedics treating patients in China. In his free time, Feng Dong enjoying spending time with his family and staying active through badminton, running, hiking, mountaineering, and skiing.
Anastasia is passionate about partnering for outcomes, innovating for impact and delivering value for people across the healthcare ecosystem. Anastasia is a qualified AI/ML and Biomedical engineer who has over 20 years global and regional Life Sciences (MedTech, Pharma and Digital Health) and Private Healthcare experience within and with industry. Anastasia’s key technical focus areas include:
Joanna is a passionate business leader with over two decades’ international experience in healthcare. She was appointed VP for Asia in April 2023, and is responsible for overseeing the business across China, Hong Kong/Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia & the Philippines.
Joanna first joined Baxter in 2006, in an Asia Pacific Business Development role, before being promoted to a number of leadership roles across the region. She was appointed as Business Unit Director for BioScience in China in 2008, and moved to Hong Kong in 2010, having been appointed as General Manager. In 2015, she further expanded her role as General Manager of Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2019, she was appointed VP for South East Asia, covering 6 markets – the region grew to include India in 2021.
Joanna’s passion for healthcare was sparked during her early experiences at Novartis Consumer Health and McKinsey & Co where she primarily focused on healthcare clients.
Joanna holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Information Systems from Fudan University, China and Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, New York.
James is Vice President / General Manager Asia at embecta, formerly part of BD and now one of the largest pure-play diabetes management companies in the world. Prior to embecta, James served as Vice President of the Diabetes Care business unit in Asia at BD. Before joining BD, James was the Global Marketing Director and Sales Director EMEA at MP Biomedicals, a leading provider of diagnostic products with global headquarters in California. James has also served as Sales & Marketing Director at Aeras Medical Pte Ltd, a medical solutions provider with a focus on diabetes diagnostics and management. Prior to Aeras Medical Pte Ltd he worked in LMA, a global leader and innovator of the laryngeal masks.
His experience in the medical industry has seen him take on appointments spanning R&D engineering, product and business management, P&L management, global marketing management and sales management in the APAC and EMEA regions. In the course of his career, he travelled widely and worked with professionals around the globe. He currently lives in Singapore.
Prior to joining Olympus, Marc held several management positions working for a variety of technology-focused companies, including Philips and LG Electronics. His career spans numerous countries and continents including South Africa, The United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and most recently Singapore.
Marc commenced his career with Olympus in 2004 in Sydney Australia where he served as the Imaging Division Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand.
In 2019, Marc was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Olympus Corporation of Asia Pacific, with full strategic and operational responsibility for the APAC Region.
To achieve the Olympus purpose of Making people’s lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling, Marc is focused on establishing Olympus APAC as a MedTech organization known for excellence throughout the region.
Marc was born in South Africa and holds commerce degrees from The Cape Peninsula University of Technology and The University of South Australia. He is married with two children and enjoys spending time with his family and the occasional ultra-marathon or competitive swim.
Biten Kathrani is currently the Head of R&D for APJ region and Global Special Contact Lens Research (Drug Eluting lenses, Myopia, Beauty Lenses) at Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Based in Singapore, he is a part of the global Vision R&D Leadership team. He is responsible for leading J&J Vision’s largest strategic Public Private Partnership (PPP) program on childhood Myopia Singapore Eye Research Institute co-sponsored by Singapore EDB and A*STAR.
In his medtech career spanning 28+ years, Biten has setup and led 6 Global R&D centers for MNC’s and new venture start-ups. He has held organizational leadership roles in R&D, Innovation, and new ventures in APAC (China, Singapore & India) and USA. He also spent 3 years leading External innovation programs at J&J’s Corporate Office of Science & Technology in New Brunswick, NJ, USA developing new technology partnerships at universities, seed stage start-ups and venture funded companies for J&J across medtech, consumer and pharma.
Biten is well networked in the healthcare innovation ecosystem in Singapore and APAC and is a sought-after mentor, coach and evaluation panel member at healthcare incubator and accelerator programs. He is engaged in diverse capacities with innovation programs like Enterprise Singapore’s Startup Sg Tech, Nanyang Technology University – JumpStart (Joint University Medtech Program), NUHS – GRIP program, Stanford Biodesign program – USA, Singapore and India chapters, Medtech Innovator Program, Medtech Actuator and Founders Forum, India, a volunteer organization to support medtech startups through their innovation commercialization and scale up journey.
He has lead R&D programs and talented teams to deliver 20+ diverse medical devices and 50+ patents covering single use disposable devices, capital equipment & instruments and software & connected health platforms for Class III implantables. Biten has managed large R&D organization footprint of 200+ employees and brings general management & organizational leadership skills. He considers future R&D leadership talent development (10+ Directors and Sr. Managers) amongst his most satisfying achievements.
Under his leadership, Boston Scientific’s Global India R&D center won the NASSCOM Innovation Excellence Award for GIC’s (Global Inhouse Capability Centers) in 2018.
Biten holds an MBA from the ivy league Wharton Business School, Univ. of Pennsylvania, an M. Tech in Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, a Post Diploma in Intellectual Property Management, and is a certified Patent Agent.
He is very passionate about community giving and currently leads cross sector Singapore Community Impact at Johnson & Johnson, focused on mental wellness, eye health, STEM for youth and disaster management.
Praneet brings with him nearly 30 years of experience altogether in working with and leading multi-cultural teams in both medical devices and management consulting. Presently, Praneet serves with Teleflex, a global provider of medical technologies and leads their businesses across all of Asia Pacific, responsible for over 700 colleagues.
Praneet has previously served at Fresenius Medical Care and Baxter across multiple roles in sales & marketing and financial planning & analysis.
Praneet in a Management Graduate from the University of Delhi and has stayed and worked in Hong Kong and India, other than in Singapore where he now resides.
Christian joins B. Braun Medical Industries in Malaysia with 20 years of experience serving the Group in Germany. Starting at Avitum as a trainee, he was also identified early in his career to train in the United States of America under the Marketing specialization. He then moved up the ranks through various local and global functions, which included strategic Portfolio Management, 0PEX, Production Management, Plant Controller, Investment and Projects.
Prior to this role, he was leading a subsidiary of B. Braun as Managing Director, where he was responsible for the overall management of the site. There, he developed a production and plant strategy through 2030. His current position is Christian’s first posting abroad since he joined B. Braun Melsungen AG in 2003.
Christian graduated from the University of Applied Sciences,A nsbach,G ermanyi n Industrial Engineering with focus on Medical Technologies. In his free time, he enjoys exploring the world with his family, which includes his three children, or sweating it out in the intense game of
handball or the relaxing pace of tennis.
Siddarth Satish is the Vice President of AI for Stryker’s Digital, Robotics, and Enabling Technologies organization. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Gauss Surgical, a healthcare AI company acquired by Stryker in 2021. Siddarth founded Gauss in 2011 and worked as its Chief Technology Officer before becoming CEO in 2015. At Gauss, he developed Triton, a computer vision application that monitors surgical blood loss. He led the company through De Novo clearance from the US FDA in 2014 and early market launch. Under Siddarth’s commercial leadership, Triton was widely used by US health systems, with over 250,000 surgical procedures annually by 2019 and regulatory approvals in the EU and APAC regions. Triton received the Apple Design Award in 2018. Siddarth also raised $60 million in venture capital financing and led the spinoff of several home diagnostics technologies developed by Gauss in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before founding Gauss, Siddarth worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at StartX, Stanford University’s Startup Accelerator, and conducted research in computer-aided drug discovery at Gilead Sciences. Siddarth has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MS in Bioengineering from the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering. He holds over 50 issued or pending patents in surgery, diagnostics, and computer vision and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Healthcare.
Cecelia is the Vice President of Stryker in Asia Pacific, where she oversees strategy, business development, and R&D across the region.
Cecelia joined Stryker in 2014 as Senior Director, Head of Business Development for International Markets and led mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strategic partnerships for APAC, LatAM, the Middle East, and Africa regions. In 2017, Cecelia was appointed General Manager of Trauson, a local orthopedics company acquired by Stryker.
Before joining Stryker, Cecelia held leadership roles across finance and management in Coca-Cola Company and Life Technologies Corporation (now Thermo Fisher). Cecelia started her career in investment banking with Lehman Brothers in capital markets and equity research in Hong Kong, New York, and Los Angeles.
Cecelia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University and a Master of Business Administration from UCLA. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Ajay has over two decades of deep industry expertise in MedTech and a proven track record of building high-performing teams across the U.S., Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Using his experience from roles across APAC, including key markets like China, Japan, Korea, India, and SEA, Ajay has successfully built his sales, marketing, and commercial leadership career with some of the top med device companies in the world. After spending the last three years working in V.C., startups, and consulting, Ajay continues to expand his extensive people-oriented network that covers the U.S., the Middle East, and APAC.
Ren Jun Lim is a Principal of the Intellectual Property and Technology (IPTech) Practice Group at Baker & McKenzie Wong & Leow. He represents local and international clients in both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters. He also advises on a full range of healthcare, as well as consumer goods-related legal and regulatory issues. Ren Jun co-leads Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow’s Healthcare as well as Consumer Goods & Retail industry groups. He keenly advises on a full range of issues relating to the healthcare industry. These include regulatory compliance in respect of digital healthcare, telemedicine, drugs, medical devices, health supplements, food products and cosmetics; clinical trials; product liability/recall issues; data exclusivity; patent linkage; competition; and anti-corruption issues.
Astra is responsible for leading external partnership and M&A initiatives for Johnson & Johnson MedTech in China, supporting the company’s innovation and growth agenda. She is also a member of the JJMT China Management Board and will assume responsibility for the Business Development function in China.
Astra joins us with extensive leadership and transaction experience from GE, where she led business development and marketing activities in greater China in support of GE businesses’ strategic marketing and inorganic growth initiatives.
Prior to this Growth Leader role, she served as GE China’s Managing Director for Corporate Business Development beginning in 2007. In this role, she led M&A activities in various industries, such as energy, mining, aviation, security and industrial intelligent platforms.
In addition to her experience in GE, Astra served as Corporate Development Director for Cargill in Asia, a leading global agricultural company.
Prior to that, Astra spent over 17 years in Motorola in market research, M&A and Venture Capital in Asia, where she was the founding member of Motorola Venture in China in 2004.
Astra received her MBA from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management/University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong and a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
Jessie Qiu is a global C-level finance leader with 20 years of experience. Currently leading a large portfolio of over 300 finance professionals in Grab, she spearheads Finance to support the business expansion at the rate of 2X-3X per annum.
A result and data-driven finance leader, she builds her experience across a wide range of industries such as fin-tech, digital payment, lending, healthcare, manufacturing, technology and services. Prior to Grab, she worked for various fortune 500 companies such as Oracle, Teradata and Reckitt Benckiser.
She is proven to be strategic-minded, forward-thinking, and a trusted business partner. Her vision is to unlock business growth with data analytics, promote finance efficiency with automation and drive company-wide cost-efficiency transformation. She has lead finance transformation projects like building Financial data warehouse, SSC set up, ERP implementation, procurement transformation etc. She is also specialized in hand-picking high-performance finance leaders, onboarding, nurturing and motivating them to grow in her finance organization.
She holds a master’s degree from Sydney University and an Australian CPA membership since 2001. Most recently, she completed her Harvard Business School Executive Program. She has also shared her transformation leadership experience as a penal speaker in a recently held Softbank CFO conference in California.
Kenneth De Muynck is General Manager, Asia Pacific for Oliver Healthcare Packaging (Oliver) based in Singapore. In his role, Kenneth spearheads strategic growth opportunities for Oliver in the region, leveraging his extensive multi-market experience in healthcare and life sciences multinational companies (MNCs). This includes providing direction and oversight to capital projects, improving productivity and customer experiences through championing process excellence, driving talent management efforts, and maintaining deep relationships with key industry stakeholders. Prior to joining Oliver, he held senior roles at life sciences company Cytiva (previously GE HealthCare Life Sciences) and was responsible for driving service sales and commercial excellence across Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, and India. He also oversaw strategy and business development in areas such as manufacturing, inventory, and sales operations, and has nearly two decades of experience in the life sciences industry. Kenneth graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a bachelor’s degree (with Honours) in International Business. He also holds an Executive MBA from Vlerick Business School, a Masters in Global Management from the University of Antwerp Management School in Belgium, and a “Candidate in Law” from the Catholic University of Brussels.
Jacqueline brings with her more than 20 years of marketing experience in the healthcare and consumer technology sectors. She is a competent and independent marketer with a wealth of experience in strategy development, brand marketing, new product introductions, campaign development, digital marketing, market research, and marketing analytics. She has successfully led and implemented cross-functional projects across APAC & Japan region. Having held regional and global roles in organizations such as Novartis Consumer Health (CIBA VISION Division, Johnson & Johnson Vision (formerly Abbott Medical Optics), Nokia and Samsung, Jacqueline has a proven track record of managing cross-functional internal and external stakeholders, and possesses excellent cross-cultural communication and presentation skills. Overall, a self-motivated and results-oriented professional with strong interpersonal skills, and thrives on challenges to achieve goals.
Glenda is Director of Government Affairs and Market Access, APACMed secretariat. Glenda brings over a decade of policy experience working at the nexus of government, business and civil society – to accelerate partnerships and policies improving patient access to care. Glenda holds a masters’ degree in social sciences from University of Chicago and bachelors of science in government and economics from LSE.
Shakilla Shahjihan is Divisional Vice President, Government Affairs at Abbott based in Singapore. She leads an award-winning team across strategic markets focusing on external stakeholder engagement to help drive business priorities. Prior to joining Abbott, Shakilla held various positions in sales, marketing and corporate affairs at Monsanto, Boston Scientific and Merch Sharp and Dohme. Shakilla is co-chair of the Government Affairs and Market Access (GAMA) Committee at the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMED), working together with the Secretariat and GAMA leadership team to advocate on issues and shape meaningful outreach for APACMED’s members. She is Vice Chair of Board of Governors at the American Chamber of Commerce, Singapore. She chairs the Healthcare Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce, Malaysia. Shakilla is also an active member of the Management Committee Asia Pacific Infant and Young Child Nutrition Association (APIYCNA). Shakilla holds an MBA and bachelor’s degree in Science from the National University of Singapore.
Benish joined APACMed in 2021 to support the Digital Health committee. Since October 2021, she has been working in the Government Affairs & Market Access committee to help build long term relationships with government stakeholders and promote smoother, more well-defined market access pathways.
Benish has close to a decade of prior experience in developing evidence based tailored therapeutic protocols for patient centric care in a multidisciplinary team at a tertiary hospital in India. Apart from that, while teaching as an Assistant Professor at a university, she also explored various innovative research projects which led her to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy. In Singapore, Benish completed an MBA in strategy & digital leadership from ESSEC Business School.
Benish is involved in various volunteering activities in Singapore and enjoys exploring new places and spending time with her family and friends.
Pravin is MTAA’s Policy Manager with a strong focus on developing and advocating on industry policy positions across the MTAA membership. Pravin joined MTAA in January 2022 and oversees numerous committees and working groups that focus on local industry development, procurement and supply chain matters for medical device companies. Recently, Pravin established a sustainability working group at MTAA to help progress ESG related initiatives for the Australian MedTech sector. Pravin was also the project lead for MTAA’s major advocacy project for 2023, the Value of MedTech Report, launched at Parliament House in June by the Federal Minister for Health. Pravin has a Master of Public Health from the University of Melbourne (2017), a Bachelor of Medical Science from the University of Sydney (2013) and is currently undertaking a Master of Business Administration at the University of Sydney. Prior to joining MTAA, Pravin worked for 3 years as public policy consultant working on program evaluations for governments and NGO clients across the health, justice and education sectors.
Gwyneth has over 10 years of experience working in corporate sustainability advisory and sustainable development. As a Senior Expert Manager at Bain & Company, Gwyneth works with companies to create value from sustainability, chart pathways to net zero and invest in nature-based solutions. Before joining Bain, Gwyneth was at Agility, a logistics and supply chain company, where she managed all aspects of sustainability, from human rights to reporting. She also served as a Senior Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future and as a Trade and Logistics Consultant for the World Bank Group in Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University, an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Micromasters Credential in Supply Chain Management from MITx. Her personal interests include climbing, yoga, and reading.
Anthony is a Managing Director at Vista Health and specializes in healthcare consulting in market access, growth strategy & portfolio management spanning 250+ client assignments covering Asia Pacific & Emerging Markets over the past 15 years based within the region.
Previously, he was a Senior Principal for the IQVIA Consulting Group’s Asia Pacific Singapore office where he led client engagements and thought leadership in market entry, innovation & growth strategy, launch planning, operating models & health policy.
Over the course of 25+ years experience in the life science sector beginning at GSK, he has been engaging with and advising multinational & local pharmaceutical, consumer health and med tech corporations, healthcare providers, agencies, health ministries, NGOs & financial firms across Asia Pacific, EMEA & LatAm.
Anthony has expert capabilities in commercial model innovation, launch planning & life cycle management, brand and franchise management, portfolio optimisation, growth strategy, market entry planning, pricing & reimbursement, market access, commercial excellence, health policy, digital health and learning & development.
He holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History, Economics & Politics from London University, PG Diploma in Marketing and is a Chartered Institute of Marketing Member.
Su Fen joins APACMed as Project Manager, Government Affairs and Market Access in March 2023 to enable greater market access for medtech companies in APAC. She brings expertise in stakeholder engagement and geopolitical analysis to the healthcare industry and seeks to facilitate open channels of communication amongst policy makers and companies, leading to improved patient access to healthcare services in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining APACMed, she led a team of officers in Land Transport Authority (LTA) to implement public transport programmes. She has a Masters in Social Sciences, specialising in China and Global Governance from Nanyang Technological University.
Markus Siebert was named Senior Director Health Economics & Reimbursement of the International Division at St. Jude Medical (now Abbott) in January 2012. He is responsible for the development and execution of reimbursement strategies and for guiding the development of health economic evidence in support of Market Access for Abbott’s medical device innovations in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.
Together with his team, he works with multiple stakeholders, including payers and HTA agencies to establish and improve reimbursement for Abbott’s innovations. He is passionate about continuously expanding the impact of the HE&R team by pioneering initiatives on Early Value Assessment, Value Guided Pricing and Market Access for Digital Solutions.
Markus has held several positions at MedTech Europe (previously Eucomed), the European medical technology association, where he served as Chair of the Evidence & Payers Working Group and as Chair of Working Groups on Economics and on Telemonitoring. He was a member of the Cardiovascular Roundtable of the European Society of Cardiology; and a company representative on the HTAi Policy Forum. Markus was co-initiator and Board Member of EHTI, the European Health Technology Institute for Socio-Economic Research and has co-authored several publications in the area of medical device market access.
Markus joined St. Jude Medical in January 2004 after almost seven years at Eucomed (now MedTech Europe), where he headed the Economic Affairs Department.
He holds a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Bochum (Germany) and a Master in Health Economics from VLEKHO, Belgium.
A/Prof Tam Nguyen has over 20 years of working in clinical trials, health and medical research and research innovation sector. He is the deputy director of research at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, part of the second largest healthcare provider in Australia.
Tam sits on the Investment Committee for H3Healthcare fund. He advises Health-Tech and MedTech start-ups from Australia and Singapore. He is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences and holds academic appointment with Melbourne Medical School and Monash Medical School – two of the world top 30 (and APAC top 5) medical schools.
Mr Adrien Gras is highly experienced leader in global pharmaceutical and medical device market access and HEOR. Adrien currently leads a team of experts in the field across the APAC region. He has been involved in all aspects of product development, from R&D activities such as drug target identification and drug discovery, pipeline commercial strategy, economic modelling, government reimbursement negotiation, and lifecycle management. He has published peer-reviewed journals and manuals in the fields of biochemistry, health economics and policy. Adrien was awarded a BSc in Biotechnology from Imperial College before completing an MRes in Structural Biology at Birkbeck College.
Adip comes with 12+ years of multi-sector experience across Government Relations, Policy Advocacy, Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Communications having worked in corporate, consulting as well as government settings. In his last role, Adip worked with APCO Worldwide – a global public affairs firm with a 7+ years tenure consulting fortune 500 companies, Not-for-profits, associations among others. Prior to joining APCO, Adip served in corporate affairs roles with respected multinationals like Alstom and Ingersoll Rand. He started his career with MSL Group and executed projects for Deloitte and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Adip holds a Master of Business Administration with distinction from Heriot-Watt University, UK and a Diploma in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Additionally, he holds a certification in public policy from the Takshashila Institution and received the Kautilya Fellowship from India Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India (2019 and 2020).
Born in Toronto. Graduated from Univ. of Toronto, Canada (M Eng.). Joined R&D Product Safety & Regulatory Affairs of P&G. After working 23 years for P&G, joined Zimmer Biomet as Government Affairs Director on October 2018. From early age at P&G, Mark has been shaping regulations in ways that help consumer and leading efforts to work effectively & efficiently by leveraging IT solutions. For example, when P&G developed a global IT system to assure product safety and regulatory compliance, he represented Asia and lead the project to a huge success.
Mark has passion in nourishing talents, shaping rules, and developing cultures for the future. He started up a program to develop globally capable leaders at University of Hyogo in 2013 and have been teaching at other universities since then. He also helped local governments by organizing training programs for their officers and by serving on various committees (English Education, Tourism Strategy, etc).
He is now promoting changes in the Healthcare sector by leverage digital/IoT technologies that allows to increase quality/efficiency of the services and to make Japan as a destination for Healthcare Innovation.
Jeff has more than 25 years’ experience in APAC and emerging markets, working with leading life sciences organisations on issues of strategic and business innovation, and access to healthcare. His experience has encompassed executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry and leadership of Big 4 consulting practices. In market access leadership roles with AbbVie and Novartis, he helped deliver the success of top global brands and he also played a key role in industry policy engagement with PhRMA. He has served on the Board of Governors of AmCham Singapore, lectured on market access strategy at ESSEC Business School, and contributed to the development of the life sciences sector in Singapore through appointments in government and academia. Jeff holds an MA in Asian Studies and Economics from George Washington University.
Alice Chu is Senior Director, Market Access and Medical Affairs, Asia Pacific, for Glaukos Corporation, a U.S. ophthalmic medical technology and pharmaceutical company focused on transforming the standards of care in treating chronic eye diseases with novel therapies in glaucoma, corneal disorders, and retinal diseases. Her roles include improving patient access to the company’s innovations based on clinical and economic evidence that demonstrate value for money to governments, payers, and hospital administrators; advancing clinical evidence; and educating surgeons in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to Glaukos, Alice was involved in health policy and market access efforts at Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson Medical, both at the Southeast Asian and regional levels. She has worked in various of healthcare-related enterprises in the United States, such as medical communications and professional education. Alice received her PhD in Molecular and Biochemical Nutrition and Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Singapore Management University. She is currently the co-president of the UC Berkeley Public Health Alumni Association and vice-chair of the Government Affairs & Market Access Committee for APACMed.
Currently, Alicia manages cross-functional work of APACMed in China, including government affairs and market access, regulatory issues, digital health pathways, and China’s MedTech collaboration with the broader region.
Prior to joining APACMed, Alicia worked as the Chief Liaison Officer and senior international manager at CCCMHPIE for over 10 years, to drive bilateral and multilateral cooperation programs with a number of health-related government and non-government bodies in China.
She has extensive experience in driving projects under the governmental framework, public relations, policy analysis, advocacy programs, seminars, and events. She has been a key facilitator of multiple government-led bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the China-UK healthcare working group, China-CEEC Alliance for Public Health, China-ASEAN Healthcare Products Expo, etc. She was leading a number of global health projects, including WHO pre-qualification Studies on China’s MedTech industry.
An EU-certified conference interpreter, Alicia received her master’s degree in applied linguistics from the University of International Business and Economics. She has also completed her second master’s degree in Public Health from the Vanke School of Public Health at Tsinghua University.
John Eng is VP of the Healthcare Division at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). In his current role, he leads a team to engage with global companies and develop strategies to position Singapore as a hub for medical technology. Prior to this, he completed a secondment with the Food & Nutrition innovation strategy and initiatives at the Agency for Science Technology and Research and led the Agri-Food division at EDB. He was previously based in EDB’s Chicago Office from 2015-18 as Regional Director, Americas, facilitating investments in industries such as biomedical sciences, food & nutrition and professional services. John completed a MS in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco and a BSc with Honours in Biological Sciences at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Frank is a Certified Practicing Accountant of CPA Australia. He has over 24 years of risk consulting experience in China and Asia Pacific. He became Partner in Charge of Risk Consulting for KPMG China in 2019. Risk Consulting includes Forensic, Internal Audit and Risk Compliance, Financial Risk Management, Actuarial and IT Advisory.
Frank has worked primarily in areas of internal audit, corporate governance, internal controls and risk management and strategic risk advisory. His industry focus includes manufacturing, life science, energy and resources and technology. Frank has been working closely with Chinese regulators and was involved in the drafting of various risk and control regulations.
Ms Salbiah Yaakop has more than 30 years of working experience, and is currently the Director of Policy and Strategic Planning Division of the Medical Device Authority, Ministry of Health Malaysia. Here, her main functions are managing the development of policies and regulatory documents, guidance documents and guidelines; managing international affairs and inter-agency agenda; industry affairs; managing events; provide trainings and consultancy and perform other specific projects. She also performed quality management system audits; medical device registration and licensing evaluations and verifications prior to her current role. She often represents MDA in other government and non-government meetings and programs and initiatives.She was the past Global Harmonization Working Party (GHWP) Technical Committee Chair, and currently GHWP Working Group 8 Chair on Standards for Medical Devices for the second term. She is also the Convenor for ISO/TC 210/WG 7 on Good Engineering Maintenance Management, and Chairperson of various Committees in MDA. She is also the Chairperson of two Technical Committees and a member of several National Standards Committees, Technical Committees and Working Groups related to medical devices in the national standards system. She is passionate about achieving global harmonization, and working towards securing bilateral cooperation and mutual recognitions with other countries in the areas of medical device standards and regulatory control.
Helsy Pahlemy is a Pharmacist from University of Indonesia. She got a bachelor degree and Magister Program from University of Indonesia. She start career as government employee at Medical Devices Division. She loves to playing tennis dan having guitar lesson on her free time. Rigt Now, she is responsible on sertification on Medical Devices Distributor.
May had her start in the In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) industry since 1990s. Within a decade of work with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in Singapore, she played a key role in establishing the medical devices branch and also, the local and regional medical device guidance. Subsequently, she became the Regulatory Director at Biosensors International Group, a manufacturer of interventional cardiology drug-device products for a number of years before setting up ARQon. May also the Regulatory and Quality Director in Endofotonics, a start-up manufacturer for In vivo Molecular Diagnostic (IMDx). Her experience in the design and manufacturing sites as well as in the commercial industry and as the local regulator enables her to guide all relevant departments during the entire product life cycle on the regulatory strategy and documentation to meet the global registration requirements and compliance.
With more than a decade of extensive international experience working in Asian and African countries, Yizhi Lin is a highly regarded expert in the field of Point-of-Care molecular diagnostic Testing. He serves as a council member for the 12th session of the Chinese Anti-Tuberculosis Association and is a founding committee member of the Genetic Testing Subsection of the Chinese Medical Equipment Association. Additionally, he has made significant contributions to medical and telecommunications sectors as an investor and industry expert.Lin and his team have been instrumental in driving innovation in POCT technology, resulting in numerous patent applications and significant contributions to global health initiatives, including the response to COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
In the Venture Creation and Growth Group under Innovation and Enterprise division, Su Ling is responsible for programmes, partnerships and creation of spin offs, in both science & engineering and biomedtech areas. Su Ling engages with VCs, serial entrepreneurs and corporates to co-create successful and sustainable spin offs leveraging on deep tech technologies developed at A*STAR. She will also support these spin offs in fund raising, business development, M&A activities and corporate partnerships.
Prior to A*STAR, she was at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (“TLL”), where she was managing business development and Intellectual Property including forming JVs with strategic partners.. Before TLL, she was at BioOne Capital, an EDB investment arm, focussing on investments in biotech and medtech companies globally. She has served on the Board of Directors, renumeration and audit committees of portfolio companies. She has also spent time in start-ups in the drug and vaccine development space.
Su Ling obtained her PhD in Neurobiology.
Dr Abhishek is a physician, economist, and international affairs graduate with over five years of experience in clinical medicine, community health, academia and multilateral non-governmental organizations. He has worked with patients from socio-economically disadvantaged populations and supported diagnosis, treatment, and continuous care in the domains of maternal and child nutrition, paediatric cancer, chronic paediatric blood disorders, among others. His passion to solve global health challenges and specifically to improve access to healthcare in Low- and Middle-Income Countries has driven him in his academic and experiential pursuits. Currently, he is serving as the Director for The Voices Project, an independent multilateral healthcare research and policy shaping platform in Singapore. The platform convenes experts, patient advocates, pharmaceutical firms, government agencies, academic researchers, and non-governmental organizations to uncover insights into public health challenges and create a well-represented discourse with the aim of driving public health policy reform and improving the lives of people.
Jon Bastow helps organisations accelerate innovation across R&D and Access in healthcare. He helps health systems prepare to harness innovation, by optimising settings of care, and improved linkage across diagnostics, treatments, vaccines and other tools.He brings over 35 years of experience, having led projects across multiple diseases. He has held senior roles in pharmaceutical companies and international organisations such as FIND and The Global Fund, building partnerships between private sector healthcare and tech companies, NGO’s and governments addressing major problems of poverty. Jon is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, holds degrees in Biochemistry and Philosophy and has given lectures at IMD, London Business School, INSEAD and the Graduate Institute in Geneva. He also serves on various boards in the healthcare space and beyond.
Currently, Dr. Ming Xu is a Professor and the Dean of the Department of Global Health at School of Public Health of Peking University, as well as the Associate Dean of the Institute for Global Health and Development of Peking University. He has rich work experience in global health and the development of the healthcare industry. He was the Head of the Department for Emerging Economies and previously the Senior Political Advisor for External Relations at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Switzerland. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products under the Ministry of Commerce of China. Earlier, he served in the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission and the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Korea. When working with the Global Fund, his focus was mainly on the prevention and control of major infectious diseases and health system strengthening in the implementing countries, and building up collaborations with emerging economies in the health field. When working in China, he participated a lot in formulating the policies and regulations of China’s healthcare industry, ranging from the promotion of trade and investment, regulation of medicinal products, to the enhancement of the international competitiveness of companies. He was the chair and PI of key health projects, and the head or member of evaluation groups to review major health projects at the national level. He currently serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP)of the Pandemic Fund and the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Local Production and Technology Transfer of Health Products(TAG-LPTT) .
He got a Ph.D. in industrial economics from Fudan University and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University. He has written more than one hundred papers and articles in journals and specialized publications.
Prof. Lan Yao, Dean of School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Ministry of Education New Century Excellent Talents, Executive Director of HUST Base of National Institute of Healthcare Security, Director of Primary Health Care Branch of China International Exchange and Promotive Association for Medical and Health Care, Vice Director of Health Insurance Branch of China Health Economics Association, Executive Director of China Health Insurance Research Association, Executive Director of Community Health Association of China, Vice President of Wuhan Medical Insurance Research Association, Vice President of Wuhan Community Health Association, Consulting expert of the Standing Committee of the 15th People’s Congress of Wuhan, Member of the Advisory Committee of Shenzhen Community Health Association. She has served as an advisor to the Health Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region. In addition, she was the chief editor of the second edition and third editions of textbook entitled “Medical Security”, with a total of eight books edited. As a project leader, she has presided over more than 80 scientific research projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the World Health Organization Representative Office in China, the United Nations Children’s Fund, etc. More than 130 academic papers were published in various authoritative journals at home and abroad. She has received 8 awards, including the “China Medical Award” and the Third Prize of Hubei Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress. Main research areas: health economy, health policy, medical security, and primary health care.
Yi Feng currently serves in Singapore Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT) as a senior project manager. He holds joint appointments as an associate staff (pharmacist) with the National University Health System, and adjunct lecturer with the National University of Singapore. Graduated from National University of Singapore (NUS) with BSc (Pharmacy) (Hons) in 2010, Yi Feng started practicing as a registered pharmacist at Singapore General Hospital, and was actively involved in a range of activities that encompassed clinical services, operational matters, education and research. In 2012, Yi Feng joined the Sengkang Health team planning for a new regional health system for Northeastern Singapore. In 2014, he was awarded Sengkang Health Scholarship to pursue Master in Public Health (MPH) at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, NUS, and subsequently a half-scholarship from International Society for Quality in Health Care’s Fellowship Program for its fellowship (FISQua). Graduated with MPH and FISQua in 2015, Yi Feng continued his service with Sengkang General Hospital (SKH) as a Senior Pharmacist who oversaw the implementation of Outpatient Pharmacy Automation and pharmacy department’s research efforts. A believer of continuous research and improvement, Yi Feng was extensively involved in health services research spanning clinical safety, quality and care integration, and had authored 15 peer-reviewed publications to date. He is also currently an appointed peer reviewer with both Journal of American College of Clinical Pharmacy (JACCP) and International Journal for Quality in Health Care (IJQHC). Externally, Yi Feng is a grassroots leader with Bedok Community Centre and People’s Association.
Grace Wang is a Partner based in L.E.K.’s Shanghai office. She has over 10 years of experience in strategy consulting, with a focus on the life science and healthcare practice.
Grace has extensive experience supporting international and Chinese clients in medical device, pharmaceutical, life science tools and broader healthcare sectors on a wide range of engagements including growth strategy, pricing and market access, China localization and transaction support.
Grace graduated from Fudan University with a Double Master’s Degree in International Management from Fudan and Bocconi University.
Dr. Pei Li is a Researcher of HUST Sub-Base of National Institute of Healthcare Security. Dr. Pei Li graduated from Peking Union Medical College and served as chief physician in the First Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University and the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (301 Hospital). He also has extensive experience working in non-public hospitals and has been a core member of the Hospital Management Center of China Resources Medical since 2015.
Yvonne holds a PhD in Medicine from University of New South Wales and Master of Public Health from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. Her core competencies are real- world clinical evidence generation, health economics, health technology assessments and market access. Yvonne has more than 18 years of working experience across different organizations including academia, government, pharmaceutical and medtech industry. She has established track record publications and worked in the following therapeutic areas: oncology, infectious disease, diabetes, cardiovascular and stroke. She received further training in cancer epidemiology at International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), patient centered care at US Patient-Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI) and alumni of Eureka 3rd International Certificate Program in Translational Medicine (2010). Yvonne drives multi-stakeholder collaborations to improve patient access to innovative medical technologies across Asia Pacific and she advocates for patient-centered care.
Yawen Wang, M.D., Reviewer, Division of Clinical and Biostatistics I, Center for Medical Device Evaluation (CMDE) of NMPA. She is also a member of Clinical Evaluation Working Group (MDCE) of IMDRF, and participated in the harmonization of Documents of Clinical Evaluation.
Ruslan Tulenov from Kazakhstan, has been living and working in China for 15 years. He is actively engaged in public welfare activities, and has been praised by Chinese President Xi Jinping for donating rare RH-negative blood, also known as “panda blood,” to Chinese patients.
In October 2019, Ruslan Tulenov joined the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau (Hainan IEDB) as the global press officer and deputy director for investment promotion. He has been engaged in promotion of Hainan Free Trade Port, developing relations with foreign investment agencies and broadening global network for Hainan IEDB, trying to help global investors better locate potential projects and partners in the free trade port, and organizing the China International Consumer Products Expo (a.k.a Hainan Expo), the only national-level expo that targets consumer goods.
Studied at Hainan Universtiy and Beijing University of Science and Technology, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics.
Mr. Jason (Jian) Guo earned double-bachelor’s degrees from STU, China and acquired master degree of International Business Administration from UBC (University of British Columbia), Canada. He is now working for Abbott Global Regulatory Service Dept. as regional RA director for APAC to oversee strategic regulatory planning and ensure regulatory compliance of Abbott medical device business in this region. Prior to join Abbott, Mr. Jason Guo had worked for multiple reputable US and European medical device MNCs, where he accumulated rich experiences in areas of QMS/GMP, post-market surveillance, regulatory approvals, intelligence, compliance, and policy shaping. Mr. Jason Guo is also serving APACMed RA Committee as vice chairperson to actively advocate regulatory harmonization, convergency, reliance and capacity building activities.
In 2020, Cindy joined APACMed, offering her dedicated support to the Digital Health Committee. The journey continued in 2021, as she took the helm of the Legal, Ethics, and Compliance Committee. This role enabled her to play a key part in APACMed’s mission to enhance business standards across the APAC region. As 2023 unfolded, she took on the leadership of the APACMed Regulatory Affairs Committee. Through this role, she continues to shape the healthcare landscape in the APAC region, reflecting her unwavering dedication to excellence and innovation.
Before her time at APACMed, Cindy’s career unfolded in France, where she practised as a pharmacist. Her days revolved around ensuring patients received the medications they needed and providing essential guidance. This hands-on experience allowed her to collaborate seamlessly with fellow healthcare professionals, gaining valuable insights into pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and therapeutic approaches that enhance patients’ lives.
Cindy holds a Pharm D from the renowned French University François Rabelais, which laid the foundation for her deep understanding of pharmaceutical sciences. To augment her medical knowledge with business skills, she pursued an Advanced Master’s in Strategy and management of International Business (SMIB) from ESSEC Business School Asia Pacific.
Davina is a dedicated healthcare and technology attorney with significant experience in the public and private sectors. As Senior Regulatory Counsel for International Affairs in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), Davina plays a pivotal role in shaping international laws and policies which impact the medical device ecosystem. She advises on high profile issues including trade and supply chain, international harmonization, and strategies for ensuring high quality devices. Before joining international affairs, Davina served as Senior Policy Advisor for the Chief of Staff in CDRH and as counsel in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Office of Compliance. She was inspired to become a government regulator after amassing years of legal and policy experience in a variety of private sector roles. Davina holds a law degree, a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, and a certificate in business excellence.
Adj Assoc/Prof (Dr) Raymond Chua is a Registered Public Health Specialist and Fellow with the Academy of Medicine. As Deputy Director-General of Health, he oversees the regulation of healthcare services, premises, and health digitalization in Singapore, to safeguard public health, assure patient safety and ensure healthcare innovations. He is concurrently designated as Assistant Commissioner for Cybersecurity in Healthcare, to assist in tracking and enhancing cybersecurity policies relating to Critical Information Infrastructures and Medical Devices in Singapore. He also chairs the Public Service Division’s Regulatory Advisory Group to provide guidance and broad direction in using regulatory tools and capability development of regulators in the public service.
Mansoor is a management consultant with 15 years of experience in Life sciences and Technology sector. Mansoor specializes in areas of Commercial strategy including Opportunity assessment, Geo-expansion and launch planning, M&A support, Forecasting, Tender planning and assessment. His experience spans across JAPAC, Middle East and Established markets.
Previously, Mansoor was an Associate Principal at IMS Consulting group, where he led various Commercial strategy projects in Geo-expansion, Go-to-Market planning, Commercial Due diligence, Policy strategy and Tender optimization. Mansoor also led engagements at PRTM and ZS Associates, where he advised several MNCs on Operations and Commercialization aspects such as Supply chain optimization, Manufacturing ad demand planning, CMC development, Go-to-market strategy, Customer Segmentation, Resource allocation and Goal setting. Besides consulting, Mansoor also held strategic roles in industry, where he managed Corporate strategy and M&A initiatives.
Throughout his career, Mansoor has developed a strong interest in product commercialization planning. He has actively engaged in thought leadership and developed whitepapers on key aspects of commercialization. Mansoor holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and a B. Tech from National Institute of Technology, Trichy in India.
Johan leads Software Group within the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Software Group are responsible for most aspects of regulating software as a medical device (AI included) and work to ensure these devices are acceptably safe and deliver for patients. He was a co-author of Good Machine Learning Practice for Medical Device Development, has been involved in the development of various reporting standards for AI such as DECIDE-AI, and represents the UK in several international fora such as the AI Medical Device Working Group at the International Medical Device Regulators’ Forum. Previously, Johan was a Senior Policy Analyst (Law and Regulation) with the PHG Foundation, specialising in the regulation of digital health and genomic technology and led work on how medical device and data protection regulation applies to AI. Johan has four degrees, the last being a BA in Law from Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
Mr Lin Anle is a Senior Regulatory Specialist with the Digital Health Branch. With a focus on evaluating medical device pre-market and post-market submissions, he has also been instrumental in formalising regulatory requirements for MedTech Innovation, including medical devices that incorporate artificial intelligence. He is also involved in device development consultation, which aims to support safe innovation in medical technologies locally. He currently represents Singapore in the International Medical Device Regulatory Forum (IMDRF) working group on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-enabled medical devices.
Dr. Murakami joined PMDA as medical device reviewer in 2005. She’s been involved in international regulatory harmonization activities such as GHTF/IMDRF MC and WGs, ISO TC194 and TC210, Harmonization by Doing (HBD), etc.
After working as medical device QMS auditor in PMDA and as deputy director at Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for several years, now she’s in charge of review and consultation for software as a medical device in PMDA.
Tracey Duffy is the First Assistant Secretary of the Medical Devices and Product Quality Division in the Health Products Regulation Group in the Commonwealth Department of Health. The Health Products Regulation Group comprises the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of Drug Control. Her current responsibilities include medical device regulation, Good Manufacturing Practice medicine inspections and Laboratory testing.
Tracey has held several leadership roles within the Department of Health, including Private Health Insurance, Medical Indemnity Insurance Schemes, and the Office of Health Technology Assessment. Tracey also has private sector experience including consultant advisory roles.
Bio coming soon.
Hong Liang, Reviewer, Division of Evaluation II, Center for Medical Device Evaluation (CMDE) of NMPA. A committee member of Professional Group of physical therapeutic devices of Chinese Medical Device Classification Technical Committee, and a member of Cybersecurity Working Group of IMDRF, Software Working Group of GHWP , Working Group of WHO&ITU-AI4H. Familiar with the technical fields in software, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital therapeutics of medical devices.
Ms. Low is a regulatory professional with over 10 years of experience in the medical devices sector. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Therapeutic Devices Branch (TDB) of Medical Devices Cluster (MDC), HSA where she oversees the branch operations and is responsible for decision-making and developing regulatory policies.
During her time in HSA, Ms. Low also leads the teams working on special access route, dealer licensing and consultation team that supports companies in the development of innovative technologies.
Ms. Low also represents Singapore in the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) Medical Device Clinical Evaluation workgroup, where she collaborates with overseas regulators and industry representatives in the review of IMDRF guidance documents. Her regional portfolio includes participation in the Medical Device Product Working Group (MDPWG), and current ASEAN Medical Device Committee (AMDC) in continuing the work to support the ASEAN Medical Device Directive (AMDD) implementation.
Dr. Muralitharan Paramasua, is the Chief Executive of Medical Device Authority, Ministry of Health Malaysia since 15th February 2023. Before being appointed as Chief Executive in February 2023, Dr. Muralitharan served in Ministry of Health Malaysia as an Administrative and Diplomatic Officer in various positions for 9 years.
Prior to joining MOH, Dr. Muralitharan was also once served at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for 7 years from 2011
to 2017 and was responsible for international affairs of the ministry including free trade negotiations with different countries.
Dr. Muralitharan earned his PhD in International Economy from University of Malaya. He received his Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Biohealth Science from the University of Malaya.
Bach Minh Hung is an Officer with the Infrastructure and Medical Device Administration (IMDA) under the Ministry of Health, Vietnam. He participates in developing legal documents on medical equipment management in Vietnam and appraising applications for import licenses and registration for circulation of medical devices in Vietnam. He also provides guidance on training and preparation of registration documents in Vietnam, contributing significantly to the development of crucial regulatory documents.
Vo Duong Phan Nghia, is an Officer with the Infrastructure and Medical Device Administration (IMDA) under the Ministry of Health, Vietnam who actively contributes to the development of essential legal documents for the effective management of medical equipment in Vietnam. He participates in developing legal documents on medical equipment management in Vietnam and appraising applications for import licenses and registration for circulation of medical devices. He also provides guidance on training and preparation of registration documents in Vietnam.
James Chan is the APAC Regulatory Affairs Director for Varian Medical Systems (a Siemens Healthineers company. His organization is committed to building a world without fear of cancer.
James’ professional journey began at the Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA), laying a solid foundation before his transition to the industry. With over a decade of robust experience in regulatory affairs and quality assurance (RAQA), he has been instrumental in navigating and shaping the regulatory landscape for medical devices.
Beyond his role in Varian, James serves as the Vice-chair for the APACMed RA Committee. He also contributes significantly as the Vice-chair for the Singapore Manufacturing Federation’s Medical Technology Industry Group (SMF MTIG), actively engaging in shaping regulatory policies and standards.
His dedication to driving excellence in medtech, coupled with his diverse leadership roles, places James as a pivotal figure in the advancement of medtech and regulatory affairs across APAC.
Seasoned Global Healthcare Leader, Anh Bourcet (Nguyen) has a 15-year track record of driving excellence and transformation in Market Access for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics. Known for establishing strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships, Anh has shaped access policies, built the Market Access function from the ground up, transforming clinical practices, for optimised patient access to innovations. Her various roles in Medical Affairs, Health Economics & Market Access and Regulatory Policy, across diagnostics, medical devices and pharmaceutical industries, enable her to have a broad perspective on different levers of market access. In particular, she has played a key role in shaping market access policies for Public Health and Digital Health in Asia-Pacific for a more sustainable care.
Anh held leadership positions in Abbott and Johnson & Johnson in APAC, and at the French Health Safety Agency (ANSM). She is currently Strategic Advisor for APACMed (Asia-Pacific Medical Technology Association).
Her contributions to the field have been widely recognized, and she has been a regular speaker at major international conferences, providing valuable insights on topics such as digital health, health data, access and reimbursement.
Nordin Charafi is a Healthcare Market Access Executive with a broad experience in related strategy development and implementation in the Life Sciences industry. Nordin has a deep understanding of major worldwide healthcare payment systems, honed through years of hands-on, practical experience and study, which he has leveraged to inform a variety of reimbursement strategies and actions for diverse healthcare technologies.
Nordin is currently the Market Access lead for the Asia Middle East and Africa region at Illumina and prior to that he was responsible for the Market Access activities for the West European region. As part of his role, Nordin is playing a proactive role in engaging with payers to understand their requirements for the assessment and reimbursement of Illumina’s genomic tests.
Nordin is a French national who holds a Masters degree in Business from ESSEC Business School and a Masters degree in Genetics from the University of Paris.
Dr. Michael Wilson is Professor of Pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Director of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Services at Denver Health, the safety net health system in Denver. He has been an academic pathologist for over 30 years.
Dr. Wilson graduated from medical school and trained in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He trained in Medical Microbiology at Duke University.
Since 2008, Dr. Wilson’s academic focus has been on the problem of access to diagnostic services in low-income and middle-income countries. He was a lead author on the Lancet Series on Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries and is currently Deputy Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Diagnosis. He has served as a WHO adviser on the Expert Group for Priority Medical Devices for Cancer Management and currently serves on the WHO SAGE-EDL.
Dr. Bill Rodriguez joined FIND as Chief Executive Officer on 1 July 2021, following an earlier tenure as Chief Medical Officer between 2015 and 2017. He was previously Managing Director at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early-stage, high-impact social enterprises. A physician and entrepreneur, he has extensive experience across both private and public sectors, founding his own diagnostics company, Daktari Diagnostics. As a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, he established a research programme on diagnostics and operational research in global health. He left Harvard in 2003 to become the Chief Medical Officer of the William J. Clinton Foundation, where he helped broker pricing agreements of HIV drugs and diagnostic tests between African and Asian governments and the major suppliers. Bill is a highly respected figure in the global health community, serving as advisor to the World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, national governments on global HIV, tuberculosis, Ebola and COVID-19, as well as numerous established and start-up for-profit and not-for-profit social enterprises focused on global health. Bill is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale University School of Medicine, and trained in infectious disease medicine at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he served as chief medical resident.
Management and Leadership professional with experience across industries, in managing complex Research and Development R&D, Technology Transfer, and operations in highly regulated environments. Experience in leading cross-functional teams to achieve goals and milestones with effective communication at all levels. Keen in establishing relationships with third parties from the business world.
Joanne Yoong, PhD, is an applied micro-economist and interdisciplinary researcher whose work addresses decision-making for health, financial and social well-being, and the design and evaluation of interventions, technologies and systems that support vulnerable populations. Dr. Yoong holds multiple faculty appointments and is the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading economics, medical and public health journals. She has worked on projects around the world including Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, India, China, Ghana, Kenya, Cambodia, Indonesia and Iraqi Kurdistan. Dr. Yoong received her PhD in Economics at Stanford University as an FSI Starr Foundation Fellow after an early career in financial services, and her AB summa cum laude in Economics and Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University.
Arika Garg is an Associate Director with the Global Diagnostics team at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). She has worked in public health for close to a decade – first, in a research capacity on U.S. domestic health policy, and for the past five years in global health with CHAI. In her current role, Arika oversees and manages CHAI’s diagnostics portfolio across eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and is the lead for CHAI’s regional external engagement within the diagnostics space.
Arika holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and was a management consultant with Bain & Company prior to joining CHAI.
Will is a Senior Director at Vista Health and specializes in healthcare consulting in market access, public policy, and population health, with 10 years of experience. He has advised multinational & local bio-pharmaceutical companies, medtech, healthcare providers, health ministries, NGOs and implementation agencies across APAC, EMEA & LatAm.
Will has been leading the ongoing NGS access white paper project with APACMed and member companies and has also previously conducted commercial and market access studies for NGS technologies in the region.
He has expert capabilities in pricing & market access, advocacy and policy shaping, healthcare system and industry development strategies, and learning & development. Will holds a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London.
Richard attended University of Melbourne where he studied Maths and Statistics. He then trained as an Actuary but was seduced by the fledgling IT industry before qualifying. After several years working in software development, Richard formed his own software company which he then sold in 1990 before embarking on a second software venture in Europe.
In 1996, Richard returned to Australia where he was retained by an American company to establish a sales channel in Australia. In 2001 Richard left the IT industry and has since worked in a number of not-for-profits associated with retail, politics and health.
In 2012 Richard and his wife Kate established Rare Cancers Australia, a patient advocacy group whose mission is to improve the lives and outcomes for rare cancer patients. Richard is now a highly sought after spokesperson for cancer patient advocacy issues and is a member of a number of committees. In September this year, Richard was named Co-Chair of the Cancer Drugs Alliance Committee, a stakeholder coalition tasked to promote timely access to drugs for cancer patients.
Dr. Karthik G M holds over 15 years of combined expertise in Regulatory Affairs (Medical Devices) and Biomedical Research & Development. As Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs for Asia, Middle East, and Africa at Guardant Health, he steers regulatory strategies and product submissions across these markets. Notably, at Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA), he was involved in drafting Product Specific Regulatory guidelines (NGS) for Singapore. His Ph.D. in Biomedical sciences from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden is accompanied by 8 impactful research articles. By fusing regulatory prowess with scientific insight, Dr Karthik G M propels innovation while ensuring compliance, underscoring his leadership, and lasting impact in both biomedical and regulatory domains.
Prof Tony Lim is Senior Consultant and Chairman, Division of Pathology in Singapore General Hospital and Academic Chair of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Pathology Academic Clinical Programme. He is actively involved in research focusing on molecular genetics, personalised medicine and the study of lung, liver and gastrointestinal diseases, directing many research initiatives which are instrumental in translating discovery into diagnostics. As the Head of Section of Translational Pathology Centre (TPC) and the Clinical Director in Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Prof Lim collaborates with many industry and non-industry partners, contributing his clinical expertise to numerous research projects leading to new developments and findings published in many peer-reviewed journals. In addition to research, he has a passion in teaching, and is a Clinical Professor in Duke-NUS Medical School. Prof Lim is also a Clinical Physician Faculty in the SingHealth Pathology Residency Programme.
Anirudh is currently the Director, Digital Health – Asia Pacific, where he is responsible for leading APACMed’s priorities in the digital health space, supporting APACMed members across the entire digital health product journey and driving initiatives that help progress the long-term vision of the Digital Health Committee which is to improve patient health by enabling equitable and economically sustained use of digital health technologies. With nearly two decades of diversified work experience, largely in the development sector, Anirudh has been in leadership roles with a Regional Trade Association, National Association as well as an Apex Chamber of Commerce, where he designed, implemented, and led policy, regulatory and market access initiatives critical to business and industry. A creative and analytical thinker, with an inherent ability to develop rapport and credibility across audiences, Anirudh is well-networked within the healthcare ecosystem, with deep understanding of the business, socio-economic, bureaucratic, and political landscape in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining APACMed, he was with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) – the apex industry chamber in India where he was driving advocacy efforts in healthcare across Medical Devices, Health Services, Health Insurance and Medical Value Travel.
Yoann is Head of Health Innovation at WisDM, the Institute for Digital Medicine at the NUS School of Medicine. With the team, he aims to foster and accelerate cross-industry, public–private collaborations to validate, implement and scale first-of-its-kind pharmacological and digital interventional technology into the clinic. Prior to that, Yoann was the health of Health Partnerships at MetLife Asia’s innovation center, focusing on the development of new products and services grounded in technology and data for cancer, dementia and cardiovascular diseases. During his time at Medtronic, Yoann was leading the APAC CoE for Business Model Innovation, which aimed to address the inefficiencies across the care continuum with innovative solutions. As the program director for Medtronic Asia’s Value Based Health Care Council, Yoann was also instrumental in advancing the acceleration and adoption of outcome-based models to ensure better patients outcomes, reduce costs, and deliver value across the Region.2.
Mr Yong’s healthcare career spans two decades as a business and operational leader with IHH Healthcare (IHH), Raffles Medical Group (RMG), and Alexandra Hospital (AH).
He is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IHH Singapore and concurrently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asia Pacific’s renowned private quaternary institution at Mount Elizabeth Hospital (MEH).
As Country COO, he drives the ecosystem and operational strategies of IHH’s Singapore assets comprising the acute hospitals (Mount Elizabeth, Mount Elizabeth Novena, Gleneagles and Parkway East Hospitals), and the primary, ambulatory and diagnostics units (Parkway Shenton, Parkway MediCentre, Parkway Radiology and Parkway Laboratories).
As MEH CEO, he is the Principal Officer and is responsible for driving the strategic direction, operational excellence, and financial performance of the 345-bed multi-specialty institution with a community of 650 doctors and 1,300 staff. He also leads the S$350M multi-year live site hospital redevelopment project – Renaissance.
Arif Fahim is part of Abbott’s Asia Pacific Regional Leadership team for the Medical Devices Division and holds overall functional responsibilities for the Health Economics & Reimbursement (HE&R) capability in the region. In addition, Arif also leads the HE&R global taskforce on Early Value Assessment at Abbott. He has extensive experience in implementing access strategies in the region. This includes negotiating reimbursement approvals for a range of technologies and creation of new categories for innovative products, working closely with Government and commercial healthcare payers. Prior to his current role at APACMed, he served as Vice Chair of the India WG and Chair of the Health Economics, Pricing and Reimbursement Sub-group at AdvaMed. Arif has attended INSEAD, trained in HTA and Health Economics, from the Centre of Health Economics, University of York, UK, and is a Masters’ Degree holder in Marketing from the University of Durham, UK.
Shan is the head of WHO Collaborating Centre for Digital Health, the vice-chair of ITU&WHO Artificial Intelligence for Health focus group(FG-AI4H). She works for the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) as deputy director of the International Collaboration Centre and the Chief Officer on International Affairs of the Health big data and network innovation centre. She was elected in the roster of WHO digital health expert, and acts as the co-chair of the Ad-hoc group of the digital technologies on COVID health emergency (AHG-DT4ER), member of the WHO Smart Vaccination Certificate (SVC) working group and cybersecurity working group in the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF).
Mr Setiaji is an Expert Advisor of Health Technology to The Minister of Health in Indonesia. Setiaji, a digital leader and a civil servant with more than 10 years of experience in digital transformation and smart city development and digital transformation in the line ministries and government agencies in Indonesia. His experience leading the West Java Digital Services, Jakarta Smart City grows my expertise in information technology as he was a graduate of information technology engineering. All his expertises and experiences are being applied to serve the public effectively, efficiently, and impactful to the citizens based on data and technology utilization. He is a team builder who is very attentive to the needs of stakeholders and leaders. He is a digital leader with a warm & friendly attitude always! He plays an essential role in providing practical solutions that directly impact and improve public services. He has won various National and International awards in Digital Transformation: Top CIO on Digital Implementation, IT Works 2021 and The World CIO 200 Awards–SEA Edition, Global CIO Forum 2021.
Young Ae is the Director General of HIRA, a public institution that is mainly in charge of claims review, hospital quality assessment, and reimbursement of medical services in national health insurance in Korea.
She has been primarily involved in measuring and monitoring health care quality and patient safety, listing and pricing new health technologies. She is responsible for the reimbursement of new medical procedures and medical supplies including digital therapeutics and AI-assissted diagnosis.
Dr. Sidharth is the Medical Director & Head, Medical Portfolio Management for Prudential Singapore. He is responsible for providing solutions to achieve profitable and sustainable metrics for Prudential’s Health Insurance business and driving a cross functional strategy, which includes development and implementation of initiatives related to long-term healthcare insurance models, both on a digital and conventional platform.
Dr. Sidharth has an extensive Health Insurance & Reinsurance background spanning over 20 years. Prior to joining Prudential, he was responsible for providing expertise and delivering solutions related to health insurance product development and operations, including health
underwriting, claims and health-tech solutions, to Insurers in South & Southeast Asia. He also has significant operational expertise in managing health KPO’s and TPA’s in India.
Dr. Sidharth is a regular speaker at Global Health Insurance forums and drives industry thought leadership related to health insurance matters. Currently, he is serving as the Deputy Convenor of the Health Insurance Sub-committee, LIA Singapore. He is a Physician by training and was actively involved in clinical practice prior to joining the Health Insurance
industry.
Wai Chiong led, started and grew several projects within the InHealth programme to address both social and environmental determinants of health. Currently as Senior Consultant of MOHT, he continues to lead Financing Redesign, the mindline digital mental wellbeing platform, and various horizontal enabling initiatives across MOHT. Prior to joining MOHT, Wai Chiong was Partner and Healthcare Sector leader for Deloitte Southeast Asia. As a management consultant in private sector, he advised governments, investors, life sciences companies, providers and payers globally. His projects included business strategy advisory to biomedical and health-tech start-ups, new product development, regulatory and market entry, commercial feasibility of healthcare investments, mergers & acquisitions, amongst others.
Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta is behind many path- breaking initiatives and organizations, working for Digital Health. He is also the former advisor to the Health Minister of India. He is the chair of the Commonwealth AI Consortium for Capacity Building, a Member & contributor of various WHO initiatives; Board Member of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH); Member of the Steering Committee, Global Digital Health Index; Chairman of the Capacity Building Working group at the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH, Switzerland); Member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network; Chairman of the Dynamic Coalition on ‘Internet & Jobs’ at IGF, United Nations & Chairman of the Dynamic Coalition on Digital Health at IGF, United Nations. He has co-authored the Global eHealth Diffusion report (WHO). He is the founder of Health Parliament and Digital Health Academy & author of the best-seller ‘Digital Health – Truly Transformational’.
Louise Agersnap (MA and B.A. Pol. Sci.; B.H.A.) is an innovation and change leader with extensive experience & knowledge of global health, development, and the innovation ecosystem, acquired through 20+ years in the United Nations, private sector & government, NGO, and academia.
Creativity and entrepreneurship are at the heart of her work, demonstrated by the track record of innovations and novel ‘start-up’ initiatives throughout her career, leading change from within and expanding organizational and cultural boundaries of government and global, multilateral organizations to achieve greater outcomes. Throughout, she draws on her own artist background, political science academic training, and passion for positive transformation and impact.
Currently leading the Innovation Hub at the World Health Organization, at times acting Director for the Department for Digital Health and Innovation, Louise Agersnap leads the strategy shaping and execution of WHO’s innovation in health mission and promotes the Global Strategy for Digital Health. Her focus two-fold: scaling the impact of evidence-based interventions through innovation to address neglected problems and people in low- resource settings and enhancing organizational culture and capacities for creative problem solving.
All along her professional career, Louise Agersnap is a selling artist, amongst other places featured at the International Contemporary Art Fair in Luxembourg, at the Van Gogh Art Gallery in Madrid, Spain.
Carla leads global digital, R&D, and regulatory policy for Johnson & Johnson’s Government Affairs & Policy (GA&P) policy team across the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. She drives work on a variety of policy issues including AI and data ethics, health equity, and regulatory modernization and represents GA&P in several internal and external fora including the Johnson & Johnson Data Science and Data Management Councils. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Carla was an attorney and team leader in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel where she advised the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on legal and policy issues. Living in Kensington MD with her spouse and sixteen year old son, Carla enjoys traveling, baking, trying to keep her many plants alive, and book clubs. She serves on the board of the Educational Foundation for her son’s school. Carla is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and has a JD from Yale Law School and an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center.
Birgitta Riani joined as Assistant Manager – Digital Health, APACMed in Aug 2023 and has previously supported the Digital Health Committee from Jul – Dec 2022. She’s deeply committed to facilitating collaboration within the Digital Health Committee and enhancing the accessibility of new digital health solutions across the Asia Pacific region.
Prior to joining APACMed, Ria worked at a foreign policy think-tank in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her role involved managing cross-country projects and engaging stakeholder across ASEAN, Japan, and South Korea.
Ria holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science in International Relations and Peace Studies from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, and a Master’s degree in Management from ESSEC Business School in France. She is also a proficient multilingual in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Korean and Japanese.
Chris Ahern has advised on Australian corporate law for over 20 years. His practice focuses on M&A, particularly in the technology and energy sectors. He has advised on numerous transactions for Fortune 500 companies, and his experience in corporate law covers the full range of M&A, including court-approved mergers by scheme of arrangement, venture capital, development capital, private placements, public to private transactions, as well as private company M&A work. Chris acted for First Data Corporation on its $22 billion acquisition by KKR, Lowe’s Home Improvement on their multibillion dollar joint venture with Australia’s largest retailer, USG on their $2.5 billion pan-Asian joint venture with Boral, and multiple acquisitions in the technology and energy sectors. Chris also has significant experience in distressed M&A, having acted for Lucent on the $2.5 billion collapse of One-Tel (including the appointment of a Receiver over most of the assets of One-Tel and the workout that followed), Lehman Brothers Holdings on their collapse (including advising on the DOCA between the company and CDO holders), and acting for Cyrus Capital on their bid for Virgin Australia, Australia’s second airline. He also advises on joint ventures (incorporated and unincorporated) and complex alliance arrangements in the technology and fintech sectors and is skilled at dealing with intellectual property and software licensing issues that arise in such transactions, including open source software obligations, payment processing, and joint development arrangements. Chris commenced the Australian law practice for Jones Day in 2006 and has been named in Chambers legal directories as a leading lawyer since 2001. Prior to joining Jones Day, he was a partner at one of Australia’s national law firms.
Sushma Jobanputra, the Partner-in-Charge of the Singapore Office, has been advising clients for more than three decades on banking, restructuring, and corporate matters. She has practiced in London, Toronto, Paris, and Singapore, and her practice includes structured, acquisition, and trade finance as well as cross-border debt restructuring across Asia including Singapore, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Sushma’s financial institution clients include Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank, JBIC, Asian Development Bank, BNP Paribas, and Société Générale. She also has represented a significant number of corporate clients, including IBM, Procter & Gamble, Hyatt Corporation, Godrej Group, Micron Technologies, Temasek, Crescent Point, L Catterton, Tikehau, Boeing Corporation, Chevron Corporation, Trafigura, and the Tata Group. Before joining Jones Day, Sushma was a managing director at Barclays Capital, heading a team in the structured transactions department, with responsibility on behalf of the bank for the execution of all large complex structured transactions with other financial institutions and multinationals. Prior to that she was a partner at a Magic Circle firm in London where her practice focused on structured and acquisition finance. Sushma serves on the following committees: National University of Singapore’s Law Advisory Council, which supports and advances the Law Faculty in its education, research, and service mission; Expert Panel for the Singapore Management University Centre for Commercial Law in Asia; Organising Committee for the Singapore Academy of Law Annual Lecture; Legal Services Committee of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce; Documentation Committee for the Asian Pacific Loan Market Association Singapore; and Advisory Committee to the Board of WIMAR (Women in Mining and Resources, Singapore).
Dean Ho is a Provost’s Chair Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology, Director of the N.1 Institute for Health, and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Ho is an internationally recognised leader in digital medicine. His team has pioneered the use of artificial intelligence towards life-saving outcomes in cancer, infectious diseases and beyond. Most recently, Ho led a team to address new areas of innovation, ranging from the design of novel treatments against Covid-19 to addressing food security. Ho was also recently elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – the only Singapore-based honouree in the 2021 Class. The lifetime honour is one of the most prestigious among innovators worldwide. His discoveries have been featured on CNN and CNA, and in The Economist, National Geographic, Forbes and other outlets. Ho is also a subgroup lead in the World Health Organization Working Group on regulating AI for healthcare applications.
Lucas Nicolet-Serra is counsel at K&L Gates Straits Law LLC, the Singapore office of global law firm K&L Gates. Lucas focuses his practice on commercial, regulatory, and transactional work in the life sciences, telecommunications, and fintech sectors. He has extensive experience advising fintech and health-tech companies on legal, regulatory, and policy developments across Southeast Asia.
Chong Seow Wei is the regional senior editor of Tatler Gen.T, Tatler Asia’s community-focused content and events platform for the Leaders of Tomorrow. Together with her team of editors, who are located across seven markets, she is pushing the brand’s mission to discover, support and catalyse the impact of Asia’s most promising young leaders.