Innovation Workshop

Irene Ng, Head of Asia, GSMA

Ms Irene Ng joined the GSMA as Head of Asia in September 2012. In her current role, and in collaboration with the membership, Irene represents and leads the GSMA’s public policy and other activities within the region.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Irene was a senior regulatory adviser for a regional telecoms group and oversaw all regulatory matters in the South East Asia and South Asia markets for the group. She had also practiced law in Singapore and co-headed the telecommunications practice in the firm she was with. Whilst there, she handled mostly advanced telco regulatory work, IT related work as well as corporate and commercial matters.

Irene’s association with the telecommunications sector started when she joined one of the federal communications regulatory agencies in the APAC region. During her 8 years there, she was part of the team that was responsible for implementing a convergence licensing framework for the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors. Having started her career as a legal counsel in that organisation, she was later promoted to head the licensing functions of the agency. During her time there, she focused mainly on economic regulation and was instrumental in facilitating new services to be provided in the market, and this included technologies such as 3G, broadband over powerline, free space optics and new business models such as MVNO.

Irene holds a LL.B (Hons) degree from Lancaster University and a LL.M degree from the University of London. She is also a Barrister-at-Law and a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. In addition, Irene has also been called to the Bar of several commonwealth jurisdictions.

Quinn Li, Vice President & Managing Director, North America, Qualcomm Ventures

Quinn Li is a Vice President & Managing Director North America at Qualcomm Ventures. In this role, Quinn oversees investment activities in North America. He currently serves as a board member or observer in AMEC, Enovix, PowerCloud Systems, Tango, Streetline, and Verve Wireless. Previously Quinn has led investments in A123 Systems (AONE), InvenSense (INVN), Consert (acquired by Landis+Gyr) and Siimpel (acquired by Tessera).

Prior to joining Qualcomm Ventures, Quinn held various engineering and management roles in the wireless industry. Most recently, he worked in product management and business development at IBM Systems and Technology Group. Previously, he spent several years in Broadcom and the wireless infrastructure group at Lucent Technologies.

Quinn received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MBA from Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Prof. Xu Yan, Associate Dean, HKUST Business School

Prof. XU Yan is currently the Associate Dean of HKUST Business School overseeing HKUST EMBA for Chinese Executives, executive education and China strategy. His research area includes technology and innovation management, and telecommunications policy. He has published two books - Chinese Telecommunications Policy and Innovated by Hong Kong. He has conducted research projects for British Telecom, China Mobile, Siemens，Audit Commission of Hong Kong Government, Communications Association of Hong Kong (CAHK), Central Policy Unit (CPU) of Hong Kong Government, Hutchison Telecom and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) of the United Nations. He has also participated executive education programs for institutes like China Telecom, China Mobile, CITIC Pacific, Li Ning, Tencent and TCL. He has been commissioned by the ITU to provide training to Pakistan Telecommunications Authority and the National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand in the capacity of experts of the United Nations. He is currently board member of the International Telecommunications Society, Vice-President of China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT), member of the Regulatory Affairs Advisory Committee of the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA), member of the Anti-spamming Task Force of Hong Kong Government, and president of Regulatory Issues Group of the Communications Association of Hong Kong (CAHK).

Tetsuzo (Ted) Matsumoto, Senior Advisor, Softbank Mobile Corp.

Tetsuzo (Ted) Matsumoto is Senior Advisor of SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp, as well as CEO of Japan Link Corp, which is providing consultant services to various companies through the world, who want to make a strategic move to take the leadership in the coming Mobile Internet age.

In September, 2006, Matsumoto joined Vodafone KK in Japan, which had been already acquired by Softbank group, as an Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, and became a member of the Board of the company after its name was officially changed to SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. Since then, until June, 2011, he had been serving for the company, mainly in the areas of technology strategy, government relations and international operations.

Prior to joining the Softbank group, Matsumoto was with Qualcomm for over 10 years, commencing as a consultant, and, subsequently, serving as President/Chairman of Qualcomm Japan, which he established in March, 1998, as well as Senior Vice President at its Head Quarters in San Diego, responsible for its operation in Japan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Matsumoto began his career with Itochu Corporation, a Japanese conglomerate, where he worked for 34 years and held a variety of positions, such as Senior Vice President of Electronics Division of Itochu (America) Corp., General Manager of Communication and Multimedia Business, and Group Vice President of the Aerospace and Information Division of the company’s Tokyo Headquarters.

Matsumoto received a Bachelor of Law degree from Kyoto University in 1962.

Minette Navarrete, President , Kickstart Ventures

President at Kickstart Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom.

Minette joined Globe to start up Business Development in what was then a pure-play operator: she created the strategic blueprint of the Globe digital media and content businesses, and developed capabilities for digital marketing, user experience design, and portal operations that have since been adopted company-wide. Globe New Business Group (NBG) has led company expansion outside of the core telecommunications business, developing new businesses and capabilities for the company via strategic partnerships, greenfield builds, and M&A. She is concurrently Vice-Chairman of the Entertainment Gateway Group (EGG), a wholly-owned content provider acquired by Globe in 2008.

Minette has held CEO/COO positions in various industries, ranging from Philippine start-ups to established multinational players. Before joining Globe, she was in online game publishing with Level Up! International as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Managing Director of Level Up! Inc.. She previously served as Levi Strauss & Company’s Country Manager for the Philippines and Guam; before that, she was President and CEO of Shangri-La Plaza Corporation. She began her career in fast-moving consumer goods companies Unilever. Minette holds a Bachelor of Science.

Guillaume Mascot, Director of Public Affairs, Alcatel-Lucent

Guillaume is the Director of Public Affairs for Alcatel-Lucent dealing with all aspects of current and future policy and regulation in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously Guillaume was manager European Affairs engaging with the European Institutions. In this role Guillaume led the company’s EU representation in Brussels, where his mission was to work with EU institutions and other relevant stakeholders to create a favorable political and regulatory environment to foster public and private investment in the digital and broadband industries with a focus on innovation for sustainable growth, competitiveness, and quality of life in a connected environment.

Guillaume was board member of the EIF (European Internet Foundation), a European think tank supporting European political leadership for the development of European multilateral public policies responsive to the political, economic and social challenges of the worldwide digital revolution. He was also an associate member of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT).

Guillaume holds a Master Degree in Political science with a major on Public Administration and Public policy from the University of Lille.

Paul Haswell, Partner, Pinsent and Masons

Paul is a partner based in our Hong Kong office, who is qualified in both Hong Kong and England and Wales. He specialises in intellectual property, technology (including telecoms and data protection), commercial and employment matters, and advises clients on both non-contentious issues and disputes. Paul has extensive experience advising clients in the procurement, licensing and enforcement of all types of intellectual property, including trade marks, copyrights, designs, patents and domain names. Paul’s work often has an international slant, and he has advised clients across jurisdictions in both Asia and Europe.

Paul also advises clients in relation to commercial contracts, outsourcing arrangements, complex IT and telecoms projects and the disputes that can arise from these. Paul is especially known for providing level-headed, commercial advice in pressured environments, as well as his personal interest in intellectual property, technology and technological developments. He lectures regularly in Asia, most recently on the topics of restrictive covenants, cloud computing, data protection and social media.

Richard Wang, Partner, DFJ DragonFund China

Mr. Richard Wang has over 20 years of business development, technical marketing and sales management experience in high technology space.
In DFJDragon Fund, he has invested and managed several startups in Mobile space, including third party payment company, Mobile hardware company, Smart TV/Box chip provider, wearable/social App, and health management/service provider.

Prior to DFJ Dragon Fund, Richard served as QunZhong E-Commerce’s CEO and successfully opens up new sales channel through mobile internet and MSO. Prior to QunZhong E-Commerce, he also founded OLEA Network with partners in Silicon Valley. The company research and develop wireless intelligent ECG sensor by using the Doppler radar principle. Richard also worked as APAC Sales director for Wavesat. He managed sale and business development for WiMAX and LTE market focus on ODMs/OEMs and carriers engagement. Before Wavesat, Richard took several functions from technical support to business development in RF Micro Device since 2002.

Mr. Wang holds MSEE from National Chiao Tung University.

Volker Heistermann, Managing Director, Swell Innovations and Yushan Ventures

Volker Heistermann is Managing Director of SWELL and Yushan Ventures, heading up corporate innovation and startup engagement operations in the Asia Pacific region and continuing the mission he started as co-founder of Yushan Ventures - strengthening Asia’s early stage startup ecosystem.

Prior to founding Yushan Ventures, Volker was vice president of sales at investment bank Rutberg & Co, worked on Google search in the early days, and managed Market Intelligence at IDG.

With an impressive network in the Asia Pacific Region, Volker is an advisor to the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs’ SMEA, he organized the MobileMonday Taipei Chapter and Startup Weekend Taipei/Hsinchu/Kaohsiung/Tainan/Hardware events, brought Startup Labs to Taiwan, and is advisor at Mobile Metrix, a social venture incubated at Stanford University with operations in Brazil.

William Emmanuel Yu, SVP of Technology, Novare Technologies

William is VP for Technology responsible for global technology service fulfilment at Novare Technologies, a technology consulting firm, working on projects involving Enterprise Mobility, Next Generation Networks and Web-Telco convergence. He works, with the country’s top telecommunications and financial institutions and select organizations abroad, to help delight their customers with next generation telecommunication and Internet technology.

Outside his corporate endeavours, William is active in technology advocacy and voluntarism. In particular, he is IT Director for the PPCRV and an active member of Internet CSOs such as ISOC and PH-CERT.

William serves as a faculty member at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Computer Science department and the Asian Institute of Management.

William holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Computer Science, a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from the Ateneo de Manila University.

Tom Mowat, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason

Tom is the lead analyst for Analysys Mason’s Asia–Pacific research programme and is based in our Singapore office. His research covers the entire Asia–Pacific region, and includes market data and forecasts for 14 key markets as well as thematic reports covering key issues in the region in detail. Tom has extensive expertise in fixed and mobile broadband services, strategy and forecasting, regulatory issues, cost modelling and the particular issues affecting telecoms markets in developing regions. He previously worked at Analysys Mason within the Custom Research team, developing project-based analysis for key industry clients. His experience includes working as a researcher and consultant in multiple countries across four continents for clients throughout the value chain. Tom has degrees in mathematical and particle physics from the University of Nottingham and the University of Durham.

Ted Lin, President & CEO, Business Connect China

Ted graduated with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from University of California, Irvine. He then obtained an M.S in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked as an investment professional for Bessemer Venture Partners and prior to that as a management consultant at McKinsey. He has also worked for KLA-Tencor and TSMC.

Mohanjit Jolly, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Mohanjit Jolly is a Partner at DFJ. Mohanjit manages DFJ’s India portfolio and also serves as a board member of U.S.-based companies. Mohanjit currently serves on the Boards of Retrofit, Piqora, Attero, Bharat Light and Power, Canvera, Cleartrip, dlight design, iYogi, and Naseeb Networks. Mohanjit is also actively involved with the DFJ’s investment in Komli. He has worked with and invested in technology startups since 1998. Prior to DFJ, Mohanjit was Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital firm. While at Garage, Mohanjit worked with over 30 companies, including LeftHand Networks (Acq. HP), PureSight (Acq. BCGI), Jibe Networks (Acq. CTRX), Qumu (Acq. Rimage), Kaboodle (Acq: Hearst Media), Whitehat Security and SimplyHired. Prior to joining Garage, Mohanjit was part of the strategic planning group at Mattel where he helped launch the Mattel/Intel joint venture, Intel Play. He also spent several years in both engineering and business development roles with Itek Optical Systems, a manufacturer of high-resolution reconnaissance systems for both military and commercial use. While earning his M.B.A from the Anderson School at UCLA, Mohanjit helped launch ViaSpace, a technology incubator in Southern California in conjunction with Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mohanjit earned a B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, with a specialization in electric propulsion systems.

William Bao Bean, Managing Director, SingTel Innov8M

William is Managing Director for SingTel Innov8 and supports the the funds China investment activities. William joined Innov8 from Softbank China & India Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm backed by Softbank of Japan and Cisco, where he was a Partner responsible for early stage investments In China and SE Asia. Past investments include Playspan (acquired by Visa) and Punch Entertainment (acquired by DeNA). Previously he was an equity research analyst with Deutsche Bank in Asia and Bank of America Securities and Bear Stearns in the US. He currently sits on the boards of advisors/directors for a number of companies including Yodo1, Guanxi.me, Qvivo, GMobi, Massive Impact, Le Kan, InGameAd, Silk Road Telecom, Socbay, Peacesoft, iTalki, kineticONE, Angelvest, AAMA Shanghai and the Techyizu, Beijing Hive and Digital Matters events.

Steven Hsieh, Managing Director, Infinity Group

Steven Hsieh served as a deputy general manager of the investment department of China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Ventures Co., Ltd. (CSVC). He has gained over ten years of experience in venture capital investment, and has a well founded knowledge of Chinese laws and regulations in the venture investment, semiconductor and telecom industries. In addition, he has established rich channels and networks within the venture industry. Steven is one of the key people who set up the first JV fund in China together with an Israeli partner in the form of limited partnership i.e., Infinity-CSVC Venture Capital Enterprise). He has successfully invested several portfolio companies including Qimonda, Centec, and Nagog among others.

Steven Goh, Chief Executive Officer & Co Founder, Mig33

Steven is well experienced in developing and delivering successful Internet services for consumers, having first founded Australia’s first online stock brokerage company Sanford Securities Limited, prior to co-founding mig33.

Steven was previously the principal founder and CEO of Sanford Securities Limited. From a start-up business in 1996, Steven grew Sanford to 160,000 customers with $66 million in sales over six years and $2.4 billion in customer assets, prior to its acquisition by financial services company IWL Limited in 2003. Steven is recognized as an authority on contemporary IT issues.

Steven was awarded an inaugural Western Australia Business News “40 under 40″ Award in 2002, and he was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Australia’s Western Region. Steven has extensive private and public board experience, has served as a keynote speaker and panelist at Internet, financial services industry, and mobile technology conferences in Australia and Asia, and has appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Steven received both a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA from the University of Western Australia.

Leland Lai, Managing Director, Asia, GSMA Ltd.

Leland heads GSMA’s commercial businesses in Asia, responsible for P&L, strategy, new business development, relationship management and the operations of GSMA regional headquarters in Hong Kong. Leland began his career with AT&T in 1988. Then while at Hutchison Telecom between 1990-1993, he worked on one of the world’s first GSM license bids in Germany and Greece. Eight years later in Puerto Rico, Leland restructured an Alcatel-ITT MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and positioned it for an IPO as part of eOn Communications (Nasdaq: EONC). Subsequent to this, he spearheaded Terayon Communication’s (Nasdaq: TERN) participation in a DVB-H trial at PCCW and closed a groundbreaking deal involving mobile ad insertion with Qualcomm MediaFLO. These successes contributed to Motorola’s $140M acquisition of Terayon in 2007. Leland has consulted in various projects, including one for a leading service provider for China Mobile and one for world’s largest smartphone maker. Leland holds an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, a BS in mechanical engineering from UCLA, and a postgraduate fellowship with the Coro Foundation. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and is a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration licensed pilot and an American Sailing Association certified bareboat captain.