Ms. Ye Shen, Deputy Director, Enterprise Singapore

Ye Shen graduated from Stanford University with a Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering. She worked as senior officer at Singapore Economic Development Board before moving to the Ministry of Trade and Industry as assistant Director. Worked as Investment manager at SEEDS Capital before she moved to Enterprise Singapore to take up the Deputy Director position.

Dr. Shigeki Sugii, Principal Investigator, Institute Molecular and Cell Biology ASTAR

Shigeki Sugii leads the Laboratory of Fat Metabolism and Stem Cells as a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). Shigeki also holds a joint appointment at Duke-NUS Medical School. He was a Group Leader at Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC), A*STAR (2011-19) and at Institute of Bioengineering and Bioimaging (IBB), A*STAR (2019-2021), before joining IMCB. Shigeki graduated with B.S. in Agricultural Chemistry from Kyoto University, Japan and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School, USA.

Mr. Sean Mak, CMO, Innovate360

Sean graduated from Singapore Institute of Management with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He has experience in investment space as well as management experience in MMLab. He joined Innovate 360 and now he is the Chief Marketing Officer for the company. He specialize in venture funding, strategic partnerships in the Agri and Food tech space.

Dr. Kihoko Tokue, Managing Director, Leave a Nest Singapore (Moderator)

Dr. Tokue is Managing Director of Leave a Nest Singapore, and Founder of Leave a Nest Malaysia. She was born in Tokyo but raised in Southeast Asia, studied a bachelor degree in America and then moved to Australia for a Master and PhD degree carrying out field work. Currently she is creating a platform in ASEAN to nurture the next generation innovators, startups involving business development partners from industry. Her dream is to one day bring a change to a world with advancement of science and technology with true understanding and appreciation for nature.

Aaron L Khoo, Biz. Dev. Consulting, tonari

A seasoned consultant with a focus on people, Aaron has been helping both international and local businesses grow through business development, key account management, and brand consulting. At tonari, Aaron supports our partners, clients, and operations in Singapore.

Lee Hwee Kuan, Deputy Director for Training and Talent Development and Head of Cellular Image Informatics Division, A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute (BII).

Dr. Lee is the Deputy Director for Training and Talent Development at A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute (BII). He also heads the Cellular Image informatics division at (BII). His current research work involves developing Artificial Intelligence algorithms for better healthcare. Dr. Lee obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Oak Ridge National laboratory and Japan before returning to Singapore. Dr. Lee also holds multiple appointments in institutions to fullfil other research and teaching roles.

Peirce Ong, COO, Opsis Pte.Ltd.

Peirce has a career spanning the last 23 years in the IT & Technology industry. He is a serial entrepreneur who started his journey into the business world at the age of 28, and since then has started, run, and sold 3 enterprises. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Opsis Pte Ltd. Opsis is an A*STAR spinoff focused on Emotion AI or Emotion Recognition technology. Prior to Opsis, Peirce was in sales, marketing, and management roles. He led the companies which were specialized in Digital Transformation, Strategic Digital Branding & Marketing, and Artificial Intelligence. Peirce obtained his Master of Business Administration MBA degree from University of Roehampton London.

Louis Marayama, Director, Real Tech Holdings Singapore (Moderator)

Louis is a Plant Biotechnologist by training (M.Sc. University of Freiburg, Germany) He worked as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Jagiellonian University. In 2017, he joined the Tokyo office of Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant, where he specialized on corporate strategy and finance, advising firms on M&A, PMI and TSR (total shareholder return) maximization. Louis joined Real Tech Holdings as Growth Manager where he is currently providing strategic business development advice to portfolio companies.

Aixtal Corporation
Aixtal is a Nagoya University startup that offers dramatic efficiency gains in product development through process informatics. They use of AI technology for process design to efficiently search for the desired conditions in the shortest possible time. Their unique approach enables analysis and optimisation in a short time using limited historical data, even at manufacturing sites where it is difficult to accumulate big data.

GRA&GREEN Inc.
GRA&GREEN is agri-bio startup from Nagoya University, intended to develop new crop varieties. They maximze the potential of the crop with advanced grafting technology and gene editing technology. This allows increase in productivity companies in the agriculture sector.

SyncMOF Inc.
SyncMOF is a Nagoya University start-up that researches and develops a new material, MOF. While MOF, a novel porous material, is the main pillar of the company, it is an infrastructure company that makes previously unavailable gases more accessible by utilising their specific properties, such as gas separation selectivity and mass storage capacity.

U-MAP Co,Ltd.
All industries, including smartphones, PCs, electric vehicles, data centres and 5G, are suffering from heat generation in electronic equipment. The new material Thermalnite developed by U-MAP dramatically solves a variety of problems that could not be solved with conventional industrial materials.

ExtraBold Inc.
Using 3D digital technology, they are conducting R&D with a view to the next generation of manufacturing, moving away from the current mass production and mass consumption society. They are researching 3D printing technology for various resin materials (pellets) to realise material recycling, and developing their own domestic, ultra-high-speed, large-size additive manufacturing machines (3D printers).

KEN ROBOTECH CORPORATION
KEN ROBOTECH is construction tech company making rebar tying robot such as “TOMOROBO© Series.” Not only this but these types of solution will help construction workers from repetitive tasks and increase productivity of construction sites. They aim to promote “work style reform”, “create the environment that maximizes workmanship” and realize “the World’s Most Human-Friendly Worksite.”

Mr. Thirumalai Srinivasan, Deputy Director, NTUitive Pte Ltd

An industry veteran with more than 28 years’ comprehensive and diverse experience with MNCs and Start-ups. Demonstrably successful background as a Subject Matter Expert across many sectors including Industrial, Supply Chain, Channel Development, Channel Sales, Operation Planning, Enterprise Solution Development, Business Process Re-engineering, and Quality Systems, in addition to the development of Mobile Apps for Logistics and Education verticals. Adept at working with C-suite executives for outstanding brands across a variety of industries including Discrete Manufacturing, Consulting, and IT, and in multi-grid and multi-cultural organizations across APAC. Currently part of the Venture Building Team at NTUitive to spin off next big companies out of NTU research.

Mr. Hussein Sulaiman, Programme Head, BLOCK71 Indonesia & Vietnam

Hussein is the current Programme Head of BLOCK71 Indonesia & Vietnam, leading key startup programmes and initiatives to enable startups to scale across borders. He has been entrenched in the startup ecosystem for the past 10 years, working closely with and within startups in the areas such as business model development, expansion, and operations management. As a pioneer member of notable startups in the region such as BeMyGuest, Lazada, and Zilingo, Hussein led in the operations development and management, as well as business expansion efforts of these companies since inception. He enjoys exploring and formulating innovative solutions, and has been active in contributing his expertise and experience across startup ecosystems globally.

Dr Susmita Bandyopadhyay, Senior Lecturer at Republic Polytechnic

A chemist by training, with more than 20 years of research experience in synthesis & analysis of novel chemical compounds for various applications such as anticancer, antimicrobial, insecticidal as well as formulation of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and animal feed; special interest includes development of light activated compounds.

Recipient of “Outstanding Innovator Award 2018” from Ministry of Education, Singapore. Principal Investigator of several award winning completed and ongoing funded projects with patents and publications. Leading a dynamic research team and actively sharing knowledge and expertise with local SMEs to help them develop innovative products or solutions by consultancy projects and IP licensing.

A passionate Lecturer with keen interest in lesson development of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Compounding and Pharmaceutics related contents.

Dr. Sachin MALWADKAR, Project Manager, Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D Centre, Pte. Ltd.

Mitsui Chemicals Inc. is one of the diversified companies in Japan and providing wide variety of chemicals and polymers globally. This will help to build a better future for the society in business domains mainly, Mobility, Health Care, Food & Packaging, Next Generation Businesses and Basic Materials. Dr Sachin associate with Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D centre, Singapore for new business in the field of catalysis for basic chemicals, basic materials, Health care, Agrochemicals and identification of outside partner candidates. He is looking for new business opportunities making best use of open innovation combining with Mitsui Chemicals’ proprietary technologies.