Agenda

Wai Fong Boh is President’s Chair and Professor of Information Systems at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. She is currently the Interim Dean of Nanyang Business School (NBS), Director of Information Management Research Centre at NBS, and she serves as co-Director for both Singapore Agri-Food Innovation Lab (SAIL @ NTU) and NTU Centre in Computational Technologies for Finance (CCTF). She received her PhD from the Tepper School of Business at the Carnegie Mellon University. She conducts research in the areas of knowledge and innovation management and entrepreneurship. She has published many articles in top management journals including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Research Policy. She has also won multiple awards, including awards for best papers in journals, conferences, and as a best IS professor in Asia. Professor Boh is a seasoned and versatile instructor who teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She has spoken in multiple industry conferences, and specializes in research and conducting training for entrepreneurs, managers and employees in areas related to innovation and entrepreneurship. Professor Boh is also sought after by private organizations as well as government agencies to conduct training programs. She is often cited and interviewed in the media.

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Wai Fong Boh is President’s Chair and Professor of Information Systems at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. She is currently the Interim Dean of Nanyang Business School (NBS), Director of Information Management Research Centre at NBS, and she serves as co-Director for both Singapore Agri-Food Innovation Lab (SAIL @ NTU) and NTU Centre in Computational Technologies for Finance (CCTF). She received her PhD from the Tepper School of Business at the Carnegie Mellon University. She conducts research in the areas of knowledge and innovation management and entrepreneurship. She has published many articles in top management journals including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Research Policy. She has also won multiple awards, including awards for best papers in journals, conferences, and as a best IS professor in Asia. Professor Boh is a seasoned and versatile instructor who teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She has spoken in multiple industry conferences, and specializes in research and conducting training for entrepreneurs, managers and employees in areas related to innovation and entrepreneurship. Professor Boh is also sought after by private organizations as well as government agencies to conduct training programs. She is often cited and interviewed in the media.

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Tomasz Kurczyk is the Chief Information Technology Officer at Prudential Singapore and the Head of the Prudential Group AI Lab. In this role, Tomasz oversees the company’s technology, data, and AI functions, driving digital and AI capabilities to accelerate business growth and transformation. Tomasz began his career as a serial entrepreneur, followed by professional and leadership experience across multiple industries and over 20 countries. He has built and grown large-scale businesses, products, teams, and digital and AI platforms. In addition to his corporate roles, Tomasz is an active advisor to startups and an angel investor, contributing significantly to the development of the Singapore FinTech ecosystem.

Working in and across Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and South Africa, Barbara has held a variety of senior commercial roles in companies such as MSA, Walker International, Tetra, Unisys, Pacific Systems, Gartner and Corporate Executive Board prior to joining CIO Connect in the UK. Barb is Course Director of the unique Global CIO Leadership Certification Course.

As technology has become increasingly important to an organisation’s success, she has expanded her advisory and Executive Coaching role to CEO, COO, CFO and CPOs advising on topics such as strategy and leadership.

She has held senior leadership roles as Head of Practice, Head of Delivery and Head of Development. During her career she has implemented more than 500 ERP systems as programme director, project manager or subject matter expert. She has advised clients in selecting software solutions and in contract negotiations with vendors. As an early mover in the SaaS marketplace, she led the design, development, and release of one of the first successful solutions in this area. She has defined the business strategy for start-up and in-flight software houses, including taking one to IPO and one to trade sale.

While with Gartner, Barb led the Best Practices Programmes for Outsourcing, Enterprise Architecture, Security and ERP. Barb led and worked across the world in consulting practices engaged in major IT programme delivery in both bespoke software development and major ERP implementations. Her clients include major airlines, oil and gas, financial institutions, luxury goods, pharma, retail, automotive, governments, logistics and global process industry organisations.

Agentic AI is revolutionizing business automation by enabling AI agents to automate intricate tasks, analyze information, and gain a competitive edge. This technology empowers businesses to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation. It’s crucial for companies to explore and embrace Agentic AI to unlock unprecedented efficiency, productivity, and future-proof their business operations.

Glen is a seasoned technology leader currently serving as CTO, Google Cloud, Asia Pacific. He leads a team of CTOs in the region. Glen brings a wealth of knowledge from various industries and board-level governance, as a Board Member and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee at ACRA.

His experience as the former CTO of Singapore Press Holdings and founder of CIO Academy Asia highlights his ability to bridge technological innovation and strategic business decisions. Glen actively contributes to Singapore’s National Al’s programs, demonstrating his commitment to advancing Al adoption in Singapore. He is passionate about guiding organizations through digital transformation and responsible Al implementations.

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Eugene is the Head of Digital & Advanced Technologies, Head of Strategy, and Dy Group
Chief Data Officer at SMRT. He covers the areas of data, analytics, digital innovation, and
technology applications. Prior to this, Eugene was with FairPrice Group where he established
the FPG Supply Chain Ops Centre (SCope), assumed roles as chief of staff to the GCEO and
as PMO co-lead in the digital transformation of FairPrice Group. Prior to this, Eugene was a
Strategist at DHL based in Germany. Eugene holds a degree in Computer Science from the
National University of Singapore and did a minor in Technopreneurship at Stanford
University.

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Abhishek is a seasoned technopreneur with more than 25 years of professional experience in Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, and Business Strategy. Having worked in big multinational corporations like Singapore Airlines and Infosys combined with years of startup experience makes him a well rounded business leader. On the technology front, he has 3 patents awarded by Intellectual Property Office of Singapore on application of Artificial Intelligence technologies in resource based industries like forestry, plantation management, and agriculture. Currently, as a CEO, spearheading the development of SawitPRO, an Agri-Tech startup in Jakarta, Abhishek also contributes as an adjunct lecturer at National University of Singapore mentoring Masters of Technology students.

Decision science is the interdisciplinary field that combines data, analytics, technology, and behavioral insights to optimize decision-making. In credit underwriting, decision science enables financial institutions to assess borrower risk using data-driven models, moving beyond the conventional rule-based lending. Through automating customer journeys, digitizing data collection, automating data processing and employing predictive fraud and credit models, businesses can reduce operational costs through lowered risk cost and increased operational efficiency.

Digital Customer Journeys: as the customer interacts with the financial institution and subsequently their credit application is processed, to the extent the journey is online it facilitates automation and data collection in a digital form. Where the journey is not digital or the data collection is not digitized, a process such as document parsing or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) aids in converting the data collected into digital form.

Data Infrastructure: a robust data infrastructure is the backbone of effective decision-making, and clean and integrated data form the basis for AI-driven decision-making (e.g. those coming out of the fraud and credit models) and automation. A cloud platform providing a data lake and an online analytical processing database (OLAP), can help build automated data pipelines for the training and/or deployment of the fraud and credit models.

Fraud and Credit models deployed on a business rules engine: automated data pipelines help build AI models efficiently and deploy the models in a business rules engine thereby handing the credit underwriting decision back to the customer in a time-efficient manner. The accuracy of the models is critical to minimize misclassification and maximize risk adjusted return.

Governance and Human in the Loop: responsible AI models need to be at least explainable. A human in the loop – an expert – is able to interpret an explainable model and – for a fraction of the cases flagged based on predefined criteria – decide whether to approve or override the decision made by the AI model.

Sarfaraz Ahmed is a seasoned Data and Analytics professional with extensive experience in data science, financial risk management, and fintech. As the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Validus, Southeast Asia’s largest small business lending fintech, he spearheads the organization’s data strategy, AI-driven credit underwriting, and data engineering. His leadership has enabled automated risk assessment, portfolio monitoring, and sales intelligence, driving efficiency and scalability across multiple markets.

Previously, Sarfaraz held various roles at Standard Chartered Bank, responsible for risk management for SC Ventures’ digital banking ventures, and risk analytics for the Bank’s Retail, Small Business, and Corporate & Institutional lending businesses. He developed credit scorecards, risk decision frameworks, and loan impairment and capital forecasting models.

Sarfaraz also led technology product management as Head of Product Management, APAC at Wolters Kluwer, overseeing finance and risk technology solutions. Earlier in his career, he worked at FICO, providing Basel II risk advisory services and building predictive risk models for global banks.

He holds a Master’s in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute and a Master’s in Finance from INSEAD. Based in Singapore, Sarfaraz is passionate about leveraging data engineering, AI and data-driven decisioning to transform financial services.

Effective risk management is critical in the financial services sector, yet traditional approaches that work in developed economies often fail in emerging markets due to important structural gaps. Drawing from experience in Indonesia and beyond, where we have implemented risk management solutions for the participants in the credit and payment ecosystem, I discuss key challenges innate to emerging markets and the lessons we learned in confronting them.

Tam Trinh is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Nikel, a financial technology firm specializing in risk management solutions for banks and fintechs in emerging markets. With two decades of experience in financial services, she has expertise in risk modeling, data analytics, and digital transformation. She is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Department of Analytics and Operations at NUS Business School.

Previously, Tam held key leadership roles at Standard Chartered Bank, DBS, Moody’s Analytics, and Oliver Wyman, where she spearheaded initiatives in risk product development, credit modeling, and fintech innovation. Presently, she leads a team at Nikel that focuses on using AI and machine learning to enhance credit risk assessment and fraud detection.

Tam holds a Master of Engineering and a Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude and Departmental Honors) from Cornell University. She maintains several professional certifications, including Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), CFA ESG Investing, Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Certified Analytics Professional (CAP). In recognition of her contributions to data and analytics, Tam was named one of the Global Top 100 Innovators in Data and Analytics (2024) by Corinium and awarded the CIO100 ASEAN Award (2024).