Faith & Work Panel

Alistair Chiu

Alistair grew up in Australia, where he worked as an economist, and then as an ordained Anglican minister. He currently lives and works in Hong Kong, where he serves as one of the pastors of New City Church Hong Kong. 

Alistair also serves with City to City Asia Pacific as a Faith & Work Catalyst, where he teaches and trains marketplace leaders and workers across the Asia-Pacific region, providing a Christian vision for their work. He also resources pastors and churches in order to help them minister to workers in their congregations.

Ecosystem Panel

Brindha Selvadurai

Brindha Selvadurai-Gnanam is a distinguished entrepreneur and community builder, renowned for her pivotal role in fostering innovation and supporting startups in Sri Lanka. As the Co-Founder and former CEO of Hatch, a premier startup accelerator and co-working space, Brindha has been instrumental in transforming Sri Lanka's entrepreneurial landscape. 

Under her leadership, Hatch evolved into a vibrant ecosystem, accommodating over 800 members and more than 700 startups along with its 60,000-square-foot facility in Colombo. Brindha was responsible for conceptualizing unique spaces that serve as a playground for innovators, facilitating collaboration and the birth of new ideas. Her commitment to cultivating a culture of compassion, collaboration, and growth has been a cornerstone of Hatch's community-centric approach.

Her commitment to female founders is just as relentless. She launched the Kickass Program for Female Entrepreneurs, equipping women with the knowledge, networks, and skills to build scalable businesses. Through this and the AccelerateHER program, she has helped over 250 female founders sharpen their vision, secure market footholds, and scale with confidence.

Brindha's strengths and experience lie in nurturing communities, developing sales and marketing strategies, and delivering operational excellence in a challenging startup landscape. Her visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to innovation have significantly contributed to positioning Sri Lanka as a surging hub for entrepreneurship in Asia.

Her work continues to drive Sri Lanka’s entrepreneurial rise, cementing its place as a serious player in Asia’s startup landscape.

Investor Panel

Carmen Yuen

Carmen Yuen has recently transitioned to an Advisor with Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India - a firm where she had spent 11 years with.  She started her journey in the Venture Capital industry since 2000 with EDB Investments then with Spring SEEDS Capital.  

She had the opportunity to work with many amazing founders and had the privilege to participate as a Board Member.  She has significant respect for founders, and in this new season, she hopes to journey with founders who want to make a difference in being Salt and Light in the business world.

Co-organizer

Charis Chia

Charis is a connector and problem-solver with experience across business development, data analytics, operations, and partnerships. She has worked in business consulting and e-commerce, applying a data-driven and strategic approach to solving business challenges while aligning with key objectives. She also loves making friends with people across diverse cultures.

Beyond business, Charis is passionate about mental well-being. She provides psychotherapy services and is also a yoga teacher. When she's not working, she enjoys weightlifting and pilates.

Moderator, Co-organizer

Chris Yeo

Chris is Co-Founder of Digital Mission Ventures, whose mission is to build a redemptive tech ecosystem across South East Asia. DMV does this by being a capital provider and accelerator for Christian tech founders. Chris is also CEO of DOKU, a leading payments fintech with operations in Indonesia and Malaysia. Prior to this, Chris spent 6 years at Grab, in senior leadership roles as Managing Director for GrabPay, Grab Ventures and Group Strategy. Before Grab, Chris worked in various regional leadership roles including PayPal, Boston Consulting Group, Arthur D. Little and Singapore Airlines.

Chris has an MBA from Kellogg, MSc in Finance from the University of London and a BSc Engineering & BA Economics double degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Chris has been worshiping at Adam Road Presbyterian Church for the past 20 years and is blissfully married with 5 children.

Ecosystem Panel

David Yi

David Yi is the Managing Partner of Ethos Fund, a pre-seed fund bridging Vietnam–US innovation. An 8x founder with multiple exits, David has built three $20M+ ARR companies, raised over $300M in venture capital, and driven $10B+ in cross-border business between Asia and the U.S.

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He brings deep expertise in education, law, and technology, shaped by a career spanning international legal work, leadership in K–16 education, and executive roles in fast-scaling tech ventures. David recently launched Founder Chapel, a space offering spiritual and strategic care for entrepreneurs, especially in emerging markets. He is also a scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, where his work focuses on the emotional, ethical, and spiritual lives of founders.

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David studied at Middlebury College and the University of Chicago, where he was a finalist at the 2009 Chicago Booth New Venture Challenge. He lives in Saigon with his wife and two sons.

Investor Panel

Daniel Long

Daniel is deeply committed to social impact and making the world a better place for all. A big believer in social equity and the power of social capital to nurture sustainable communities, he is a strong advocate for business-as-mission/business-for-good as a redemptive and restorative channel to uplift the under-served.

Daniel is a Corporate and Securities lawyer by training. Having obtained his Bachelor of Laws in the United Kingdom, he obtained his post-graduate qualifications from the National University of Singapore. He later joined an investment bank and advised on initial public offerings, private-equity fund raisings, mergers and acquisitions etc.

In 2007, Daniel co-founded Providence Capital Management Pte Ltd (PCM), and remains its Co-Managing Partner until today. PCM currently manages and advises a number of umbrella funds and multiple special purpose investment vehicles across a range of asset classes. PCM’s clients and stakeholders include financial institutions, family trusts and high-net worth individuals. He is also CEO of SGX-listed Olive Tree Estates Limited, a B-Corp certified enterprise committed to curating and providing a holistic and integrated social impact solution comprising affordable housing, community-based assets, customized social services and various other quality amenities to the masses in the regional emerging markets.

Daniel is also part of the founding team that established agathos.be, a decentralized technology-based crowdsourcing platform that rallies donors to meet the needs of the least, last and lost in society.

Faith & Work Panel

Edric Sng

Pastor Edric Sng is passionate about digital discipleship and outreach to a digital generation. He's the Founder and Editor of Saltandlight.sg and Thir.st, as well as the evangelistic websites StoriesofHope.sg and 还好吗 hhm.sg. He serves as the Deputy Senior Pastor of Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church. 

Pastor Edric previously built and ran the digital newsrooms at Mediacorp's Channel NewsAsia and the TODAY newspaper, and was also the editor of a scuba diving magazine. He believes the next great movement of the faith will come when believers fully embrace the call to be salt and light beyond church walls, in the marketplace.

Pastor Edric is a father to six, and a husband to one.

Entrepreneur Panel

Edy Sulistyo

Edy is a serial tech entrepreneur from Indonesia who has founded and exited several startups such as LOKÉT (acquired by Gojek Group 2017, re-acquired back in 2023) eEvent (acquired by EnvisionPoint, 2013), OW (acquired by Telepathy, 2009), Kamus (acquired by Stand4, 2008). Currently heading Everywhere.id,  an O2O Live Entertainment platform with the dream of enabling talented creators to be able to perform everywhere anywhere anytime

Founded and architected a number of companies and web products including Katolik.com, FilesUpload, DNOrganizer, iConvert, Parking-Hub, CircleMail and OpenStub.

Moderator, Co-organizer

Elysia Chan

Elysia is a program manager at First Rate Connect, an accelerator and venture builder backed by First Rate Inc., designed to help B2B fintech businesses de-risk market expansion into new territories.

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Previously, she worked as a social impact consultant with Empact Pte Ltd, a social enterprise consulting firm with a mission to build the capacity of social organizations. She has worked with regional nonprofit organizations, facilitating cross-sector partnerships and corporate philanthropy initiatives.

Elysia also led an impact accelerator for social ventures across Southeast Asia, working closely with founders in edtech, agritech, and financial inclusion to navigate the complexities of driving impact while ensuring financial sustainability.

She enjoys building meaningful relationships, learning about people’s stories and fostering authentic connections beyond business transactions. Believing in the power of business as a catalyst for good, she finds purpose in helping others bring that vision to life through their work and business endeavors.

Co-organizer

Elisse Madjudin

Elisse is currently a Venture Operations Associate at Sovereign's Capital, where she supports the team with market research, portfolio management, and project Ripple. Prior to Sovereign’s, Elisse worked at RMP Enterprise London as a campaign assistant focusing on managing talent & clients before coming back to Indonesia and helping her family’s business.

Elisse graduated with honours from Queen Mary University of London with BSc Geography & Business Management, and further honed her academic experience with a Master’s degree from SOAS, University of London (MSc International Management).

In her spare time, Elisse is keen on taking up hobbies which includes traveling and has a passion for trying new culinary sites and visiting museums across the world.

Moderator

Estelle Kiora

Estelle Kiora is an early wave social media influencer turned coach, consultant, connector, creative and catalyst - with a passion for human flourishing and the work of Identity, Purpose, inner life transformation and culture change. 
 

Estelle runs transformative coaching programs, workshops, creative experiences, and hosts two engaging podcast shows aimed at empowering the next generation of purpose-driven, missional entrepreneurs.

Her life's work is rooted in a vision of transformation - shaping hearts to reshape culture and bring renewal to the world around them.
 

With a heart for both the local and global church, Estelle serves as a bridge between church and culture, pioneering fresh expressions of the kingdom. Over the past 7 years, she has led prayer, discipleship, and community-building initiatives for creatives and entrepreneurs across Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, and beyond, including spearheading Creative Community Nights at Trehaus Funan in 2023.

Currently, Estelle serves as an executive coach, trainer and consultant with Hong Kong-based  leadership and training firm, Chorev Consulting International & STEAM Building - building innovative, collaborative and compassionate leaders for a complex world

APAC Redemptive Pitch, Judge

Janice Jeong

Janice is a Venture Partner at MYSC. With over a decade of leadership experience in sustainability and social impact, she is passionate about helping impact ventures articulate their vision to investors and key stakeholders through robust impact frameworks, rigorous measurement methodologies, and effective communication.

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She also serves as an Assistant Vice President at Great Eastern Holdings, where she champions sustainability strategy, measurement, and reporting.

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In her free time, Janice mentors social enterprises and NGOs in Indonesia and Laos.

Co-organizer

John Choi

John is the Managing Director of First Rate SG, leading First Rate Inc.'s Asia-Pacific expansion from Singapore. First Rate, a US-based WealthTech leader with 35 years of experience, serves major private banks and asset managers globally. John drives business development, empowering wealth managers and advisors to become better stewards of their clients’ investments through AI-powered insights and reporting solutions.

With a Bachelor of Science from Biola University and a Master’s in Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, John combines finance and leadership with a deep commitment to purpose-driven impact. Before joining First Rate in 2017, he spent 15 years as a pastor and entrepreneur in CoffeeTech and EduTech, mobilizing communities to develop young leaders.

Born in South Korea, raised in Los Angeles, and educated in Taiwan, John’s unique background and his passion to see finance and leadership become a transformative platform to “love God and neighbor” align with First Rate’s cultural ethos of “Love, Give, Serve, Enjoy.”

Beyond First Rate, John directs SET NEXT, mentoring Asian-European leaders, and contributes to BAM Global and LCD, focusing on disaster relief. Embracing a multicultural approach to leadership, he is dedicated to mentoring young professionals and is happily married to Debbie, with whom he shares four children.

Ecosystem Panel

Jennifer Ho

Jennifer is a Partner at Integra Partners, a Singapore-based venture capital firm that invests where profit meets purpose. With over 15 years of experience in investing, managing, and advising early-stage companies, she is passionate about backing entrepreneurs who tackle meaningful problems through technology and financial services.

Integra Partners currently manages two flagship funds focused on investments in technology-driven companies across five key themes: SME enablement, digital finance, healthcare, climate and environment, and agriculture and food, with a particular emphasis on companies leveraging embedded finance as a growth driver. Before diving into the world of VC, Jennifer started her career in Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division in New York, covering financial sponsors and consumer/retail companies.

Her favorite parts of the job include meeting bold founders working on audacious solutions and discovering new technologies that might one day shape the world. And when she’s not deep in investment discussions, you’ll likely find her hanging off a climbing wall—because navigating startups and scaling rocks aren’t all that different.

APAC Redemptive Pitch, Judge

Jun Ho Bae

Jun Ho is an early stage investor at Altara Ventures, focused on Series A and B fin-tech, health-tech, and consumer-tech companies. Over the 8 years of his career as a venture capital covering the APAC region, Jun Ho evaluated wide spectrum of opportunities from pre-seed to private-equity, and from both financial and strategic angles.

Jun Ho is a member of Solomon's Porch Singapore, and is keen to fellowship and grow with mission driven entrepreneurs called to do the good works of God.

APAC Redemptive Pitch, Judge

Co-organizer

Kevin Sutantyo

Kevin Sutantyo is the Partner for South East Asia investments for Sovereign’s Capital, a faith driven venture capital fund focused on early stage, tech driven, scalable companies. Prior to this, he was also an active Angel investor in both the US/ SEA and an investor/operator for 4 years at an environmental biotechnology company focused on waste management. Kevin also has experience with the Indonesian public markets as a Commissioner at a local Indonesian securities brokerage, maintaining a fit and proper standing with Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK).  

A mechanical engineer by discipline, Kevin holds a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of California San Diego.  

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Kevin is a member at International English Service, in Jakarta.  Kevin also is a Jakarta board member of Resource Global, a world wide faith based mentoring program for young marketplace leaders.  He and his wife are the proud parents of two.

Moderator, Co-organizer

Kelly Arifin

Kelly is a Senior Associate at Sovereign's Capital, where she plays a pivotal role in expanding the firm’s portfolio of venture investments across Asia and the United States. Before joining Sovereign's Capital, Kelly built a robust foundation of finance at J.P. Morgan, focusing on the technology, life sciences, and healthcare services sectors in the United States.

Kelly graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a B.A. in Business Economics. She further honed her expertise with a dual degree MBA and MA from The Wharton School and The Lauder Institute, concentrating on East & Southeast Asia.

In addition to her professional achievements, Kelly is dedicated to advancing women's careers in finance. She actively contributes as one of Wharton's Private Equity Venture Capital Women board members.

Fireside Chat

Peter Ong

Peter served in the Public Service for close to four decades. He served as Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of various Ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). As Head of Civil Service from 2010 to 2017, he spearheaded a citizen-centric and digital transformation of the public sector. He also founded the PMO Strategy Group in 2015 to tackle complex government-wide issues. As Founding Chairman of Enterprise Singapore from 2018 to 2024, he guided its evolution into a leading economic agency, driving flagship programs like Scale-Up and fostering innovation, digitalization, and internationalization for Singapore enterprises. He was recently awarded the Distinguished Service Order by the President at the National Day Awards Ceremony 2024.

Peter’s past leadership extended to various government statutory boards, including being Chairman of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Maritime & Port Authority, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, and Defence Science and Technology Agency. 

Peter currently serves as the non-executive Chairman of the real estate and hospitality company, the Pontiac Land Group. He also sits on the board of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and is also Special Global Advisor to Antler Innovation and Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group.

Peter also serves as the Chairman of his church, Calvary Baptist Church’s, Governing Board.

He is married with two grown up daughters. He enjoys outdoor activities and walking in the park with his wife.

Entrepreneur Panel

Rohan Benn

Rohan is the former co-owner of T & F All States, a leading Australian fresh produce supplier, which he exited to In2Food (part of Woolworths Holdings). He has had the incredibly amazing journey over the course of 26 years of acquiring a run down business both culturally and asset wise and cultivating it with his brother into the largest and respected business within their industry during it's time. Their journey included, as one of it's core tenants, a desire to run their business with their Christian Faith absolutely front and center of everything they did. Working out what that looked like was something that they relentlessly focused on and had a passion for. Rohan's journey has included acquisitions, transforming culture, building a state of the art purpose built facility to operate from, managing growth, selling the business, and finally having to deal with the aftermath of the sale in which the business' value proposition was whittled away over the course of 6 years to finally be no more!

Rohan enjoys connecting and walking beside Founders as they seek to build their businesses and support them as they consider value propositions, growth, sustainability in all it's many facets (pace and rest, financial, growth trajectory, operational, structure). All this very much within the framework of a shared love of God and desiring the enterprise to bring glory and honour to Him.

Entrepreneur Panel

Reuben Lai

Reuben Lai co-founded Arkadiah, a nature tech company that revives degraded lands through AI-enabled nature restoration.  He is passionate about leveraging his experience of having run multiple technology businesses to accelerate Southeast Asia’s momentum towards a nature-positive future. 

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Prior to Arkadiah, he was Senior Managing Director at GXS Bank (GXS), a digital bank whose mission is to make banking better for everyday consumers and small businesses. He oversaw the bank’s regional growth strategy and technology development.  He served on the Board of GXS and the Digibank in Malaysia.  

He also held roles as Senior Managing Director at Grab Financial Group, where he spearheaded all verticals across the region including payments, lending, insurance and wealth management. Under his leadership, Grab Financial Group grew into one of the largest fintech in the region, hitting unicorn status with the closing of its Series A funding.  He also led the company in securing Digibank licences in Singapore and Malaysia.

Reuben also serves on the board and investment committee of Heliconia Capital (Temasek subsidiary). He was formerly at Bain & Company and The Walt Disney Company. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD.

Investor Panel

Samuel Richards

Samuel Richards is the Managing Director of Brightlight. A member of the firm's board and investment committee, he is responsible for developing innovative impact investment solutions, setting firm-wide strategy, and establishing key partnerships addressing the needs of institutional investors, government agencies, and not-for-profits.  

Before joining Brightlight at its inception as Chief Strategy Officer, Samuel was Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Australia and New Zealand. He gained extensive experience in this role, focusing on strategy development and implementation across Australia, New Zealand, and Asian markets. He spent 15 years across the Goldman Sachs and JB Were businesses. 

While with Goldman Sachs, he developed an interest in values-based investing and saw Brightlight as a perfect fit for aligning his skills and values. Authentic in his commitment to impact investing, he is dedicated to supporting the Brightlight team achieve its mission of helping clients harmonise values and investment. He believes values-based investment can make a profoundly positive difference to the world. 

Entrepreneur Panel

Sharon Lim

Sharon is the Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Browzwear Solutions, a 3D fashion-tech company she became involved with in 2003 as a distributor. In 2012, she had the opportunity to acquire the company and has since worked to grow it by introducing innovative technology solutions to the fashion industry through a focus on B2B partnerships and a unique approach to market adoption.
 

Before Browzwear, Sharon gained valuable experience working in her family’s OEM/ODM electronics business, where she contributed to its growth over the course of 8 years. She later ventured into the F&B sector in Indonesia, successfully managing her business through the challenges of the Asian Financial Crisis and eventually selling it in 2004. Sharon also spent five years leading product development and supply chain strategies for a mid-market luxury brand licensee in Latin America, where she supported both wholesale and retail business growth.

With a diverse background across different industries, Sharon is passionate about helping businesses build strong, agile foundations and guiding them through various stages of growth. She is especially dedicated to mentoring startups and social enterprises, particularly those with a faith-based mission. Sharon serves on the board & mission council of her local church in Singapore and is involved with XBCS , a faith-based NGO that supports communities in developing countries, as well as Digital Mission Ventures , a Christian tech accelerator. She is also a supporter of the Faith Driven Entrepreneurs and Investors network in Asia. She serves as on the investment committee of both Venture Synergist and Beneficial Returns, an impact fund. 

Sharon believes that faith and business are ONE together to help address the challenges of today’s world.

Entrepreneur Panel

Simon Seow

Simon cares about bringing the unchanging gospel to a changing generation. God has written this burden into his story by making him a creative who gets energized by ideas, innovations, and strategies, and loves seeing lives impacted when the gospel is creatively and clearly communicated. He first experienced this through launching and leading the Creative Communications (music, film, arts, digital) ministry team in Cru Singapore. 

A worship leader in Covenant EFC, he is also Co-Founder of Indigitous, and serves as a Senior Digital Strategist with the Global Digital Strategies Vice-President team of Campus Crusade for Christ International  / Cru in Orlando. Married to Lillian, they shepherd three young adult children.

APAC Redemptive Pitch, Judge

Wesley Tay

Wesley joined East Ventures in 2023 as a Principal overseeing Seed investment activities. 

He was previously a fund manager at Pavilion Capital, a Temasek subsidiary focused on Asia’s private equity & venture capital where he specialized in direct and fund investments in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Singapore. Wesley was also a member of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)’s Corporate Management leadership, where he held portfolios which includes early-stage investments and strategic initiatives in the New Ventures and Venture Capital Division which today became the early-stage arm of EDB Investments (EDBI). Previously while being based out of Jakarta from 2014 to 2019, he also led EDB’s Southeast Asia and Indonesia operations.

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Wesley holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Master’s degree with Distinction in Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Emcee, Moderator

Wen Li Lim

Wen Li Lim works in partnership roles at multiple organisations, including Faith Driven Entrepreneur & Investor and also at a US faith-based family foundation. Formerly a chartered accountant in Australia, she has then ventured into different areas, non-profit, church and most recently in an impact VC fund and mental health tech startup.

Her passion is stewardship and seeing the intersection between faith, investing, sustainability and entrepreneurship, especially in tackling big issues like poverty. Based in Singapore, she’s been happily married for 20 years and loves travelling around the region to eat.