Saturday, February 10, 2007, 1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Technology revolution has brought Asia huge development opportunities. Rapid advancements in technology have resulted in dramatic changes in the economies of many Asian nations and also people’s lives. Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship are essential for countries to maintain their competitive edge in the next stage of technology revolution. How will the media technology change people’s lives, how will the technology trend go in the new era, how will this trend influence Asian competitiveness, and people’s lives? Distinguished panelists will discuss these questions.
Anthony Saich is the Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Harvard University Asia Center. He is Faculty Chair of the Asia Programs and the China Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. This work includes significant training programs for national and local officials from China, including a program to help Beijing officials prepare for the Olympics. He also sits on the Executive Committees of the Fairbank Center and the University’s Asia Center. From 1994 until July 1999, he was the Representative for the China Office of the Ford Foundation. Prior to this he was the director of the Sinological Institute, Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is also a guest Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, China. He has advised a wide range of government, private and not-for-profit organizations on work in China and elsewhere in Asia. He is a member of the Trustees of the China Medical Board of New York and International Bridges to Justice. His full biography is available here (external website).
Mr Chan Yeng Kit is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The IDA is a statutory board of the Singapore Government. Among IDA's main responsibilities are fostering a competitive world-class infocomm industry in Singapore, preparing residents for living and working in the digital age, spearheading the delivery of citizen-centric e-Government services, and building and operating the Government's IT infrastructure. Prior to his IDA appointment, Mr Chan was the Deputy Secretary (Policy) in the Singapore Ministry of Education. His responsibilities in the Education Ministry included the formulation of educational policies, strategic planning, organisational development and corporate communications. Mr Chan graduated from the University of Tasmania, Australia, in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Mathematics. He was sponsored under the Colombo Plan Scholarship. He obtained his Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard University, USA, in 1998 under a Fulbright Scholarship.
Tony founded UIT (United Information Technology) in China in 2001 and has been the chairman & CEO since then. UIT is the largest local storage company and the leading storage products provider in China. He has got more than 15 years experience in IT and telecom industry in Asia Pacific. Before founding UIT, Tony was the General Manager of Philips Communication North Asia in Hong-Kong for 3 years. Prior to that, Tony was the CFO of AsiaInfo. Tony was in executive and senior managerial roles with Motorola before joining Asiainfo. Tony has a MBA from Carleton University in Canada and M.A. from Nankai University in China.
Richard Lim is Managing Director of GSR Ventures. Richard focuses on investments in the Internet and semiconductor component sectors. Prior to GSR, he was an entrepreneur and was involved in founding three U.S. internet startups: iMarket (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB)), Quickdot and Co- nect (acquired by Pearson (NYSE:PSO)). He was also an executive at Lotus Development Corporation. Richard grew up in Singapore and has a MBA from Stanford University (Arjay Miller Scholar) and a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MD equivalent) from the National University of Singapore. He is a Charter member of Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA).
Naimish Patel is Chief Technology Officer of Sycamore Networks, Inc. He is responsible for aligning Sycamore's technology and product strategy with global service providers as they plan and deploy intelligent optical networks. Prior to his current position, Mr. Patel served as the companys senior director of network architecture where he was responsible for defining the direction of Sycamores transport and switching products, as well as the companys optical networking architectures. Naimish S. Patel received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1996.