ASIA INFRASTRUCTURE FORUM 2024

Ms Indranee Rajah is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. She is also Second Minister for Finance, and Second Minister for National Development. Ms Rajah has been the Leader of the House since 2020. She has been a Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2001. She practiced as a lawyer and Senior Counsel before joining the Government.

Under her Finance portfolio, Ms Rajah co-chaired the Working Group on Legal and Accounting Services, a sub-committee of the 2016 Committee on the Future Economy, the recommendations of which are aimed at transforming the legal and accounting industries in Singapore and catalysing the internationalisation of such professional services. She oversees infrastructure Asia, the Singapore government platform that connects infrastructure demand and supply in the region. Additionally, she facilitates Singapore’s partnerships with key Multilateral Development Banks, such as the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to catalyse private and blended finance solutions for maximal developmental impact in the region.

Under her National Development portfolio, Ms Rajah oversees the Centre for Liveable Cities and chairs the World Cities’ Summit, bringing together government leaders and industry experts to address liveable and sustainable city challenges. She guides the review of Singapore’s long-term land-use planning and development of policies for urban development. She also guides the development of strategies for HDB’s Green Towns Programme, and NParks' greenery efforts as part of Singapore's transformation into a City in Nature. Ms Rajah is also currently looking into sustainability and sustainable infrastructure as new growth drivers for professional services, together with the Professional Services Programme Office (PSPO) and Infrastructure Asia.

Isabel is the Regional Industry Director, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Asia and Pacific, based in Singapore. For seven years prior to her current role, Isabel was the Regional Manager for PPP Transaction Advisory Services, initially for South Asia based in Delhi, and subsequently in Singapore as her mandate expanded to cover all Asia Pacific for the last four years. Isabel spent four years in IFC’s Subnational Finance unit where she worked in deal origination, structuring and supervision of debt and structured finance products in more than six countries in LAC.

Before joining IFC, Isabel held various positions in World Bank operations in the urban sector in the Middle East and North Africa region, the water sector in Latin America, and the transport, power and urban sector in South Asia. Before joining the World Bank in 2001, Isabel worked in emerging markets and Western Europe for WS Atkins in the UK as Senior Management Consultant; working on infrastructure finance in Thailand, Argentina, Barbados, Qatar, the UK, and Europe.

Isabel, a civil engineer by training, holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK).

Mark has over 30 years of energy sector experience, including 25+ years consulting and research experience in Asia. He has expertise in strategic advice, finance, M&A, contract negotiations and due diligence in the power & renewables, and oil & gas sectors.

Mark is Director, APAC, for the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). Mark works with GWEC members in Asia and globally to represent the wind industry in policy and regulatory discussions across the region. GWEC convenes meetings with key stakeholders, providing fact-based analysis and guidance to help shape policies that affect the wind industry.

Mark is a trained economist with a masters in public policy from Harvard University in energy regulation.

William has a decade of experience in the energy transition. 

Having joined Green Giraffe in 2014, William is a Director in the Singapore office and leads advisory in the energy transition across the Asia-Pacific region.

Over the past 10 years William has led transactions and tenders across four continents, with a particular focus on offshore wind. Recent experience includes advising the winning bidder in the second Japanese offshore wind tender and a capital raise for an Australian offshore wind developer. 

William has been particularly active in the Taiwanese offshore wind industry, advising on two debt restructurings, a primary financing and multiple M&A transactions, and has successfully advised on each Taiwanese offshore wind tender to-date. 

Previously based in London, William has been involved in numerous debt and M&A transactions in bioenergy, solar, onshore and offshore wind, including supporting the financing of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm. Prior to joining Green Giraffe, William worked in the oil & gas team for a multinational engineering firm. 

William holds an MEng in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London.

Dr Koh Chaik Ming is a Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Operations Research and Analytics (IORA), National University of Singapore (NUS) where he focuses on food supply chain resilience and cold chain. He was formerly Asian CEO of China’s largest import platform for frozen protein as well as shareholder representative for a listed logistics REIT. 

Before that, Dr Koh was GM of Shell Marine Products for Asia Pacific & Middle East where he ran a US$2 billion portfolio and GM New BD for Shell China. Prior to Shell, he spent nine years with Temasek Holdings, both as the Head of Aviation and Logistics investments and first Shanghai Chief Representative. Before that, he ran M&Ms/Mars chocolate and petfood supply chain in China in the early nineties.

Dr Koh is an alumnus of INSEAD MBA, Harvard Business School AMP and Singapore Management University (SMU) DBA program. He is also on the board of SMU Academy, Dunman High School and Foodbank Singapore. He recently contributed to the latest book “Global Supply Chains in a Glocal World: The Impact of Covid-19 and Digitalisation” by World Scientific and “Real Estate Assets: To Build or not to Build” article published on SMU Asian Management Insights.

Nishant Kumar joined GuarantCo’s Singapore office in November 2016 as Executive Director and was Regional Director for South Asia since January 2019 where he led origination and execution of transactions in the region. In June 2020, Nishant became Managing Director of Asia.

Prior to GuarantCo, Nishant worked across functions in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Investment Banking and in Renewable Energy Private Equity where he led origination and execution of infrastructure, natural resources, agriculture, food & beverages, consumer transactions and investments across Asia-Pacific.

Nishant started his financial services career in Hong Kong and subsequently moved to Singapore where he has been living since 2010. Nishant has an MBA from University of Hong Kong & London Business School programme and a Bachelor of Technology in Mining Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU (Varanasi), India.

Before joining Americold Mr. Moore spent 3 years with Lineage Logistics as Vice President responsible for Foodservice supply chain optimization. Prior to that, Mathew spent 9 years with CHEP leading the Growth Strategy and Retail Supply Chain Solutions teams – and 3+ years with HD Supply leading the FP&A team for the Plumbing|HVAC business unit.

Mr. Moore holds a MBA from University of South Carolina Moore School of Business and a BS in Business from University of Kansas - with global studies (MBA) at Helsinki School of Economics in Finland and WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany.

Spencer Ng is a Vice President – Senior Credit Officer in Moody’s Public, Project & Infrastructure Finance team. Based in Singapore, Spencer is responsible for project finance and infrastructure credits, including power utilities, renewables and airports in South and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Spencer worked for Ernst & Young Transactions Advisory Services in their Project Finance team. Spencer has also held various analytical and accounting roles at ANZ Bank, JP Morgan and State Street Australia. Spencer holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Commerce from the University of New South Wales. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Sumana Rajarethnam is the South-east Asia Director of the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network based in Singapore. Sumana works closely with network members to help inform their business strategies through political, economic and operational insight and to connect them with their senior leadership peers. Sumana is a senior policy professional with 17 years of business advisory experience, nine of those as an analyst, principal and director with the EIU from 2011-2020. He has most recently been working in the Chinese technology sector, including stints at Kuaishou Technology and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. Sumana holds a BA in political science from UCLA and a Master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.

Associate Partner based in the Singapore Infrastructure Advisory team working across the ASEAN region to advise government and private sector clients on the development, financing, procurement and delivery of complex, large-scale infrastructure projects and programmes. Oliver has advised Thailand and Sri Lanka on the development of their national infrastructure plans including water and wastewater projects. He has over 17 years of experience across all infrastructure sectors, has worked extensively throughout ASEAN and the UK and provided expertise to clients in APAC, the Middle East, and the USA. He has been based in Singapore for 12 years.

Mr Soh Leng Wan is the Assistant Managing Director of Enterprise Singapore, overseeing the growth of Singapore companies in the manufacturing industry.

Prior to this, Leng Wan spent seven years at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. As Senior Director (Industry Division) between 2017 and 2021, he led his team to formulate policies and initiatives to ensure Singapore’s economic competitiveness and vibrancy as a global city and tourism destination. Between 2006 and 2009, he was Deputy Director (Resource Division) and led his team to develop manpower initiatives to help enterprises meet their labour and talent needs.

Between 2012 and 2017, Leng Wan was the Senior Director (Strategic Planning) in the Ministry of National Development in charge of reviewing Singapore’s land use plans and development strategies.

Leng Wan has also served in various portfolios dealing with public policy formulation in the Ministry of Defence and the former Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.  

Jackie Surtani is the Regional Director and Head of ADB’s Singapore Office. Before Jackie took on this role, he was based in ADB’s Manila headquarters as Director of the Infrastructure Finance Division covering East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the Private Sector Operations Department for six years.

Prior to re-joining ADB in 2017, Jackie was Regional Chief Risk Officer of the Asian commercial finance unit at Siemens Financial Services. He has also held several senior positions in Project Finance teams across Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan), Credit Suisse, and headed KBC Bank’s Asian Project Finance business in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney from inception for 14 years.Jackie has over 32 years of experience in Asian infrastructure lending and advisory. In particular, he has extensive experience in the South-East Asia power sector and has led several ground-breaking and innovative transactions that have been recognized by leading industry publications.

Jackie graduated with a First Class Honours degree with a Bachelor of Science from the University of East Anglia and obtained his Master of Philosophy degree in Management Studies from the University of Oxford.

Ray Tay is a Senior Vice President and team leader for Moody’s Project and Infrastructure Finance team for South and South East Asia. In this role, based in Singapore, he oversees the ratings team responsible for Moody’s extensive coverage across the project finance and infrastructure sectors, including transport infrastructure, power & utilities, and credit enhanced issuances.

Ray also authors research and speaks on topics such as project bonds and the role of funding diversity and credit enhancement in bridging the infrastructure gap, particularly in emerging markets. Ray is also a member of Moody’s Physical Climate Risks and APAC ESG Working Groups. Before joining Moody’s in 2012, Ray was a Director with the Global Infrastructure & Projects Group in KPMG. Ray has also worked as a Senior Business Analyst with the Singapore Power Group, focusing on regulatory economics in each of its principal local operating subsidiaries.

Ray holds a Bachelor’s in Economics with honors from the National University of Singapore.

Lavan is the Executive Director of Infrastructure Asia, an infrastructure project facilitation office set up by Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. InfraAsia supports Asia’s social and economic growth through infrastructure development. Working closely with both the private and public sector in Singapore and the region, Lavan is focussed on project origination and development to enable more sustainable infrastructure in the region.

Lavan started his career in the Ministry of Finance overseeing fiscal policy formulation. Prior to his appointment at InfraAsia in April 2021, Lavan held various leadership roles at the MAS focussed on financial market development. He was most recently the Chief Representative based in the MAS New York Representative Office.

Lavan graduated with an Honours Degree in Business with a specialisation in Financial Analysis and obtained his MBA (Accountancy) from Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School.

Dr. Robert Yap is the Executive Chairman of YCH Group, Singapore’s largest homegrown and Asia’s leading supply chain and logistics provider with operations acrossthe Asia Pacific region. Robert is the Founder and Chairman of Y3 Technologies, a leading information technology and supply chain solutions provider. He founded Supply Chain Asia and is the Chairman of Supply Chain Angels, a corporate venture firm. He holds the positions of President of the Singapore National Employers Federation, President of the ASEAN Confederation of Employers, Singapore Chair of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, and Singapore Co-Chair of the Malaysia-Singapore Business Council. Dr Yap participates in the National Wages Council, the National Jobs Council, the Future Economy Council, the Payments Council, the Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council (SJCC), and the Joint Implementation Committee. He is the Honorary Advisory Council of the Singapore Computer Society and was a member of the Singapore Payment Council.

Dr Yap founded the Supply Chain and Logistics Academy (SCALA), a programme partner of Workforce Singapore, in 2016, to upskill logistics practitioners and provide reskilling for mid-career workers looking to change their career aspirations. 

He received the Singapore Public Service Star 2023 award as well as Public Service Medal in 2017 in recognition of his contributions. He was the "Businessman of the Year" by the Singapore Business Awards in 2016, the NUS Business School Eminent Business (Senior) Alumni Award in 2014, and the World Chinese Economic Forum Lifetime Achievement Award (Logistics) in 2013. He was the winner of the year for the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year of Singapore in 2007.

Robert holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the National University of Singapore and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), honoris causa, in Business Administration from Wisconsin International University. He graduated from the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM 21) programme. He was conferred the Professor of Practice by Zhejiang International Business School. The City University of Hong Kong College of Business appointed Robertas an Honorary Adjunct Professor from 2009 to 2012.