KG Media is the media group of Kompas Gramedia consisting of print, broadcast, and digital platforms. As CEO, Andy Budiman is responsible for leading KG Media through a dual-transformation process of increasing resilience of media core businesses and creating new growth engines. 

Cherilyn Ireton heads up the World Editors Forum, the global network for editors within WAN-IFRA. She is a seasoned newspaper professional, having spent more than 20 years on South African newspapers, as journalist and editorial manger on the country's leading titles, the Sunday Times and Business Day. She rose to be Chief Operating Officer of BDFM Publishers, the business media joint venture between Pearson, owners of the Financial Times, and Times Media in South Africa which published Business Day newspaper, the Financial Mail magazine and Summit TV. She relocated to the UK in 2005 and owned an ran a London-based media consultancy, Presslinks, which advised a variety of international organizations and foreign governments.

Fergus Bell is an experienced digital journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering and the verification of user-generated content by news media. He is also a prominent advocate for higher industry standards relating to the ethical uses of UGC and social media.
Fergus has experience in both the business and editorial sides of the industry, most recently heading up newsroom partnerships and innovation for SAM desk, a social newsgathering tool for newsrooms. Fergus joined SAM from the Associated Press where, as international social media and UGC editor, he led the global operation to source and verify user-generated content for all of the AP’s platforms.
In October 2013 Fergus co-founded a committee for the Online News Association that has brought together leaders in the journalism community to explore the ethics and standards of UGC and digital newsgathering for the news industry. He is also founding member of the First Draft News coalition of UGC experts supported by the Google News Lab. Fergus is a graduate of the University of Leeds.

Hari is a seasoned digital media veteran with two decades of experience spanning the agency land, client side and the publisher eco-system. As the CEO of Singapore Media Exchange, a premium programmatic exchange in the market born out of the partnership between the media giants Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorp in 2018, he is on his way to creating a strong alternative marketplace for programmatic buyers in Singapore and beyond within 12 months of inception.

Previous stints include Regional Managing Director for Havas Media’s Digital & performance marketing arm Ecselis, heading digital acquisition for PayPal APAC and Integrated Media Director - Dell at MPG.

Hari has successfully set up many digital / performance marketing units in addition to turning around flagging digital departments within multiple media agency groups. His core competencies lie in driving digital marketing strategy & innovation, digital media planning, cross-channel attribution & measurement, digital marketing optimization & analytics, digital tracking & measurement technology platforms and digital performance marketing.

Jacqueline is a Dentist Doctor of Surgery DDS. She has extensive experience in the areas of forensics, investigation of missing persons, and has participated in the management of mass disasters and crime scenes involving violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Her work with the International Committee of the Red Cross includes providing support and advice on the development of several projects involving ministries, medico-legal systems, academia, armed forces, police and journalists. She also promotes forensic regional events in order to create networking through sharing experiences and best practices as well as developing policies and regulations. She has provided training to first responders on search and recovery of dead bodies in different contexts including sessions with experts on weapon contamination.

Joon-Nie leads the WAN-IFRA APAC team in Singapore. A lawyer by training, Joon-Nie spent over 15 years in broadcast television as a reporter, interactive producer, current affairs producer and news editor at Channel News Asia and its predecessors SBC News and TCS News. She has won several in-house awards for reporting, executive producing and best ‘live’ coverage and a Student Emmy for her Masters documentary project produced at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism while under a fellowship from MediaCorp. 

In her seven years teaching at Nanyang Technological University, Joon-Nie set up and headed Newsplex Asia, a US$700,000 convergent training newsroom and media lab in partnership with WAN-IFRA.

Besides being a Vice-President of the Singapore Press Club for over 16 years and co-founding the Hacks/Hackers Singapore chapter in 2015, Joon-Nie is also a regular speaker and trainer at conferences, workshops and industry panels both locally and abroad.

Dr Juliana Chan is the Publisher of Asian Scientist Magazine and CEO of Wildtype Media Group, Asia’s leading STEM-focused media company, spanning digital, print, custom publishing and events. She received a BA/MA degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a PhD degree in biology from MIT, USA.

Awards received include the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science National Fellowship, the 2013 Singapore Youth Award, the 2014 MIT Technology Review’s 10 Innovators Under 35 from Asia Pacific and the 2017 American Chemical Society's ACS Nano Junior Fellowship. Dr. Chan's research work into drug delivery and nanomedicine has been featured by The BBC and MIT Technology Review, and she is an inventor on four patents.

Dr Chan is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and she serves on the WEF Technology Pioneer Selection Committee.

Li Xin is a Vice President of Caixin Media and the Managing Director of Caixin Global, leading the company’s global news and intelligence services, as well as Caixin’s international branding and global events. 

Before Caixin, she was the Managing Editor of the Chinese Wall Street Journal and Chinese Dow Jones newswire. 

This is her second stint at Caixin, where she was formerly the Managing Editor of Caixin: China Economics & Finance, an English-language magazine, and Caixin Online. 

In 2006, she founded Caijing Magazine’s first bureau in the United States, as a correspondent of politics and economics. Li moved back to China in 2007 to head Caijing Magazine’s English-language website. Li was a documentary producer at China Central Television between 2001 and 2004. 

Li holds a bachelor degree in English language from Tsinghua University, a master degree in journalism from University of Missouri-Columbia and an Executive MBA degree from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. 

She is an Aspen China Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, as well as a member of the International Media Council at the World Economic Forum. 

Li is an avid pubic speaker, having moderated panels at international conferences such as the World Economic Forum, DLD and Caixin Summit, on topics such as China’s economy and finance, data privacy, AI, and women leadership. She has spoken on journalism, China’s economy and cross-border investment at Oxford University, Global Editors Network and other international conferences.

Muhamad Haikel is the Psychosocial Support Consultant with Singapore Red Cross Academy. He champions the Centre for Psychosocial Support and the Centre for Emergency and Disaster Management. He is responsible for trainer management, curriculum development and conducting psychosocial support courses such as psychological first aid and community-based psychosocial support. He also oversees the development and implementation of the humanitarian short courses.

Apart from being a Certified Stress Management Consultant, he is also a Registered Social Worker-Provisional and a Registered Nurse with strong interest and passion in mental health and psychosocial support. His training is in mental health, social work, psychosocial support, applied positive psychology, disaster management, crisis management, applied suicide intervention, volunteer management and nursing.

Haikel participates actively in the Ministry of Health (MOH) Singapore, Disasters & Civil Emergencies Exercises, i.e. "NorthStar 9" and "Blue Dolphin" to manage crisis events and provide practical first aid and psychological first aid to the affected persons. He has been deployed for various humanitarian disaster relief and peace-time missions locally and regionally to countries such as Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Nurini Kassim was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian National News Agency (BERNAMA) on 2 January 2019.

Nurini has over 30 years working experience at the management level, with a proven track record in delivery, execution and operations management. She has wide experience in the areas of brand and reputation management, strategic communications, marketing and promotions, corporate strategy, project and general management, including talent development and capacity building.

She was formerly the Head of the Corporate Affairs Department at the Employees Provident Fund from October 2015 to December 2018, where she was responsible for handling corporate and public affairs, government and external relations, media and strategic communications, reputation management including issues and crisis management as well as internal communications. Prior to that, Nurini spent 15 years at the Securities Commission Malaysia, handling a diverse range of portfolios including Corporate Affairs, the the Capital Market Development Fund, the Capital Market Promotions Unit and Islamic Finance Development and Promotions. She also has multinational and regional experience, having worked at Edelman, Informix, Hewlett- Packard and KPMG.

Nurini holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Hull, UK (1994), and has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Studies & Economics from Oxford Brookes University, UK (1985).

Pawel Krzysiek is a communications strategist for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Asia-Pacific. An Arabic-speaker, Pawel is responsible for ICRC’s media and public outreach strategy in the region to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation and to assist people in need to access services. From 2015-2018, this former journalist handled communications in Syria for the ICRC. Much of his work has been to cross the frontline of war zones into besieged towns. He also undertook missions for the ICRC in South Sudan (2014-2015) and Iraq (2012-2014) as well as for UN agencies in Syria and Burundi. He completed a MA in political communication in 2008 at the University of Szczecin in Poland.

Rishad is a product and design professional. He is the co-founder of Splice Media. For over twenty years, Rishad has designed and developed products for the web, mobile, radio, advertising, newsrooms, newspapers, magazines, podcasting, branding, books, and floor rugs for companies in Singapore, India, New Zealand, Europe, and the United States. He has been a design consultant for MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and SMART (the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology), and ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), as well as an editorial consultant at The Straits Times in Singapore, the Wanganui Chronicle in New Zealand, and Mid-Day in Mumbai. He was also a co-founder of a gifting app startup in San Francisco, and a Singapore-based fintech startup.

Soji Nagano, with over 10 years of experience in three start-up marketing research companies, is currently the managing director and cofounder of Syno International Asia, with locations in Singapore and Tokyo. Working very closely with publishers and marketing research companies across the APAC region, Soji strongly believes in the power of data to help people connect to the unknown and make better decisions. While frequent travel keeps him busy, he enjoys in his free time surfing, cycling, craft beer, and spending time with his family.

Steven is VP of Sales at Piano, overseeing new markets in EMEA. His proven tenure inside both services and platform industries provide a valuable perspective on accelerating digital businesses through technology and customer experience. Prior to joining Piano, Steven managed global business development for iCrossing, a digital agency at Hearst Corporation. He’s also held leadership positions at Method, Schematic (POSSIBLE, a unit of WPP), Capgemini, and the pioneering internet consultancy, Viant.

Of particular focus for Steven has been the Media & Entertainment market, where the need for new business models, enabled through digital technology, content and user experience, demands deep expertise across multiple skill sets. Before working in technology, Steven was a producer of broadcast commercials and music videos.

Lee Chin is the Chief Operating Office (Content & Commercial) for Sin Chew Media Corporation. She currently heads the digital content and media lab department in Sin Chew, overseeing its digital assets such as www.sinchew.com.my and Pocketimes.

She joined Sin Chew Daily in 2008 as a culture and education reporter after a short stint in legal practice. Her digital journey started when she assumed the role of chief editor to the website of the paper in 2011.  Since then, she has spearheaded different digital content projects and initiatives within Sin Chew Media Group.

Thomas Jacob was appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of WAN-IFRA in 2012. He is responsible for developing and implementing the organization’s strategy to be a platform for exchange of ideas, information and experiences among the global news publishing industry. Prior to this Jacob was the Deputy CEO, taking care of regional operations.

Prior to WAN-IFRA, Jacob worked for DMG Media, publisher of Daily Mail and Metro in the United Kingdom. As the International Development Director, he identified and evaluated digital media companies in Asia for potential acquisition. He also conceptualized and launched a compact midmarket newspaper, Mail Today, for the Indian market as a JV with the India Today Group.

Jacob is an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. As a summa cum laude, he is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for management in the United States.

He is a trained engineer in electronics and telecommunications, having graduated with distinction from the National Institute of Technology, Suratkal, in India.

Wan Chern oversees the day-to-day functions of the Myanmar Times newsroom, driving editorial direction, editing content, supporting marketing strategy and coordinating across print, digital, video and social media platforms for the English daily and Myanmar weekly. She also manages the business pages of the Times, writing, editing and working closely with a team of six business journalists to report breaking news, track trends and develop story ideas.

Wan Chern was previously Associate Editor and financial journalist with The Edge Media Group in Singapore for nearly 10 years and before that, a tax consultant with Deloitte in Singapore and Malaysia.