Speakers' Profiles

Seah Gek Choo

SEA Talent Leader and SheXO Program Leader
Deloitte Southeast Asia

Gek Choo brings with her more than 25 years of experience in public accounting in Singapore, with a focus on serving multinational and local companies in the real estate and hospitality industries. She has advised many companies on initial public offerings on the Singapore Exchange and has facilitated external seminars on updates to financial reporting standards and initial public offerings.

Gek Choo is part of the Singapore Real Estate team and is the Talent Leader for Deloitte Southeast Asia. She leads the Deloitte Southeast Asia and Singapore’s Centre for Corporate Governance, which develops advance thinking and promotes dialogues with key influences, business leaders, corporations and their boards of directors, investors, the accounting profession, academia and government on current and emerging corporate governance issues. She is also the leader for Deloitte Singapore’s SheXO Program, which supports the personal and professional development of established, emerging or aspiring women leaders by creating a supportive environment for them to connect, grow and drive change in communities to advance women in leadership.

She is a faculty member of the Deloitte University Asia Pacific and conducts leadership programme for Deloitte leaders in the Asia Pacific region. She is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore and a member of ISCA, as well as Fellow Member of CPA Australia.

Sun Xueling

Minister of State
Ministry of Education and Ministry of Social and Family Development

Ms Sun spent her early career at the Economic Development Board of Singapore and DBS Bank Ltd. Before entering politics, Ms Sun spent more than a decade in the Private Sector in Finance and Investments. She was Director, Investments Group, at Temasek International, focusing on investment opportunities in China and other developing countries in Latin America. She had also spent 8 years based in Hong Kong and China working for Deutsche Bank AG as a Director and also as Senior Vice-President in Macquarie Securities. After the 2015 General Election, Ms Sun was appointed CEO of Business China, a non-profit organization which aims to form a cultural and economic bridge linking the world and China. Business China was launched in 2007 by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, late founding Prime Minister of Singapore and then Premier Wen Jiabao of the People’s Republic of China. She currently holds the position of Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social and Family Development and serves as a Board Member of the Chinese Development Assistance Council.

Cindy Hook

CEO
Deloitte Asia Pacific

As the CEO of Deloitte Asia Pacific, Cindy leads 60,000 professionals across 19 geographies. Cindy strives to create an organization in which clients and employees can access ‘one door to the future’ – the very best of Deloitte’s talent and capabilities to capture opportunities in the fastest growing region in the world.

Cindy is responsible for a key component of Deloitte’s global aspiration to become undisputed leaders in professional services– the firm’s Tilt to Asia strategy. She delivers on this by driving regional investments and acquisitions, scaling technology consulting and cyber solutions, deepening relationships with Deloitte’s clients across global, inbound and outbound MNC’s and family-owned enterprises, as well as building and delivering value with key alliance partners.

As the Chair of Deloitte’s Asia Pacific Inclusion Council, Cindy ensures that diversity, inclusion and gender equality are business imperatives for Deloitte across the region. She is passionate about building inspired leaders and creating a purpose-led organization to make an impact that matters across communities.

Cindy serves on the Board of Directors for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. She is also a founding member of the Asia Corporate Leadership Council, an International Member of Chief Executive Women (Australia), and a special advisor to the Male Champions of Change.

Vandita Pant

Chief Commercial Officer
BHP

Vandita was appointed Chief Commercial Officer of BHP in July 2019. She has global accountability for Sales and Marketing, Procurement, Maritime and for developing the Company’s view on global commodities markets. Vandita sits on BHP’s Executive Leadership Team, reporting to the CEO.

Vandita joined BHP in 2016 in the U.K. as Group Treasurer and Head of Europe, responsible for BHP’s structural financial risk, liquidity investment portfolio and corporate finance. As part of her accountability, she also represented BHP in the region with banks, institutional investors, sell-side analysts and public policy stakeholders.

Prior to BHP, Vandita garnered over 23 years of international experience having worked in a variety of executive roles in banking in India, Singapore, Japan and the U.K. Her banking experience includes challenging mandates such as Group Head of Capital Management and Markets, and following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), setting up Global Balance Sheet and Liquidity Management for RBS.

Vandita holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.

Vandita is married with a teenage son.

Lawrence Chia

CEO
Samling Group of Companies

Lawrence Chia is currently the CEO of the Samling Group of Companies which have businesses in automobiles, properties, timber, infrastructure, oil palm and oil and gas, with operations in a number of countries globally and have more than 15,000 employees.

Prior to joining Samling, Lawrence was previously the CEO of Deloitte China, and was on the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) Executive Committee based in New York and DTTL Asia Pacific Executive Committee based in Hong Kong.

He has over 30 years of experience in financial advisory and corporate finance  in Asia , predominantly in Hong Kong and China. His experience included working on initial public offerings, capital raising and domestic/cross border mergers and acquisitions. He was formerly the head of the Deloitte Financial Advisory Services group in Asia Pacific.

He is also an Independent Non Executive Director of BC Technology Group Limited, a public listed company in Hong Kong Stock Exchange and New Frontier Health Corporation, a public listed company in New York Stock Exchange.

He is a Chartered Accountant of the Institute of the Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and also a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

Emmanuelle Mace-Driskill

Executive Director
Charles & Keith Group

Emmanuelle Mace-Driskill is an international executive who has lived and worked throughout the Asia-Pacific region, in Europe and the United States for more than 20 years representing some of the most well-known brands in the fashion, retail and luxury industries. She has worked in a variety of increasingly senior assignments, managing multi-cultural teams involved in global retail strategy, management, sales, marketing and travel retail.

Emmanuelle is a leader with a passion for business, innovation and culture and has a successful track record of executing strategic business plans. She is known for her strong knowledge of Asia in terms of working cultures, customer tastes and preferences. She is a dedicated people leader and mentor who attracts and develops distinctive talent and teams, teaching them the skills they need to adapt to and work with different global cultures.

In recent years she has developed a passion for sustainability initiatives in the retail and fashion industries and works with companies to enhance their and improve their environmental and social footprint for future generations.
Emmanuelle's mother tongue is French. She is also fluent in English and German, with the addition of comprehensive Italian and mandarin.

She graduated with a Bachelor of International trade from EFACI Paris and with executive courses (Leadership for change and Women on board) from Harvard Business school.

Shantini Ramachandra

Deloitte Private Tax Leader
Deloitte Southeast Asia

Shantini has a Bachelor of Laws degree from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Laws degree from the University of London, King’s College. She has been admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and is an Accredited Tax Advisor with the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals.

Shantini is the SEA Tax Leader for Deloitte Private that serves business owners, family groups, and high-net-worth individuals in areas including succession planning, international tax, and wealth preservation. She has advised high-net-worth families on the set up of family office, fund and trust structures, tax incentives, immigration planning, CRS, restructuring, relocation of headquarters to Singapore, philanthropy and tax residency.

In her role as Business and Mergers & Acquisitions Tax Partner, Shantini has been involved in major consultancy projects relating to legal entity rationalization, restructuring of business operations, cross-border tax reviews, dispute resolution, incentive planning and tax and stamp duty mitigation strategies.

Shantini has been nominated by peers and clients for inclusion in the Deloitte global publications “Tax Controversy Leaders” and “Women in Tax Leaders”, and has been appointed as a Member of the National Parks Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development.

Ivy Tse

CEO
Halogen Foundation Singapore

Ivy is the Chief Executive Officer of Halogen Foundation Singapore. Prior to taking the position of CEO in 2015, she served as Chief Operating Officer and Events Executive for 2.5 years. She led the running of the charity’s flagship National Young Leader Day, launched the annual National Young Leader Award and the Halogen Internship Programme.

Since becoming CEO, Ivy has focused her efforts on the charity’s strategic direction and initiatives, partnerships and fundraising, as well as talent development within the team.

She was formerly part of a multi-national corporation where her responsibilities included piloting new product initiative and handling supply chain management issues across Asia, Australia, India, Japan and Korea.

Outside of Halogen, Ivy sits on the Advisory Board of My Working Title, NewYork.sg, GEMS Academy and is also a member of the Social Development Network Council. She is also part of the INSPIRIT community led by the National Youth Council which seeks to empower youths to advocate for youths.

Ivy is a Global Merit Scholar from the National University of Singapore and holds a Double Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration, both with Honours. She was awarded the NUS Business School Eminent Business Alumni Awards, Young Alumni Award in 2016.