Asia Pacific M&A Summit

Andrew is the General Manager of Digital Natives & Startups for Microsoft Asia, where he leads a dynamic team across 10 countries, driving growth and innovation within the region’s most vibrant digital ecosystems.

With extensive experience in the startup ecosystem, Andrew has worked closely with founders and innovators across Asia, helping them leverage Microsoft’s technology to realise their global ambitions. His commitment to fostering innovation extends to his involvement in the angel investment community, where he advocates for diversity and inclusion, particularly within the LGBTQI+ community and individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Andrew’s leadership focuses on empowering digital natives and startups to harness the power of AI and cloud technologies, enabling them to scale rapidly and disrupt traditional industries. Before his current role, Andrew led the Digital Natives & Startups business for Australia and New Zealand, where he was instrumental in transforming Microsoft’s engagement with high-growth startups and unicorns.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Economics from the University of Bath and serves as a Board Observer at The Benevolent Society as part of The Observership Program. Based in Singapore, Andrew believes that authenticity and inclusivity drive creativity, collaboration, and the best outcomes for teams and customers alike. He is married with two sons and a supportive husband, who shares his commitment to creating an inclusive and diverse environment both at home and in the workplace.

Akash Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Zypp Electric, India’s largest EV-as-a-Service startup solving last mile delivery. His vision for Zypp is to solve last-mile deliveries in a convenient, affordable and eco-friendly way, thereby building more liveable cities and a sustainable world. To Zypp, Akash brings years of executive-level leadership experience in marketing and rapidly scaling up tech and tech-assisted businesses at MobiKwik, Snapdeal, Dell and Airtel. Akash is an avid speaker and has been representing as a thought leader in various Electric Mobility, Startup and marketing events.

Before founding Zypp at the intersection of green tech and EV tech, Akash was with MobiKwik as Vice President and head of Marketing. He was instrumental in placing MobiKwik amongst the leading Fintech startups in India. At Snapdeal, Akash was heading Acquisitions and alliances for Mobile Marketing, where he led a 5X growth of daily app acquisitions and drove mobile revenue growth while maintaining a Top 10 rank on AppStores. Before Snapdeal, Akash led the 4G launch and nationwide acquisitions for 4G at Airtel.

After being a topper in Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, Akash went on to pursue his MBA from IMT Ghaziabad in 2008. Akash loves watching movies & finishing IMDB Top 250 is on his hit list. Akash is passionate about creating content through his channel known as ‘Kaash Se Akash’ to provide tips and advice to young entrepreneurs looking to grow and hustle, including his podcast "The Founder's Show” featuring successful startup founders sharing their stories and lessons. He loves travelling with his wife and friends and thinks travelling gives a lot of worldly perspectives & helps grow an individual from within. Akash has a penchant for fitness & music too.

Akash is also a content creator and startup influencer and he regularly posts his content on his Instagram and YouTube by the name ‘KaashSeAkash’, the plan for this social avatar is to create founders and entrepreneurs for Bharat. He covers founder success stories, business hacks, motivational content and nuances on how he is building Zypp Electric.

Atul Temurnikar is the founding Chairman of Global Schools Group (GSG), an initiative of Global Schools Foundation (GSF), a Singapore-based not-for-profit community foundation that currently operates 64 international campuses across Far East, Southeast Asia, India and Middle East (through presence in 11 countries) to provide high quality international education for Primary to High Schools.

He also serves as a founding Trustee and Chairman of Singapore-based charitable foundation Global Indian Foundation (GIF) and Global Schools Foundation (GSF), a not-for-profit organisation.

Under his chairmanship GSG has been committed to its mission of providing exceptional education to students in diverse parts of the world through its network of 12 international schools and 64 campuses spread across 11 countries.

The network educates more than 45,000 students from over 70 nationalities from all over the world.

Birendra Baid, Managing Director is the Head of Loan Syndication for Asia. Birendra is additionally Head of Loans & Structured Credit (South East Asia). He has been with DB for 16 years.

Birendra started his career with ICICI in 1992 and has worked with FleetBoston Financial, RZB Austria and Barclays Capital (2007-2008).

Birendra has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Lee Hui Mien is the Head for Group Environmental Sustainability with the Singtel Group. She is responsible for the environmental sustainability strategy and leads the environmental initiatives for Singtel including working with various business units to integrate sustainability into their everyday work including leading the net-zero work within Singtel Group. Since joining Singtel, she has co-authored Singtel first TCFD standalone report and developed the Singtel 4D Environmental Sustainability Strategy for Singtel’s climate aspiration.

Externally, she is actively supporting other organisations including assuming the role of Deputy Chair for the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) Engineering Advisory Committee and a member of the NYP Sustainability Advisory Committee, member of the Nanyang Technological University Graduate College Advisory Board, Chairperson for the Sustainability Focus Area of IMDA Telecommunications Standards Advisory Committee (TSAC) and member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants Sustainability Committee.

Jaspal Sidhu, a Singaporean, has worked in Indonesia for almost 30 years now, spending almost half of that time in the mining and construction industry. Graduating from the National University of Singapore with a degree in Civil and Structural engineering, Jaspal went on to obtain his MBA (Distinction) with the University of Hull, UK. Despite enjoying a very successful stint in the mining industry, Jaspal was unsettled by what he constantly saw in his travels across the Indonesian archipelago and other developing countries – a stark disparity in access to quality education. As a son of a humble doorman in Singapore, Jaspal understood what education means for a working-class family, and so in the summer of 2000, he left the prime of his career to focus on providing affordable quality education to different income levels in the fourth largest country in the world, Indonesia.

Today Jaspal heads one of the largest and most reputed chain of private K-12 schools in Indonesia and the region operating at multiple price points under the under the umbrella SIS & Inspirasi Group of Schools (Singapore). The Group has won many international accolades including one in 2019 when it was awarded the prestigious Financial Times (UK) -IFC (World Bank) global award in London for its transformational work in education. In 2022, the Group was nominated for the Stewardship Leadership Top 25 Award by the INSEAD Hoffmann Global Institute. Two years later, in 2024, the Group was featured in Deloitte’s Centre of Edge 2024 publication as one of the top impactful organisations in Southeast Asia. Jaspal was also part of a committee with Harvard University and IFC (World Bank) looking at developing a set of principles called ‘Ethics in Education’ for development banks.

The Group’s journey and its current expansion has been through strategic partnerships with the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), private equity/impact funds and Family Offices. It is presently in an expansion mode both in Indonesia, Myanmar, India and other parts of Asia.

Jaspal often conducts talks for senior management from multi-nationals and diplomats looking to hit the ground running in Indonesia. He is also member of the Governing Council of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia and has a seat in the International Business Chamber in Jakarta. Jaspal was invited to sit as an advisor to the Indonesian Education Forum, a public-private think-tank that looks to improving the standards of education in the country. Jaspal speaks regularly at international and regional education and investment conferences. Recent ones were in San Francisco, Singapore, Cape Town, Dubai and Thailand.

Jaspal speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia and is also the 3-time amateur stand-up comedy champion of Indonesia.

Kaz is responsible for developing alliances and decarbonisation solutions for GE Vernova in Asia region. These consist of power industry solutions across GE Vernova’s energy business portfolio, decarbonisation of existing thermal assets, and supporting to drive net-zero energy solution roadmap for our customers.

Prior to this role, Kaz operated as the General Manager of Gas Power Services in Asia-Pacific, leading the commercial team to develop in-depth market and customer understanding, enhancing business and sales operations, and providing valuable power plant service solutions to the customers.

In addition, over the 19 years in GE and GE Vernova, he operated as the Chief Marketing Officer for GE ASEAN, as well as the General Manager of Growth & Strategy for GE Power in Asia-Pacific. In these roles, he was responsible for strategic initiatives and market development activities across GE and GE Power portfolio in the region, including gas, coal, hydro, and wind power generation technologies amongst others. This involved development of regional market, strategic planning, and execution of business growth initiatives. His team also drove regional demand creation projects, deploying GE Power products to address energy infrastructure needs of respective Asia-Pacific countries.

He has 19 years of experience across energy industry, and 24 years of experience in technology development, commercialisation and new business development.

Kaz attended University of Oxford, where he earned his MBA. He also holds a BA, MEng and MA from the University of Cambridge, and has been a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in the UK.

Manisha Sharma Kohli is the APAC CTO of Cloud & AI Solutions for Google Cloud’s Strategic Partnerships. Over the last couple of decades, Manisha has held several technical leadership positions across organisations and industries building products and solutions to enable large scale digital transformations.

Ming Eng is a Partner at Granite Asia.

Granite Asia, formerly known as GGV Capital, is a leading multi-asset investment platform managing over $5 billion in assets under management (AUM). Ming is responsible for Granite Asia’s private credit strategy, Libra Hybrid Capital fund. The fund provides non-dilutive capital to established businesses across Asia Pacific, accelerating their growth through tech enablement and strategic value-add, leveraging Granite Asia’s technology ecosystem and hands-on value creation capabilities.

With 20 years of experience in financial and capital markets, Ming has a deep track record in Asia private credit, having led investments of over $2 billion across Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Granite Asia, she was a Managing Partner of Orion Capital Asia. Earlier, she held senior roles at Macquarie Bank and VTB Capital and also worked at Goldman Sachs.

Ming is a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Neha leads Business Development for Global Private Equity funds across Asia Pacific at AWS, driving technology-enabled value creation for portfolio companies through AWS services and its partner ecosystem. With nearly 20 years of experience in strategy consulting and banking across the US and India, she brings deep industry expertise. She holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business and a Bachelor’s in Technology from Delhi University.

Mr. Jain has 15 years of work experience in Asian credit markets in sourcing, structuring, and managing private debt investments in India and Southeast Asia.  He is one of the founding team members at Orion and has been actively involved in over $1.5bn of transactions at Orion across sectors including renewable energy, healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, consumer, and education.

Prior to joining Orion in 2013, Mr. Jain was with CRISIL, an S&P subsidiary in India, where he was responsible for credit analysis of mid-market companies and covered rating assignments for 200+ companies across various sectors. Before CRISIL, Mr. Jain worked at Deloitte Consulting in Mumbai and covered the healthcare and government sectors. 

Srini has over 18 years of experience in the Asian credit markets. He has worked across key Asian markets including India, Australia, Greater China and South-East Asia. Most recently, he was Head of Loans and Leveraged Finance at Barclays for North Asia and was responsible for Structured Finance efforts for Barclays across Asia ex India.

Over his career, Srini has set up and grown multiple businesses across various credit strategies, with roles encompassing origination, structuring and risk management. He has led transactions across the risk spectrum including corporate lending, leveraged financing, pre-IPO financing, listed single asset and basket financing, fund level NAV financing, Holdco and Mezzanine financing and special situations financing.

Srini holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Vinamra is CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) Chief Sustainability and Sustainable Investments Officer. He formulates and integrates the Group’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, policies and best practices into its business, operations, and culture, delivering long-term economic value to stakeholders. He also leads CLI’s sustainable real assets investments including renewable energy and climate-tech venture capital.

Vinamra was previously CEO, India Business Parks, CLI, developing and growing business parks and sustainability projects across India. Before that, he headed Ascendas-Singbridge’s Corporate Strategy & Development function.

Before joining CapitaLand in 2015, Vinamra was a management consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Cisco Systems and Arthur D. Little.

Vinamra holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from University of Pune, and a Master of Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in India.

With over two decades of experience in business development and executive leadership, Warren Choo began his career at Thomson Financial First Call in Boston. After a couple years, he returned to Asia joining ABC Group, one of the leading food companies in Indonesia. He embarked his career in ABC President Indonesia as a Management Trainee where he remains there today as the President Director. His strategic vision and leadership propelled him from roles in Business Development, Senior VP Business Development and Director, and ultimately President Director of ABC President Indonesia since 2011.

In 2012, his idea of entering the dairy category allowed Warren Choo to expand ABC Group’s business. He founded and assumed the role of President Director for both ABC Kogen Dairy and Raffles Pacific Harvest (farm), showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation in the dairy and agricultural sectors. As a dynamic leader, he has driven transformative growth and fostered sustainable business across the Group’s ventures.