Our Team

AI Asia Pacific Institute supports an interdisciplinary environment. We believe that a proactive interdisciplinary approach is required to well-respond to new and future challenges imposed by AI.

Our team brings a wide range of disciplines and perspectives who share the vision of encouraging trustworthy AI as a foundation to innovation.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kelly Forbes

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Kelly is a dual qualified lawyer (Common and Civil Law). Kelly has led the International Law Association (ILA) as President of the Victorian Chapter in Australia. She has also served as one of the ILA founding members in Singapore. Kelly sits on the Founding Review Board - AI and Ethics Journal at Springer Nature and is a member of the IEEE P2863™ - Recommended Practice for Organizational Governance of Artificial Intelligence - Standards Development Group. She is also a board member and investor in technology companies.

Luis F. Gonzalez

DIRECTOR
Advisor to the Veritas Consortium led by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The consortium has an overarching mandate to implement the FEAT principles (Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, Transparency) as critical considerations for the deployment of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) technologies within financial institutions.

ADVISORY BOARD

Dr David R. Hardoon

David pioneered the regulator and central bank adoption of data science as well as establishment of the Fairness, Ethics, Accountability and Transparency (FEAT) principles, first-of-a-kind guidelines for adopting Artificial Intelligence in the financial industry, as well as establishing the MAS-backed Veritas consortium.

Vincent Vuillard

Vincent has deep expertise in large scale transformations across multiple industries and sectors globally, having been with McKinsey & Company for a number of years before moving into the Corporate sector, where he led the Strategic Capabilities and Future of Work function for Fonterra, a $20bn organisation with more than 22,000 employees globally.

Philippa Penfold

Throughout her career Pip managed many technology implementations and today supports HR functions and companies with their digital transformation. Pip frequently speaks on the Future of Work and the role HR needs to play in finding synergy between Humans and Artificial Intelligence within organisations.

Barbara Erskine

Barbara Erskine is a community builder, brand strategist and media relations professional. In Paris, she worked on the NYT Foreign Affairs Column with Flora Lewis. She led branding and media relations at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and created “Barbara’s Davos”, a parallel program for the media in Davos. She was Wired Magazine’s European Editor.

Byoungchan (Ben) Eum

Ben leads clients from strategy formulation to execution in creating B2C and B2B businesses with more than 20 years of experience in global consulting firms, major IT companies, and global artificial intelligence start-ups.

May Leng Kwok

May establishes relationships with key stakeholders and influencers in the region across local government, trade unions, employer federations, professional institutes, research bodies and universities to champion better work and better working lives. She works collaboratively with key partners and clients across APAC to help them define and diagnose their learning needs and work with them to create sustainable development programmes.

Janet Wong

Janet currently serves as an Investment Stewardship Specialist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Based in Hong Kong, she oversees investee companies’ social issues including supply chain and human rights. In her recent roles, she engaged with listed companies on material ESG topics, including responsible use of technology, artificial intelligence and data governance. Her previous lead on the ESG theme AI Ethics and Data Governance at Federated Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS) was shortlisted as UNPRI Stewardship Project of the Year 2020.

Dr Wendy Bonython

Wendy Bonython is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Bond University in Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include technology law and regulation, privacy, and human rights law, with a particular emphasis on health related technologies. In addition to her legal skills, qualifications and experience, she also has a PhD in Molecular medicine, and previously worked in health administration and policy within the public sector.

Dr Peter Brimble

Peter is a private sector development specialist who has worked over the past 35 years on industrial and technological development, foreign investment, public-private dialogue, and government policy issues in Central, South-East and North Asia. He has led programs on private sector development, public-private partnerships, contributions of business to social development, and business environment reforms in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and beyond.

Leesa Soulodre

A venture builder and pioneer, she has led companies from seed to USD 14B into new markets and supported raising over USD200M in Seed to Series C investments. Leesa has had one IPO and several exits and knows the hard knocks of lessons learned. She holds deep domain expertise in smart cities, financial services, insurance, healthcare, MedTech, agritech and fashion, beauty, and luxury. With a team of the world's best humans on purpose to make a difference, her group R3i includes the ecosystem builder R3i Ventures and its House of DeepTech and House of MedTech. R3i Impact Foundation is its engine of philanthropic impact.

Yaron Hazan

Yaron has over 20 years of diverse and broad experience in financial crime investigations. He has vast experience in Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing, with extensive knowledge in world-class standards across the financial sector.

Dr Antonio Feraco

Dr Antonio Feraco is the Senior Advisor Industrial Strategy (MD) for the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development in the United Arab Emirates. With a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, a MSc in Industrial Engineer and a PMP®, Antonio ran successful projects in IOT and I4.0 for Oil and Gas, Mining and Pharma, and has joined several international and large initiatives in EU and ASEAN, as a Digitisation and Industry 4.0 expert. He worked with R&D, consultancy and technology advisory sector before and has comprehensive experience in AR and VR, AI, business process optimisation, project management, energy efficiency and robotics.

Chiew Yu Sarn

Chiew Yu Sarn is a lawyer based in Singapore. He is a founding and Co-Managing Director and Head of the Corporate and Commercial Department at Yusarn Audrey LLC, one of Singapore's leading law firms. With nearly 30 years’ experience in legal practice, Yu Sarn is recognized for his expertise in corporate and commercial law and intellectual property (IP), specifically focusing on the commercialization of IP. He has advised numerous clients, including technology companies, venture capital and private equity fund managers, multinational corporations, and foreign and local law firms, among others.

RESEARCH AFFILIATES

Dr Seongwook Heo

Before joining the Seoul National University Law School as a faculty member in 2006, Professor Heo served as a judge of Seoul Central District Court in Korea. He is mostly interested in the field of AI Ethics and Law, climate change and energy law, food safety law, IT & privacy law, and judicial system. He also participated in the process of framing the Green Growth Act and the Emission Trade Act, and revision of the Data Protection Law in Korea.

Dr Peter Leong

Dr Leong is an AI Specialist and Senior Lecturer with the School of Computing, Singapore Polytechnic where he teaches Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Concurrently, he is a consultant in the Data Science and Analytics Centre (DSAC), where he works on industry projects in Data Science and AI. He worked on a consultancy project implementing Explainable AI for AI-driven HVAC optimization.

Hardeep Arora

Hardeep has over 21 years of experience in analytics and data science technology in the financial services. He serves as the Head of AI Engineering for Temus (A Temasek and UST joint venture). Hardeep's expertise extends to the design and implementation of scalable data systems with embedded intelligence. He has been instrumental in numerous client engagements, including the MAS Veritas initiative, which focuses on enhancing internal governance around the application of AI and the management and utilization of data.

Dr Marianne Winslett

Marianne Winslett has been a professor with the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign since 1987 (assistant, associate, full, adjunct, research, and emerita). Since 2020, she has also been a venture partner at R3i Ventures, which is based in Singapore. She served as the director of the Advanced Digital Sciences Center, a research outpost of the University of Illinois, from 2009 to 2013. Her research interests include information management, high-performance computing, and security. She received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from Stanford University in 1987 and an A.B. in math from Harvard in 1980.

COMMUNICATIONS

Jordan Lederman

PODCAST DESIGN & PRODUCTION
With a BA in Audio Design & Production from Columbia College Chicago, Jordan has over 7 years of experience in sound design, dialogue editing, and mixing.

Xenia Batllori

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Xenia has 20 years of experience in the industry, with a background in production of Feature Films (e.g. Percy Jackson, The A Team, The Twilight Saga) and over 20 different TV programs (e.g. Smallville, True Blood). She has an Associate Degree from University of British Columbia, with a Masters Degree in Intercultural Communications from Royal Roads University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from Yale University.