Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia Summit - September 3, 2024

Sharad is the Head for International Personal Bank and is based in Singapore.

He has over 30 years of rich and varied experience in consumer banking and wealth management, having joined as Citi as a Management Associate, and has held Country and Asia Pacific Regional roles over his tenure.

Before his current IPB role that he took over in May 2023, he was the Head of Citi’s Retail Banking Business in India for seven years. After moving back from Singapore as the APAC Regional Citigold Head in 2011 to India, Sharad did his stints as Chief Operating Officer and as Head of Sales & Distribution before he became Retail Bank Head.

He has led large teams to deliver business results, managing strategy, transformation and cross border businesses. From the time he joined Citi India in 1993, he launched several successful business initiatives across Wealth Management, Product and Client Segments, Digital, Client Experience and Innovation.

Sharad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Sharad is the Head for International Personal Bank and is based in Singapore.

He has over 30 years of rich and varied experience in consumer banking and wealth management, having joined as Citi as a Management Associate, and has held Country and Asia Pacific Regional roles over his tenure.

Before his current IPB role that he took over in May 2023, he was the Head of Citi’s Retail Banking Business in India for seven years. After moving back from Singapore as the APAC Regional Citigold Head in 2011 to India, Sharad did his stints as Chief Operating Officer and as Head of Sales & Distribution before he became Retail Bank Head.

He has led large teams to deliver business results, managing strategy, transformation and cross border businesses. From the time he joined Citi India in 1993, he launched several successful business initiatives across Wealth Management, Product and Client Segments, Digital, Client Experience and Innovation.

Sharad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Rangam Bir is a visionary business leader, who has led several international financial services firms in a career spanning over 27 years across Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Rangam is highly passionate about Culture, Communication, Community and Collaboration to drive innovation and change. He has established a successful track record of building winning businesses in fast growing emerging markets by leading large teams in multicultural and international business environments.

In 2023, Rangam was appointed as the CEO of AmMetLife Insurance Berhad (AmMetLife), a joint venture between MetLife and AmBank Group. Before joining AmMetLife, Rangam held various chief executive roles in Malaysia, where he demonstrated exceptional ability to navigate complex business landscapes and drive sustainable growth. First as Chief Executive Officer for Allianz, before transitioning to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer for Gibraltar. Through his transformational leadership, he has led his companies to recognition in digital advancements and employer branding.

Beyond his professional roles, Rangam has been active in the development of the Life Insurance industry in Malaysia as Vice President of the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia. He is a Fellow of the Malaysian Insurance Institute, a Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia, and a Global Associate Member of the Singapore Institute of Directors. He currently serves as an independent director for the Malaysian Insurance Institute.

Rangam holds a Master of Management Studies in finance and is an electronics engineer by training.

David spearheads Euromonitor’s consumer finance industry research for Asia Pacific. As the regional market insight manager, he leads the research team working on multiple strategy briefings, collaborating with the multiple leading banks, Big Techs, payment firms, and central banks. His professional interests include Embedded finance, commercial payment, digital banks, digital wallets, AI and so on. He also works with the Euromonitor consulting team to provide customized project support to the clients.

He has more than 15 years working experience, with 10 years plus in market research, and 5 years plus in finance. From 2019 to 2022, he worked in Strategy Team in United Overseas Bank’ Digital Bank. He led in market intelligence and performance tracking, while supporting strategic planning, internal & external communications. He also commissioned external agencies on FinTech scanning, competitor tracking and consumer
research.

When he worked as the global consultant for consumer appliances industry from 2015 to 2019, he developed thought leadership via close engagement with leading manufacturers from East to West, real estate developers, platform companies and so on. His strategy reports in connected appliances ecosystem, retailing, built-in appliances, M&A gained great popularity in the industry. He was invited to give sharing at Deutsche Bank dbAccess conference and Keynote speech at China Electronics & Appliances Enterprises Globalization Summit.

He holds MBA from IE Business School (Spain), and double engineering degrees from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).

Andrew Ng is Group Head of Global Financial Markets, where he oversees Fixed Income, Currencies, Commodities and Equity, Investment Banking, DBS Vickers and DBS Digital Exchange. He is also a member of the DBS Group Executive Committee, the Chairman and Director of DBS Bank Taiwan, and Director of DBS Securities (Japan) Company Limited. Andrew’s experience in financial markets spans over 35 years, comprising senior positions in Asia and Western markets. In addition, Andrew is currently the Honorary Advisor of the Financial Markets Association of Singapore, the Deputy Co-chair of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee, and representative of the Associations of Banks in Singapore Standing Committee on Financial Markets. Andrew also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and is currently Vice Chair, Board Member and Director of Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (“ASIFMA”).

Leads Roland Berger's Hong Kong office and Asia Insurance practice.

Laurent Doucet has over 20 years of professional consulting and industrial experience with an extensive international background having worked out of Europe, North America and for the last 6 years Asia, based in Hong Kong.

His track record includes successful assignments helping both multinational and local clients solve issues related to strategy, transformation, operations, digital, market entry, merger & acquisitions, and private equity investments.

Laurent Doucet is also an expert on organizational topics – organization and operating model design, organization effectiveness and efficiency.
 

Ashmita Acharya joined HSBC in January 2023 as Head of Wealth and Personal Banking, Singapore.

In her current role, Ashmita has oversight across retail and private banking, as well as asset management and insurance businesses in Singapore. In particular, Ashmita is responsible for the delivery of a market leading wealth management proposition, new mobile-first digital capabilities, and a comprehensive range of investment, insurance, payments and lending solutions that support consumer banking clients’ growth and protection needs.

Prior to joining HSBC, Ashmita has built a 20-year long international banking career with Citibank. Her last held position was Head of Retail Banking, Singapore, where she was responsible for the wealth management and mortgage business growth in the City-State. Throughout her tenure with Citibank, Ashmita has covered Wealth Management Sales, Work Place Banking, Client Experience, Marketing, Consumer Strategy, Client Segments, Small Business Banking and Product Management in India, US and Asia across country, regional and global roles.

She has always tried to deliver results, drive transformational thinking, cultivate innovation, navigate ambiguity and ensure accountability. She consciously strives to bring energy and curiosity to problem-solving and project design, and values the power of relationships as much as the end goal.

Ashmita is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and served as a senior advisor to the Women’s and Diverse Abilities network in Citibank and recently signed up as Executive Sponsor for the Pride Committee in Singapore for HSBC.

Ashmita is an avid traveler, enthusiastic weekend cook, and painter. She lives in Singapore with her husband, daughter and three dogs.

Eugenia Koh is Global Head of Sustainable Finance for the Wealth and Retail Banking division at Standard Chartered Bank. In her role, she is responsible for building sustainable finance product capabilities and client engagement tools, and embedding reputational, sustainability and climate risk considerations into governance frameworks and risk management processes to deliver on the division’s net zero commitments. Eugenia partners with bankers to engage clients on conversations to incorporate sustainable investing strategies into their portfolios. She also actively drives industry thought leadership and is a member of the Bank’s global Sustainable Finance Governance Committee.

She has over 14 years of experience in sustainable development from sustainable investing to corporate social responsibility and experimenting with building a social enterprise to support livelihoods in Cambodia.

Prior to joining the Bank, Eugenia worked in the COO team at Barclays, where she had her initial foray into impact investing. There, she was tasked with evaluating and exploring the implementation of an impact investing platform for Barclays in Asia.

She started her career at Weber Shandwick, and worked on a number of award-winning public relations campaigns spanning thought leadership to corporate social responsibility.

She is author of “Dawn Kwan. Art Awakening”, a chronicle of child prodigy Dawn Kwan’s journey as a child artist, which is available in all National Libraries in Singapore.

Janet Shum is a Sustainable Investing Specialist for the Asia Pacific region. In this role, she manages Citi Global Wealth Investment's sustainable investing platform as it relates to product management, thought leadership and client engagement. She also works in partnership with Citi's investment divisions to help ensure that the integration of sustainability objectives aligns with Citi's best thinking on portfolio management, research and asset allocation.

Janet has over seven years of consulting experience in managing numerous international advisory, business development, research and engagement projects relating to sustainability, sustainable and impact investing as well as strategic philanthropy. Janet was a Manager at KPMG, Sustainable Services in Singapore. She also worked as a consultant with Yunus Social Business, a social business fund and various non-profit organizations in Hong Kong involved in social impact. 

Prior to consulting, Janet worked at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management and HSBC Personal Financial Services in Hong Kong, where she served ultra-high-net-worth clients and retail clients in the Greater China region, respectively.

Janet holds a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD, a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, as well as certificates in Sustainable Finance and ESG Investing from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the CFA Institute, respectively.

Silvio Struebi heads Simon-Kucher’s banking practice in APAC. He has over 17 years of consulting experience in providing growth strategy, pricing, and sales strategy advice to various national and international Wealth and Asset Managers, Retail and Corporate Banks, and leading FinTechs, Neobanks and Payments companies. Silvio advises clients on a broad range of commercial transformation strategies and product management as well as assisting in market-specific implementation of growth and sales strategies. Recently, he has been focusing on post-merger integration and the implementation of pricing software to increase revenues and to respond to regulatory developments in key markets in Asia.