SAP & SAP Fioneer Financial Services Forum Asia Pacific

Simon is a highly experienced and well-regarded corporate host, moderator, commentator, business editor and narrowcaster. Having been in Singapore nearly 22 years, Simon has hosted hundreds of business events and travelled widely to present addresses, chair industry panels and produce events. Simon has a long history in business editing, covering myriad industry sectors including banking and finance, human resources, healthcare, luxury, retail, power and energy and ESG. He has held roles Group Editor, Managing Editor and General Manager for several business publishers (including now leading client The Charlton Media Group) before establishing his own communications practice Simon Hyett Media (formerly BOTR Communications) well over a decade ago.

Simon is a qualified lawyer, professional musician, entrepreneur and father to two fantastic teenage sons. He has been described as having an unhealthy relationship with world flags, geography and in particular, nation shapes. He is passionate about fairness, justice, corporate accountability, and humanity in business. Simon has sat on the Board of the Media and Publishers’ Association of Singapore, was the longest serving President of his sons’ international school community group and is a boardmember of the Australian Chamber of Commerce SME Committee. Simon is an eternal survivor, loves life, loves people’s stories both personal and in business and conducts all his hosting and moderating in a warm, human, energetic and infectiously positive manner.

For testimonials on Simon’s experience and style, please contact him at [email protected]

Tom is Global Head of Change for Group CFO, based in London. He also serves as the Programme Director for the “Aspire” Transformation programme that is re-vamping the Target Operating Model, Systems, Processes, and Data across Finance, Treasury, and Supply Chain.

Tom joined Standard Chartered in 2016. Prior to this he was with Royal Bank of Scotland in London where he was Head of Business Transformation & Architecture, and held similar roles previously at Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase. Prior to banking, Tom worked in M&A as a CFO for near-shore and offshore FinTech and Financial Services firms.

Tom holds a degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Dirk Kruse is Managing Director and CEO at SAP Fioneer.  

In this role, he is responsible for the company’s direction and growth by providing strategic, financial, and operational leadership. Dirk has more than 20 years of professional experience as an executive in the technology and financial services industry. Having held various leadership positions within software, cloud sales and consulting, he has gained thorough expertise and a broad business network across all service industries. Throughout his career, he has worked with major international banks and insurance companies to support their transformation journey through strategic IT initiatives. Prior to joining SAP Fioneer, Dirk served as member of the Management Board and Head of Service Industries of SAP Germany SE & Co. KG. His responsibilities included the areas of sales, presales, value engineering and services for Banking, Insurance, Media, Professional Services, Telco as well as Travel & Transportation.   

Gintare is currently the Global Vice President of Partnerships & Innovation, leading a cross-team innovation effort at Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions. She joined Citi from SAP, where she led large-scale innovation programs across Southeast Asia and helped embed a human-centred-approach-to-innovation into many SAP applications built on BTP. With a career spanning across North-America, Europe, and Asia, Gintare has built a global portfolio of innovation success stories within retail, commerce, and financial services.

Ashutosh is the Managing Director and Head of Global Transaction Banking, Asia & Oceania. He is based out of Singapore and is responsible for the strategy and execution of the Global Transaction Banking business and building and expanding its franchise in Asia. 

Ashutosh is a dynamic business leader and brings over 20 years of global experience, with a deep understanding of, and extensive experience in, Asia and the Global Transaction Banking business. Ashutosh is known for his unwavering commitment to innovation and his deep knowledge of digital ecosystems. He has successfully transformed and built numerous businesses over the last 15 years. Ashutosh is a member of the Task group on Traceability and Sustainability of Supply Chains at Enterprise Singapore. 

Ashutosh joined Mizuho from Standard Chartered Bank, where he held many senior roles including Global Head of Working Capital; Global Head of Transaction Banking Sales, Commercial Banking; Regional Head of ASEAN & South Asia, Transaction Banking; Global Head of Banking the Ecosystem; Regional Head Transaction Banking, India & South Asia and Global Head of Corporate Cash & Trade Products. Before joining Standard Chartered Bank in 2005, Ashutosh held various position in ABN AMRO’s Global Trade business in Asia Pacific region. 

Ashutosh lives in Singapore and is married with a daughter and son

Mark Verwijs is IT Manager for Housing at Rabobank in the Netherlands. With mortgages as the main activity Housing is one of the key revenue driving businesses in Rabobank. Mark’s career took him from a start as an Auditor at KPMG through several consultancy firms to Rabobank where as of 2007 he had a number of different responsibilities in the IT domain. This included Risk & Finance –ledger, data, reporting – and FEC – transaction monitoring for anti money laundering, sanctions, fraud. When not working Mark is a sports enthusiast with a passion for rowing, cycling, running.

As an Innovation principal, Kim supports customer and partner enablement by identifying and harnessing AI innovation opportunities that enhance processes and usability, driving the modernisation of businesses into intelligent enterprises. With over 20 years of experience spanning South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, holding various operations, Centre of Excellence, and technology roles, helped her develop a well-rounded understanding of the end-to-end business processes. Holding a PhD in AI integration into business, Kim is passionate about leveraging AI to simplify processes. Her research has led to multiple academic publications exploring AI integration into business. She founded the SAP AI Council in Australia to focus on the responsible adoption, operation, and scaling of AI across Australian industries. With a specialised focus on AI and its strategic applications within the business domain, Kim lectures part-time at various business schools.

Sarat Mohanty is the Deputy General Manager at SMBC bank in Singapore driving Transaction Banking transformation & client implementation in Asia Pacific region. Sarat is also an adjunct professor & executive education fellow at NUS school of computing & business school. Sarat’s core competency includes 1) Working Capital Management, 2) Physical Supply Chain Management, 3) Financial Supply Chain Management & 4) Digital transformation in financial institutions. Sarat has a decade of physical supply chain management experience at Levi Strauss (Asia Pacific), adidas (Global) & Black & Decker (EMEA), he is six-sigma certified in supply chain management. He has more than decade of cash management & financial supply chain client implementation experience at Standard Chartered Bank where he was the Global head of client implementation responsible for in excess of 1bn USD revenue generation. Sarat has a strong technology background, he teaches AI, Blockchain & Quantum Computing at NUS Singapore. Sarat has supervised project capstone at NUS on Digital Supply Chain Finance Tower for master’s in digital finance technology students using speech-to-data AI solution

I've built my career on a passion for business process. I'm a hands-on project professional who thrives on delivering tangible outcomes. I've worked in the financial industry long enough to intimately feel the pain points faced by a lot of conference attendees. I understand the challenges that financial services professionals grapple with when it comes to developing and distributing products and services within an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

Martin has been with Standard Chartered for 7 years and is part of the leadership team driving out their Finance Transformation program. The “Aspire” program is revamping the Target Operating Model, System Processes and Data across Finance and Treasury. Martin has 25+ years of financial services international experience in banking across London, New York, Zurich and now Singapore. Martin likes working in dynamic environments. committed to driving change, improving financial outcomes, and fostering a culture of excellence within organizations.

Martin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pure Mathematics and Statistics from The University of Sheffield.

Jubin Mehta is the CEO of Tune Protect Malaysia, joining in May 2022. With 19+ years of experience in finance and tech across multiple countries, notably India, Vietnam, and Malaysia, his task includes steering the organisation towards transformation, fostering a culture of both ‘fun and uncomfortable’. Jubin brings with him substantial technical and leadership experience in the space of Financial Services and Technology spanning roles in Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, and pioneering innovative data analytics and consulting ventures previously. Jubin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University and an MBA with a Marketing major from the Management Development Institute of India.  He is an avid sports enthusiast who enjoys pursuing marathons, trail running and simply love being in the outdoors while exploring new experiences in life.

Peter Pallister is the GM of Engineering and Service Management for Retail Digital Technology that also includes the Bank’s digital solutions and core banking. 

Peter has 30+ years of financial services experience across institutional, business and consumer/retail.  He has worked 20+ years globally for large wholesale banks like JPMorgan mainly out of London/NY/Tokyo and Singapore.

1986-2022 Samsung Life Insurance

             - Senior Vice President of Digital Innovation

             - Vice President of Samsung E2E Project (SLI & SFMI)

             - Director of Innovation Team (SAP PI & POC)

             - Senior manager of Next Generation System Project

2023    S-Tech Consulting (Senior Advisor)

2001-2012: SAP Korea, Consulting & Pre-Sales
2012 to Present: Samsung Life Insurance
                 Technical Lead of SAP ERP PoC
                 Leader of Insurance Core Implementation
                 Senior Manager of the Technology Strategy Department

Named one of the top 108 financial services influencers to follow by The Financial Brand, Danny Tang is a renowned thought leader in banking transformation.

Danny is the Chief Digital Officer of E.Sun Bank, a Taipei-based large financial institution with over 100 billion dollars in assets. As CDO, Danny is responsible for delivering a great digital experience for E.Sun’s 7 million customers as well as driving digital transformation for the 9000-employee organization. His leadership helped propel E.Sun into an elite regional bank. The reputable Asian Banker recently places E.Sun not only among the top 10 best digital banking services in Asia-Pacific1, but also number one in customer experience among retail banks across 20 AP-MEA countries2.

Prior to returning from the U.S. to join E.Sun Bank in 2021, Danny spent about 20 years in IBM where he had a distinguished career in various capacities, including Global Solutions Leader of Banking Industry. Danny was also a Member of the prestigious IBM Industry Academy as well as Board Member of IT Architect profession. While at IBM, Danny travelled extensively and advised banks from over 50 countries.

Danny has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a BA in Business Administration from National Taiwan University. He enjoys public speaking in both English and Chinese. Some of his publications on banking transformation can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannytang/details/featured/ .

Calvin Cordle was appointed as Managing Director and CEO of RedZed in 2023. He has worked in financial services for more than 20 years. He was most recently General manager of Private Banking at National Australia Bank and he also held senior positions at Barclays Bank in the UK. Calvin is responsible for taking RedZed into the next phase of growth.

Nimit joined Mastercard in India in 2008, and has worked on diverse assignments in business development, merchant acceptance and digital payment solutions in South Asia and Southeast Asia, including payment gateway, digital wallets and tokenization. As a member of Mastercard’s Cyber & Intelligence product management team, Nimit was responsible for the commercialization of Mastercard’s suite of Identity solutions products in the Asia Pacific region, including rollout of the EMV 3DS authentication protocol. Today, Nimit is part of Mastercard’s Products & Innovation team where he heads the New Payment Flows product group for the Asia Pacific region covering real-time payments, cross-border services and open banking.

Carsten Dehner graduated in pure mathematics, after teaching some years at the “Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW)” in Stuttgart Germany, he decided to go into the practice and joined Vienna Insurance Group in 2008. He started in an IT subsidiary with SAP for Insurance co-innovation, moved to VIG Holding and was responsible for the Group wide introduction of Solvency II Reporting, before he took over the Data, Processes and IT workstream of IFRS17, especially overall responsibility for FPSL. From the beginning he was in the Leadership team of the worldwide FPSL Usergroup, whose chairman he is since 2023. In parallel he was heading different business departments and operated some managing director functions in IT. Since 1^st of July, Carsten is the Group Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO) of VIG.

Jerome has 30 years of extensive experience in business strategy, technology, and project management. Over the years, he has been involved in business strategy development, profit improvement, business application architecture, technology strategy, and the execution of change management plans. Since 1994, Jerome has focused on leading process reengineering and the implementation of large-scale modernization solutions. He believes that the key to solution implementation should be the redesign of business processes to modernize them, rather than simply focusing on technology. 

Discovery Bank, founded in 2019, is a full-service digital bank known for its innovative business model. The bank offers dynamic discounted interest rates on savings and loans based on how well customers manage their credit, aiming to change consumer behavior and encourage customers to develop good financial habits. In just three years, Discovery Bank has attracted over one million account holders and was selected as the Best Digital Bank by MyBroadband in 2023, thanks to its powerful banking app and superior customer service. 

Mr. Augustine Wong is currently the CIO of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) and has been active in Vietnam market for the last 4 years, working closely with various leading Technology companies to drive the digitalization and transformation program for VPBank as well as group technology responsibilities for its subsidiaries and ecosystems of companies. He has a wealth of experience in Information Technology in both Applications and Infrastructure spanning some 30+ years in the Banking & Retail Industry in various leadership roles at some leading Banks in Singapore such as Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank and as the Global Vice President of Technology Services at DFS Group (subsidiary of LVMH).

An enthusiastic and innovative HR professional with 20 years of extensive experience as an HR practitioner in the manufacturing and financial services industries, covering organizational development, learning and career development, talent management, and HR Business Partner. In the last 7 years, responsible for process optimization, digital transformation, project management and change management.

Passionate to grow others and challenging processes, continuously looking for innovative ways to improve through experimentation and taking risks, learning from mistakes or failures and turning company challenges into successes.

Successfully bring Danamon HR as the First Core SAP Clouds Implementation in South East Asia, business process reengineering and third party managed services for several HR administration processes.