Singapore|5 August 2009

Suman K. Bery
Director-General
National Council for Applied Economic Research (India)

Suman K. Bery is the Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in New Delhi, India. NCAER is an independent, non-profit research institution committed to assisting government, civil society and the private sector in making informed policy choices.

Prior to this appointment, Bery was the Lead Economist for Brazil at the World Bank in Washington, DC (US). Other assignments at the World Bank included Division Chief for National Economic Management at the former Economic Development Institute (now the World Bank Institute); Secretary to the Bank’s Research Committee; and country work on Iran, Yugoslavia, Tanzania and Jamaica. In the early 1990s, Bery held the position of Special Consultant to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in Bombay.

After schooling in India and the UK, Bery graduated from Oxford University’s Magdalen College with a first class degree in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE). His graduate work was at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, from which he holds the degree of Master of Public and International Affairs.

Thomas H. Davenport
President's Distinguished Professor at Babson College
Co-author of the best-seller Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning

Thomas H. Davenport is the President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College and co-directs research for the Business Analytics research program at nGenera (formerly BSG Concours). He is the former director of research centers at Accenture, Ernst & Young, and McKinsey, and has taught at Harvard Business School, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Davenport is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and other leading journals, and he is the author or co-author of 12 books. Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning has become a best-seller and has been translated into 10 languages. His latest book, Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, is due out later in 2009.

Dr. Fan Gang
Director
National Economic Research Institute (China)

Dr. Fan Gang is one of China’s most influential economists and leading reform advocates. A respected advisor to China’s leadership on economic reform and strategic development, he is an expert in the macroeconomics of long-term development, international trade and currency, foreign relations and regional integration within Asia. Dr. Fan also is a prolific author, having written more than 100 academic papers and eight books.

Malcolm Gladwell
Best-selling author of Outliers: The Story of Success; Blink; and The Tipping Point.

Author Malcolm Gladwell has an incomparable gift for interpreting new ideas in the social sciences and making them understandable, practical and valuable to business and general audiences alike. In Gladwell’s most recent book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he suggests an exciting new approach to helping people succeed by using the factors that really foster success. Outliers debuted as a No. 1 bestseller for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Barnes & Noble, and Publisher’s Weekly.

Gladwell also is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and has authored two previous bestsellers, The Tipping Point and Blink.

Jim Goodnight
CEO
SAS

Since he co-founded SAS in 1976, Jim Goodnight has served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. A worldwide leader in enterprise intelligence solutions and services, SAS has more than 10,000 employees in 53 countries. In 2008, the company’s 33rd consecutive year of growth and profitability, its revenue was $2.26 billion.

In 2004, Harvard Business School named Goodnight as one of the "20th Century’s Great American Business Leaders," citing his impact on "the way people have lived, worked and interacted in the 20th century."

Goodnight has a PhD in statistics and speaks internationally on leadership, education and innovation.

Tim Harcourt
Chief Economist
Australian Trade Commission

As chief economist of the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), Tim Harcourt analyses the global economy to help Australian exporters and helps Austrade devise its own international business strategies.

A prolific author and frequent globe-trotter, he is an active commentator in the Australian and international media on economic and trade issues, and he appears regularly on TV and radio shows and writes for a number of major publications, Web sites and blogs. Harcourt’s latest best-selling business book, The Airport Economist, proves in a uniquely clever and witty way that there’s an export dimension to nearly everything and that not all economics writing leaves readers high and dry.

Before joining Austrade, Harcourt was an economist and industrial advocate with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). He also has worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and has overseas experience in the corporate sector in the UK, US and Israel.

Harcourt was educated at the University of Adelaide, the University of Minnesota and Harvard University.

Ho Kwon Ping
Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited
Chairman, Singapore Management University

Ho Kwon Ping is Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, which owns both listed and private companies engaged in the development, ownership and operation of hotels, resorts, spas, residential homes, retail galleries and other lifestyle activities in the region. He also is Chairman of Singapore Management University, the third national university in Singapore.

Ho has received numerous honours recognising his excellence in leadership, including 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum (2005); Business Week magazine's 25 Stars of Asia (2005); the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Advertising Singapore (2005); Lifestyle, Hospitality & Retail Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2006); CEO of the Year at the Singapore Corporate Awards 2008; and Hotelier of the Year at the Stylemaker Awards (2008).

Ho attended Tunghai University in Taiwan and Stanford University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Singapore and an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration in Hospitality Management from Johnson & Wales University, the largest hospitality university in the world.

Don Tapscott
Chairman of nGenera Insight, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World and co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Don Tapscott is an internationally renowned authority on the strategic value and impact of information technology. He consistently predicts the next business imperatives and defines the business models and strategies that the new imperatives require. He has authored or co-authored 11 widely read books on technology and business, and his most recent book was named one of the best books on innovation in 2006 by BusinessWeek. Tapscott served as founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm prior to its acquisition by nGenera.

Poised to transform every social institution, the Net Generation is reshaping the form and functions of school, work and even democracy. Simply put, the wave of youth aged 12-30 – the first truly global generation – is affecting all institutions. Employers, instructors, parents, marketers and political leaders are finding it necessary to adapt to the changing social fabric due to this generation’s unique characteristics. Within its comprehensive examination of the Net Generation, and based on a US$4.5 million study, Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital offers valuable insight and concrete takeaways for leaders across all social institutions.

Christoph Vilanek
Chief Executive Officer
freenet AG

Christoph Vilanek was appointed Chief Executive Officer of freenet AG in May 2009. Previously, Vilanek was a member of the strategy team in charge of merging freenet AG and the debitel Group, where he had been an Executive Vice President since 2005.

Vilanek began his career at Time-Life International in 1991 and worked in mail-order retail for 10 years before joining McKinsey & Company as a consultant for the German and Eastern European telecommunications sector.

Pravir Vohra
Group Chief Technology Officer
ICICI Bank

As Group CTO at ICICI Bank, Pravir Vohra is responsible for IT strategy and innovation, enterprise architecture, process automation and leveraging technology synergies across ICICI Bank and its group companies.

Vohra has been associated with ICICI Group for about eight years. His earlier assignments within the group included Head of the Retail Technology Group and Head of the Technology Management Group. He also oversaw the deployment of technology across ICICI Bank’s international operations.

Prior to his present appointment, Vohra worked with Times Bank as Vice President of Corporate Services. He spearheaded the bank’s technology-enabled services to corporations in several areas, including cash management, supply chain management and merchant banking.

Vohra began his career in banking at State Bank of India, where he worked for 23 years, both in India and abroad. Vohra is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers and has a postgraduate degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.

Jim Davis
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
SAS

As Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Davis provides worldwide marketing direction for SAS^® solutions and services. He is responsible for managing product direction, professional services, education, advertising and communications.

A respected thought leader, Davis co-authored the book Information Revolution: Using the Information Evolution Model to Grow Your Business.

Since joining SAS in 1994, Davis has pioneered many key initiatives, including global projects that incorporate customer feedback in the development process. Today, he continues to refine the model for continuous collaboration and innovation among engineers, marketers and customers, enabling SAS to meet the global demand for enterprise intelligence.

Mikael Hagström
Executive Vice President
SAS Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific

As the Executive Vice President of EMEA and Asia Pacific for SAS, Mikael Hagström is passionate about providing a culture where innovation can flourish, resulting in market leadership both for the organisation and its customers.

Hagström is responsible for optimising business performance, delivering revenue and managing operations in more than 50 countries with individual Profit and Loss centres. He has extensive executive sales management experience with a successful record of growing business and fostering strong leadership in local geographies.

As a member of the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) Executive Council, Hagström is a frequent speaker on the multinational business climate.