The Premier Business Leadership Series: Hong Kong

Arun is on The Global CIO 50: IT Leaders Changing the Business World, published by Informationweek in June 2009. He is winner of CIO Ingenious 100 award in 2009, CIO Bold 100 award in 2008 and CIO Giant 100 award in 2006 organized by CIO Magazine, an IDG publication. Under his leadership, Shoppers Stop has won the CIO Innovation Award 2009, Storage Award 2008, India Retail Forum 2007 award for "Best Technology Usage;" HyperCity has won the Real Results Award – Emerging Markets in April 2008 at JDA FOCUS at USA. The group has also won 3 PC Quest Enterprise Awards and 2 Network Computing EDGE awards in 2009.

He is recognized as a "Business friendly" CIO and a leader in aligning IT and business and was featured by Economic Times as "The CIO who never spoke Technology." He specializes in "IT-Business alignment" and turning around IT functions from pure operations to forging strategic business relationships, which he has successfully executed in most of his roles.

Prior to Shoppers Stop Ltd, he was with Philips Electronics India Limited as Director – IT and Business Relationship Manager. Arun was also Senior Director – Business Technology at Pfizer India where he was a part of the India leadership team and Asia IT Strategy Team. His career spanning over 26 years includes positions such as Vice President – IT & ISP, Hughes Telecom (now Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited), National IT Manager, DHL Worldwide Express, India, Vice President – Technology at DSP Merrill Lynch and Head IT, Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited.

Arun is an invited speaker globally and has presented on varied subjects on technology and business internationally. He is the Chairman of the Technology Committee of Retailers Association of India (RAI) and the elected President of TDWI (The Data Warehouse Institute), India. Earlier he was on the Advisory Board of CIO Magazine from 2005-2009.

Arun holds a Bachelor of Science from Mumbai University & Post Graduate in Software Technology from NCST. His personal interests include blogging, photography, music and reading. Short bio

Carl began his career in the Actuarial Department of life insurance company before moving on to become an assistant manager at the largest life insurance actuarial team in Malaysia at the time. Carl joined the General Insurance Association of Malaysia as Actuarial Manager in 2000 and was appointed as the CEO of ISM in 2005. Carl holds a Bachelors Degree (Hons.) in Actuarial Science and is a Chartered Insurance Practitioner (UK). Carl has also completed a Certificate in Takaful Practice in 1996 and Project Management Professional in 2008. In 2005, Carl became the first Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) from the insurance industry in Malaysia. Carl has more than 15 years of life, non-life and takaful industry experience.

Carl has had numerous speaking and training engagements in Malaysia and abroad on topics ranging from knowledge management, non-life pricing, enterprise risk management, insurance fraud and information technology. Short bio

Hughes' history with SAS spans 15 years. Most recently Vice President, Sales, for SAS Canada, his leadership and proven track record were critical in that country's incremental annual growth, which helped to establish significant market share across multiple industries. During his tenure, Hughes' extensive industry experience allowed him to develop a strong infrastructure and recruit top talent, strengthening sales performance and making SAS Canada one of SAS' most successful subsidiaries.

Hughes majored in English at the University of Ottawa and has more than 25 years of experience in sales and executive leadership. Prior to joining SAS, he held positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and the Thomson Corporation. Short bio