Hermawan Kartajaya Founder & Chairman, MarkPlus Inc & Founder Asia Marketing Federation

Hermawan Kartajaya is the founder of the Asia Marketing Federation, the President of the Asia Council for Small Business and President of International Council for Small Business-Chapter Indonesia. In 2003, he was named as one of the "50 Gurus Who Have Shaped the Future of Marketing" by CIM-UK. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Global Leadership Award from the Pan-Pacific Business Association.  He is both a strategic business thinker and a marketing practitioner. He has written seven international books with Philip Kotler—the father of modern marketing. His latest books, Marketing 3.0 is widely acknowledged globally and is published in 27 languages and Marketing 4.0 is already published in 22 languages. Hermawan is the Executive Chairman and Founder of MarkPlus Inc., a leading integrated marketing solution provider, which provides comprehensive Consulting, Research, Training and Media Services with branches in 18 cities in Indonesia. He received a honorary doctorate degree from ITS Surabaya.

Anupam Yog Adviser Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN).

Anupam Yog is a creative strategist with experience in competitive positioning of countries, cities, destinations and places. Passionate about urban innovation, Anupam is an avid community organizer and champion for walkable cities. He was invited by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities to join their Young Leaders Group in 2018.

In a career spanning nearly two decades, Anupam has held leadership roles in high growth environments across the public, private & social sectors.  He has crafted and implemented global campaigns for Brand India, most notably at the World Economic Forum in Davos, successfully positioning India as the “fastest growing free market democracy”; for Brand London in Beijing, Mumbai and Delhi; and led economic diplomacy & investment marketing initiatives in the UK, EU, USA, Japan, Brazil, China and ASEAN. He has also successfully helped launch Virtuous Retail, an institutional property development company that owns and operates a portfolio of ~ 6 million square feet of branded, community focused, new age retail destinations in major Indian cities.

Anupam was recognized as one of India’s leading urban innovators by Metropolis, World Association of Major Metropolises in “Indian Cities: Managing Urban Growth”. He has been invited to share his vision of alternative urban futures at SAIS – The Johns Hopkins University and the World Bank in Washington DC. He has co-developed and teaches, as guest faculty, an executive education course on ‘Inclusive Citymaking’ at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (NUS) in Singapore.

Nancy Snow Pax Mundi Professor of Public Diplomacy Kyoto University of Foreign Studies

Nancy Snow (Ph.D., International Relations) is a scholar, writer, professor and speaker on all things global persuasion and public diplomacy. She is Professor Emeritus of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. Since 2016 Snow has served as Pax Mundi Professor of Public Diplomacy at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, the first and only public diplomacy professor in Japan. Dr. Snow advises La Ditta Limited and Langley Esquire in public and media affairs. Snow is Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Contemporary Asia Studies at Temple University Japan. She is a two-time Fulbright scholar (Germany, Japan), and a former Abe Fellow and Visiting Research Professor at Keio University. Snow’s Abe fellowship research led to the publication of Japan’s Information War in 2016, a book about the government of Japan’s efforts to expand its global outreach in a competitive nation branding region like Northeast Asia. 

Snow is the author and editor of 11 books, including the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy(2009). Snow will publish a second edition of the Handbook with leading public diplomacy scholar Nicholas J. Cull, Director of the Master’s in Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. Snow has given nearly 500 media interviews on branding-related policies, including post-9/11 USA and post-3/11 Japan. Snow’s visiting professorships in public diplomacy include Tsinghua University in China, Sophia University in Japan, UiTM in Malaysia, and IDC-Herzliya in Israel, as well as the University of Southern California and Syracuse University. Since 2013, Snow has contributed articles on nation brand Japan to The Japan Times. 

Snow’s government service was as a Presidential Management Fellow at the United States Information Agency and Department of State in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for overseeing cultural and academic exchanges like the Fulbright Program. She has most recently lectured on nation branding at the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, Seoul National University, Ewha Womans University, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Okinawa. 

Cathy Ileto Head of Country Branding Committee Philippines

Cathy was part of the original team that established the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP). Cathy’s passion for the Philippine IT-BPM industry was recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry in 2008 for all the initiatives she had launched to promote the country as a Center of Excellence in Outsourcing. Her efforts to promote the industry and the country has brought many of today’s key players to establish their roots in the Philippines. She is currently leading the marketing communications and public affairs function at Sutherlandacross Asia Pacific.

In 2015, Cathy was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina in the World by the prestigious Filipina Women’s Network. She was honored with the BUILDER award for demonstrating exceptional business impact at a large workplace environment, displaying deep passion for a cause through collaborative initiatives or alliances with nonprofit organizations on behalf of her own organization.

Adam Jones-Kelley President Conway

Adam Jones-Kelley is a world leading expert in cross-border investment and corporate expansion strategy. He has worked with Conway, Inc., for 18 years and served as President for five. Prior to becoming President of Conway Adam managed the award-winning international magazine Site  Selection.

Since assuming the presidency Adam has overseen dramatic growth, expanding the firm’s service offerings to cover every sector of the investment attraction industry. Adam has also lead the acquisition of several global companies, expanding Conway’s reach and product base.

Adam has broad experience in economic development publishing and marketing, has been a featured speaker at events around the world and has been interviewed for various news media in the US, Europe and Asia. Adam has consulted for dozens of government economic development agencies on six continents, helping them position themselves to attract domestic and foreign corporate investment and create jobs.

Adam is also an accomplished writer, having produced original content for Site  Selection magazine, OnSite Travel and The FDI Report.

In recent decades Adam has visited more than 80 countries, working with investment promotion agencies, free trade zones and industrial parks on their strategic and business development initiatives. A deadly parasite in Ghana nearly killed him last decade, as did stepping in front of a tram in Prague, adventures which he dutifully chronicled for the aforementioned OnSite Travel.

Adam grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and Auckland, New Zealand. He now resides in Peachtree Corners where he’s been enslaved by a pair of rambunctious kittens.

This idyllic life leaves Adam a little restless. He’s an avid adventure-sport enthusiast who enjoys activities such as bungee jumping and diving with sharks, and does philanthropic work for endangered and abused animals.

Dennis J. Meseroll Co-Founder and Executive Director Tractus Asia Limited

Dennis Meseroll is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Tractus Asia Limited a foreign direct investment strategy advisory firm with offices in Shanghai, China; Chennai, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Yangon, Myanmar; Singapore; Bangkok, Thailand and; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Dennis has more than 20 years experience in Asia advising and assisting over 100 companies in the development and implementation of their market entry strategies in a wide variety of industrial sectors. These assignments have included undertaking operational and financial feasibility assessments, site location analysis, real estate and investment incentives negotiations and transactions as well as the management of their corporate entity establishment and investment approvals through to operational start-up. Clients have included Fortune 1000 companies in a wide variety of industrial sectors including: automotive, electronics, semiconductor, textiles and garments, medical devices, chemicals, steel, pharmaceuticals as well as service sectors including: telecommunications, healthcare, legal and professional services.

In addition to his private sector advisory work, he has been an advisor to the investment promotion agencies of the governments of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines and Thailand; the Ministry of Finance of the government of Pakistan; the trade promotion agency of the state of Ohio as well as The World Bank, MIGA and the ASEAN Secretariat on the development of trade promotion and investment attraction strategies.

He writes and speaks frequently at international conferences on the topics of site selection, FDI strategy and economics and has been widely quoted in regional newspapers as well as Businessweek, CNBC, The Asian Wall Street Journal and Asiaweek. He is an active member of the Industrial Asset Management Council's (IAMC) International Advisory Council; the International Economic Development Council (IEDC); the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, where he is Secretary of the Chamber's Myanmar Chapter and Co-Chairman of its Myanmar Task Force.He is a member of the board of directors of several companies in Asia.

Dennis received his BA in geology with a concentration in Southeast Asian Studies from Rutgers University, a certificate in Thai Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a MS in applied economics from the Penn State University. He was a Fulbright scholar in Thailand and is fully fluent in the Thai language.

Josef Joachim Gmeiner Owner Rinovasol Group

Josef Gmeiner was born on the 24th March 1986 in Weiden, Bavaria, Germany, as son of an entrepreneur and famous inventor of the ultrasonic industry, Josef Gmeiner senior. Josef attended a technology and science oriented high-school from 1996 to 2006 and graduated from there. His studies continued in 2006 at the University of Applied Sciences on Economics and Engineering until 2010. 

His propensity for research, development and technology came up early: already in the year 2005, before he was twenty years old, two machine designs was registered by him1. Josef was an experienced programmer of Java and next the University studies he taught programming.

Josef made the internships during the University studies at the “WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH” (Parkstein, Germany), the world-market-leader in storage-systems, and at “KIRRON GmbH” (Witron, Germany), a high tech company. After his second internship at KIRRON GmbH he flew his first time to China together with the GM of KIRRON GmbH. His internship brought him into contact with the PV-Industry as he should set up purchase agreements for solar components for a new division of KIRRON GmbH.

Through this experiences, he entered in the market of the renewables energy, understanding the opportunities of this business and the “blu ocean” market between the new PV-modules and the recycling of them.

Before the end of the University, In October 2009, he found the company GK Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH, which is now Rinovasol GmbH. Josef has been the CEO since the incorporation of the company, addressing the target of the business on giving broken PV-Panels a second life before their end-of-life.

After several efforts and data collection, he understood that the massive demand globally caused a poor quality of some productions. The results of this research showed that a significant quantity of solar-panels breaks down before the fifth year instead of the industry promise of 25 years, due to production problems. Josef studied the best way to manage the process of “revitalize” of the panels and achieved in the year 2014 the first patent for the workflow2.

Until today Josef personally managed installations of more than 200 solar projects resulting in the creation of 50 MWp between small- and utility-scale size, gathering to Rinovasol the experience on which the Group is based on nowadays.

Following the growth of the market and the know-how achieved, Josef planned a worldwide strategy, and Rinovasol is becoming an international group, with companies established in every continent.

In the year 2016 was incorporated in China the “Suntronic Industries”, followed the year after by the foundation of “Changxing J&G”. These companies produce new PV-panels based on the patented refurbishment process and operate a local service partner for fixing and recycling of the modules.

Josef Gmeiner continued to collect and study the data flow, searching for better engineering solutions. The results of the R&D process allowed to define three further patents in the PV-industry, ensuring a higher quality of the know-how of the group. This let Josef and Rinovasol to open commercial and facilities divisions in India, Singapore, Australia, USA, Canada, Somaliland And France.

Moreover, a big achievement was the official partnership between Rinovasol GmbH and PV-Cycle, the world’s largest enterprise for recycling of PV-panels, signed in September 2017, in which all the group take pride. Josef is familiar with most cultures of the world due to his groups expansion and continues always searching for new opportunities in “green-industries”.

1 Year 2004 Registration of registered design 202004002809.3 for „Bohrvorrichtung für eine Handbohrmaschine“; Year 2005 Registration of registered design 202004018003.0 for „Positioniergerät“.  
2 Year 2014 Patent for “the fixing of broken PV-Panels”, number DE 10 2014 102 729 A1. Besides the market of the renewables, Josef has deepen other business opportunities in the food markets. In 2013 he found “Sunopo KG” which was designed as a food trading company; the company is sourcing for European clients, partially belong to automotive industries.

Vilma Jurkute Director Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

With a degree in International Business from Grenoble Graduate School of Business, Vilma has spent the last decade developing creative industries across New York, Chicago, London and Dubai. She joined Alserkal Avenue in 2011 and in her time with the organisation, she has been instrumental in its evolution and responsible for overseeing the Avenue’s physical expansion in 2015 as well as the inauguration of Concrete in 2017. Vilma also launched Alserkal Programming in 2015, and Alserkal Residency in 2017, affirming the organisation’s commitment to the development of arts and culture in the region. She has been a vocal supporter of growing a creative economy, and a strong advocate for its importance in social development and identity within the MENASA region. Vilma serves on the advisory boards of the Global Cultural Districts Network and the Jean-Paul Najar Foundation. Vilma is currently pursuing an Executive MSc in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford, UK.

Todd Babiak CEO Brand Tasmania

Todd Babiak is CEO of Brand Tasmania. He made the switch from place branding and economic development consulting, with Story Engine and Places are People, where he had worked with clients in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Why did he move to Tasmania, to join his former client as CEO? He had never implemented a strategy before, and he was inspired to understand why people didn’t always take action on his “brilliant advice.”

Now he gets it.

See tasmanian.com.au and toddbabiak.com.

Sunil Sharma Senior Manager - Research, Planning and Monitoring. Nepal Tourism Board

Mr. Sunil Sharma, currently serves as anSenior Manager in Research, Planning and Monitoring Department at Nepal Tourism Board. He is mainly responsible for developing tourism policy and planning in accordance to Government of Nepal's plans and programmes for overall development, tourism in particular. He is also in charge of liaising with tourism stakeholders and along with TourismAssociation for overall tourism development.  He serves as a think tank to both Nepal Tourism Board and Government as well.Earlier on he served in Public Relations and Publicity and Tourism Marketing and Promotion Department in the capacity of Officiating Director. He has 15 years rich experience in tourism sector. He holds degree in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne.

Apart from being working at Nepal Tourism Board, Mr. Sharma has also written articles in various local journals, books and magazines regarding development aspects of tourism such as ecotourism, rural tourism, and sustainable livelihoods. His writings are influential and he is considered to be an influential thinker. During his free time he loves to trek and explore the unexplored areas. He is passionate about photography and has won couple of accolades in photography as well. His photographs are readily available in social media.