ASIA-PACIFIC TECHNOLOGY NETWORK

Chair: Hugh Purser, non-executive director of David Ball Group and Dimeled Pte

Speakers:
Datuk SK Lingam, President, ASEAN-UK Business Forum
"The Future of ASEAN under Malaysia's Presidency" (working title)
Dr Lawrence Lau, Asian-based investment scout.
"Singaporean Smarts: Innovation Box or Imaginative Hoax?"
Karl Verhulst, Head of Sales Operations, Fujitsu Global Delivery, Fujitsu Services
"the post Y2k IT landscape across ASEAN"
Datuk SK Lingam will give an overview of ASEAN's recent evolution and will consider how Malaysia may take the grouping forward when they take over the Presidency next year. Other speakers in the programme (and we hope to add two more) will look at various aspects of ASEAN members as they place themselves in this world of high-tech competition.

Dr Lau will focus on Singapore which has released a master plan for establishing itself as a Global IP trading hub for Asia within the decade. Drawing historical lessons from London as commodities hub (colonial trade) and Silicon Valley as entrepreneurial hub (human capital) it is possible to conjecture as to critical factors in supporting an emergent economy of ideas. Beyond the legal mechanics (registration of IP) and transactional support, is there a way to assess the strengths of ambitious claims to become the hub of the knowledge economy?

Karl Verhulst will draw on his experiences while working in ASEAN to reflect on the IT landscape.

Location: Fasken Martineau, 17 Hanover Square London W1S 1HU
Nearest tube station: Oxford Circus
Timing: Registration from 17:00: seminar from 17:30 - 19.15 (followed by refreshments)
Pricing:

Free to Fasken Martineau clients,or APTN annual supporters
£45 (Executives)
£25 (Asian citizens/institutions, officials, executives from Small Companies)
£20 (Supporters of ASEAN-UK Business Forum)
£15 (Academics)
Free for the Media
To Register your interest- please send your details (name, institutional affiliation, email address, phone number - and the category you come under) to [email protected]

Datuk SK LINGAM
President - ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF) Chairman – Malaysian Link UK (MLUK) Snr. Vice president Friends of BarisanNasional UK Datuk SK Lingam (SK) is an International corporate consultant. He was the first Chairman of the ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF) www.aubf.co.uk, a forum which was initiated 16 years ago by the then, their Excellencies the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the Court of St James’s. He remained elected & unopposed Chairman of AUBF since its inception & now it's President. In April 2000 SK was acknowledged with a book on ASEAN by the author of the book the then Secretary General of ASEAN His Excellency Rudolfo Severino with His Excellency’s appreciation remarks “To SK, an ASEAN asset in the UK”. In 2008 as an acknowledgement of SK’s ten (10) years service to the ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF), the Secretary General of ASEAN His Excellency OngKeng Yong awarded SK with an appreciation plaque for his excellent services. Further SK was the immediate former First Vice President of ASEAN – EU Business Network, based in Brussels.AEBN was launched by the then EU Trade Commissioner & The Rt. Hon. George Yeo, the then Singapore Minister of Trade & Industry. SK was the founding and former member of Malaysia UK Association (MUKA) and The Focus Malaysia Group (FMG) in London. SK is currently the founding member and first Chairman of Malaysian Link UK (MLUK) till present. Aside this SK is the Senior Vice President of Friends of BarisanNasional(FBNUK)- www.friendsofbn.org.uk The FBN UK was launched at the House of Lords on the 14th May 2012 by the Prime minister of Malaysia, The Hon. Dato Seri NajibRazak, who is the Patron of the Friends of Barisan Nasional UK. In recognition of his services to the Nation (Malaysia) SK was acknowledged by His Majesty,the King of Malaysia with an award of the title "Datuk" akin to the British knighthood wich carries the title "Sir." SK has given many public addresses in the UK, Europe and in ASEAN on EU,UK & ASEAN political, legal, socio economic and trade matters. He has also acted as moderator in many trade seminars, dialogue sessions and conferences both in the UK and in ASEAN. SK has also appeared on various TV channels including on the BBC. SK has also in the past held the position of Chairman and President of various UK community based charities such as the Melting Pot Foundation, the Afro Asian Rehabilitation Centre, the West Indians Women Association to mention a few. SK is a staunch supporter of the Macmillan Cancer Support and British Heart Foundation charities. His interests include reading, theatre, cinema, classical, contemporary music, gym, Formula 1 (Mercedes) and he is a die- hard Gooner (Arsenal) and England football, cricket and rugby supporter.

Dr Lawrence Lau
started off as a sedate academic in High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) before joining the ranks of the legal profession, applying blended skills in both domains to identification, then commercialisation of innovation. Stints in Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta and Shenzhen allowed personal observation of national innovation policies and industrial parks across Asia, many of which have provided edification to readers of the Asia Pacific Technology Network. Apart from freelance career as investment scout looking for radical inventions and structuring debt-based financing of intangibles, Lawrence has reported on Startup Weekend and Silicon Beach Australia, crowd-investing and open innovation (including winning an Innocentive challenge), and Open Source including the NZ debate on excluding software patents. Current activities include participating in the Asia Development Bank Low Carbon Technology and Climate Finance Centre and exploring the cooperative basis for a nano-metamaterials IP exchange.

Hugh Purser
has been a long term adviser to APTN, and spent nearly two decades in Asia, primarily working in the ASEAN economies in the investment and technology sectors, amongst other roles being a former consultant to Singapore’s National Science & Technology Board (now A*STAR) He is a non-executive director of David Ball Group plc in UK and of Dimeled Pte Ltd in Singapore. He is founder of the Republik of Kreative Ekonomi, an initiative to link talent in the Creative Industries in the UK and SE Asia. He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Buckingham.

Karl Verhulst
Head of Sales Operations, Fujitsu Global Delivery, Fujitsu Services Prior to returning to the UK to lead Global Sales Operations for Fujitsu Services out of the UK, Karl developed his sales management career between 1995 and 2014 in Singapore, working his way from a Microsoft Product Manager with Singaporean distributors and setting up the channel infrastructure for Citrix to Vice President, ASEAN with CA Technologies responsible for regional revenue performance. Covering ASEAN between 1999 and 2014 he was fortunate to travel extensively across the region to meet with customers and resellers in the enterprise software arena and witness the changing IT landscape in ASEAN. Karl’s Singaporean wife and children are settling in very well and do not miss Singapore yet. Karl picked up Indonesian during his 3 year stint in Indonesia in the early ‘90’s. Currently he is currently developing a Global Account Management Program and improving global pipeline management for Fujitsu.