2005 Speakers

TFWA Asia Pacific 2005 keynote speaker

Christopher Francis Patten was born in 1944. He was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern History and was elected a Domus Exhibitioner. In 1965 he won a Coolidge Travelling Scholarship to the USA.

Lord Patten joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1970 and was personal assistant and political secretary to Lord Carrington and Lord Whitelaw when they were Chairmen of the Conservative Party from 1972-1974. In 1974 he was appointed the youngest ever Director of the Conservative Research Department, a post which he held until 1979.

He was elected as Member of Parliament for Bath in May 1979, a seat he held until April 1992. In 1983 he wrote The Tory Case, a study of Conservatism.

Following the General Election of June 1983, Lord Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office and in September 1985 Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. In September 1986 he became Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1989 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1998. In July 1989 Patten became Secretary of State for the Environment. In November 1990 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Read more about Christopher Patten [ PDF, 141 K ]

Managing Director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Peter Harbison is one of the region’s foremost aviation and tourism strategists and commentators. With his 30+ years experience in aviation, he regularly provides analyses on commercial industry matters, the inter-relationship between aviation and tourism, government policy development, bilateral structures and infrastructure requirements. Harbison previously worked with the Australian Department of Aviation, ICAO and IATA. As a consultant, he has worked with international aviation policy development, airport and airline privatisations, airline advisory and business planning and airport pricing strategies. He was until recently Chairman of IATA’s World Aviation Regulatory Monitor Group and is immediate past President of the Aviation Law Association of Australia and New Zealand. He is Managing Director of a tourism development company and sits on a number of industry committees providing advice on tourism and aviation policy.

Read more about Peter Harbison [ PDF, 119 K ]

Glen Murphy was appointed as Managing Director of ACNielsen China in July 2003, heading the Customized and Retail businesses in China.

Before coming to China, Glen was the Acting Managing Director of ACNielsen New Zealand. He had been with ACNielsen (NZ) Ltd for over 10 years and had extensive experience working with the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry.

In New Zealand Glen was the Group Executive Director - Retail Measurement Services, providing the Consumer Packaged Goods Sector with continuous retail tracking information based on bar-code scanning technology and retail audit.

Glen had been instrumental in the implementation of a new data processing system, providing clients with greater flexibility and increased value to their data.

Glen has a Bachelor of Management Studies, and was a member of the New Zealand Grocery Marketers Association and the New Zealand Market Research Society.

Read more about Glen Murphy [ PDF, 83 K ]

Cliff Tan is a Director of Citigroup's Economic & Market Analysis (EMA) department, based in Singapore. Mr. Tan joined Citigroup in May 2000, and now heads up local markets strategy and research for fixed income and foreign exchange in Asia Pacific. In 2003, Asiamoney cited Citigroup for best currency strategy in Asia.

Mr. Tan has 15 years of experience in research on Asia and Japan, and has published and lectured extensively on regional financial markets and economies. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Tan was FX/Interest Rate Strategist for Warburg Dillon Read in Singapore, and also acting co-head of Asian Economics and Strategy. He has worked at Wellington Management Company as Japan and Asia Economist, and as Asia Economist at Bankers Trust for proprietary trading. Previously, he was an economist at the US Federal Reserve Board covering Greater China, a Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong's School of Economics and Finance, and Visiting Fellow at the Korea Development Institute.

Mr. Tan received an MPhil and MA in Economics from Yale University and an AM in East Asian Regional Studies from Harvard University. He also holds an AB (magna cum laude) from the University of Southern California.

Mariko Fujiwara is the Research Director of the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living (HILL), a division of Hakuhodo Inc., Japan’s second largest advertising agency. HILL specializes in research on everyday life of the contemporary Japanese people and Ms. Fujiwara’s areas of expertise include lifestyle, values and trends in contemporary Japanese society and consumer marketing. HILL is the only institute of its kind that conducts research into the life experiences of the Japanese people beyond their consumption behavior and social orientations.

Read more about Mariko Fujiwara [ PDF, 49 K ]

Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong is a business strategist and economist with 20 years of experience gained in over thirty countries. He is a Canadian who grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent the last 20 years working in Europe, Sub-Sahara Africa, and Asia/ Pacific. He has served as strategy advisor to over thirty Fortune 500 companies in the Asia/Pacific region.

As MasterCard International’s economic advisor in Asia/Pacific since 1999, Yuwa has been responsible for monitoring and forecasting economic growth and emerging business development trends in the region. In this capacity, he has devised market entry strategies, dissected and addressed public policy challenges, analyzed business impacts of demographic and lifestyle changes, and assessed market-specific business development potential and constraints.

In order to tap deeper local knowledge and market-specific insights, Yuwa chairs a knowledge panel of leading economists, policy analysts and business strategists in Asia/Pacific, with members including experts from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, for regular discussions and exchange of perspectives and knowledge sharing.

As a student of philosophy, political science, economics and history, Yuwa studied at Trent University, University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University in Canada. He received further post-graduate training in health economics, energy and resource economics, and scenario forecast and planning.

Yuwa is a frequent commentator on TV and in the media on current economic, policy and business issues in Asia Pacific, and a published author in economic development and international relations.

James G. Murray, General Manager and Executive Vice-President for Southeast Asia, Visa International Asia-Pacific, manages the development of the Visa payment card brand in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the emerging markets of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Along with previous experience in China and Hong Kong, his role gives him an excellent overview of the development of the payment card industry in Asia-Pacific, with some of the fastest-growing card markets directly under his care.

Murray brings to Visa a wealth of experience from a 20-year career with Chase Manhattan Bank, in which several years were spent in Asia as a specialist in Corporate Finance and Corporate Banking to develop new business in India, Korea, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China. Prior to joining Visa, he was in London as Managing Director of Corporate Banking in the United Kingdom and Northern Europe.

Married, with three children, Murray is based in Singapore.

Syed Ahmad Syed Salim, has about 20 years experience in the retail, moving through the rank to hold senior management positions. He started his career with a well-known Japanese retailer in Singapore in 1980. In 1990, he moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a member of the project team responsible for the construction and development of the Group’s maiden retail store in the country. During this period he also assumes responsibility for the Group’s Duty Free outlets at the former International Airport in Subang, Selangor, Malaysia.

In 1995, he left the Group to assume a senior management position of a privatised Federal Government establishment in the Southern Malaysian State of Johore. Prior to joining Malaysia Airports (Niaga) Sdn Bhd, as Chief Executive Officer in May 2002, Syed Ahmad heads Malaysia Airlines Golden Boutique as its Chief Operating Officer responsible for Inflight Sales for national airline network. Throughout his years in the retails industry, Syed Ahmad enjoys a unique experience of having worked in the retail industry covering downtown retail operations, duty free operations as well as airline inflight sales.

Syed Ahmad, 44 years, holds an MBA from the University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Benjamin Wong joined Invest Hong Kong in 2001 as Head, Transportation. His team is responsible for attracting and retaining foreign direct investment in the aviation, maritime, road haulage and logistics sector.

Before joining InvestHK he had spent the majority of his career in the transportation and logistics industry. He has served in DHL where he led a team of professionals to serve multinational clients for their express and logistics needs. He has also worked for the logistics arm of Sealand focusing on logistics, CFS and multi-modal transportation. These positions provided Benjamin with comprehensive experience in air, sea and logistics areas.

Benjamin holds an MBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta, Canada. He is also a lifetime member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Society.