Digerati APAC: The top people in the APAC digital industry

While he was still studying in Harvard Business School for a Master of Business Administration, Tan worked on a mobile taxi application which came in second for Harvard Business Plan Contest 2011. A year after he graduated, he left his family’s car import business to launch Grab. Since then, under his leadership, which includes securing $2 billion from Chinese counterpart Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Capital, Grab has prevented Uber from gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia for the past five years. A passionate advocate of data, engineering and technology, Tan has also resisted launching a food delivery service like many other ride-hailing services and instead, lead Grab to invest in mobile payments, in line with Singapore’s ambitions to become a cashless nation.

Kalbag is Uber’s performance marketing manager for APAC, taking a specific look at social. According to Kalbag, she is obsessed with marrying marketing, data science and rapid experimentation to impact business metrics. She has also been on the Skyscanner APAC growth marketing team and was named a young promising leader by Twitter. When not busy in her day job, she runs a successful marketing industry blog, Mooketing.com, which attracts visitors from over 95 markets.

Guerpillon’s transition into brand-side follows roles at agencies and tech businesses, showing her rounded career and knowledge of start-ups. Such experience is why she’s well placed to be the ambassador for start-ups and innovation within Unilever in the region, launching and growing Unilever’s start-up accelerator Foundry and its co-working space Level3. A regular speaker across the world, she’s become one of the most high profile advocates of corporate innovation and the importance of inspiring entrepreneurial spirit within companies.

Undeterred by Southeast Asia’s logistical challenge for e-commerce, Debonneuil and his team created one of the most prominent local brands and paved the way for what is now one of the most competitive and exciting e-commerce markets in the world. Armed with a sizeable investment from Alibaba, Lazada is now continuing to invest in e-commerce innovation, as well as ensure that it is a valuable platform for brands to create direct to consumer propositions.

As the chief marketing officer of the world’s largest retailer, Chris Tung commands a huge amount of influence within China, APAC and around the globe. Tung’s wide-reaching role means he is increasingly in the spotlight and in demand as the ecommerce giant continues to diversify and expand its services for consumers and advertisers alike. As the leading marketing voice for one of the world’s most innovative companies Tung’s work is having a significant impact on the industry, whether it is Alibaba’s wildly successful Singles Day extravaganza, the company’s global Olympics sponsorship or the UniMarketing tool for brands – when he speaks, people listen. His background of senior marketing roles for PepsiCo China and Procter & Gamble, senior agency roles, including CEO of VML China and start-up experience at Gigamedia has positioned Tung perfectly for his current role at one of the world’s most exciting companies.

As head of digital for ASEAN at Philips, Chum has an overall responsibility for digital strategy creation and delivery. Elaine is also seen as brand custodian of the Philips digital spaces and a change driver of the digital domain. Her expanded responsibility includes coaching of digital members of digital members to expand her digital expertise to Philip’s Lighting and Health Care. Having lived and worked in Australia, China, Singapore, Netherlands and Korea, Elaine brings about her experiences and insights from the East and West, bringing in an international and culture perspective. She was awarded GOLD by Philips for Outstanding Digital Activation for 2015 in a local market.

With a new Starbucks opening every 15 hours in China, Emily Chang is in charge of building engagement for the brand in its most important market. Chang is also helping to steer the brand through its rapid digital evolution as it adopts new technology such as AI and mobile payment systems. Joining Starbucks in mid-2017, Chang was a key driver behind the launch of Starbuck’s largest interactive store experience, the Reserve Roastery in Shanghai, which is powered by Alibaba technology. She is a highly respected marketer and innovator, whose previous roles include leading retail marketing for Asia at Apple, chief commercial officer for Intercontinental Hotels Group, and 11 years at Procter & Gamble in Asia and the US.

Mondelez senior director of global e-commerce Ganesh Kashyap is a recognised thought-leader in digital brand building and e-commerce in Asia. A regular speaker at conferences around the globe as well as media appearances on the BBC, CNBC and Economic Times, Kashyap has built a strong reputation for leadership in the digital industry. As the driving force behind the brand’s strategic partnerships with the world’s leading e-commerce platforms including Alibaba, Amazon, JD.com and Lazada, Kashyap is at the centre of some of the most dynamic and exciting marketplaces. In his current role, he’s driving the global ecommerce strategy for one of the world’s largest snack companies, with a mission to create a $1bn online snacks business by 2020.

Wadia leads and executes Intel’s digital transformation vision for the APJ region, by building strategy and execution plans that span across people, process and technology. He is also the current chair of the Asia Pacific ‘chief digital officer’ forum organized by WFA. According to his Twitter Bio, he is passionate about stories, is an egalitarian and you can call him Jam.

Chu started out as a Strategy Manager for North Asia Region at Kimberly Clark and now is the digital and analytics director. A graduate of the London Imperial College, she heralded the digital transformation for the Huggies brand across Asia Pacific. Her main focus now is to expand and strengthen the presence of Kimberly brands across APAC.

Maneesha boasts 17 years of rich and varied experience in consumer engagement having worked with brands like Nokia, Tata Docomo, Coca Cola, L'Oreal, SC Johnson, Mahindra Auto and Renault, Blue Star and Whirlpool. She was the head of media for Nokia India where she activated and negotiated across big media platforms like music and cricket. She was awarded the Region President's Award (IMEA region) for her work with Nokia. She then joined PepsiCo where she is now director of media and content, digital marketing and consumer engagement in India, she is a director in the Global Media Centre for Excellence. She is a mother of two kids and loves to read and travel.

As managing director of Expedia’s Australian and New Zealand operations, Michael Pearson is an expert in leveraging data and technology to create customer-focused businesses. After beginning his career in project and account management, Pearson moved into strategy roles with evvivo, C4 Communications and Macquarie Bank. He joined Expedia in 2010, initially as director of product and ecommerce and then senior director of ecommerce, before he was promoted to managing director in 2016. Pearson has been something of a data evangelist and has led the business’ embrace of big data, programmatic and data-driven marketing as well as championing new tech innovations and solutions.

As the chief marketing officer of Go-Jek, Jakubowski leads the consumer marketing initiatives for the six-year-old Indonesian transport startup that provides on-demand services like two and four wheeled transport, food delivery and lifestyle (massage, beauty, cleaning and ticketing). Since joining Go-Jek in 2016, he has helped the company create Indonesia's first online transportation system and introduced bookings through Line. Before Go-Jek, Jakubowski spent three years with Leo Burnett, before joining VML as its head of digital in Indonesia. He has a special relationship with the archipelago, having spent his teenage years at boarding school in Indonesia.

Ravi Desai has handled brands across cigarettes, paper and foods categories. As cluster head of marketing for ITC, he successfully conceptualised and launched the brand Bingo! ITC Food's foray into the Impulse Snacks market in India. An Indian Institute of Management (IIM) graduate, he was named by Amazon as its first chief marketing officer in India in 2016. He was instrumental in implementing cultural insights in order to localize campaigns for Amazon like Aur dikhao” (Show more) and “Apni dukaan” (My store) campaigns. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is just working hard, having fun and making history at Amazon.

Ahmed has developed a reputation for being an innovative brand marketer, having managed high profile digital investments at Kraft, Starbucks and MasterCard. At the latter he led the development of a data-led Digital and e-commerce Engine which helped link content to sales for the business. Now at Standard Chartered, he is taking his passion of retail and digital to a new global level. Outside his day job Ahmed is also regularly involved in pushing the digital agenda by being a part of industry trade bodies, speaking at events and writing white papers.