IVAS-IVSC Business Valuation Conference 2021

Ms Indranee Rajah is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. She is also Second Minister for Finance, and Second Minister for National Development. 

Ms Rajah is the Leader of the House for the 14th Parliament. She has been the Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2001.

She was in practice as a lawyer and Senior Counsel before joining the Government.

Under her law portfolio from 2012 – 2018, she co-chaired the Committees on Family Justice, the formation of the Singapore International Commercial Court as well as the Committee to Strengthen Singapore as an International Centre for Debt Restructuring. She also co-chaired the Penal Code Review Committee whose recommendations led to major amendments of the Penal Code, including greater protections of women and the vulnerable.

In her first tour of the Education Ministry from 2012 - 2015, she led the Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE) Committee resulting in SkillsFuture, a national movement to align education with economic demand, career guidance and lifelong learning. In the second stint from 2018 - 2020, Ms Rajah chaired UPLIFT – the “Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce”, an inter-agency team convened in 2018 to strengthen support for students from disadvantaged families.

Under her finance portfolio, Ms Rajah co-chaired the Working Group on Legal and Accounting Services, a sub-committee of the 2016 Committee on the Future Economy, the recommendations of which are aimed at transforming the legal and accounting industries in Singapore and catalysing the internationalisation of such professional services. She oversees infrastructure Asia, the Singapore government platform that connects infrastructure demand and supply in the region.

In the Prime Minister’s Office, Ms Rajah oversees the National Population and Talent Division and assists Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on population matters.

Harsha has more than 25 years of experience across Asia in advising clients on complex cross-border transactions, private and public sector capital decisions. He focuses on valuations, financial modeling, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring. He is regularly sought after as a thought leader in Asian market dynamics in deals, capital agenda strategies and valuation disputes.

As EY’s Deputy Managing Partner for the Asia-Pacific Area, Harsha is responsible for the markets, operations, investments and financial impact of the firm’s businesses across the Area. In his current capacity he is a member of EY’s Global Markets and Investment Committee, Global Practice Group and the Asia-Pacific Area Operating Executive.

Prior to his current role he was the Asia-Pacific Area Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) Managing Partner and led a team of over 5,000 professionals and approximately 500 Partners that specialize in strategy, deals, operations, restructuring and transaction tax competencies in over 20 countries in the region. 

Over the past decade he has been a significant influencer in growing EY’s TAS practices in Asia Pacific markets, having originated and led several acquisitions and investment programs in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam. He has led Singapore and Asean TAS practices prior to taking on the Asia-Pacific Area TAS leader role.

Harsha is the current Chairman of the Council of the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers of Singapore (IVAS) and is actively involved in developing the business valuation profession in Singapore and the wider region. 

Harsha has a passion for humanitarian activities in conflict zones in Asia. Harsha’s support for diversity is on display in his vocal advocacy of TAS Include! and EY Women Fast forward initiative and its related programs. He is an active member of EY’s Global and Asia Pacific Diversity and Inclusive Steering Committee.

Harsha’s professional qualifications:

• Fellow Chartered Accountant – Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka
• Fellow CPA Australia
• Fellow Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
• Chartered Valuer and Appraiser, Singapore
   

Alistair Darling was UK Chancellor of the Exchequer – the UK government’s chief financial minister - from 2007 to 2010. Prior to this, he held a number of Cabinet positions, being one of only three people to have served in Cabinet continuously since Labour was elected in 1997.

He entered Parliament at the 1987 General Election in Edinburgh Central and, following the 1997 General Election, he entered Cabinet as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. From then on he served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1998-2002), for Transport (2002-06), for Scotland (2003-06) and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (2006-07).

In June 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer, against the backdrop of the most turbulent and far-reaching economic crisis the world had seen for 60 years. He introduced the measures needed to avert a collapse of the banking system, and played a central role alongside other political and financial leaders in restoring stability to global financial markets.  

Alistair was appointed to the House of Lords in 2015.  In 2012 he authored the book ‘Back from the Brink: 1,000 Days at Number 11’ which documents the British government's handling of an unprecedented global financial catastrophe. He holds a number of leadership roles in the public and private sectors including as Honorary President of Chatham House; as Governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research; and as a member of the Board of Directors of multinational bank, Morgan Stanley.

Ethiopis Tafara is Vice President, Chief Risk, Legal & Sustainability Officer and Partnerships for the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). He joined MIGA in September 2019 and is responsible for the supervision and oversight of MIGA’s Finance and Risk Management Group, the Economics & Sustainability Group and the Legal Affairs & Claims Group. He also oversees MIGA Partnerships.

Mr. Tafara previously served as Vice President and General Counsel for the International Finance Corporation where he was responsible for IFC’s non-financial risk management. Mr. Tafara joined IFC in April 2013 from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served as the Director of the Office of International Affairs.
Before joining the SEC, he worked at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission as Counsel to the Chairman, and in the Chief Counsel’s Office of the Division of Enforcement. He started his legal career in the Brussels office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton.

Mr. Tafara has served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of the International Organizations for Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Chairman of the Public Interest Oversight Board Monitoring Group, the SEC Deputy to both the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board, and led IOSCO task forces to set standards and codes of conduct for rating agencies and accounting firms following the financial scandals in the 2000s.

In 2015, Mr. Tafara was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC), the global standard setter for valuation of real estate, businesses, and financial instruments.  In 2019, he was appointed as a Public Governor on the Board of Governors for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Mr. Tafara holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an AB from Princeton University. Mr. Tafara is a US national born in Ethiopia.
 

Helen Brand is chief executive of ACCA, the global body for professional accountants, a post she has held since 2008. 

Helen has built her career within professional bodies and has considerable experience and knowledge of the 178 markets in which ACCA currently operates. She is a founding member of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and now serves as a co-Vice-Chair of the Value Reporting Foundation which was created through the merger of the IIRC and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) in June 2021. 

Helen is a member of the UK government’s Professional and Business Services Council, and she was appointed to the UK DIT’s Trade Advisory Group on Professional Advisory Services in August 2020.

One of the few women to lead a global professional body, Helen is a regular media commentator on the role ethics and the delivery of public value play in business and society. In 2011, ACCA became the first international professional body to publish an integrated report on its performance and Helen remains a strong advocate for the power of wider corporate reporting. She has also driven ACCA’s pioneering work in supporting the development of the profession across Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East. 

Helen holds a BA in Politics from the University of Exeter. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 2011 for services to accountancy and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in December 2017.
 

Selena is the Chief Economist for OCBC Bank. As Head of Treasury Research & Strategy, she leads a research team that is responsible for Treasury market research, forecasts and trading recommendations for the bank, covering fixed income, interest rates, corporate credit, foreign exchange and macroeconomic commentary. Under her leadership, OCBC’s research capabilities have been greatly valued by customers and highly ranked in surveys.

She is a member of the OCBC Wealth Panel for Singapore and Malaysia, as well as a council member for the Economic Society of Singapore. She was conferred the IBF Fellow Award in Financial Markets in 2017. Her research writings has been extensively quoted and published by prominent media across print, television and radio. 

Prior to joining OCBC in August 2000, Selena was with the Fiscal Policy Unit under the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the Economics Department in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). 
 

Mr. Bray is responsible for the Value Reporting Foundation’s relationships with the major accounting firms in the context of driving integrated reporting adoption and integrated reporting assurance in priority markets. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and Registered Company Auditor. Mr. Bray has been associated with the IIRC since its inception, including as a member of the IIRC Board of Directors (2017 to 2020). Prior to joining the IIRC management team, Michael was Director of KPMG Australia’s Better Business Reporting Services (2016-2020), and an audit partner of KPMG Australia between 1989 and 2016.

Michael continues as Professor of Practice (Integrated Reporting) at Deakin University, Director – Industry Engagement & Thought Leadership within the Deakin Integrated Reporting Centre, and Project Executive for the Australian Business Reporting Leaders Forum.

Michael was the Executive Partner of KPMG’s Global, Asia Pacific and Australian Energy & Natural Resources groups between 2001 and 2010, a Director of the Australian Energy Policy Institute and an alternate member of the 2015 B20 Infrastructure & Investment Task Force.
 

Woon Pheng is a Director of PKF-CAP Advisory Partners Pte Ltd (a member firm of PKF International) and currently heads the Corporate Finance department. He was previously with Kudos CAS and RSM Nelson Wheeler, which are also members of global accounting networks.

He is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore (CA Singapore), Fellow Member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Valuer & Appraiser (CVA), International Certified Valuation Specialist (ICVS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Singapore Chartered Tax Practitioner (SCTP).

He has been in the accounting and finance profession since 2001. Currently, he specialises in business valuation, valuation for IFRS (including purchase price allocation, impairment review and valuation of complex financial instruments), financial & tax due diligence, deal advisory and litigation support services (including assessment of economic damages and forensic accounting).

Woon Pheng has spoken at several conferences relating to business valuation topics organized by ACCA, IVAS-IVSC and Singapore Law Academy. He serves as a member of the Investigation and Disciplinary Panel of the ISCA and a member of ACCA Singapore Professional Expert Forum. He was formally Treasurer of Kampong Ubi Community Centre Management Committee.
 

Richard is the CFO of Nutrition Technologies, a circular economy company, turning food waste into new agricultural inputs.  A former Big Four Accounting Firm Partner and US Consulting Firm Senior Managing Director, he left professional services after 15 years to focus on sustainability, working first as the advisor to a US billion-dollar charity addressing plastic waste before joining Nutrition Technologies.  Originally a biochemist by training, his finance career has taken him across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.  Richard also helps set International Valuation Standards (IVS) as a member of the Standards Review Board of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC).  He also sits on the Social Value and Glossary working groups at the IVSC.

Richard previously held the post of Honorary Treasurer and Board Member of a dispute resolution charity for seven years and was a member of Adjunct Faculty at Singapore Management University.  Since 2015 he has received more than twenty honors and awards from bodies including the ICAEW, Global Arbitration Review (GAR), Global Investigations Review (GIR)and Who’s Who Legal (WWL), in which he is described as “an eminent practitioner in the region and stands out as for his ‘excellent valuation work’” and “a well-known figure in the Singaporean market, and is recognised as a top-tier accounting expert in the region”.  He is regularly invited to speak at conferences on Finance and ESG matters.
 

Ms Abigail Ng is Executive Director and Head of the Corporate Finance & Consumer Department, with supervisory responsibility for capital markets, including regulation of offers of securities, the conduct of takeover and merger transactions, and the Singapore Exchange as a frontline regulator for listed entities and as a listed entity itself. Ms Ng also oversees the Consumer Issues Division which spearheads financial education initiatives through MoneySense, Singapore’s national financial education programme that aims to help Singaporeans manage their money well, and make sound financial decisions. This Division also coordinates MAS' responses to consumers’ reports of regulatory breaches or misconduct by financial institutions or its representatives. In her role, Ms Ng represents MAS at various international committees, such as the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Sustainable Finance Taskforce, where she is actively involved in work dedicated to improving securities issuers’ sustainability-related disclosures. 

Ms Ng joined MAS in 2006 in the Capital Markets Policy Division, and was involved in amending legislation and the review of policies. She subsequently held appointments as Head of the Strategic Planning Office (Managing Director’s Office) in charge of corporate planning and organisational development, and as Head of the Human Resource Development Division overseeing general development training and talent management. 

Ms Ng served with the Singapore Legal Service in the State Courts and the Attorney-General’s Chambers prior to joining MAS. Ms Ng holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from the National University of Singapore, and is admitted as Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.
 

Mr Andre Toh is a partner with more than 20 years of experience in Ernst & Young, Strategy and Transactions, in Singapore.  He is the Asia Pacific Leader for Valuation, Modelling & Economics advisory.  In his daily work, he assists clients in valuations, business sustainability and decision modelling.  He has appeared as an expert in the Courts of Singapore as well as arbitration proceedings.

Andre is a Chartered Valuer and Appraiser with the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers, Singapore (IVAS), a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and a Fellow of CPA Australia.  He is chairman of the Standards and Technical Working Group in IVAS. 
 

Dan is the Global Head of Treasury Markets for Standard Chartered Bank and Non-Executive Director on the Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited Board. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Dan actively helps to shape this landscape in Singapore. He led the Association of Banks in Singapore Standing Committee on Financial Markets and as President of Financial Markets Association of Singapore (former ACI Singapore), oversaw the association of wholesale market practitioners. Dan was also a contributing member of the Committee on the Future Economy. He is a Committee Member of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee (SFEMC) and Chairman of the SFEMC Trading sub-committee. Dan plays a definitive role in fostering growth and advancement of Singapore as a leading global financial centre in Asia. He currently sits on the Steering Committee for the SOR & SIBOR Transition to SORA (SC-STS), while chairing the Sub-Group on Derivatives for the SC-STS. 

Dan was a member of the distinguished Young Global Leader Forum, a World Economic Forum global community comprising of young leaders who are highly accomplished in their fields. Dan was awarded the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Fellow for Financial Markets - a title conferred upon industry veterans who have demonstrated mastery of profession, exemplify thought leadership and commitment to industry development.

Dan holds both MA and BA (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from Oxford University, UK.
 

Lyn is an experienced Treasury and Investment Banking legal specialist who has been working in the Singapore banking industry since 2006. She served as Co-Chair of ISDA Legal and Regulatory Committee from May 2016 to June 2019 and speaks regularly at ISDA conferences. She participates actively in industry workgroups facilitated by ISDA, SFEMC, ICMA and EMTA. She is currently actively involved in the SOR to SORA transitioning plans at the industry level. 

Lyn was conferred the IBF Fellow Award in Oct 2018 and she sits on one of IBF industry panels. She has been appointed as an independent non-executive director of DTCC Singapore since August 2018.

Lyn is passionate about leadership based on diversity and inclusiveness, coaching and mentoring and she is involved as a mentor in different programs at OCBC Bank. 

As a leader in the legal and regulatory compliance division in OCBC Bank, Lyn works very closely with the HR partners on workforce transformation programmes and supports continuous learning and growth mindset in the legal teams. Lyn is a John Maxwell Team certified speaker, coach and trainer.   

Lyn graduated with Bachelor of Laws (Dean’s List) from National University of Singapore. She further received her Master of Laws (LL.M.) from King's College London.

Robert leads the FIT team focused on commercial real estate (CRE) related financial instruments for Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business.  His clients include the issuers of and investors in performing and non-performing senior and mezzanine loans, including bridge, and construction loans. In addition to mortgages, he works with issuers of and investors in structured products collateralized by CRE loans such as commercial mortgage-backed securities, CRE collateralized loan obligations, and CRE collateralized debt obligations. His clients also include the management of several REITs, who he assists with the valuation of their holdings, the debt they have issued, the common and preferred equity they have issued and associated derivatives.

In addition to his CRE related work, Robert’s clients include hedge funds, credit funds, banks, insurance companies, and private equity funds. He assists them with the valuation of private equity as well as leveraged loans, structured products, and other forms of illiquid debt. Common forms of debt he values for these clients include collateralized synthetic obligations, regulatory capital trades, municipal and student loan securitizations, collateralized loan obligations, corporate bonds, and derivatives based on these securities. He also values SPACs and PIPEs for his clients.  

Robert has also advised systemically important financial institutions in the design and implementation of their recovery and resolution plans, including the design and valuation of hypothetical portfolio divestiture options under various distress scenarios. The portfolio divestiture options included wholesale loan portfolios, commercial real estate portfolios, student loan portfolios, as well as the management of available for sale and held to maturity portfolios.

Robert received a Master in Financial Engineering degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.  
 

Carla Nunes is a managing director in the Office of Professional Practice (OPP) of Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, based in the Philadelphia office, and a Kroll Institute Fellow. She has over 25 years of experience. In her OPP role, she provides firm-wide technical guidance on a variety of valuation, financial reporting and tax issues. She is also the global leader of Duff & Phelps' Valuation Digital Solutions group, which produces the cost of capital thought leadership content and data housed in the Cost of Capital Navigator.

In 2011, Carla completed a one-year rotation in Duff & Phelps' London office, where she promoted the firm's IFRS education efforts and marketing initiatives, and dealt with IFRS implementation issues. Previously, she was a part of the Valuation Advisory Services practice, where she focused on the valuation needs of consumer and industrial product clients of Duff & Phelps and its predecessor firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Standard & Poor's. 

Carla has conducted numerous business and asset valuations for a variety of purposes, including purchase price allocations, goodwill impairment testing, M&A, corporate tax restructuring and debt analysis. She has been involved in multiple valuation assignments for a wide range of industries, including pharma, biotech, healthcare, vitamin retail, specialty chemicals, industrial manufacturing, and gaming and hospitality. Carla has substantial experience with cross-border valuations, working with multinational corporations to address complex tax, international cost of capital and foreign exchange issues.

Carla is also one of Duff & Phelps' experts in addressing valuation issues related to cost of capital. She has authored a chapter titled, "Cost of Capital for Divisions and Reporting Units," which is included in the fourth and fifth editions of the textbook: Cost of Capital: Applications and Examples, by Shannon Pratt and Roger Grabowski. She was also a contributing author to the chapter "Risk-Free Rate" in the fifth edition. She is a co-author of the Duff & Phelps Valuation Handbook series, now available exclusively online in the Cost of Capital Navigator. Carla is a frequent speaker in webinars and conferences on the topics of cost of capital, goodwill impairment and valuation in general. She is also a frequent guest speaker in top business school’s MBA courses. Carla is a member of the Education Committee of the International Institute of Business Valuers (IIBV).

Carla received her an MBA in finance from the University of Rochester's Simon School. She has also received an honors degree in business administration from the University of Lisbon's School of Economics and Management (ISEG Lisbon). She completed coursework for a Master of Taxation from Villanova University School of Law. Additionally, she is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Philadelphia and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Carla has passed the exam and fulfilled all the requirements for the Certified in Entity and Intangibles Valuations (CEIV) credential.
 

Jim Hitchner is managing director of Financial Valuation Advisors www.finvaluation.com and is president of The Financial Consulting Group www.gofcg.org. He is also CEO of Valuation Products and Services (VPS) www.valuationproducts.com. 
 
Mr. Hitchner is editor/coauthor of the books the Hitchner Pratt Fishman Consensus View Q&A Guide to Financial Valuation and the VPS DLOM Guide and Toolkit, published by VPS. He is also editor/coauthor of Financial Valuation Applications and Models (FVAM), fourth edition; Financial Valuation Workbook (FVW), fourth edition; and Valuation for Financial Reporting: Fair Value, Business Combinations, Intangible Assets, Goodwill, and Impairment Analysis, third edition, all published by Wiley. He is also coauthor of PPC’s Guide To Business Valuations, 31st edition, published by Thomson Reuters.  FVAM and FVW have been adopted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for its five-day Business Valuation School course and by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) for its Advanced Business Valuation course which includes the VPS DLOM Guide. Mr. Hitchner designed all three courses.

He has spent over 40 years in valuation services, including as a partner-in-charge of valuation services for Coopers & Lybrand (currently PricewaterhouseCoopers). In the valuation area he has coauthored over 20 courses, taught over 60 courses, published over 150 articles, and has made over 350 presentations.

He is also an inductee in the AICPA Business Valuation Hall of Fame and a two-time recipient of the AICPA’s Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year award. He was also on the AICPA Business Valuation Standards Writing Task Force.
 

Srividya Gopal is Managing Director & Southeast Asia Leader, Valuation Advisory Services at Duff & Phelps, a Kroll Business. She is the Chair for the firm’s Asia Pacific Management Committee and a member of the global Business Leadership team.
She has over 24 years of experience in valuations, investment banking and management consulting. She has advised numerous companies on valuations for the purposes of financial reporting, transaction, restructuring, taxation, dispute resolution and financing. 

She is a member of the Institute of Valuers & Appraisers of Singapore (IVAS) Council and Chairs their Professional Development Working Group. She is a former member of the global Regulatory Board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). She is also an empaneled valuer with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) for their IP Financing Scheme.

She has advised several global and Asian clients across a variety of sectors such as technology, telecommunications, life sciences, manufacturing, consumer products, energy & resources, etc. 

She has published various articles on valuation, PE/VC and M&A, and has been interviewed by several television channels, newspapers and magazines. She is a regular speaker at conferences and events. 

Srividya is a registered Chartered Valuer & Appraiser (CVA) with IVAS, Member of the RICS (MRICS) and has successfully completed the Certified in Entity and Intangible Valuations (CEIV) training and examination. She also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (equivalent to MBA), is a Graduate of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India and a Bachelor of Commerce.
 

Howard is a Deals Partner in the Los Angeles office specializing in providing capital markets and accounting advisory services to our public and private clients. Those services include advice relating to acquisitions, divestitures, initial public offerings, capital markets transactions, and complex accounting and reporting issues. 

Howard has extensive experience advising companies through successful registrations with the SEC in connection with IPO’s and spin-offs.  He spent 4 years based in London advising European based companies on SEC registrations and has spent the last 17 years based in New York and Los Angeles where he helps our clients access the debt and equity capital markets.   He frequently takes on the role of "capital markets advisor" for his client, to assist them through the long and complex offering process by providing them with technical and project management advice on accounting and financial reporting issues associated with initial public offerings, 144a debt and equity offerings, SPAC mergers, divestitures and carve outs. 

Howard serves some of our largest corporate and private equity clients and has been involved in many successful IPO's, SPAC mergers, spin-offs and other capital market transactions.  He is currently leads of our Capital Markets services efforts for private equity.

Howard received his bachelors and masters degree in accounting from the University of Florida and received a Masters in Business Administration from The University of Manchester.  He is a certified public accountant licensed by the State of New York and Florida. 
 

Tim Heberden is an M&A Valuations and IP Advisory Partner at Deloitte Asia Pacific. He specialises in quantifying and optimising the value of IP assets and businesses reliant on intangibles. Tim has conducted valuations assets for purposes as diverse as litigation, M&A, IP financing, strategy determination and risk management. In addition to large multinationals, he has extensive experience of valuing early-stage businesses. He has acted as an expert witness in matters before Australian courts, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Board of Review.

Tim is listed in the IAM Strategy 300 – the World’s Leading IP Strategists. He is the technical author of the ‘Guidance Note on the Valuation of Intellectual Property Rights’ (RICS), and is author of a chapter on royalty determination for ‘International Licensing and Technology Transfer’. He developed and presented a course on ‘measuring marketing performance’ for the University of Sydney’s Master of Marketing.

Tim is a CA, MBA, Registered Business Valuer (RICS), Certified Practicing Marketer, Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute and a Fellow of RICS.
 

Raymond Tong is a Partner in the Capital Markets / Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group at Rajah & Tann Singapore.
 
Widely regarded as one of Singapore's leading capital markets lawyers, Raymond advises on both domestic and international matters and has worked on some of the most high-profile ECM deals across Southeast Asia in recent years. He is admitted in Singapore and England and Wales.
 
With over two decades of experience in the capital markets field, Raymond advises on domestic and international matters and is ranked as a top-tier leading lawyer in the Asia-Pacific region by various legal publications. Described as “a good problem solver” in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021, he is also noted to be “extremely knowledgeable, in terms of latest market trends, and able to provide the best advice” in Chambers Global 2021.      

Possessing a depth of knowledge and transactional experience that is unique to SPACs, Raymond is poised to address any complex issues that may arise in SPAC-related transactions. He is able to help clients evaluate the risks associated with the transaction, allowing them to make better informed decisions and keep the deal moving towards a successful completion.
 
Raymond is a board member of Sustainable Finance Institute Asia Limited and Asia Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN). He is also a member of the Audit Committee of the Methodist Welfare Society, a member of the Corporate Practice Committee of the Law Society of Singapore and a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.
 

Aloysius has deep experience working with global and local financial institutions to manage their business and regulatory risks associated with their risk management and internal control processes. For the asset management sector, he focuses on building trust between limited partners (LP) and general partners (GP) through independent assessment reporting over investment management and the control environment as well as adherence to investment mandates and ESG to supplement due diligence processes. System and Organization Controls (SOC) reporting services are also provided to build trust between the asset managers, key service providers (particularly fund administrators) and investors. 

For the banking sector, he focuses on assisting banks at the forefront of their risk management strategy, from digitalization risks to regulatory risk management. These include managing risks from new or revised risk management requirements imposed by regulators (outsourcing, environmental, business continuity management, technology etc.) to business risks from digital transformation. He currently serves as an outsourced internal auditor of various financial institutions with a focus on auditing the control environment designed to adhere to MAS regulatory requirements.
 

Praveen leads many engagements as an independent auditor accredited under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to validate or verify projects relating to planned greenhouse gas emission reductions. He is the lead verifier in carbon tax assurance engagements and involved in carbon abatement projects as a consultant helping companies to secure carbon credits.

Praveen provides sustainability advisory services to Singapore Exchange-listed companies and assists businesses in greenhouse gas inventory and product life cycle carbon assessments. He has assessed numerous environmental management systems across Southeast Asia, conducted climate change impact assessments for sovereign wealth funds and helped development banks assess sustainability projects for carbon finance.

Praveen is accredited by the National Environment Agency as a lead verifier and independent reviewer for carbon tax in Singapore. He is also a qualified lead auditor for environmental management systems (ISO 14001:2015) and energy management systems (ISO 50001:2018).
 

Leonard has more than 25 years of advisory experience in business valuation, M&A strategy and transaction advisory. His many years of work experience have given him a broad perspective and deep understanding of the various aspect of the M&A lifecycle. 

Leonard has clients ranging from start-ups to large conglomerates. He has assisted many technology-based companies in their fundraising journey and intellectual property valuations. Leonard has provided his expert opinion of values and damages on several high-profile financial litigation cases.  
 

Nindito is a partner in the M&A Transaction services team in Indonesia with more than 20 years of experience in financial advisory and audit. He also serves as the Telecom, Media & Entertainment and Technology industry lead for Financial Advisory in Indonesia and SEA. 

Nindito has experience in due diligence and valuations, corporate finance, cash monitoring, debt and capital restructuring, forensic services and various mergers and acquisitions assignments.

Nindito has been involved mainly in the TME&T, plantations and forestry, and the mining-natural resources and oil and gas sectors. 

He is a Chartered Accountant with the Indonesian Institute of Accountants.

Alfred is part of KPMG’s global leadership team for Deal Strategy, Integration & Separation, and is based in Singapore. He has extensive experience in advising and delivering large, complex global cross-border transactions with focus on due diligence, deal strategy, value creation as well as pre- and post-deal integration & separation. He is also a seasoned due diligence advisor on both buy-side and sell-side vendor assist in all aspects of commercial and business operations.

Alfred has over 23 years of both corporate and professional services experience and has successfully advised on over 200+ deals across various sectors throughout his career.  He started his career as a strategy & supply chain operations consultant, and subsequently led supply chain & operational finance and strategic planning teams in Dell Inc. across Asia Pacific and General Electric in the UK, and was part of their strategic planning units and M&A operations teams. He subsequently joined a Big 4 consultancy in the UK, specialising in operational due diligence, value creation and integration & separation.  He returned to Singapore in 2013 to lead KPMG Singapore’s deal strategy practice.  
 

As CEO of Blippar Faisal has been leading the turnaround of this pioneering Augmented Reality technology company. Over the last 18 months, he has overseen the development of a new SaaS technology platform, increased studio revenue by more than 100% QoQ, hired a new executive team and led two rounds of venture capital funding.

Prior to Blippar, he was the Chief Strategy and Investments Officer of Gocompare, which he helped digitally transform and IPO on the London Stock Exchange in November 2016. Previously, Faisal was a Senior Partner of Alvarez & Marsal, the world’s largest turnaround and restructuring company where he led the European Digital and Media practice.

Faisal joined Alvarez & Marsal from Spotify, where he was a Senior Vice President and launched Spotify in seven countries, including the USA. He was also an early member of the Skype team, initially as Head of Global Business Development, and became the European Director after its acquisition by eBay in 2005.  
 
Faisal is a Non-Executive Director for Superdry and sits on the Advisory Board of Imperial College Business School. He is a graduate of UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology), holds an MBA from IESE and studied international economics at ETEA in Spain.
 

Jamesy is a Partner at KPMG and leads the valuation practice in Singapore. He has over 20 years of experience providing corporate finance advisory services to clients, advising on debt and equity financing, business and intellectual property valuation for investment decisions, trade transactions and M&A, restructuring and financial reporting. Jamesy advises businesses in various growth stages from start-ups to large public companies and sovereign wealth funds, in a wide range of industries across the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to KPMG, Jamesy was with the Commodity Structured Finance team at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and an investment house under the San Miguel group of the Philippines.

Jamesy holds a Master of Business Administration from IESE Business School in Spain and a Bachelor of Science in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He is a Chartered Valuer and Appraiser (CVA) with the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers, Singapore (IVAS).
 

Taimur Baig, Ph.D, heads global economics as well as macro strategy for interest rate, credit, and currency at DBS Group Research. He also advises the bank on risk management and investment strategy.

Prior to joining DBS, Dr. Baig was a Principal Economist at the Economic Policy Group, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Earlier, he spent nine years at Deutsche Bank’s Singapore office, where his last position was Managing Director and Chief Economist, Asia.

During 1999-2007, he was based in Washington, DC, at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, where his last position was Senior Economist.
Dr. Baig has published extensively for both specialists and a general audience, on areas including monetary policy, digital currency, financial technology, climate change, demographics, frontier markets, fiscal policy efficacy, and financial market contagion. He is the host of “Kopi Time,” a widely followed podcast series on markets and economies.

Dr. Baig sits as a council member for the Asian Financial Think Tank, Economic Society of Singapore, and Women’s World Banking.

Dr. Baig holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He attended London School of Economics and Wabash College for his B.A. in Economics.

Mr Terence Ang is the deputy head of the Advisory division of RSM Singapore and is also the co-lead of the Corporate Finance practice for RSM Asia-Pacific.

As Head of the Corporate Advisory practice in Singapore and Industry Lead for the Private Equity sector, he is responsible for Transaction and Valuation advisory work in the firm.  In this role, he assists clients with both buy and sell-side transactions, valuation, restructuring as well as litigation support.

Terence has extensive experience in valuation advisory work comprising business valuations, intangible assets and intellectual property valuations, purchase price allocations, and valuation of financial instruments.  Terence also undertakes litigation and family law related valuations. 

He spent two years in the US involved in the valuation of mortgage-backed securities and related financial instruments from 2006 to 2008.  Prior to joining RSM Singapore, he spent two years as Head of Financial Control at the Singapore branch of a multinational investment bank.

Terence is a Chartered Accountant and also a Chartered Valuer and Appraiser with the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers of Singapore (IVAS) and is also involved with in the Standards and Technical Working Group of IVAS.  
 

Jason Tay is the Global Co-ordinator & Regional Director of Business Development in M-DAQ; a Singapore based Fintech Company focused on providing innovative Foreign Exchange solutions to empower the vision of a World without Currency Borders. In his capacity, Jason is responsible for the coverage of the firm’s institutional clients that span across Global Ecommerce Platforms, Regional Corporates, Stock Exchanges to Fintech heavyweights across the region, as well as organizing the firm’s infrastructure and partnerships for growth and expansion. 

Prior to joining M-DAQ, Jason accumulated more than 12 years in Corporate Investment Banking covering the Asia Pacific region across a myriad of industries ranging from Oil & Gas / Energy, Technology, Consumer Goods, Automobiles, Défense to Diversified Industries. He held the role of Director (Coverage) for Regional Multinationals based out of Singapore as well as the Country Banker for Thailand and Indonesia in Societe Generale up till 2019. He also held Origination and Regional Coverage roles in J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank as part of his Banking career.

Jason holds a Bachelor of Business Management (Honours) Degree from the Singapore Management University. 

Ms Grace Lui is a director at Nexia TS Advisory Pte Ltd, a member firm of Nexia International, with more than 15 years of experience in various types of advisory engagements as follows:

• Perform business/equity valuation relating to M&A purposes, internal restructuring and expert witness for legal disputes.
• Oversee financial due diligence projects on targets in Singapore and Asian region.
• Perform PPA valuation of intellectual property rights and intangibles for financial reporting and tax reporting.
• Provide pre-IPO consulting to local SMEs and China companies e.g. assisted in the IPO of 4 China companies and 4 Singapore companies.
• Advise on Business Plan and Information Memorandums for fund raising.
• Perform process consulting and documentation of SOPs for a few listed companies and private companies.

Grace graduated from the Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor of Accountancy degree and is a Fellow member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (FCA). She is a Chartered Valuer and Appraiser (CVA) under the Institute of Valuers & Appraisers of Singapore and International Certified Valuation Specialist (ICVS) of the International Association of Consultants, Valuators and Analysts. She was a member of the ISCA Valuation Sub-committee for 2013 to 2014 and a member of the Complaints and Disciplinary Panel of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore for 2013 to 2015. Grace was previously a member of the Board of Governors of the Spirit of Enterprise from 2015 to 2016. She has been re-appointed as the Treasurer of the Spirit of Enterprise since January 2021.
 

Richard Stewart OAM is a Financial Advisory partner at PwC.  He specialises in valuation corporate finance, strategic value advice, mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and joint ventures arrangements.  His experience with PwC has spanned more than 30 years of work in Australia, Asia, the UK and USA. He has worked for many of PwC’s most prestigious global clients across many industries during his career but first worked with marketing and FMCG clients in 1986.

Richard writes and speaks regularly on value issues, having previously published his first book, Strategic Value, in 2012 and his second, Hitting Pay Dirt in 2017.  He also is a regular blogger on value related issues.

He holds a Bachelor of Economics, Masters of Business Administration, and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants ANZ, the CPA in Australia, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia.  Richard is also an Adjunct Professor in Business Valuation at the University of Technology Sydney and serves on the International Business Valuation Standards Board and the Business Valuation Committee of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

He received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2015, for his work in the social welfare sector and the accounting profession.
 

Personal background
Edwina is a Southern Region Financial Advisory leader based in Hong Kong, specializing in business and intangible asset valuations and corporate reorganization for both public and privately held entities involving mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, financial statement reporting including purchase price allocation under HKFRS/IFRS and US GAAP, tax reorganization, and litigation support.
Prior to her specialization in business valuations, Edwina focused on tax and estate planning for small medium enterprises for six years and provided services in personal, corporate and trust tax, and tax planning.
 
Experience
Edwina has over 20 years of international experience covering North America, Hong Kong and China.  Her industry experience includes private equity, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, oil & gas, healthcare, retail food, alternative power, retail pharmacy, manufacturing, and real estate.   

Professional qualifications, affiliations, accomplishments
Edwina is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CA,CPA), a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CBV) and an accredited member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA). 
She is a member of the board of directors of the International Institute of Business Valuers (iiBV) and serves on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)/International Valuation Standards Council (IVCS) Taskforce focused on improving valuation practices in the APEC region.
 

Audrey Yap is Managing Partner of Yusarn Audrey, a regional ASEAN practice headquartered in Singapore.  Audrey has been listed consecutively for 13 years running as one of the World’s Leading IP strategist in London IAM 300 2009-2021.

Audrey has been named as one of the best practitioners in Euromoney’s Women in Business Law, in WTR 1000as top trademark professional, a WIPR Leader (Singapore), Asia Law ‘s Market Leading Lawyer and one of Singapore’s leading lawyers in Who’s Who Legal.

Audrey is Member, Board of Directors, IPOS since 2015 to date and was also Board Member IPOS International 2016-2019. She served as Board member of Enterprise Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of Trade & Industry 2018-2020. She is an independent director for an SGX listed company and is a member of Singapore’s Institute of Directors.

Audrey’s work as WIPO’s external expert spans nearly two decades which includes being selected by WIPO to serve on a high level expert panel in 2015 on International Technology Transfer in Geneva under the WIPO Development Agenda framework. She is a member of the Steering Committee under the inaugural World Economic Forum and WIPO collaboration IAP.  She was external expert for the European Patent Office (EPO) under the EC-ASEAN IP Cooperation Programme . She continues her work as IP expert and consultant for various EU Trade related Technical assistance Programmes (EUTRTA) and WIPO supported initiatives in China, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei and Thailand including building the framework for ITSO aka PatLib for IPOPhil. Audrey was first from Singapore to serve as President LES International 2020/2021.
 

Marco M. Alemán, studied law at the Javeriana University (J.D., 1991) where he also obtained a Corporate Law Certificate (L.L.M., 1996). He then obtained a Diploma in Advanced Studies (DEA) in Research at the Alcala University (Spain, 2006), and a Ph.D. in Law (2011, Cum Laude). 

Mr. Alemán practiced as an IP Attorney from 1991 to 1995. He was then appointed Head of the Colombian Industrial Property Office, from 1995 to 1998, and was invited as a Fellow Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany in 1998. He joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1999 as Senior Program Officer, Office of Cooperation for Development for Latin America and the Caribbean (from 1999 to 2006). He was then appointed Deputy Director in the Division for Public Policy and Development (from 2006 to 2009), Deputy Director of the Patent Law Division (from 2009 to 2013), and went on to be Director of the Patent Law Division. He currently holds the position of Assistant Director General, leading the IP and Innovation Ecosystem Sector (IES). 

Mr. Alemán is the author of The Andean Legal Framework on Trademarks (Bogota, 1994) and co-author of several books, the most recent ones being: Studies in Homage to Mariano Uzcátegui Urdaneta (Caracas, 2011), Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property (Heidelberg, 2014), Intellectual Property Study in contemporary issues (Mexico, 2015) and Technology Transactions (Genève/ Zurich 2018, Schulthess Éditions Romandes). 

Languages: Spanish, English and French.