Scaling the Channel Across Southeast Asia What Actually Scales.

Dr. Boediastoeti Ontowirjo
Deputy for Research and Innovation Policy, BRIN Indonesia

Dr. Boediastoeti Ontowirjo currently serves as the Deputy for Research and Innovation Policy at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) since May 2022. In this role, she is responsible for formulating and setting research and innovation policies, coordinating and synchronizing programs, budgets, and work plans, and overseeing nuclear energy and space activities. She also chairs the ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology, and Innovation (COSTI) of Indonesia, where she leads significant initiatives, including collaborations with ASEAN-Korea, ASEAN-US, and ASEAN-India, and advises on the Roadmap on Blue Economy. Her leadership extends to high-profile events like the ASEAN Economic Forum & GATES Enterprise Tech Channel Summit 2024 and the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Science and Technology.​

Dr. Ir. Boediastoeti Ontowirjo, MBA, has an impressive educational background in management and engineering. Additionally, she was recognized with The Best of Research Proposal at “The 4th Management Research Center’s Doctoral Journey in Management” in 2009. She holds an MBA in Finance from the Graduate School of Business Administration at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, completed in 1999, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Planning at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), graduated in 1992.​

H.E Satvinder Singh ​
Depty Secretary General,​ ASEAN Secretariat​

H.E. Satvinder Singh is currently the Deputy Secretary General for ASEAN Economic Community. In this role, he plays a key leadership role in implementing the AEC Blueprint 2025 and overseeing the AEC Department at the ASEAN Secretariat. Additionally, he will offer strategic guidance to advance ASEAN’s economic integration agenda. Before assuming this role, he was the Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Trade Connectivity & Business Services at Enterprise Singapore, where he was instrumental in strengthening Singapore’s role as Asia’s trading hub, supporting the growth of 15,000 professionals, managers, executives and technicians jobs.

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H.E. Mr. Srinivas Gotru
Ambassador of India to ASEAN

H.E. Mr. Srinivas Gotru has been the Ambassador of India to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 3 August 2025. He has served in various capacities at the Indian Missions in Beijing, San Francisco, Hanoi and London. In India, he has served in various divisions of the Ministry of External Affairs on East Asia, Counter-Terrorism, Western Europe, Centre for Contemporary China Studies and as Head of Division / Director-General for the Indo-Pacific Division and the United Nations Economic and Social Division. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai.

H.E. Evangeline T. Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq
Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN

Thomas Meyer
Senior Vice President, IDC Germany​

Tom Meyer explores how IDC sees AI at scale evolving from efficiency gains to true innovation. Achieving this demands the right technologies, services, and solutions — an architectural redesign of how businesses operate. Tom closes with what this shift means for channel and partner ecosystems.

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Anirban Mukherji
Founder and CEO, mini Orange

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Jeffrey Bahar
Chief Operating Officer Yamada Spire Research & Consulting

Chief Operating Officer Group and Managing Director for Indonesia at Yamada Consulting & Spire Research. Jeffrey brings deep expertise in enterprise channel growth and cross-border execution across Southeast Asia, making him one of the region’s foremost authorities on scalable channel strategy.

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Somchai Sittichaisrichart
Managing Director SIS Thailand

Somchai Sittichaisrichart is the Managing Director for SIS Distribution
Public Company Limited, a leading IT distributor which operates as a
wholesale in computer, software, computer components, peripheral, office
automation equipment, smartphone and cloud services. SIS was founded
in 1998 and it has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand since
2004.​

Currently, SIS distributes more than 70 leading and international IT Manufacturers to over 4,500 dealers across Thailand which are system
integrators, resellers of corporate and government sectors and retailers.​

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Ngyuten Ms Thu
Chief Executive Officer IDC Group Vietnam

Ms. Nguyen Nguyet Thu is the Chief Executive Officer of IDC Group.
Under her leadership, IDC Group achieved an impressive 80% year-on-
year growth for two consecutive years. With a strong strategic vision
and commitment to innovation, she successfully led the company into
the prestigious VNR500 – Vietnam’s Top 500 Company, further
strengthening IDC Group’s position in the market and driving
sustainable business growth.

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Gibu Mathew
GM Zoho APAC, Singapore​

Gibu Mathew brings together regional market insight, product thinking, and technology leadership across the Asia Pacific region. At Zoho, he focuses on helping businesses navigate digital transformation by aligning product capabilities with regional priorities. His wider remit also spans ManageEngine’s IT management portfolio and Site24x7, Zoho’s AI-powered observability platform, where he serves as Product Architect.

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Ben Tan
Senior Executive Partner (SEA) Gartner Advisory APAC

Ben is a senior business executive specializing in business strategy and
digital transformation advisory. He has in-depth insight and knowledge of
the Asia Pacific market, having spent the last 28 years in the region –
competency from Board Member, Business Owner, Research, Advisory,
Consulting, Program Management, Business Development, and Sales and
Marketing roles.​

Ben is currently an Executive Partner with Gartner Executive Programs
based in Singapore, manages CIO and CxO relationships in Southeast Asia
region. In this capacity, acts as mentor and trusted adviser to senior IT and
business executives on mission critical initiatives and priorities that are
underpinned by technology investments. He is also a frequent speaker and
presenter at various forums. ​

Prior to joining Gartner, Ben was the Country CEO of COURTS Singapore
was responsible for driving all of COURTS’ local retail and business
operations across its island wide network of stores as well as its e-
commerce platform, COURTS

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Sachin Gopalan
Chairman, AEF

Sachin currently chairs the ASEAN Economic Forum. He is a serial
entrepreneur with leadership level experience across sectors of Media,
Education, Conferences, Events and Startup Incubation. He is the
Founder of Indonesia Economic Forum. ​

He is also the Co-Founder of Orbit Future Academy, Director of Investor
Trust Media, Chairman of IndoFringe International Festival of
Performing Arts and Advisory Board Member of Inotek Foundation.​

In his career spanning 33 years, he has been the founding CEO of
BeritaSatu Media Holdings, Marketing Director of CastleAsia’s
Indonesia Country Program & Research Services and Regional
Marketing Manager of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. Sachin is
a University Gold Medallist in Bachelor of Engineering (Production)
from the College of Engineering, Anna University, one of India’s leading
engineering institutions.​

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Michael Sunur
Sales Director of Commercial Division, PT Berca Hardayaperkasa, Indonesia

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Vijender Yadav
Co-founder and CEO of Accops

Vijender Yadav is the Co-founder and CEO of Accops, leading innovation in secure remote access and digital workspace solutions. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise mobility, virtualization, and product leadership, he has built and scaled successful technology ventures, helping organizations securely enable modern, digital-first workplaces.

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Samir Dixit
Head@Acorn Consulting - Brand Growth & Transformation​

Samir is an award-winning strategist and business transformation
expert with over 3 decades of brand, marketing, IP Management, M&A,
and accelerated business growth experience having worked across
business consulting, IP management, and valuations (Brand Finance),
client side (Standard Chartered, LG) and multiple agencies (Ogilvy,
Bates, Publicis etc)​

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Samir has been guiding C-Suite, company boards and governments on their IP and business growth strategies across Asia. He knows and understands what it takes to build a branded business, drive preference, loyalty and most of all profits and competitiveness. ​
Samir has worked across a plethora of product categories and segment and can always help find the right balance between internal strategy and external market reality.​
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Samir likes to trek, travel, read, play golf and shop. Samir is also a whisky aficionado and passionate about everything whisky.​

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Cyrus Daruwala
3II Ventures, Singapore​

Cyrus is the Advisor of ASEAN Economic Forum & Managing Director Global Financial Services @IDC. His research and advisory practices cover banking, insurance, and capital markets and topics such as legacy modernization and transformation, hybrid cloud, Big Data and analytics, customer life-cycle management, digital experience, ecommerce ecosystems, IOT, cognitive, blockchain, and fintech.​
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For the past 20 years, Cyrus has been working with financial institutions to help
them assess their business and operational and technical challenges, select the
right vendors/partners, better understand their IT TCO, and grow their customer
base. Before joining IDC Financial Insights, Cyrus was a managing partner with a
regional research and publication firm. He was instrumental in growing the firm’s
proprietary as well as subscription-based research business along with the
publishing businesses. ​

His understanding of a range of business, market, regulatory, and investment-related issues enable him to work closely with financial institutions, consultants, vendors, and government agencies on various multidisciplinary initiatives. ​
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He has a Master’s degree in Business Finance, Economics, and Business Law from
Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics​

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Ashish Kapahi
Executive Director, GATES

A visionary business leader with over 25 years of experience in the dynamic
world of technology. In 2005, he earned a nomination for the “Outstanding
Chief/Senior Executive (Overseas) Award” from IE Singapore, a testament
to his exceptional.​

Ashish is the founder and CEO of GATES APAC Pte Ltd., Asia’s largest
independent Technology channel platform. He is a hands-on strategist,
adept at developing and managing large cross-functional teams to achieve
organizational objectives. His global experience includes starting and
managing greenfield operations across Asia, ANZ, and Western Europe,
transforming them into sustainable profit centres. ​

Beyond the corporate achievements, he is an advocate for public-private
partnerships and have played a pivotal role in initiating and leading various
PPP and intergovernmental projects, both regionally and globally. With a
passion for creating value in the tech industry he continues to be a driving
force in shaping the future of the technology channel ecosystem.

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Madhav Narayan
IIT Madras Global Research Foundation (IITM Global)

Madhav is a Global leader at the intercept of Technology & Business, who has
successfully built, transformed, scaled businesses, developed new markets,
driven business model innovation, championed digital transformation for hyper
growth of Tech MNCs, Public Authorities and startups (Intel, HP Inc, Dell,
Samsung, Epson, Redington, DEWA, Shycocan Corp.) over a 38-year of career. ​

Since 2011 Madhav Narayan has been actively mentoring entrepreneurs &
disruptive tech start-ups and helped them raise capital to scale globally. Madhav
Narayan is now the Chief Executive Officer for IIT Madras Global Research
Foundation (IITM Global), with a charter to take the research, innovation and
entrepreneurship ecosystem of Indian Institute of Technology Madras, global.​

Mr. Madhav Narayan is a Bachelor in Electronics and Communications from
Coimbatore Institute of Technology, University of Madras and holds a Master’s in
Business Administration (MBA) jointly awarded by Stern Business School (NYU),
London School of Economics & HEC, Paris.

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Mevira Munindra
Country Manager, IDC Research, Indonesia

Country Manager of IDC Indonesia, with more than 10 years at IDC across research and consultancy in telecommunications, services, cloud, and datacenter projects. She specializes in advising ICT providers on their evolution, addressing business needs, and guiding vendors on working with end users to build seamless technology consumption within their organizations. Prior to IDC, Mevira worked on projects across the entertainment, energy, and nonprofit sectors, providing in-depth financial analyses for independent consulting engagements in energy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Bandung Institute of Technology and a master’s in International Business from Hult International Business School, San Francisco.

Sandeep Bhargava
Head, Cloud, AI and Services, Redington

Sandeep Bhargava is Head of Cloud, AI and Services at Redington South East Asia. Prior to this, Sandeep wasSenior Vice President and Global Head of Services and Solutions for Public Cloud Business Unit at Rackspace. In this role, Sandeep ran all the Services and Solutions globally – an organization that supported half of Rackspace’s revenue and had 20% of its workforce globally. Sandeep has held multiple roles in managing business unit P&L, managing customer relationships and leading sales & leading delivery teams at Rackspace, DXC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Dell-EMC and Procter & Gamble.

Sandeep holds a MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and a degree in Electronics Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He is a Singapore citizen and lives in Singapore with his wife and two children.

Aneesha Reihana​
Chief Operating Officer, NewWorld Foundry (NWF)​

Mudit Kumar
Co-Founder, Ideabazz

Mudit Kumar is a startup ecosystem builder and a sharp entrepreneur shaping a new narrative for Indian innovation.
With 18+ years of experience, as a Co-Founder and driving force behind Ideabaaz, Mudit has built one of India’s emerging founder-focused platforms that blends startup discovery, storytelling, capital access, ecosystem enablement and empowering and scaling India’s innovation to the globe.
Beyond Ideabaaz, he is deeply involved in identifying and supporting high-potential startups and is an active Angel Investor across many deeptech, space-tech, health-tech, AI, consumer innovation and emerging technologies shaping the future of India.
Mudit also work closely with IIT Madras and Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) to foster and cultivate futuristic innovation technologies across various deeptech domain. Additionally, he also served as a Jury Member in AI Impact Summit 2026 – ‘AI For All’
Before entering the startup ecosystem, Mudit was into private banking and worked in various senior roles at LGT Wealth India, ICICI Securities etc advising leading family offices, reputed business promoters, and ultra high-net-worth individuals for portfolio strategy and emerging asset classes, including startups.

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