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Disruptive Change: Impact and Challenges

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Join us at the 13th World Islamic Economic Forum and discuss the impact and challenges of life-altering disruptive ideas as well as technologies, with some of the finest minds in the world today.

Explore solutions and possibilities on how you can best benefit from this dynamic development.
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Speakers

The Hon. Tun Musa Hitam

Tun Musa Hitam, who is currently Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation was Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister until 1986. In the course of his service in the Malaysian government, he held various positions including Minister of Home Affairs, Education, Primary Industries and Trade and Industries and Chairman of the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA). Among his major official activities were as Leader of Malaysian Investment Missions to Europe, USA and Japan and representing Malaysia at UN UNESCO and ECOSOC related negotiating and regular conferences.

Since Tun Musa’s retirement from politics in 1987, he held Chairmanships of 3 Public Listed Companies and various business related institutions both at domestic and international levels. He was Chairman of the Malaysia – China Business Council, Co-Chair of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of the Asean – China, 15 year economic cooperation program and Chairman of the EPG to draft the Asean Charter. Currently, Tun Musa is Chairman of the Sime Darby Foundation, Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of CIMB Bank, Chairman of the International Selection Panel of the Royal Award on Islamic Finance and member of the Advisory Panel of the Iskandar Development Authority.

Tun Musa holds a BA from the University of Malaya and MA from the University of Sussex, and held a resident Fellowship at Harvard University. For his services to the nation, The Yang Di Pertuan Agong, King, of Malaysia conferred him the Malaysia’s highest award which carries the title “Tun”.

Jo Robrechts

With 35 years of professional experience, Jo Robrechts is executive chairman of Triamant, an award winning, privately held corporation that pushes the boundaries of current solutions in traditional living, care and health structures and creates the community of the future.

Earlier he worked with Johnson and Johnson as treasurer, and as head of strategic planning and assistant to the president of Janssen Pharmaceutica worldwide and later founded and expanded a high-tech growth company in Europe and the USA. He also assumed the role of founder and investor as well as managing director or chairman in about 30 companies and entities so far. He also created Plato, the today European widespread entrepreneur-coaching programme, and has been a keynote speaker at conferences and a teacher at various educational events.

Robrechts studied in many places and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Commercial Engineering degree magna cum laude, and a Real Estate degree from Louvain University.

Dato' Seri Tengku Dr Zainal Adlin Tengku Mahamood

Dato’ Seri Tengku Dr Zainal Adlin Bin Tengku Mahamood is the chairman and vice-president emeritus of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia of which he was chairman and trustee. He was trustee on the board of WWF International based in Switzerland. He was also chairman of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area Management Committee, Kota Kinabalu City Birds Sanctuary, a trustee of Sabah Parks and honorary advisor of Borneo Orchid Society.

Currently, he is chairman of the Danum Valley Conservation Area Management Committee and author of numerous books as well as publications on nature and adventures, due to his participation in many expeditions to known interiors of Sabah. He is the chairman of Sabah Tourism Board.

He was given many awards in recognition of his conservation efforts including: Tourism Malaysia presented him its highest award as the Minister of Tourism Special Award in 2004; Malaysia’s highest recognition for services to conservation, the Langkawi Award in 1999, by the Yang Dipertuan Agong, and; highest international award for services to conservation by WWF.

Dr Anirban Sukul

Dr Anirban Sukul completed his MSc in zoology, PhD in neuropharmacology and research associateship from Visva-Bharati University in India. He’s director of Sukul Institute of Homeopathic Research, Kolkata, India and editor of Clinical and Experimental Homeopathy. He has published 29 papers in international and national journals as well as a book published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in the Netherlands. He has lectured on homeopathy in 14 countries across Asia, Europe, UK and USA and conferred a few awards including Gold Medal Award (UK), Man of Excellence Award (Thailand) and Excellency Award 2017 (Bangladesh). He was nominated for the Excellence in Integrative Medicine Research Award by the European Society of Integrative Medicine (ESIM) in 2017.

Tobias Puehse

Tobias Puehse leads innovation management at MasterCard Labs Asia Pacific and the newly founded MasterCard Labs India. Recently, he was named as Next Bank’s Top 100 leaders in Asia’s fintech scene which recognises people shaping finance across Asia and beyond. He held key leadership positions in the innovation practice at The Nielsen Company where led the innovation practice for Southeast Asia, North Asia and Pacific supporting more than 100 clients in reaching their desired innovation outcomes.

In his 12-year career prior to joining MasterCard in Singapore, he had been based in the USA, India, Singapore, and Switzerland covering clients globally. He graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science degree in management and international business.

The Hon. Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr) Haji Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani

Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr) Haji Mohamad Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani is the State

Secretary of Sarawak since 2009. He has served in various organisations such as:

PETRONAS (1980-1988), Director of DBKU (1988 – 1998)
Director of Human Resource and Development Unit, Chief Minister Department (1998 – 2001)
Permanent Secretary to Ministry Of Social Development (2001 – 2003)
Director of State Planning Unit, Chief Minister Department (2004 – 2007)
Deputy State Secretary of Sarawak (2007 – 2009)
State Secretary of Sarawak (2009 onwards) and
He also sits as Chairman or Board of Director in some non-government and corporate organisations.

Tan Sri Datuk Amar holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, a master’s degree in human resource administration from University of Scranton, Pennsylvania USA and attended the Senior Executive Fellow from Harvard University USA. In recognition of his achievement and contribution, he was awarded Honorary Doctor from

Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin

Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin is an educationist. He was a teacher and education manager within the Ministry of Education. His last position was as director general of Education of Malaysia. He’s chairman of Management and Science University (MSU), Furukawa Electric Cables (M) Sdn Bhd and Academy of Higher Education. He’s also a director of Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad, Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad, SP Setia Berhad and Amanah Mutual Berhad. He was the chairman of Berger International Ltd based in Singapore and Deputy Chairman of International Bank Malaysia Berhad.

He’s a board member of the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) and the training and development arm of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). He holds a bachelor’s (Honours) degree from University of Malaya, a master’s degree from Stanford University and a PhD from University of California, Berkeley. He also underwent a course in business management under the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School. He’s the chairman of WIEF Education Trust, WIEF Board of Trustee and member of the WIEF International Advisory Panel (IAP).

Todd Ashton

Since 2013, Todd Ashton became the President of Ericsson Malaysia and Sri Lanka and effective 1 July, 2017, Todd Ashton has been announced as the President of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh within the Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India. In this role, Todd has been leading innovation and developing new capabilities in these markets by building long term partnerships with Ericsson customers and other industry stakeholders. These innovative partnerships are fuelled by Team Ericsson, the most inspiring people in the Information and Communications Technology industry.

Todd started his career in financial consulting and then moved to the former Bell Atlantic in Arlington, Virginia USA, working on a large billing and customer care transformation. In 1998 he joined the Ericsson Group working with OSS service and software sales and delivery within the Ericsson Hewlett-Packard joint venture in Sweden. During his 19 years at Ericsson, Mr Ashton has held leadership roles across several portfolios within Ericsson, including IP backbone networks, OSS, BSS, and IP Multimedia software and services.

Todd was born in Washington, D.C. and has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from The College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA.

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