Driving AI for Competitive Advantage

Vineeta Tan is the Managing Editor and a Director at REDmoney Group, one of the world’s longest- running Islamic finance media house. Vineeta’s oversees REDmoney Group’s stable of products including Islamic Finance news, IFN Fintech and Islamic Sustainable Finance & Investment. A multimedia journalist with over a decade of experience in the journalism and publishing industry working independently and leading a team, Vineeta specializes in ethical and Islamic finance as well as fintech reporting and analysis, covering regions including the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. As Managing Editor of IFN, she is responsible for the editorial direction and business development of IFN and its sister publications in addition to authoring reports, producing podcasts and conducting video interviews. She has interviewed senior industry players, key stakeholders and senior dignitaries including the finance/ economic ministers of Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, among others. Vineeta is a regular in the international conference circuit as both a moderator and speaker. Trained in journalism and sociology, Vineeta holds an Islamic Finance Qualification awarded by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments in the UK.

Analytics experience since 1999 in top US and European financial institutions and an international rating agency before heading an award-winning AI Group represented in 20+ countries. Currently the lead advisor to more than 500 digital transformation projects as part of the University-Industry Partnership and the Digital AI Labs (DIAL) programmes for public, private and non-profit organisations globally. Ranked #1 as a Global Thought Leader in three categories: AI, Predictive Analytics and Digital Transformation by independent US-based research group, Thinkers360. Won the Global Excellence Award 2020 by US-based group, Global Chamber.Org Awarded the Asia-Pacific Young Business Leader Award (AI/Innovation) in 2010 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Malaysia). In 2019, he was awarded with IFN’s Global Winner for Best Data and Analytics Platform. Also listed by one of the world’s top 500 prominent and influential personalities in the OIC economy (A.I/Fintech category) by Islamica500. Current member, Board of Governor for Republic Polytechnic (Singapore) and Advisor to its School of Infocomm; and sits on the advisory board of several public and private universities in the region. Presently the Honorary Consul for The Republic of Cabo Verde (West Africa), appointed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Singapore) for the Government of Cabo Verde.

Richard Ker is the Chief Storyteller at his own digital marketing agency called Richard Ker Digital. He was the former Chief Marketing Officer of Aerodyne Group. Richard is a TEDx innovation and keynote speaker who is highly immersed in the global startup ecosystem. He was previously attached to Cyberview, where he spearheaded Cyberjaya’s Smart City programs. Richard was also with the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) where he set up the ASEAN Centre of Entrepreneurship (ACE). Richard lived and worked in the tech industry for more than 10 years in Beijing before relocating back to Malaysia.

Jack Low is Head of Banking at RinggitPlus, leading strategic and operational efforts for the site’s financial product categories including credit cards, unsecured financing, mortgages, and more. Jack started his foray into the digital space with RinggitPlus and in between have successfully grown and led a team to develop RinggitPlus Score, in partnership with Experian. Having garnered more than eight years of experience in the local banking industry, the role comes naturally to Jack. Previously, he had been involved in and oversaw end-to-end business profit and loss management, credit and mortgage initiations, branch operations, systems implementations, and more for a financial institution. Educated in Engineering, Jack has always had an affinity for financial services and is now dedicated to helping more Malaysians make better money decisions with RinggitPlus.

Juarez has over 25 years of experience in developing businesses. A lawyer by training, he has pivoted to consumer analytics working with companies such as Mitsubishi, Mercedes Benz, Johnson & Johnson and BMW as well as luxury watch brands. With the power of AI analytics, he is able to transfer that knowledge to machine analytics. Juarez has successfully led the Bumi Data Mining (BDM) team from a startup to an established regional player in the AI and big data space. His team is working with PETRONAS to use the BDM VROC AI for process optimization to enable remote operations. The BDM-VROC AI is also in the PETRONAS Innovation Gateway. He has spoken at numerous engagements on how AI can enable remote operations. Juarez is chair of the Innovation Working Group at MOGSC and has led and driven numerous initiatives on digitalization including the RESET 2021 Conference hosted by PETRONAS and organized by SPE and MOGSC and other webinars on innovation. These initiatives are aimed to help the oil and gas industry align on the journey to digitalization and IR 4.0.

Aiza Azreen is the Chief Business Officer and Chief Executive Officer (Designate), MYSJ Sdn Bhd, brings well over 20 years’ worth of experience and expertise. As CEO Designate of MYSJ, her primary role is to frontier into industries largely analogues, introducing digital solutions that would not only enhance customer value but reshape industries as a whole. MySejahtera, the Malaysian application designed and launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, has helped combat the virus via its array of features. Contact tracing allowed shops to remain open. Digitising the vaccine administration process was key to accelerating Malaysia as the country with the world’s fastest vaccination rates. The travellers’ module was pivotal in Malaysia’s borders reopening strategy. Aiza’s ability to reimagine industries through a digital lens is largely due to her past experiences. In her last role as MDEC’s Chief Digital Business Officer (CDBO), Aiza helped to advance digitalisation in Malaysia by enriching the country’s digital adoption ecosystem. Aiza pushed for favourable policies, national programmes, and financial support to players in eCommerce, big data, cloud solutions, and retail. Other notable accomplishments include pioneering Malaysia’s cashless ecosystem, innovated business models for digital readiness for Islamic banks, and led a digital transformation for Malaysia’s largest integrated media company. Aiza’s love for technology is nostalgic. “As a little girl, I would play in the backyard at night, often looking up to the sky hoping to catch a shooting star. When I did see these ‘moving blips’, I would close my eyes, excitedly, and make a wish! It was only as I got older that I realised that those shooting stars I was so enamoured with, were in fact planes flying through the sky and at times, satellites moving through space.”

Dr. Haniza Yon is the founder and CEO of Global Psytech. She provided the management and intellectual leadership in the development of various analytic solutions that have been used in Malaysia as well as internationally. Her past experience included as a psychometrician at ETS, Princeton, New Jersey, as a Vice President at IKS, Illinois, USA and as a Principal Researcher in the Artificial Intelligence Lab and a Director of the Psychometrics/Cognitive Analytics Labs at MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia. Her research and business objectives are centred around the application of behavioural science and technology to predict human potential and capabilities. She received her PhD in Measurement and Quantitative Methods from Michigan State University, USA and served as an adjunct professor at the School of Economics, Finance and Banking, UUM, as an adjunct fellow at the Laboratory for Statistics and Computation, ISLA, Portugal, the School of Quantitative Sciences, UUM, the Educational Research Lab, UPSI, and as a research fellow at the Psychometrics Centre, Cambridge University, UK.

Mohammad Ridzuan Abdul Aziz (Ridzuan) has over 20 years of commercially–driven regulatory, compliance and technology experiences in Asia-Pacific. He is currently the Malaysia Country Director and Head of ASEAN Business for WorldRemit, and on the board of KAF Investment Bank, AKRU robo-advisory, DearTime InsureTech and Ethis Global Ventures. He is a member of the board advisor for the Fintech Association of Malaysia where among others, focuses on raising Malaysia’s unique combined values of mature on-shore fintech eco-system, nimble Labuan mid-shore framework and wealth of depth & breath from Islamic Digital Economy. He was also the Secretary General for the ASEAN Chapter of the Global Impact Fintech Forum, a global thinktank that focuses on Fintech initiatives that has significant impacts with members across 70+ countries and founding member of Faster Community that’s consist of MENA fintech founders and leaders. Ridzuan is an advisor for the Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA), Asia Pacific University (APU), Taylor’s University Business School, Quest International University (QIU) and Policy Streets. In 2013 and 2016, Ridzuan founded regulatory technology advisory firms - RHT Compliance Solutions and CS Technology Solutions Sdn Bhd, respectively. In 2017, Ridzuan was the CEO of Sedania As-Salam Capital Sdn Bhd, a digitalenabling platform for Shariah-compliance personal objective-loan financing. He was a regulator with the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (1998) during the Asia financial crisis, the Securities Commission ((2001) and then redeployed to a joint task force between the Securities Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia during the formation of the investment bank concept (2002). Ridzuan graduated from University of Wales, Aberyswyth (1997) with BSc Economics, majoring in Accounting and Finance. He obtained his MBA, specializing in Management Information System from the International Islamic University Malaysia (2005).