Technology for Infrastructure of Asia’s Future Cities

While eight of the world’s 10 largest megacities are in Asia, low urbanization levels cause inefficiencies of citizen services and imbalanced economic development at the expense of sustainability.

For many Asian cities, making the way forward for development requires both “catching-up” and “getting-ahead.” Digital and engineering technology bring nonlinear solutions to solve the leapfrog challenge and improve accessibility. Best practices from Asia’s leading cities such as Singapore testify to the cost-effectiveness of innovation. Nevertheless—to spread best practices—governments, corporations, research Institutes and technology providers should join hands to incubate, commercialize, incentivize and accelerate adoption of technology-enabled solutions.

The seminar will gather government representatives, thought leaders and entrepreneurs to discuss key drivers and enablers to build future cities, including effective and cross-sector partnership for technology-enabled urban infrastructure.

Speakers

H.E. Janil Puthucheary

Senior Minister of State at MCI & MOH, Singapore

Dr Janil Puthucheary, 49, was elected Member of Parliament in 2011. He is currently Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of Health. He is also the Minister-in-charge of GovTech.
He chairs OnePeople.sg, which works to promote racial harmony in Singapore. His political roles include Chair of Young PAP (the youth wing of the People's Action Party), and Whip.

Mr. Konstantin Limitovskiy

Vice President, Investment Operations, AIIB

Limitovskiy is Vice President, Investment Operations (Region 2) where he oversees the entire project cycle for sovereign and nonsovereign investments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, East Asia, West Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Prior to this role, he was Chief Programming Officer and Senior Advisor to the President of AIIB, heading the Client Relations and Programming Office. Konstantin joined AIIB in November 2018 from the Eurasian Development Bank where he was Deputy Chairman leading business activities in infrastructure. Before that, he was responsible for international project finance at the VTB Group in Russia. Over the challenging period of 2009-2010, he was involved in managing the real estate loan portfolio of Sberbank and established the infrastructure finance practice there. Before that, he helped develop and headed leveraged and structured finance operations for Gazprombank and Alfa Bank. Prior to that, he led banking activities in infrastructure finance at the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, an international development bank based in Greece. He is a graduate of the Russian Finance University. He also holds an MA degree in geophysics. Limitovskiy is from Russia.

Dr. Philip Abraham

Senior Vice President, Veolia

Dr Philip Abraham, Senior Vice-President - Veolia Asia currently oversees the Digital Transformation of Veolia Asia. The IT and Cybersecurity teams also report to Philip.

Philp’s role also drives the innovation processes across Asia and has been instrumental in defining the Digital Roadmap of Veolia Asia. Some of the interesting projects that his team is working on involve Augmented Intelligence, Machine Learning and using trends such as Blockchain technology in Supply Chain management. His teams have also worked on supporting cities in Europe and Asia and Industrial Clients with tools that fulfil the Purpose of Veolia, that involves improving the quality of human life.

Philip, an Australian citizen who was born in India, started his career as an academic in India and later in Australia, joined Veolia 21 years ago. His career spans over roles in Operations running Hazardous Waste treatment plants, to heading support function teams in QHSE, Risk Management, Climate Change, Lobbying, Technical, Strategy and Research and Innovation. He has worked in India, Australia, France and Hong Kong and with Operations and cross functional teams in over 70 countries around the world. What brings him to work everyday is the opportunity to make an impact and a difference.

Mr. Kevin Crull

Managing Director, I Squared Capital

Kevin Crull is a Managing Director at I Squared Capital, focusing on infrastructure technology and telecoms.

Kevin has delivered growth and transformation across several multi-billion dollar businesses in a variety of industries. Leveraging his roots in sales, marketing, and operations, Kevin has driven superior execution, strategic M&A, and has built teams who consistently outperform expectations and their competition.

Before joining I Squared Capital, Kevin served as Sprint’s chief strategy officer, overseeing corporate strategy and business development. In this role he guided the company’s 5G program cross-functionally, evaluated a range of strategic options for the company, helped consummate the T-Mobile merger agreement, and then led integration planning.

Prior to Sprint, he served for nearly five years as the President & Chief Executive Officer at Bell Media, Canada’s largest media and broadcasting company, operating conventional TV, Cable TV, Radio, Outdoor, and digital assets in both English and French. Kevin led the acquisition of CTV Globemedia in late 2010, which created the foundation for Bell Media Inc. Following that, he acquired and integrated Astral Media and made strategic investments in MLSE and the Montreal Canadiens.

Kevin holds an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco, and a B.S. from the Ohio State University.

Ms. Jennifer Tay

Partner and Infrastructure Leader, PwC Singapore

Jennifer Tay leads the PwC Singapore Infrastructure Advisory Practice and is a Partner in the firm’s Deals Advisory Practice,. She has c. 20 years of experience in infrastructure – particularly in large scale financial transactions and strategic advisory, supporting both public and private sectors across the Asia regions. Jennifer’s sector expertise includes
transportation, power & energy, and telecommunications.

Jennifer has worked in large infrastructure companies in Singapore (in power, transport and telecommunications sectors) where her main roles were in strategic and financial planning, acquisitions, divestment, bond issues and IPO. She worked directly with Senior Management (CEOs and CFOs) of these companies in deciding strategic directions for their portfolio assets, and execute these transactions.

Jennifer managed the restructuring, integration, valuation and marketing of the asset. The listing of the national broadband network of Singapore, NetLink NBN Trust, on the Singapore Stock Exchange was completed on 19 July 2017. The Initial Public Offering (with a market capitalisation of S$3.2B) was the largest in Singapore since 2011 and the third largest in Asia in 2017.

Poll

Live Q&A

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