U.S. Embassy Singapore

Ambassador Jonathan Kaplan

Ambassador Jonathan Kaplan is a prominent executive, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose career has spanned numerous industries. He was the co-founder and Chair of EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit organization that brought high-speed internet to more than 49 million children in K-12 classrooms nationwide. Professionally, Ambassador Kaplan is best known for founding Pure Digital Technologies and inventing its revolutionary Flip video camera. In 2009, Cisco bought Pure Digital Technologies, and Kaplan became Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Consumer Products Division.

Ambassador Kaplan was also the founding CEO of The Melt, a chain of fast-casual restaurants. Previously he was President and CEO of Sega.com and he was the founder and CEO of FamilyWonder, an entertainment and technology company. Ambassador Kaplan was named Northern California 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and was named by Business Week among the Most Influential People on the Web in 2008. He earned a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia

Dr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, PNT’20

Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno is an Indonesian businessman and politician. He was appointed as Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia by the President of the Republic of Indonesia in December 2020. Previously, Dr. Uno was elected as Vice Governor of Jakarta and served from October 2017 to August 2018. He ran as a candidate for the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia in the 2019 election.

Dr. Uno is one of Indonesia’s most prominent young entrepreneurs, and he is active in the Indonesian business communities. He is the cofounder of PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya Tbk., the first and the biggest publicly listed active investment company in Indonesia; he served as a President Director from 2004–2015. He has led the investment firm to have a solid track record of profitable investments across key sectors of the Indonesian economy.

Dr. Uno has passion for empowering young entrepreneurs, creating support in small to medium enterprises, and giving microloans to thousands of Indonesians. Since 2005, he has been active as a social entrepreneur and serves as Chairman of several well-known associations and foundations in Indonesia. He obtained a doctoral degree in management from Universitas Pelita Harapan (Indonesia). He also holds an MBA from George Washington University (U.S.) and a BA, summa cum laude, from Wichita State University (U.S.).

Chairman, Schneider Electric

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, PNT’22,’23,’26, Trustee

Jean-Pascal Tricoire is Chairman of Schneider Electric, where he served as Chief Executive Officer until May 2023. He serves as Co-Chairman of the France-China Business Council, is a director of the worldwide board of the United Nations Global Compact, and is a United Nations #HeForShe Corporate IMPACT champion working with other heads of state, universities, and companies to advance gender equality. He is also an Independent Director of Qualcomm.

Since 2019, Mr. Tricoire has been a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He earned his MEng in Electronic Engineering from ESEO in 1985, as well as an MBA from Emlyon Business School in 1986. He is the parent of 2022 and 2023 College of Science graduates, and an undergraduate student. He joined the Board in 2019.

Group Executive Chairman of Li & Fung Limited

Spencer Fung, PA’96, Trustee

Spencer Fung is the Group Executive Chairman of Li & Fung Limited, a Hong Kong–based global supply chain management company. He previously served as Group Chief Executive Officer until 2020. He joined Li & Fung in 2001 as a merchandiser and has served in roles of increasing responsibility during his tenure.

Mr. Fung also serves as a Director of the Victor and William Fung Foundation. He previously worked at PwC in Boston and co-founded HelloAsia.com in 1999. He has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of Swire Properties, and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization–Hong Kong Chapter. He is a member of the General Committee of the Hong Kong Exporters’ Association. Mr. Fung earned an AB in Economics from Harvard College and holds an MS/MBA from Northeastern University’s Professional School of Accounting. He joined the Board in 2013.

Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board

Jacqueline Poh

Ms. Jacqueline Poh is the Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, also known as EDB. She was previously the Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Strategy Group. She was also the founding Chief Executive of the Government Technology Agency of Singapore, and Managing Director of the Infocommunications Development Authority.

Ms. Poh has held key positions in the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Defence. She is an alumna of the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, INSEAD (MBA), and Stanford University. She currently sits on the boards of SingHealth, the Singapore Institute of Technology, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. She is the Chairperson of the DesignSingapore Advisory Board and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation.

CEO of Southeast Asia and Senior Vice President of Asia for Universal Music Group

Calvin Wong

Calvin Wong has served as CEO of Southeast Asia and Senior Vice President of Asia at Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, since 2019.

An accomplished leader and marketing expert with more than 30 years of experience within the Asian music industry, Mr. Wong joined UMG from Warner Music Group, where he most recently held the position of UMG’s President of Southeast Asia and Korea. Prior to joining Warner Music in 1998, he held several regional positions at EMI.

Mr. Wong leads UMG’s regional operations across Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indochina. Additionally, he works closely with Granite, utilizing his broad career experience throughout Asia, including South Korea, to help manage operations across the entire region.

Managing Partner and Cofounder of Asia Partners

Nicholas A. Nash

Prior to Asia Partners, Mr. Nicholas Nash was the Group President of Sea, a $30 billion company and the largest internet firm by market capitalization across Southeast Asia. Mr. Nash led Sea’s landmark initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, which raised $989 million of primary capital, the largest ever U.S. IPO of a technology company from Southeast Asia.

Mr. Nash joined Sea after more than a decade with General Atlantic, most recently as the cofounder and head of its Southeast Asia business. Three of Mr. Nash’s successful investments while with GA, namely Genpact, QTS, and Sea, became multi-billion dollar publicly traded companies. Prior to GA, Mr. Nash was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York.

Mr. Nash is a member of the global Kauffman Society for leadership in venture capital, a member of the Young Presidents Organization in Singapore, a board member of Endeavor Indonesia, and a board member of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore. He has also served as a board member of A*Cellerate, the deep-tech commercialization effort of Singapore’s government research institutes.

Founding Partner and Managing Director Asia of TMV Capital Healthcare

Hoda Abou-Jamra

Ms. Hoda Abou-Jamra is the Founding Partner and Managing Director Asia of TVM Capital Healthcare in Singapore. In 2007, she was the driving force behind the establishment of TVM Capital Healthcare in the MENA region, and expanded the business to Singapore a couple of years later, to improve access to affordable, quality healthcare in Southeast Asia. Her global expertise in business development and fundraising has helped her to build and develop a successful healthcare-dedicated private equity firm, which combines strong commercial value creation with measurable impact creation.

Ms. Abou-Jamra currently holds board positions at Manzil Healthcare Services, a female-founded, dedicated provider of professional home care and home nursing services headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Amecath Medical Technologies, a Medical Devices company with global distribution networks.

Before co-founding TVM Capital Healthcare, she was the CEO of Boston BioCapital, a U.S.-based firm that provided strategic advice, due diligence services, business plan conception, business development, and consulting services for U.S. and European biotech industries. She is also a founder of The BioExec Institute, Boston, a nonprofit think tank for the healthcare industry. Ms. Abou-Jamra graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in pharmacy.

Co-Founder and CCO of KNOTS

Itai Boublil, DMSB’04

Itai Boublil is the Co-founder and CCO of KNOTS, a generative AI finance employee. His journey involves working with global startups for over 20 years. Mr. Boublil has held various C-level roles in SaaS, Impact, fintech, corporations, and nonprofits during the past 10 years, focusing on marketing, sales, commercial, and revenue operations. He has also held different advisory roles with social impact and climate change startups, using his knowledge to help young founders save our planet.

A three-time founder, Mr. Boublil’s true passion lies in solving complex problems. With KNOTS, his team took on the challenge of solving the finance team’s main problem: how to shorten the time it takes to do manual work. To do so, the team built a generative AI finance employee that can shorten the time to do finance manual work from hours and days to no more than 30 seconds. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.

CEO of motherswork

Sharon Wong, PNT’26

Sharon Wong is founder and CEO of motherswork, where she serves as its Creative Director. She started motherswork as a onestop retail partner for women as they journey through motherhood, from the moment they discover their pregnancies, to when they send their children off to school, and all the little adventures in between. Ms. Wong is also a mentor for the CRIB Society, a social enterprise that supports women’s entrepreneurial work; and Design Orchard, an integrated retail and incubation space that puts Singapore’s designers and their creative pieces in the limelight. In addition, she is a founding member of the Maternal and Infant Trade Association of Singapore, supporting Singaporean entrepreneurs in the mother and baby industry.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Ms. Wong was Regional Tax and Treasury Director at an American multinational company, and was trained in Australia at Coopers & Lybrand, then one of the Big Four accounting firms. She holds a Bachelor of Economics and Graduate Diploma in Taxation Law from Monash University. She enjoys travels with her husband Ken and their three children, exposing them to new cultures and experiences.

Assistant Chief Executive at National Gallery Singapore

Chris Lee

Chris Lee is the Assistant Chief Executive at National Gallery Singapore. He leads a first-of-its-kind museum experience and services business unit, which integrates visitor experience, innovation and technology, integrated marketing and communications, and business development to deliver a seamless, personalized, and elevated experience with art physically and digitally within and beyond the walls of the museum.

Mr. Lee joined the National Gallery in 2016 as Chief Marketing Officer, where he successfully championed an audience-centric approach to help raise the gallery’s profile locally and internationally, consistently overachieving the museum’s goals in visitorship and revenue growth. Online visitorship doubled to 2.3 million post pandemic, and onsite visitorship has recovered close to prepandemic levels. 

Mr. Lee also led a large cross-divisional team from 2019 to 2022 to radically redesign the museum into a new multimodal, decentralized ticketing and seamless experience. He continues to helm innovation of the art, museum, and work experience, collaborating with the curatorial and programming teams. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical and management studies from Brunel University in West London.