Executive Committee
The Executive Committee (EXCO) of UAESBC comprises the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and EXCO members.
PRESIDENT : Dr Brian Shegar
CEO & Founder, ME Asia Consultancy Pte Ltd
Dr Brian Shegar’s forty-year career covers leadership international banking experience with focus on South East and South Asia, Asia Pacific and Middle East as CEO of Midland Bank, NedBank and Emirates NBD. Upon his retirement from Emirates NBD in 2018, Dr Shegar established ME-Asia Consultancy Pte Ltd and is the Founding President of the UAE Singapore Business Council. He is a Member of the Global Advisory Board of CASS Business School and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Gulf Economics, Trade and Finance. Dr Shegar holds a BSc, Hons (Banking and International Finance) and an MSc (Finance) from the CASS Business School of City, University of London. He was awarded a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Western Australia Business School. He has also presented papers and spoken at numerous seminars and conferences.
President’s message:
I am indeed honoured to be elected Founder President of the UAE Singapore Business Council which is a momentous development in the Singapore business community encompassing companies from UAE in Singapore and Singaporean companies involved in the UAE. It would serve as a platform for such companies to network and participate in activities that would promote stronger business linkages and profile of the UAE Singapore nexus.
VICE-PRESIDENT : Mr Lee Soon Kiat
Mr Lee Soon Kiat is currently Director of Government Relations, Legal Department of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore. He has over 27 years of working experience in both the government and private sector. In the government sector, he has served in both Economic Development Board and IE Singapore. His areas of work included promotion of foreign direct investment into Singapore, facilitating business collaboration and development between local and foreign companies. In the private sector, he has served as Vice President for Corporate Strategic Development in local and multinational companies in the manufacturing, research and development of manufacturing equipment, electronic healthcare and image fiber products.
SECRETARY : Mr Vinayak Herur
Mr Vinayak Herur is the Head of Corporate Coverage (Asia and SEAA) of First Abu Dhabi Bank, Asia leading the bank’s business growth in the region.
Before joining FAB, he worked with ANZ Bank (2010‐18) in Coverage roles in Vietnam (Head Institutional Bank:‐ ’10‐‘13); Singapore (Head Diversified Corporates: ‘13‐‘17) and finally in Business Transformation where he was a member of multi‐disciplinary team executing the Institutional Bank’s Transformation Strategy within Asia.
Prior to that, he was with Standard Chartered Bank (1996‐2010) in various Coverage and Risk roles with the last one being Head, Retail Investor Solutions, Financial Markets where he conceptualized and built a ‘multi asset structured product platform’ to deliver investor solutions to the private & wealth management network within the bank and other FIs. He led a multi‐disciplinary team across Trading, Structuring, ALM, Technology, and Wealth Product & Risk.
Vinayak leads the South‐East Asia client relationship team to grow FAB’s corporate franchise in the region and is the Regional Head of Coverage for APAC.
TREASURER : Mr Musdalifa Abdullah
Mr Musdalifa is currently the Chief Financial Officer of dnata Singapore. He has more than 18 years of working experience in both the aviation industry and government bodies. He is known to be an excellent collaborator in planning and delivering advisory services to the company’s businesses. He has earned himself a reputation as a strong, ‘hands on’ leader.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Simon Naga
Simon Naga joined the Singapore office as Managing Director, Inditex Brands, Al-Futtaim Group, in early July 2017. In January 2019, he was appointed Vice President of Al-Futtaim Group, Asia to oversee overall Group operations in Asia. In addition to spearheading the Inditex Brands, he is responsible for the other brands under the Group in Asia. These brands include Marks and Spencer and a host of other well-known retail brands such as Bebe, Ted Baker, Massimo Dutti, Nautica, Reebok, Zara, Mango, Pull&Bear, Lacoste and Royal Sporting House.
With more than 14 years of working experience in the retail industry, before joining the Al-Futtaim Group, his last vocation was a District Manager with the Azadea Group based in Egypt. He was responsible for leading and managing the country’s business operations as well as ensuring business profitability. He holds the 2014 record of achieving record double-digit revenue-growth for the business portfolio. In his earlier professional years, he gained important extensive retail operations and brand management experience with multi-label lifestyle brands retailer Dubai Group Holding.
Mr Naga is skilled in business development and holds a Bachelor’s Degree specialising in International Business, Trade and Commerce from Ain Shams University.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Vikram Malhotra
Mr Malhotra is the Global Market Head for Global South Asia and Middle-Asia for Bank of Singapore Centre, a subsidiary of OCBC Bank.
He has over 20 years of Financial markets, Corporate and Private banking experience gained at leading financial institutions across Asia.
Prior to joining BOSC, he was the Head of Sales for South Asia & South East Asia at the WM division of Barclays. Vikram is responsible for managing a team of Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai-based bankers providing wealth management and advisory solutions to the bank’s Private Banking clients at a global level.
Mr Malhotra holds a Post Graduate Diploma in International Management from International Management Institute, India, and a B.A. Honours in History from Delhi University, India.
EXCO MEMBER : Ms Asmaa Al Kindi
Borouge Pte Ltd
Ms Asmaa Alkindi is an engineer at heart and a management consultant by profession, with over thirteen years of experience focusing on people strategies, corporate excellence and digital transformation. Currently, Ms Alkindi is the Vice President for Human capital and Administration at Borouge, a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Austria based Borealis. She leads the HR function in line with the corporate strategies across the region spanning Singapore, China, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt. In her role, Ms Alkindi is accountable for developing and directing the implementation of strategies to determine plans and programs for the most effective utilisation of human resources to meet organisational needs, market competitiveness and financial targets.
Prior to her role with Borouge, Ms Alkindi was the Vice President of Talent Management function at ADNOC Gas Processing during which she leads the overall mission to find, develop and retain talent in support of the organization’s over-all business strategy. She pioneered the establishment of the corporate wide knowledge management framework and innovation management program to support organisation learning and continuous improvement.
Ms Alkindi was born and brought up in Abu Dhabi, UAE and currently lives in Singapore with her family of three kids. Her career was driven by the strong belief that disruptive thinking and change management works in tandem to driving a successful sustainable business.
EXCO MEMBER : Ms May Chan
Ms May Chan was based in Dubai working on The Dubai Mall from inception to completion and was largely responsible for running the Dubai, UAE and Middle East Operations for DPA while working on many retail, hospitality and residential projects in this region. She has been a key contributor to DPA’s success within the middle east whilst permanently stationed in Dubai for 10 years.
Today, Ms Chan is a director in DP Architects and has been based in Singapore for the last few years. She continues her role as the MENA Director; overseeing the Dubai branch office, which she played a key role in setting up in 2005 as well as managing and representing DPA in the Middle East.
Ms Chan has a Masters of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts (Architectural Studies) from the National University of Singapore and is a practising Architect registered under the Board of Architects, and a member of the Singapore Institute of Architects.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Moiz Saleem
Emirates National Oil Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd, ENOC
Mr Moiz Saleem is an accomplished management executive with over 33 years’ experience in the oil trading industry. He is currently Chief Operating Officer and Director on the Board of Emirates National Oil Company (Singapore) Private Limited (ENOC Singapore). As the Chief Operating Officer of ENOC Singapore, Moiz is responsible for overall financial and strategic management of the company. This includes running all facets of the business from overseeing the full operations from trading, marketing, trading operations, finance and risk control and the day-to-day operations.
Mr Saleem has a proven executive management track record having driven profitability growth for ENOC Singapore over the years. At ENOC Singapore, he led the transformation of a newly set up trading company into a mature trading business.
Mr Saleem joined Emirates National Oil Company LLC (ENOC) in Dubai, which is a 100% Government of Dubai Company, in 1999 before his relocation to Singapore in August 2000. Prior to joining ENOC, he was with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (India), for 15 years in various departments in Finance & Trading.
EXCO MEMBER : Ms Vanessa Leung
Ms Vanessa Leung has over 25 years’ experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Emirates NBD Bank, she spent 22 years in Standard Chartered Bank across multiple functions. Ms Leung is currently CEO of Emirates NBD Bank’s Singapore Branch where she is responsible for overall strategic direction and operations of the Singapore branch and the bank’s representative offices in China and Indonesia.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Jeffrey Lim
Mr Jeffrey Lim has gained over 25 years of commercial business experience in the travel/airline industry and has worked for a wide spectrum of organizations such as Sabre, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, American Express, CWT, CAAS, and Gulf Air. His current role as GM Etihad Airways focuses on leading its commercial teams to achieve their business objectives in Singapore. Having also worked extensively in China, Malaysia, and the APAC region, he is well versed on commerce practices in the region.
Mr Lim earned his BSc degree in Finance/Economics at Indiana University, USA and a MBA degree from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He currently sits on the Board of Airline Representative as an EXCO member.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Atul Temurnikar
Global Schools Foundation (GSF)
Mr Atul Temurnikar is the founding Chairman of Global Schools Foundation (GSF), a Singapore-based not-for-profit entity which has two schools under its aegis – Global Indian International School (GIIS) and One World International School (OWIS). The foundation has 22 campuses across South East Asia, East Asia and Middle East (through presence in 7 countries) to provide high quality international education for students from kindergarten to High school.
Mr Temurnikar heads the executive management of GSF and oversees its worldwide operations. He is a strong advocate of high-quality yet moderate and affordable education that transcends socio-economic boundaries. He has also been advocate of new emerging education frontiers and his significant efforts in the education sector.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Thakore P R
Mr Thakore is the CEO of IFFCO Singapore Pte Ltd and has been with the IFFCO Group in various capacities since 2007. He is responsible for global procurement, trading, risk management and supply chain management for IFFCO’s Oils & Fats business. Prior to joining IFFCO, he was Senior Vice President (Marketing) with Pan Century Edible Oils Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia. He has over 30 years’ experience in the Edible Oils Industry and has been actively associated with various industries and trade bodies.
Mr Thakore hold an MBA from National University of Singapore, a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from University of Calcutta and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
EXCO MEMBER : Eitan Konstantino
Eitan has made significant contributions to the field of MedTech, with more than two decades in R&D defined by numerous career highs and breakthrough inventions.
He is best known for inventing and developing stents, angioplasty balloons and vascular devices acquired or distributed by top-tier multinationals, including Medtronic, Teleflex, Philips, J&J Cordis, and Boston Scientific. His products are commercially available in majority US hospitals and have generated cumulative revenue approaching $1B globally.
Eitan founded and led multiple medical device companies in US and Asia from concept through sales, to international M&A, IPO and licensing transactions. He holds over 150 US and international patents and patent applications. He served as Co-Chairman of ASTM/FDA task force for endovascular standards and was recognized by the White House, Office of President Obama as a medical device expert.
Eitan holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. While at Technion he won the Rothschild Creativity Award and Schwartz Outstanding Achievement Award.
EXCO MEMBER : Venkataramani Srivathsan
Mr Venkataramani Srivathsan (“Sri”) joined Olam International in 1994 and has more than 25 years of experience in the commodities industry. He has held various positions in the Olam group, including country head, Ghana; country head, Nigeria; and regional head, West and Central Africa. Currently, he is the managing director and CEO for Africa and the Middle East, with oversight responsibility for the fertiliser business.
Mr Srivathsan belongs to the 12-member executive committee that is Olam’s top policymaking body and is a member of its human resource and crisis committees. He is also the vice-chairman of the Singapore Business Federation, a member of the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies executive committee as well as on the advisory board of the Pan African University Lagos (Lagos Business School).
With over 20 years of pan-African experience, Mr Srivathsan has presented many papers on small holder farmer in the Pan African forums. He has also been part of the advisory committees for the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of trade and industry in Nigeria. He is also the Chairman of Organising Committee of the Bi-Annual African Singapore Business Forum organised by Enterprise Singapore. Under his leadership, Olam Nigeria won several international and national awards. He was awarded a prestigious World Business for Peace Award in 2010.
EXCO MEMBER : Mr Wong Heang Fine
Surbana Jurong Private Limited
Mr Wong is Group CEO of Surbana Jurong Private Limited, Asia’s consultancy powerhouse for urban, infrastructure and engineering solutions that employs over 14,000 dedicated people working across a network of more than 120 offices in over 40 countries globally.
A luminary in the commercial world, Heang Fine has held key leadership positions across various industries over the last 35 years. Prior to joining Surbana Jurong, he was the CEO of CapitaLand Singapore Limited (Residential) and CapitaLand GCC Holdings, and the Country CEO in charge of developing CapitaLand’s business in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Mr Wong was also CEO of Capitala, a joint venture company between CapitaLand Singapore and Mubadala Development Company, UAE. Prior to this, he was President & CEO of SembCorp Engineers and Constructors Pte Ltd and President & CEO of Cathay Organisation Holdings. Mr Wong holds a 1st Class Honours in B.Sc (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Leeds, England and a M.Sc (Engineering Production and Management) from the University of Birmingham, England.