Dato’ Roza has more than 21 years of experience in MNCs particularly in marketing and sales of fast moving consumer goods. She started her career in 1989 as a management trainee with Unilever Malaysia and rose within the technical department to become Quality Manager (Foods, Detergents and Personal Products) for Malaysia and Singapore. After 10 years with Unilever Malaysia, she joined Kellogg Asia Marketing as Marketing Manager Innovations for South East Asia. She led the innovations’ team in new product development which saw the launch of Rice Krispies Treats and Chocos biscuit in the region. In 2001, Rozalila joined Reckitt Benckiser as Marketing Manager (Malaysia/Singapore) before moving to the banking sector as Director of Sales & Marketing, Bank Simpanan Nasional.

In mid 2006, he joined Maxis Communications Berhad as General Manager (Media, Research & Events) in the Consumer Business Division. In 2008, Rozalila headed the Segment Marketing team, managing Malay market, East Coast and East Malaysia where she leveraged on Media Prima’s Karnival Jom Heboh and Astro’s Akademi Fantasia to grow the Maxis and Hotlink business. She joined Telekom Malaysia as the CMO in February 2010.

Founded Binumi four years ago with a vision for digital storytelling in the modern era. Binumi is an innovative video platform, which allows its users to create videos of amazing diversity and to tell their stories instantly through cutting edge visual imagery, brings your stories to life with video. Music explorer Anthony Copping is also the brainchild behind ‘Last Voices’ - recording and filming the tribal voices of the South Pacific Islands over 15 years ago. His work has resulted in the recording of over 1,000 hours of remote voices, and a number of record releases in over 35 territories.

In 2001, the National Geographic Channel commissioned a documentary series following Anthony’s journey into the world’s jungles to capture the music and cultural spirit from peoples that many in the West knew little about. He recorded an album of traditional Melanesian songs which he calls “the last voices from heaven”. Described as “the most dangerous journey ever undertaken in the search of indigenous music” this critically acclaimed series continues to be broadcast in over 150 countries in over 25 languages. He has continued to deliver and create multiple products and projects, nearly 1000 short films and 15,000 hours of cultural footage for the promotion and dissemination of cultural diversity.

If you’re looking for a quick hit of Ezra Zaid, look no further than the internet or a working radio. You might find him on YouTube hosting That Effing Show, a satirical online series delighting in the absurdities of our local news and politics. If not, you may hear him on BFM 89.9’s Evening Edition during your drive home, a show delighting in the vagaries of local and international stories alike. A graduate of the University of British-Columbia in Canada, he is also a publisher of incendiary and important work and a proponent of freedom of expression. He also serves as a director of PopDigital, a creative media shop specialising in media and technology.

Having spent more than 20 years in Unilever, Herry’s expertise is in brand building, marketing, project management, customer development, general management and team leadership. In his previous role as Regional Brand Development Director for Oral, he had been responsible for sharpening portfolio strategy and creating a more competitive and innovation-driven category. He was responsible in transforming Oral Care SEAA to become the cluster’s growth engine category with consecutive strong double digit growth over three years and becoming the biggest cluster of Oral Care Category globally! In 2006 he became Director of Oral Care for South East Asia and then finally took over his current role as a Board of Director for Unilever Singapore and Malaysia and Head of Marketing for Malaysia.

Alice is a senior media research and insights specialist with 10 years media experience working across TV, Digital, Print and Outdoor. She has held a number of roles with some of Australia’s largest media companies - Channel Nine, the Seven Network, News Digital Media and Fairfax Digital. She recently joined Exponential Interactive to head up the Insights division for the APAC and South Africa region. She has held positions on both the IAB Measurement and Research Councils and has been instrumental in building ‘Australian first’ research pieces.

Originally trained as an economist, Sulin has spent most of her working life being a marketing nerd - trying to understand better the different sources of brand value, and how latent value can be unleashed from customer relationships, communications, and organizational culture. She joined Maxis from Ogilvy & Mather, where she was the Managing Director for both O&M advertising and OgilvyOne digital/CRM. Prior to that, Sulin was at DiGi where she had a hybrid role overseeing brand and ecommerce; and at BBDO/Proximity where she was Regional Planning Director on SingTel, Visa and Guinness. Last year she published “Think Things” (www.thinkthings.co) ideation tools to help low-budget startups, small biz and non- profits to create professional marketing, media and brand strategies. She still paints a little, writes a little, and likes collecting stories.

Anja joined Friesland Campina in 1995 as a Marketing Trainee and filled several marketing roles before becoming Marketing Director at FrieslandCampina Germany for five years. She was in charge of the communications, brand, market and media strategies for all the company’s products retailed within the German market. As Head of Dutch Lady Malaysia’s marketing department, Henze is responsible for elevating, marketing and strengthening the profile, popularity and reputation of all its milk brands.

With a CV that the Times described as “takes some beating”, Hamish Taylor is an award winning CEO whose career has taken him from International consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble, consultancy firm Price Waterhouse and British Airways to become CEO of the channel tunnel railway Eurostar, and then CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank ... all before he was 40!

In all cases, he left behind a record of significant business growth triggered by a willingness to challenge the normal way of doing things – so much so that his advice is now sought by companies all over the world in many different industries and he is recognised as one of the world’s leading experts on innovation, Brand Management and how to put the customer at the centre of your business.

The Inspired Leaders Network even gave him the title of “master thief” due to his record of stealing ideas from one environment to use in another.

Key Messages for Marketing

Hamish uses “war stories” from his experiences as a brand manger who progressed to CEO and, more recently, as an advisor to some of the worlds most famous brands, to challenge marketing professionals in 4 key areas that he believes are essential to both the external success of the organisation and the internal profile of Marketing:-

• We need to change the way we “understand” customers
• Ask the same questions, and you get the same answers! Hamish will illustrate how “soft insights”, the “blank sheet of paper” approach, “customer’s customer” and the “ability to share” are essential ingredients of a revised approach to customer insight.
• We need to place the customer at the core of EVERYONE’S activity
• A critical part of the marketing role is to bring the customer to the centre of the organisation. Hamish will illustrate how use of a simple,benefit driven “customer promise” was the key to turn arrounds at BA, Eurostar and Sainsburys and how other major organisations arround the world are beginning to use this technique to drive customer focus through all parts of the organisation.
• If you want a breakthrough, look outside your current environment
• Big breakthroughs require new sources of inspiration! Hamish has used yacht designers to help put beds in aeroplanes, Disney to help with airport queuing and even rugby referees redesign risk and compliance approaches. If marketing is to inspire the organisation, we need our teams to embrace this thinking.
• We need to change the way we engage with both external and, more importantly, internal customers.
• Often the biggest challenge for marketing is how to take the rest of the organisation with you. It is not enough to communicate the customer strategy. If we want action then Hamish’s experiences have illustrated the importance of factors such as “Ambition”, and the “Make it Easy” model from British Airways.

“Trains, Planes ...... and Toilet Cleaners”

Hamish Taylor has managed and advised on some of the most well known brands in the world. A marketer by training, he rose through the ranks to CEO positions where he became a customer of marketing. Hamish will share what he sees as the 4 most important challenges facing marketing teams if they are to truly “lead the business”:-

• We need to change the way we “understand” customers
• We need to place the customer at the core of EVERYONE’S activity
• If you want a breakthrough, look outside your current environment
• We need to change the way we engage with both external and, more importantly, internal customers.

Sita has a unique perspective on the world of retail, having had 360-degree exposure to it. She has covered the aspects of market research, marketing, branding and space management for various industries including FMCG, telecommunications, service, a diversified conglomerate and of course, retail. The knowledge she gained was the key to her being instrumental in creating well-known brands in Malaysia. Some of her notable successes include the creation of Maxis (Malaysia’s foremost telecommunications brand), the re- positioning of Pall Mall cigarettes and the launch and development of Demo Power (in-store sampling services). Her proudest achievement is spear- heading the creation of the Tesco Choice range, a brand that currently has more than USD100 million in sales annually. Sita’s recent successful challenge was the re-branding of the Sunway Group, one of Malaysia’s largest conglomerates which encompassed not only at corporate level but included employer branding as well.

Co-founder and executive director of Netccentric, the holding company for his and business partner Ming’s various web ventures, Tim teamed up with Cheo Ming Shen to establish the blog advertising company Nuffnang in February 2007. Nuffnang’s rapid growth has led to a network currently comprising of over 1,000,000 bloggers in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong and Thailand and advertisers like Nokia, Maxis, Citibank and more. In July 2009, integrated social media advertising network Churp Churp was launched and in less than 3 years the social media influencers registered collectively reach out to 3.38 million Twitter followers and 15 million friends on Facebook. Tim was nominated by Businessweek as two of the 25 best young Asian entrepreneurs in 2007; Timothy was the youngest on the list of inspired nominees at 23, and the only representative from Malaysia. Timothy also went on to win several other prestigious awards, one of them being the JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Award in 2009.

Sunil leads a USD 200 million+ business with 1600 employees, three manufacturing facilities and operates in 6 categories with a strong leadership position in the core categories of biscuits and chocolates. He joined the Malaysian business in May 2011 from Cadbury India after a very successful stint wherein he trebled revenues in just 5 years. Sunil is a ‘natural’ leader; an innovative thinker with broad-based expertise in strategy & operations. In a career spanning 25 years, he has built a very deep understanding of the FMCG and alcoholic beverages categories and has proven capabilities in successfully building ‘start-ups’ and jump-shifting growths in ‘existing operations’. He started his professional career with Wipro Consumer products and since then has worked for Frito Lays, Diageo, Cussons plc and Colgate Palmolive in various roles across India and other Asian markets. As a certified Executive Coach, he guides and advises many senior professionals on how to realize their potential.

Srikanth has an engineering degree from India and a MBA from NTU Singapore. He spent nearly a decade at IBM Singapore and Japan building the e-business solution business (Singapore), BI/CRM (Asean/ SA) and Digital Library business (Asia Pacific). His entrepreneur journey started in 2000 with Knowledge Dynamics, where Srikanth architected industry vertical analytical solutions (iDecisions). The company was acquired by a NYSE listed company in 2005. Srikanth is currently involved in multiple companies in the Telecom/ Media/ Technology space. As an industry expert, he has spoken in and chaired many conferences. He has also managed Singapore chapter for IandI, a non-profit association for entrepreneurs.

Media practitioner Henry Tan delights in breaking moulds. With over two decades in the industry, Henry is well known for challenging the norm and for his thought provoking campaigns. During his time at Mindshare, he led the agency to pioneer new solutions including branded content, activation, music, digital and a 360 approach. The agency grew in stature locally and internationally, and was named Global Agency Of The Year in the inaugural Mindshare Global Awards. Some key ground breaking campaigns like Loreal’s role in the KL Fashion Week and Sunsilk’s shampoo campaign for the ‘tudung’ market, can be attributed to Henry.

As the COO of Astro, he spearheaded the vision to make education programmes fun and hip. Astro ‘Tutor TV’ and ‘Oh My English!’ are the no.1 education and language learning brands in Malaysia with 360-degree offering. ‘Oh My English!’ has become pop culture phenomenon with 3.6 million viewers on TV, 8.5 million YouTube views and 427,000 Facebook friends. Another ‘first’ created by Henry is Astro First, the Pay- Per-View service that premieres the latest local movies just two weeks after their theatrical release, a feat unheard of in the entertainment industry.

Petra has more than 15 years of experience in the automotive industry, having spent time in various key positions in marketing, communications and branding. She began her automotive career with Mercedes- Benz, where she was assigned to their Hong Kong Marketing department. In 2002, she moved to the Volkswagen Group and was made Senior Marketing Manager for Volkswagen China where she successfully handled brand communications responsibilities across all channels. In 2011, Petra was appointed Head of Marketing and Communication with Volkswagen Group Malaysia. In 2012, she handled the launch of The Beetle at the Volkswagen Das Auto Show at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. With a rich heritage of over 50 years, the show saw over 10,000 visitors and more importantly, it acquainted the people with Volkswagen’s brand values and offerings. A giant billboard showed the new Beetle with the headline ‘The Icon Is Back!’ Volkswagen Malaysia also started its Facebook page and it has grown to become Number 1 in terms of fans among automotive companies.

Chris Jaques has led some of the largest advertising networks in the world, across Asia, Europe and North America.

He has been Regional CEO of Asia for Bates, BBDO and Y&R. He has been Europe CEO of Ammirati Puris Lintas. And he was CEO of Y&R across North America, before returning to Asia in 2007 as Regional CEO of M&C Saatchi Asia.

“In the world of viral video, if it doesn’t get shared it’s wasted. So – unlike with traditional television or digital advertising – impact takes priority over everything. This requires clients and agencies to think in completely new ways, to throw out their dusty old copies of Ogilvy On Advertising and start learning the new skills of Lady Gaga.”

A multi award-winning music producer, arranger, songwriter and musician, Izham is Group CEO of Media Prima TV Networks overseeing TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9 as well as Chief Executive Officer of Primeworks Studios, Malaysia’s leading content company, specializing in movies, television programs, animation and more. He has been awarded Most Promising Entrepreneur Award by Enterprise Asia and was a delegate in the prestigious Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader’s Summit. Izham was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by VIMA (Voice of Independent Music Awards) for his contribution to music. He is currently Chairman of the CMCF (Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia) and the Vice Chairperson of MACP, a music performing-rights collection society.

YTL Communications envisions using the internet to leapfrog Malaysia into an innovation-led economy. In November 2010, the company launched ‘Yes’, Malaysia’s first and largest converged 4G network. The “Yes” network was named the World’s Best New Service at the Broadband World Forum while Frost and Sullivan recognised the company as the Most Innovation Service Provider in Asia Pacific. As CEO, Wing maximizes his expertise in product innovation and engineering to improve the way Malaysians live, learn, work and play. Prior to YTL Communications, Wing had a distinguished career in the United States, having served as Chief Architect in Sprint and helped launch several nationwide wireless networks. Wing holds twelve U.S. Patents in and was recognized as the Asian American Engineer of the Year at the 2002 U.S. National Engineers Week.

Zalfian specializes in content creation, programming, and acquisition, for new media platforms. He is responsible for deploying video content and interactive entertainment portals across web, OTT, mobile, and IPTV platforms. He brings experience creating content where he worked in theatre for the past 14 years as a director, actor, dramaturge, and teacher. Zalfian is also CEO of Theatre Management Associates Sdn. Bhd., established to implement plans in designing, developing, and operating vibrant arts centres, theatres, galleries and music venues.

Born in Tunisia, a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. After working for some years in the internet industry in Tunisia, Mehdi joined Memac Ogilvy Label Tunisia in 2010, as a Conceptualizer. In December 2012, he moved to Hong Kong as a Regional Creative Director for Social@Ogilvy Asia Pacific. He is currently based in Kuala Lumpur since January 2014 to take the Executive Creative Director position of Geometry Global Malaysia.His work has won multiple awards over the years including 40 international awards with Ogilvy Tunisia and Ogilvy Hong Kong - Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, One Show, LIA Awards, Dubai Lynx among many others. He is also a blogger, TEDx organizer and speaker, journalist and radio show host.

Jo is responsible for evangelizing the cognitive computing category, developing the Watson brand, and marketing IBM’s newly established Business Unit, IBM Watson, across the Asia Pacific. IBM believes that Cognitive Computing has the potential to dramatically transform industries and companies in the coming years. She is an experienced presenter and facilitator, and has been an evangelist for New Markets across the categories IBM is investing in, including Big Data and Analytics, Acquisitions and now Watson.

With a sharpened focus on its marketing strategy measured against metrics like unaided brand awareness and brand preference for the credit card business, Citi has shown signs of impressive quarter- on-quarter increases with Eric at the helm of its marketing drive. Eric is a proponent of technology enabled marketing and believes in relying on data to drive customer and shopper behaviour. “Technology provides the capacity for better insights enabling Citi to provide real time, customised offers to customers. One example of this is the ability to send instant messages to our customers about offers that are available in their vicinity, upon real time capture of the customers’ purchases.”

As President of IPG Mediabrands, World Markets in APAC, Prashant oversees all operations across 9 countries. Prior to this role, he headed UM in Malaysia, which was voted Agency of the year at Malaysian Media Awards each of the four years he was at the helm. It also became one of the rare media agencies in the world to get an A+ rating by RECMA Paris three years in a row. Prashant started out in advertising after a failed dotcom business, to satisfy his thirst for people-centric business, starting his career with Starcom India in 1999. Prashant was the Vice- President of Media Specialists Association in Malaysia in 2009 and was the youngest jury member at Cannes media lions in 2009. He has also been recognized as Global agency innovator of the year in 2012 by the New York based Internationalist’ magazine and has been celebrated by Wall Street Journal as the youngest regional president and a leading innovator in the industry. Prashant has completed his Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.