DX Acceleration Forum: Enabling the Metaverse: Digital ID, Fintech & Security in the Digital Ecosystem

Jongkap Kim is the Chief Executive Director of Born2Global Centre, the Korean government’s global startup incubation and acceleration agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Prior to heading the Center, he worked for over 20 years at Silicon Valley as the founding member and CEO of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of Korea) Silicon Valley, and CEO of iPark Silicon Valley, a government agency for incubating tech entrepreneurs and businesses. During his time in Silicon Valley, he was responsible for developing, implementing, and managing business strategies for deep-tech companies and advising the Korean government on policies and new programs for the development of the deep-tech industry. In addition, he worked to create investment opportunities, partnerships and strategic alliances with U.S. channel partners. He himself is also an entrepreneur with multiple startups in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara. With expertise in technology startups and global ecosystem, he has supported over 2,000 startups penetrate the global market.

He has served in various committees and councils including as the Leader Group Mentor of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Global Advisory Member of the Mobile Convergence Technology Centre of Seoul City, Member of the Council for Seoul Creative Economy, and Member of the SW Cloud ride to the World TF of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He is currently a member of the Big Data Committee of Gyeonggi Province, Global SaaS Incubating Project Committee, ICT Internationalization Project Committee and National R&D Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and Personal Information Protection Commission.

He completed a Ph.D. course in Finance at Vanderbilt University and received an M.S. in Environmental Planning and Design from Seoul National University.

Pai Achuth is the Director of Innovation Projects at Bridge Alliance, an alliance of 34 premier telecommunication service providers covering Asia, Middle East and Africa. He drives cross-border collaboration initiatives and platforms leveraging on the latest technologies such as 5G and edge compute.

Over the last 12 years at Bridge Alliance, Pai has driven synergy projects within the alliance covering various revenue generating and cost optimization initiatives and has provided consulting to alliance functions in roaming, enterprise, and IoT.

Pai has over 18 years of experience in the telecommunications/ ICT industry working in various capacities with both technology vendor and service provider. Pai was previously the Director, SE Asia for Global Support Services at Dilithium Networks leading the customer engagement, pre-sales and project deliveries.

Pai graduated from University of Kerala with a Bachelor of Technology in 2002, and obtained his Master of Science, Communications Engineering from Nanyang Technological University Singapore in 2005.

Kugan has an extensive 20 years’ experience in the Telecommunication industry. He was the Chief Emerging Business Officer at Celcom. Prior to Celcom, Kugan was the Chief Marketing Officer in Smartfren Indonesia responsible for the overall commercial business. Kugan started his career with Ericsson Sweden and has worked in various international market during his tenure with Ericsson Sweden before returning home to Malaysia and joining DiGi and Maxis shortly thereafter.

Kugan holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from University Teknologi Malaysia and has completed executive management programs at Columbia Business School and at Stanford in the US.

Robin is leading the Web3 and Metaverse Practice DACH at EPAM Continuum. The company fuses integrated consulting with engineering, design, operations management and tech optimization to future-proof businesses. EPAM’s roots are in building game-changing products for some of the world’s leading software companies.

Prior to this, he founded eyecandylab, a leading provider of augmented reality solution for immersive video streaming. He raised a $1.6m seed round from Silicon Valley-based investors and generated a multi-million dollar revenue with customers like Red Bull, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon. eyecandylab’s solutions have been publicly recognized with an Emmy nomination and a prominent feature during Google I/O. This entrepreneurial chapter came to a successful end when the start-up was sold to Accedo.tv in early 2023.

Chris is an experienced global executive with over 25 years experience working with communication and cloud technologies both through technical engagement, leadership and Board Directorial roles. At the forefront of ICT technology shifts from the early days of software defined to cloud native operations he has extensive experience with open source, standardization and industrial product development.

John David Kim is Strategic Engagement Director and Head of North East Asia at the GSMA. In this role, he is responsible for engaging with GSMA mobile operator members, ecosystem partners and government/policy-makers in the Asia Pacific Region. His activities involve working closely with these organisations to introduce, implement and execute GSMA initiatives/programmes to foster innovative business/commercial strategies, new technology adoption/commercialization and general policy and regulatory developments across a range of topics such as IoT, 5G commercialization, VoLTE Interconnection and RCS etc.

With over 20 years of research and consulting experience in the ICT and Telecoms industry, especially in North East Asia, Johnny has executed and directed major research and consulting studies for MNOs, vendors and government/regulatory bodies across a wide range of areas. Prior to joining the GSMA, he worked as Regional Head/Managing Director for ICT global research and consulting companies specializing in Telecoms & ICT and key industry verticals, respectively for North East Asia.

Johnny completed studies in Science and Business/Marketing at the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology, respectively and has also completed postgraduate studies in Economics and Applied Information Systems.

Julian, Head of Asia Pacific at GSMA, drives collaborative efforts between the mobile industry, policymakers, and ecosystems to advance digital economies. With 20+ years of global experience in Wholesale, Business, Regulatory, Policy, and Digital Transformation, he’s a pioneer in forging digital partnerships and units. His fervor lies in mobile tech as the cornerstone of economic resilience, sparking dialogues for sustainable, inclusive digital nations.

Samantha Kight is the Head of Industry at the GSMA. She is responsible for driving the Security and Fraud direction of the GSMA and working with the industry to execute key initiatives within this space.

Since being at the GSMA she has successfully set up Telecommunication Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (T-ISAC) and Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) Programmes.

Prior to joining the GSMA she worked within a Mobile Network Operator Group function.

She also has a diverse background having worked across the non profit, corporate and association sectors.

Henry is reputed for Innovation and the commitment to the bold pursuit of new revenue and market frontiers. In 2016, he worked alongside the GSMA and Nova Lumos AG, to pioneer a study on the Solar-PV Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) business model widely used today to monetize telecoms enabled consumer solar electricity platforms across Africa and other developing markets.

George Wong is the Head of Singapore of The Sandbox, a leading decentralized virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands. Concurrently, he’s the Honorary Secretary for Women in Blockchain Asia and the Founder of Reactive Labs, a blockchain advisory. Prior to this, he has ventured more than 20+ start-ups from retail to publishing, most notably in the artistic, investment and blockchain space. He has managed a variety of investment-related firms, supported the growth of a regional investment community, and even successfully completed an ICO in 2018.

Close to 25 years’ experience within the telco, tech and digital sectors holding senior leadership roles with leading global strategy consulting firms and startups as well as senior executive roles with a major regional telco leading pivotal strategy and commercial development, strategic transformations and digital venture building and startup investments

Experience from a wide variety of market environments such as Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Japan, U.S, Sweden, Germany and Netherlands.