Asia Pacific

Julian is the Head of Asia Pacific for the GSMA, leading a highly experienced cross-functional team to advance the impact, growth, and sustainability of digital economies by collaboration between the mobile industry, policymakers, and ecosystem. He is a global telecommunications executive with over 20 years of commercial and marketing experience across Wholesale, Business, Regulatory, Policy and Digital Transformation. He has pioneered new digital partnerships and business units in mature and emerging markets across Africa, Europe, Australia and Asia with industry leaders including Vodafone, MTN and Ooredoo. As an advisor to management executive teams and Boards, he has extensive insight and relationships to support collaboration and delivery of industry alignment.

He has been recognized for his leadership in digital innovation, digital women, health and agriculture services with industry awards and grants.

Julian has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Law from Australia.

Jeanette is Head of Public Policy, APAC at the GSMA. Her role entails providing public policy support for mobile network operators on telecoms, data privacy, spectrum policy, IoT, 5G and competition policy.

Before joining the GSMA Jeanette ran a Telecoms Media and Technology consultancy firm where she led a wide range of projects including development of fixed broadband strategies and business plans for mobile operators across Asia: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Macau, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Jeanette is a former British Telecom Director where she held senior roles in the areas of strategy, portfolio management, product development, Merger& Acquisition and IT.

Jeanette graduated from Loughborough University in the UK with a BSc (Hons) in Management Sciences. She is a Sloan Fellow with an MSc from London Business School and has a post graduate Diploma in Marketing from the UK-based Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Debashish Chakraborty is a management professional with 26 years of experience in managing global strategic alliances, building partner ecosystems, policy advocacy, new business development, technology consulting, and key account management roles in diverse industries like IT, Telecom, Data Centres, Smart Cities, Green Buildings, Internet Service Provider (ISP), and IT system integration, with a successful track record of being outcome focused.

Prior to joining GSMA, Debashish was working with Schneider Electric, leading strategic initiatives like the start-up ecosystem program, policy advocacy for smart cities, influence and standardisation activities, influencing and advocating the policies for the New Energy Landscape, as part of the Corporate Strategy team. He has worked with Reliance Infocomm and Tata Communications during the early stages of his career.

Debashish holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics from Marathwada University and is a Post-Graduate in Business Administration from Symbiosis.

Yi Shen specialises in policy and regulatory issues in the telecommunications, media and technology sector. His experience includes radio spectrum policy and management, digital broadcasting, economic regulation of telecommunications infrastructure, and competition issues in the communications and audio-visual markets.

Most recently, he was a director at Plum Consulting where he specialised in spectrum management issues, such as allocation, valuation and pricing of spectrum for mobile and other uses, cost benefit analyses and impact assessments of policies and regulations relating to mobile and other wireless technologies. Yi Shen has led numerous consultancy projects and advised governments, regulators and industry players around the world, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK.

His previous experience also includes roles within regulatory authorities in Singapore and the UK. Yi Shen has an MSc in Media and Communication Governance (Distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Economics and Philosophy from the National University of Singapore.

Charles Chew is the Policy Director, APAC at the GSMA and is based in Singapore.

Prior to joining the GSMA, Charles was Director (International) at the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), the national regulator for the Infocomm and Media sectors, where he was involved in Telecommunications, ICT, Internet and Digital Economy issues. He was also the lead negotiator for Telecommunications and E-Commerce issues in Singapore’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and represented Singapore at regional and international organisations and groupings, including ASEAN, APEC, Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), G20, OCED and the ITU.

Charles graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration with Honours from the National University of Singapore.

Natasha is the Senior Policy Manager, South Asia for the GSMA.

Prior to joining the GSMA, she was a senior manager with a consulting firm, Ernst & Young’s Policy group. Natasha is a lawyer who has worked globally on technology regulation and innovation policies. She has consulted for the UN Development Program, World Trade Organization, the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as different governments. She was appointed as a fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University, USA and is the recipient of the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship at George Mason University, USA. Her writings on innovation policy and regulation issues have been published widely.

Natasha has a LL.M from George Washington University, USA and has studied Economics for Competition Law at King’s College, UK.

Ashish is the Senior Manager, Spectrum and Policy, South Asia for the GSMA.

Prior to joining the GSMA, Ashish held various positions in the ICT sector including with Reliance Communications, Etisalat, Samsung Networks and industry associations including infrastructure providers. In these roles he was responsible for delivering projects in spectrum management, digital Infrastructure, broadband penetration, sectoral taxation, M2M/IoT etc.

Ashish specialises in the field of spectrum management and has a wealth of experience in managing and resolving complex issues such as spectrum re-farming, harmonization, auctions including active participation with Government for review of National Frequency Allocation Plans and implementation of WRC decisions at Regional and National levels.

Ashish holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications, from MD University India, and a post graduate Diploma in Business Management from Narsee Monjee University in India.

Saira is working as the Country Lead Digital Transformation for GSMA1 in Pakistan. She focuses on the promotion and execution of the GSMA’s global programmes and advocacy initiatives at the country level, as well as managing and delivering regional priorities defined by its members through GSMA governance bodies. Her focus is to advance the impact, growth, and sustainability of digital economies by collaboration between the mobile industry, policymakers, and ecosystem.

Saira is a telecommunication & project management executive with around 15 years of experience in Technology, Project Management, Regulatory, Policy & Digital Transformation. Before joining the GSMA, Saira was working as Head of Projects at Apollo Telecom leading various technology projects with the telecom industry. Saira has also worked with UNAIDS & Cure2Children Foundation Italy.

Saira has a degree in Information Technology.

Lilian Hung is the APAC Business Manager for the GSMA, reporting to Head of Asia Pacific. She is based in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining the GSMA, Lilian has many years of experiences with a number of MNC verticals including Red Bull, Warner Bros, and Ericsson.

Lilian holds a Bachelor Degree of Business Management from La Trobe University Australia and Diploma of Human Resources Management/Business Administration from the Hong Kong Baptist University.

Latika Sahni is the Project Coordinator for APAC at the GSMA, providing support for the Public Policy team.

Before joining the GSMA, Latika worked with United Nations Industrial Development Organization as a Project Assistant towards inclusive sustainable industrial development in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology – Department of Science and Technology. In this role she conducted research to assess innovation practices in large, MSMEs to incorporate Industry 4.0 technologies and to empower self-reliant India. She has undertaken market research and designed an outreach program to create awareness about inclusive industrial development among industries-supporting domestic technology development, research, and product or process innovation.

Latika holds a Bachelor of Commerce honors from the University of Delhi and an MBA in marketing.

Rahul currently serves as the Mobile for Development (M4D) Director for the APAC region, where he manages M4D’s portfolio of programmes that aim to find innovative, commercially sustainable solutions to a variety of socio-economic problems through partnerships between mobile operators, tech innovators, governments and development organisations. Prior to this, Rahul worked in the M4D Utilities team at GSMA where he managed grants and provided advisory services to operators on the opportunity in the energy, water and sanitation sectors.

Rahul has a varied professional background. He spent over a decade in the engineering of wireless communications systems and network planning. Post-MBA, he switched tracks to general management and worked in solar energy and media & entertainment.

Rahul has an MSEE with a major in communications and digital signal processing from the University of Missouri-Rolla and an MBA in general management from IIM-Ahmedabad.

Ahmed is a Senior Market Engagement Manager for the AgriTech programme based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He provides consultancy and implementation support to AgriTech partners across the Asia Pacific region, focusing on the design, development, launch and commercialization of B2B and B2C agritech products and platforms. He also leads the user experience and design workstream for the programme. Before joining GSMA, Ahmed was managing multiple mobile money products for Telenor easypaisa. Prior to that, he worked with Standard Chartered Bank, primarily within the product management and Small and Medium Enterprise functions.

Ahmed completed his undergraduate studies from the Lahore University of Management Sciences and his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Radhika has joined the GSMA M4D Utilities team as a Market Engagement Manager to manage, facilitate and support mobile-based innovations in energy, water and sanitation across the Asia-Pacific region. She will support the programme by managing select Innovation Fund grantees, share key learnings & insights from grantees and map out industry trends so as to understand and showcase how the mobile industry can support commercially viable energy, water and sanitation services for the underserved.

Prior to GSMA, Radhika has worked in healthcare consulting at IPE Global, New Delhi and telecommunications at Vodafone UK, England. She has built expertise in healthcare consulting, private sector led sustainable social enterprises, mobile product pricing and large-scale fixed & mobile commercial solutions.

Radhika graduated in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She speaks fluent Hindi and English.

Bilal is a Senior Manager Asia for the GSMA Innovation Fund based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He engages with the start-up ecosystem including tech hubs, venture capitalists, mobile operators, government institutions and founders to catalyse innovation. Moreover, he manages GSMA Innovation grants across Asian markets with an objective of creating social economic impact. Previously, Bilal has worked with Karandaaz Pakistan where he led digital financial inclusion initiatives for private and public sectors. Prior to Karandaaz, he worked for Easypaisa, where he launched Pakistan’s first ‘Pay as you go’ solar system to provide low cost, high quality renewable energy to off-grid areas. Bilal has also worked on development projects during his assignments with UNDP and the World Bank.

Bilal has an MBA from Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan. He has also received training in financial inclusion and policy design from Harvard Kennedy School.

Dulip is the Market Engagement Director for the Mobile Innovation Hub (Indonesia) as well as the ClimateTech programme. Dulip leads the implementation of the Mobile Innovation Hub project in Jakarta (in partnership with GIZ) where he leads the local team to work closely with the Indonesian government and local stakeholders, on areas that sit at the intersection of mobile, digital innovation, sustainable development, and climate action to route mobile tech solutions for climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation solutions in Indonesia.

Based in Kandy, Sri Lanka, Dulip works closely with mobile operators, technical partners and other key stakeholders in the private and public sectors to unlock and enhance the role of digital technology as enabler in the world’s transition to the low carbon economy. In his previous role with GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation programme, Dulip managed the Humanitarian Connectivity Charter and supported mobile operators, technical and humanitarian partners to collaborate and work towards more innovative and resilient digital solutions for communities faced with sudden onset disasters and protracted crisis situations.

Dulip worked with Axiata Group in Malaysia and its OpCo Dialog in Sri Lanka managing their sustainability reporting process. He also set up the sustainability strategy for the Axiata Group. Dulip’s first degree is in Natural Sciences. He’s a trained GRI professional, ISO 9001 and SA8000 auditor.

Arham Shoukat

Senior Market Engagement Manager

Muhammad Arham Shoukat is a Senior Market Engagement Manager, APAC in the Digital Utilities programme. Arham’s responsibilities include engagement with key stakeholders in the water, energy, sanitation and waste management sectors to unlock potential solutions to problems being faced by developing communities in those sectors.

Arham holds expertise in building and digitally transforming small organisations to scale, leveraging his experience in government, banking, advocacy, strategy and operations. Prior to joining the GSMA, Arham served as the Head of Digital Lending and Government Solutions for Ant Group in Pakistan. He was also the founding lead of the Digital Transformation and Strategy vertical at the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications in Pakistan. Arham also had the honor to represent Pakistan as the lead for the Government of Pakistan at UNCTAD working closely with WTO to build a one-window technology solution to monitor global trade. Arham currently serves on the Citi-PPAF Jury Board for microfinance grants and is an active member in the Digital Pakistan movement. He also holds the honor of being the core author of the Pakistan Digital Policy which was adopted in 2017 by the Government of Pakistan.

Arham holds a B.A in International Relations/Economic from Tufts University and a Masters of Science in Engineering Management from Columbia University in New York. He is also a certified sustainability consultant with the U.S Green Building Council and holds numerous certificates in fintech specialisations from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Gagan is Senior Market Engagement Manager for the Connected Women and Connected Society programmes.

Gagan has vast experience in the telecom domain and has led various projects in telecommunications and insurance industries in India and other countries. In his last assignment, he led the execution of Facebook’s digital literacy project (Internet 1-o-1) in Myanmar, Indonesia, Zambia and Bangladesh. Prior to that, he led global operations for MicroEnsure, a micro insurance company, headquartered in UK and operating from UK, Asia and Africa.

He has a graduate degree from London and is an expert in understanding and improving customer sentiment and devising and implementing solution-oriented approaches.

Falah has a solid business background with a strong interest in entrepreneurship and a passion towards business strategy. He began his professional journey with an obsession to grow Indonesia’s digital economy.

Falah has mixed experience in managing corporate innovation programs from his previous teams, which were Digital Amoeba and Indigo Incubator & Accelerator within Telkom Indonesia. He is proficient in analyzing pre-seed to seed stage startups by conducting due diligence and regular performance monitoring, and also discovering potential startups in the tech ecosystems. Moreover, he also has a track record as a web-app product manager for Telkom Indonesia’s network data management platform strengthened by AI.

Rifan is the Senior Market Engagement Manager for Mobile Innovation Hub (MIH) Indonesia. He is currently leading the Market Engagement function of this exciting project working closely with Mobile Network Operators, Tech partners and key government stakeholders to find digital enablers for Indonesia’s roadmap towards digital inclusion, climate resilience and sustainability. His focus is on leveraging the potential of disruptive technologies to facilitate not only sustainable growth but also equitable future. Rifan believes that his duty is to work closely with a multiple array of stakeholders to build collective and inclusive collaboration with the broader mobile ecosystem which could then materialise into impactful routes towards a greener Indonesia and ASEAN Region.

Prior to joining GSMA, Rifan has developed a solid credentials as smart and sustainable cities practitioner with over six years of experiences assisting cities, central governments as well as businesses in developing its digital roadmap. He holds an M.Sc degree in Eco-Cities from Cardiff University and aspires to strengthen his expertise with skills on sustainability reporting standards.

Achmad Pradipta (Dipta) is the Market Engagement Manager of the Mobile Innovation Hub Indonesia. As the Market Engagement Manager, Dipta works closely with the local Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), other technology partners and policy makers to explore partnership opportunities to build innovative and impactful projects that use mobile enabled digital tech solutions to assist Indonesia’s journey towards reaching national climate goals.

Prior to GSMA, Dipta has worked across multiple companies and various industries from start-ups, consulting firms, MNOs as well as mining companies where he played a pivoting role helping them to build their sustainability portfolios and to increase their industry reputation through impactful projects such as XL Future Leaders. Dipta’s holds a Degree in Marketing & Commerce which he completed as part of the International Double Degree Graduate Programme affiliated with Curtin University, Perth, Australia. Perth.

Meikha is the Insights, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (IMEL) Manager for Mobile Innovation Hub (MIH) Indonesia. Her role includes developing the IMEL strategy, managing the research activities, monitoring project progress, recording socio-economic and climate impact and documenting learnings in-order to scale or consolidate projects in the future. Meikha is someone who believes that well-designed and implemented project monitoring and evaluation would make a successful project into an impactful project.

Prior to GSMA, Meikha worked as the Evaluation Manager for one of the Indonesian Government’s projects focusing on the labour force’s competence improvement. Before this, she also played a pivotal role as the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead in a growing education technology start-up. In both roles, Meikha used multiple M & E methodologies to monitor and evaluate education, training, and human development projects that implemented digital technology across the country.

Meikha holds a master’s degree in Economics specializing in Economic Development from Kyoto University, Japan, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.

Daniel joins GSMA as a Market Engagement Manager attached to the ClimateTech team. Witnessing the worsening effects of climate change in his home country and globally, he is keen to bring stakeholders together in his role at GSMA to create meaningful solutions to what he believes to be one of the biggest challenges of the century.

He is based in Malaysia and brings with him experience from working on circular economy and community development solutions in the Southeast Asian market. Daniel is passionate about impactful entrepreneurship, having previously spent 5 years immersed in the social enterprise ecosystem in Asia as an early employee, entrepreneur, and ecosystem builder.

Daniel earned a Master’s in Civil Engineering (MEng) from the University of Nottingham and continues to be involved in social ventures in Malaysia as an advisor.

Zohaib is an Innovation Fund Manager with a focus on Mobile for Humanitarian (M4H). He is passionate about technology and how it can be leveraged for development and humanitarian assistance to communities. He has developed deep expertise in fintech product management through stints with Easypaisa as Assistant Director – Products, where he launched industry-first initiatives such as Instant Payment Scheme (Raast) and Open Banking. He has also worked as a Product Manager for Digital Wallets at JazzCash.

Zohaib has been instrumental in designing social sector interventions, programme management, and managing innovation funds at Karandaaz where he led four fintech innovation challenge rounds supporting more than 10 fintech start-ups with grants and technical assistance, enabling them to achieve sustainability and impact financial inclusion. Zohaib was also associated with the World Bank, working on provincial development programs. In his previous roles, he has authored academic papers, research studies, and reports.

Zohaib has a Master of Science in Economics from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, and has received training at “The Design Thinkers” academy on Design Thinking from Amsterdam. In addition to this, he has various certifications on Agile framework for Product Owners, Project Management, and Leadership.

Madiha Parvez is a Market Engagement Manager – Mobile Money for Asia, where she works across the mobile money industry on commercial, regulatory, and technology issues to encourage the growth of the mobile money ecosystem to reach the underserved across Asia. She works towards defining and evolving the strategic direction of the Mobile Money Programme as a whole and provides mobile money expertise to other GSMA Mobile for Development Programmes and the broader GSMA in Asia.

With over 14 years of leadership experience in business design, commercializing digital products and corporate innovation, Madiha has worked with and mentored over 700 tech-startups in Pakistan and trained over 1,000 women micro-entrepreneurs. As a thought leader, she spoke regularly on the significance of entrepreneurship and innovation at various national and international conferences.

Prior to joining GSMA, she worked as Head Corporate Innovation at Telenor Pakistan, and led their accelerator program, Velocity, by recruiting tech start-ups, accelerating experimentation and piloting new technologies, developing a network of mentors, investors, and institutional partners, helping Telenor staying relevant in the digital and startup ecosystem.

A Fulbright scholarship awardee, Madiha has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.

Kevin has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications sector working with various mobile operators regionally in APAC. He has held multiple senior positions with the last being the Chief Operations Officer of Tune Talk. He has worked with large mobile operators like Maxis, Celcom, Indosat Ooredoo (Indonesia), Robi (Bangladesh) as well as smaller startups like UMobile, P1, Seatel (Cambodia) and Tune Talk. He was crucial in the end to end service launch of 4G and content services for the large mobile operators stated above. He has both commercial and technical experience in the various roles he has held during his tenure.

Kevin has a BSc Physics Degree (Honors) from the National University of Malaysia.

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.

David Turkington is the Head of Technology for the GSMA Asia Pacific. David is responsible for driving the technology direction of the GSMA across the APAC region and working with its membership to execute key technology initiatives. Prior to joining the GSMA, David held senior positions in companies including Pixel Networks, Ericsson, SmarTone, Nokia and British Telecom. David is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Terence serves as the Market Development Director at APAC Technology team in GSMA. The key focus is on 5G, IoT, eSIM. He establishes the APAC IoT partnership programme and the APAC 5G Industry Community that accelerates the 5G and IoT ecosystem development and innovation in the APAC region. The IoT partnership programme accumulates 60+ MNOs, 500+ innovators and ecosystem members in 20+ APAC countries, jointly drive the digital transformation in various sector including manufacturing, transportation, logistics & port, healthcare, smarty city, agriculture and environment protection etc.

Worked for IT/Telco industry for over twenty years, Terence has strong and broad experiences in telecom industries on infrastructure, product development and management, consultancy, sales and marketing. He has worked for multinational companies such as Fujitsu, Nokia, and served as the architect, consultant, product lead and pre-sales head of BSS/OSS in the Asia region.

Terence has Bachelor of Engineering (Electronic Engineering) in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Master of Business Administration (Information Technology Management) in Hong Kong Polytechnics University, previously certified as Project Management Professional (Project Management Institute).

Christina is responsible for developing and implementing GSMA’s marketing and communications strategies across the APAC region.

Prior to joining the GSMA, Christina held senior marketing positions in companies such as Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell, and Compaq. She has extensive experience in Product Marketing and Strategy, Project Management and Marketing Communications.

Christina holds a BSc in Computer Science and an MBA in International Marketing.