Carmina Bayombong

Carmina is the CEO and Founder of InvestEd.ph, a pioneering platform providing education loans and resources to 30 million Filipino Gen Zs. Under her leadership, InvestEd has raised $6 million in funding and developed the Philippines’ most accurate AI for Gen Z borrowers, achieving the highest repayment rates in the region. The company’s AI has also enabled white-label education financing, talent recruitment, and Gen Z product placements for employers and financial institutions. A global leader in youth lending, Carmina conducted the world’s most comprehensive study in the field and throughout her career has raised over $10 million for impact-driven ventures in developing markets. She has trained 10,000+ young individuals across Southeast Asia on topics such as entrepreneurship and financial literacy. 

Recognized for her impact, she is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, an Obama Asia Pacific Leader, a Women of the Future awardee, and a two-time Cartier Women’s Initiative CEO awardee. The Philippine government also named her an Outstanding Woman in the Nation’s Service.

Arianne Kader-Cu

Arianne Kader-Cu, or Ari, has somehow survived over 15 years in the fast-paced world of e-commerce and digital media, all thanks to the amazing teams she's been lucky enough to work with. Born and raised in California, she holds a master's in Business from Ateneo Graduate School (but don’t quiz her on it). Ari was part of the early days at Zalora Philippines and helped launch a marketplace model for Global Fashion Group in 2015, though she’ll be the first to say it was definitely a group effort. In 2017, she jumped into the online streaming world with PCCW Hong Kong, pioneering Korean content in Asia and launching Viu Philippines. In 2022, she became the COO at kumu, where she worked with an incredible team to make the platform one of the safest social spaces online. She’s passionate about encouraging Filipinos to come home and help build the nation. Oh, and in 2020, she somehow made it onto Robert Walters' list of Top 20 Women Who Inspire in Southeast Asia—but she swears it was a typo! Ask her about her passion for working with teams, her 2 children, or just surviving the daily grind!

Anthony Oundjian

Anthony Oundjian is a Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group. He started his consulting career in 1999 in Paris, moved to Southeast Asia in 2008 and opened BCG’s Philippines office in 2017. He supports clients on a variety of topics including strategy, transformation, growth acceleration and digital scaling.

Anthony previously led BCG’s Technology, Media, & Telecommunications practice in Southeast Asia and BCG’s Learning & Development in Asia Pacific. Anthony is BCG’s Asia-Pacific Chair for Alumni & Career Services.

Anthony holds a Master of Science from Ecole Centrale Paris and an MBA from INSEAD. 

Noel and Simon

Simon is Founder and CEO of MDRi, a new market insights and analytics business that is part of the London-based Mishcon de Reya Group. Noel is Head of Real Estate Development Asia-Pacific the Rosewood Hotel Group.

Fun fact: Amy first met Noel through the Cornell Hotel School alumni group.

Liz Miller

Liz Miller has spent the past 20 years in the financial services industry working in various roles and locations globally (New York, London and Hong Kong).  At present she is a Managing Director with Bank of America in Hong Kong, leading the firm's Prime Finance Distribution effort in the Asia Pacific region. 

Liz holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University. 

She resides in Hong Kong with her husband Duncan and 3 daughters. 

Jason Tudor

Jason Tudor is the Asia Pacific Chief Operating Officer for UBS Investment Bank. He joined UBS in 2019 and was previously the Head of Risk Intelligence and Special Reviews. He has over 30 years of trading, risk management and digitization experience, and ran global and cross-asset trading teams at Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Nomura and Citi. He has lived in the UK, Germany, Japan, Singapore and is currently based in Hong Kong. Prior to joining UBS, he acted as a litigation expert witness in several high-profile commercial disputes.

Jason has two daughters and two sons. He enjoys tennis, golf, rugby (touch rugby these days, plus coaching and refereeing at the junior level) and hiking.

Jason holds an MA in Engineering and Management Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Duncan Foster

Duncan Foster is a Managing Director within Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Equity Division where he co-heads the Asia Prime Brokerage business. Prior to relocating to Hong Kong in 2017, Duncan worked for Morgan Stanley in both London and New York. Duncan holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Duncan lives in Hong Kong with his wife Liz and their 3 daughters.

Liz Bradford

Liz Bradford is an innovative leader, transformation advocate and wellbeing expert with over 20 years of experience across three continents, including roles at firms like HSBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and SWIFT.

Having transitioned out of the corporate world, Liz is now fully committed to upskilling organisations, reconfiguring leadership development, and transforming employee engagement in today's rapidly changing landscape.

As the Founder of Transform Perform and Co-Founder of Maia, a revolutionary ed-tech platform dedicated to the future of work, Liz focuses on unlocking human potential through a combination of leveraging technology and building adaptability and resilience.

Liz is passionate about cultivating organizational health and developing leaders who can navigate the era of unprecedented change we find ourselves in. She champions the democratisation of education as a crucial element for inclusion and empowerment, believing it to be essential for building a brighter future for organisations and society alike.

As an ICF-accredited organisational and executive coach, as well as a certified wellbeing coach and personal trainer, Liz frequently shares her insights on cultural evolution, technological transformation, female leadership, and self-care. Her thought leadership focuses on combating burnout, stress management, and fostering healthy workplace cultures. Having worked with teams across 50 countries, Liz is truly committed to building future fit leaders and organisational adaptability.

Noelene Palmer

Noelene lives in Sydney with her husband, Dion, and their three children. 

For the past 20 years Noelene has worked in financial services in COO and Chief of Staff roles. She is motivated by working with teams who support people to achieve their potential personally and professionally. This motivation has also seen her involved in setting up a social enterprise in Sri Lanka to provide vocational training to youths, women and local entrepreneurs, as well as mentoring social entrepreneurs in Cambodia (both through the Bookbridge Foundation). She also led the fundraising to establish a school library in Cambodia, through Room to Read. 

Noelene loves to travel and learn about different cultures, and has been lucky enough to have this opportunity both personally and throughout her career. This included living in Hong Kong for four years, where she co-founded a networking group, Kaleidoscope, for professional women to share insights for personal development. 

Noelene is passionate about all things food and wine. She loves cooking and gardening, especially growing fresh produce in her backyard.

Michael Zimmerman

Michael Zimmerman is a Founding Partner of Main Sequence, a deep tech venture capital firm backing companies to solve the planet’s greatest challenges in food, healthcare, climate, space, security and heavy industries.  Main Sequence was started in partnership with the Australian Government and National Science Agency, and manages just over $1B AUM with 60+ portfolio companies. 

Prior to Main Sequence, Mike spent more than 20 years as a founder, executive and investor in technology companies in Australia and the US.  Earlier in his career he worked with Bain & Company and Goldman Sachs. 

Mike is also a Director of the Australian Investment Council, a Board Member of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Business School Fund, and Co-Chair of U-GO University’s Australian Board.

He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA with honors from Amherst College.

Mark Phibbs

Mark is Australian and lives in Sydney with his wife Nikki and daughters Frederika and Coco.

Mark Phibbs has had a stellar career in the technology space over the past 35 years, holding senior executive roles across the globe. His most recent role was Vice President of Global campaign marketing for Cisco. Prior to this Mark held senior roles with Adobe, Microsoft and IBM in Marketing, Sales and General Management.

Mark has a Bachelor of Business Degree from the University of Technology, Sydney and has successfully completed Business Management courses at the prestigious Kellogg School of Management, Wharton Business School and the Haas School of Business Berkeley in the United States. Mark is also a Fellow of the Marketing Academy.

Mark has also held board positions at Greenpeace Pacific and The National Trust of NSW.

During the next phase of his career, Mark is passionate about giving back to causes such as U-GO.

Mariana Ayala

Mariana Zobel de Ayala is Senior Vice President at Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Consumer Bank overseeing Consumer Bank Marketing and Digital Platforms. Ms. Zobel de Ayala also serves as a board director and/or advisory committee member for several Ayala Group companies, across Ayala Land, AC Health, Ayala Group’s ACTIVE Fund, and BPI’s Asset Management and Trust Company. She also serves as an advisor on the board of Asia Partners. 

Before this role, Mariana was Deputy Head of Ayala Malls, a subsidiary of Ayala Land responsible for just under two million square meters in leasable retail space around the country. In addition to directly overseeing Leasing Strategy & Development across the malls, Mariana was responsible for the build-out of Ayala Malls Labs / Digital & Data -- a new unit focused on commercializing synergistic opportunities leveraging technology and data.

Prior to this, she worked in Project Development for Alveo Land, and as a Corporate Strategy and Business Development Associate with Ayala Corporation, where she supported portfolio review across the conglomerate and business development interest in the healthcare sector. Mariana started her career at J.P. Morgan in New York City. She graduated from Harvard College with a BA in Social Studies (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics), and an MBA from INSEAD in 2020.

Alicia Eastman

With three decades of experience spanning international investment, private equity, project finance, and corporate strategy, Alicia Eastman stands at the forefront of global sustainability and energy transition efforts.

Alicia co-founded InterContinental Energy (ICE) in 2014 and was President until 2024. At ICE, she was instrumental in developing some of the world's largest green hydrogen and ammonia projects across Australia and particularly in the GCC, driving decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors like shipping, heavy industry, chemicals, and power. Alicia is still an active Board Director of ICE and is also a Non-Executive Board Member (NED) for multiple CleanTech investment companies including patented nanotechnology supported highly efficient and zero emissions semiconductors and microchips, critical mining and materials, and other global impact firms through APC Investors (APC), a group she founded to address serious financial needs in the energy efficiency and alternative fuels supply chain sectors. APC strives to provide Agile, Purposeful, Catalytic advice and investment to accelerate the energy transformation.

Alicia also sits on the Global Hydrogen Advisory Board of Sustainable Energy Council (SEC), the McKinsey & Company Sustainability Advisory Council, the Monaco Hydrogen Alliance Board of Trustees, and the Women in Renewables Association (WiRA) Board of Councilors. Alicia is the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Hydrogen Expert driving the zero emissions ammonia work stream, and she is the Co-Host of cult favorite podcast ‘Everything About Hydrogen’, shining a light on the opportunities and obstacles to decarbonization utilizing hydrogen and clean derivatives. She is also a Trustee of a number of charitable endeavors including U-GO, focused on sending underprivileged women in developing countries to college, Prospero World which invests in children and communities globally in need of nutrition, education, career pathways, and disaster relief and she is the Founding Coalition Member of Operation Anti-FreeZZ, which supports Ukraine through difficult winters with green energy and microgrid solutions. 

A frequent speaker and contributor to prestigious platforms such as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, UNIDO, COP26-29, the World Economic Forum, the Economist, McKinsey, International Energy Association (IEA), ASDW, ADIPEC, FII and the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA), Alicia is a recognized authority on green hydrogen, sustainability, green finance, and emissions elimination. Her work bridges innovative energy solutions with advocacy and policy, and is particularly focused on critical European and Middle Eastern partnerships.

Whether as a Founder, Board Director, Impact Investor or Advisor, Alicia leverages her Ivy League educational background from the Wharton School of Economics and the Fletcher School of International Law & Diplomacy as well as deep operational expertise across multiple industrial verticals, including renewable energy, biotech/specialty chemicals, mining, telecoms, and technology. Her commitment to equity, sustainability, and innovative financing structures positions her as a driving force in the global energy transition.