Judges

Chia Hock Lai is the co-founder of the Global Fintech Institute, venture partner of Tembusu Partners and partnership lead at Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). He has two decades of experience in the financial and technology industries, having worked in Singapore’s GovTech and NTUC Income.

An alumnus of NUS and NTU, he is the co-chairman of the Blockchain Association Singapore, and former and founding president of Singapore Fintech Association.

He is a council member of and strategic advisor to numerous tech start-ups and organizations such as Bondevalue, RootAnt Global, RegTank, Morpheus Labs and IEEE Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Standard Committee.

In addition, he is also an Institute of Banking and Finance fellow for digital transformation, fintech fellow at the SUSS and fellow at SkillsFuture Singapore.

Chonladet Khemarattana is the Thailand chief executive officer of Webull Securities, a leading online brokerage platform, where he oversees strategy, operations, and market growth. With two decades of capital markets expertise, he focuses on investment innovations such as robo-advisors, algorithmic trading, and digital assets.

As president of the Thai Fintech Association, Chonladet leads initiatives to advance fintech development in Thailand. He works closely with regulators, startups, and industry leaders to build a robust fintech ecosystem, driving Bangkok’s emergence as a global Fintech Hub.

Dr. Rex Yeap is a partner at Invention Capital, where he directs efforts towards the creation and commercialisation of novel inventions, investing in, and mentoring early-stage companies. Additionally, he serves as a Director of the Business Angel Network (BANSEA) and is the co-founder of an angel investment fund, BANSEA Fund One, where he also served as Chair of the Investment Committee Board. Dr. Yeap was an investor-mentor in SiTF for its iJAM and ACE Grant programs. He is also an Advisor to Morpheus Lab, a generative AI blockchain platform business.

Over the past decades, his angel investment portfolio has predominantly included early-stage technology companies with an increasing focus on the Fintech space. Dr. Yeap holds a Master of Science with Distinction from the University of Leeds, and his doctoral research involved the invention of several patented hedge fund systems.

Dr. Yeap possesses three decades of experience across the Information Technology value chain, spanning industry, government, and academia. He is the co-inventor of the patented IP Blockchain system and holds several dozen technology-related patents, along with thousands of inventions.

Jason Hsu is senior research fellow at The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Harvard Kennedy School. 

From 2016 to 2020 Hsu served as legislator-at-large in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (national parliament) overseeing technology policy, entrepreneurship and innovation. Among the crucial legislations that he initiated and sponsored include FinTech Regulatory Sandbox Act, Amendment on Anti-Money Laundering Law, and Digital Economy Principle Act.  

After leaving government, Jason worked in several high-profile roles of international organisations including senior adviser of head of legislative research of Blockchain Climate Institute, council member of International Digital Asset Exchange Association, and advisory board member of Global Fintech Institute.  

Jason is a proponent for cryptocurrency and blockchain. Jason is credited for setting up Asia Blockchain Alliance, Taiwan Parliamentary Coalition for Blockchain, and Self-Regulatory Organisation. 

Jason is also an advocator for socially progressive legislation. He co-led the effort to pass Same Sex Marriage Act and championed for End-of-Life Dignity Act.  

Mark S. Gorriceta is board trustee, corporate secretary and chief legal officer of Fintech Philippines Association. He is a trustee and founding member of the Blockchain Council of the Philippines. And also the chairman of the ICT Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines and a member of the Fintech Alliance.

Mark is the managing partner and head of the corporate, banking and finance, and technology media and telecommunications groups of Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra – a multi-awarded and fast-rising full-service Philippine law firm established in 2015.

Mark is the Philippines’ top lawyer in the tech/fintech sector with his pioneering legal expertise on fintech, blockchain, digital assets, web3 technology, e-commerce, data privacy, and artificial intelligence. He represents domestic conglomerates in their digitisation efforts as well as the Philippines’ top technology companies – both local and global entities.

He is currently a faculty member of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Graduate School and teaches Mergers & Acquisitions for the Advanced Module Diploma Course in Corporate Finance.

Rajkumar Kanagasingam is the founding president of FinTech Association of Sri Lanka. He has participated at a number of international forums—in India, Dubai and Singapore—as a speaker, moderator or a judge. 

Kanagasingam is the founder and chief executive officer of Asian FinTech Academy, which organises Asia Digital Finance Forum and Awards and annually conducts executive programs on fintech, blockchain enabled digital assets and artificial intelligence in finance. 

He is also the founder and chief executive officer of Ambuli International, a consultancy firm which focuses on the application of blockchain, AI and big data in the financial services industry.   

Takeshi is a serial fintech entrepreneur, and co-founder and chief executive officer of GTFN Japan, actively spearheading ecosystem building and international collaborations. 

Additionally, he sits on the committee for the Government of Japan’s Regulatory Sandbox and is a member of the experts group, jointly organised by the Digital Agency and the Ministry of Economy, trade, and Industry focusing on international data governance. 

Before starting his startup in the fintech industry, Takeshi worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, gaining expertise in capital markets. Before joining Merrill Lynch, he worked at Boston Consulting Group. He formerly served as vice-chair at the Fintech Association of Japan, where he played a pivotal role in navigating international collaborations for 6 years. 

Yerbol Orynbayev is an independent financial services consultant and former Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. He advises leading financial services and technology companies and has held a number of senior positions in private financial, research and technology companies.

Prior to his consultancy career, Orynbayev served as the Deputy Prime Minister from 2007-2013 and Aide to the President on economic policy from 2013-2015. He also worked as the Governor of the World Bank on behalf of Kazakhstan, and helped to steer the nation out of the Financial Crisis in 2008.

He was Chairman of First Heartland Securities and held a number of board-level roles at the National Bank of Kazakhstan and Agency for Regulations of Financial Markets.