Ian Gibbons, MBE
CEO UK-ASEAN Business Council

• Ian was appointed CEO of the UK-ASEAN Business Council in September 2020.
• Prior to taking up this position Ian had held a variety of roles across government including: British Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Deputy Consul General and Director of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in Dubai, Deputy Director of UKTI India, Senior Private Secretary to the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) Secretaries of State (Alistair Darling, Alan Johnson and Patricia Hewitt) and Director of Business Development with the MWW Group in New York working in public relations.
• Prior to this Ian spent 4.5 years in New York as head of Invest UK’s Regional Inward Investment Team (the British Government’s agency responsible for attracting inward investment from the United States to the UK).

Emily Hamblin
HM Consul General, Country Director Vietnam & Deputy Regional Director, SE Asia, British Consulate-General

• Emily was the Trade Director for Vietnam in September 2020, she was also Regional Director for the UK’s Science and Innovation Network in Europe, Turkey and Russia and Science Counsellor at the British Embassy in Paris. 
• Prior to this posting in France she undertook a range of roles at the Department for Business, including leading the Secretary of State’s private office. 
• Emily is a trained management accountant and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University before joining the Civil Service.

Mochamad Rizalu Akbar
Commercial Attaché, Indonesian Embassy in London

• As the new Commercial Attaché at the Indonesian Embassy in London, Rizalu is responsible for improving and further strengthening trade relations between Indonesia and the UK.
• Before coming to the UK he held a three-year appointment at the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia, where he led on trade negotiations with countries in Africa and the Middle East.
• And prior to this, between 2014 and 2017, he was Deputy Director of the Indonesian Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) in Vancouver, Canada.
• Rizalu graduated from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, NL, in 2008.

David Kelly
Executive Director, British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore

• David is responsible for the strategy, growth and profile of the Chamber to support businesses and connect opportunities with the UK and across ASEAN. 
• A Chartered Marketer, David joined the British Chamber of Commerce (Singapore) in 2019. David has lived in Singapore since 2015.
• Born in Manchester, UK, David is passionate about mentoring and supporting others and is a mentor at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore) for Business and Marketing students and a committee member on the Singapore Institute of Technology’s Marine Programmes' Industry Advisory Committee (IAC).

Charlie Mayer
SVP Global Sales, Signal AI

• Charlie is Senior Vice President for Global Sales at Signal AI, one of the world’s fastest-growing applied AI companies.  
• Signal AI seek to transform decision making through augmented intelligence – software-driven solutions that empower its customers to make better informed and more effective decisions every day. Signal AI believe that leaders should demand the same clarity and knowledge about the world beyond their organization as they have within it.  
• Charlie has over 20 years’ experience in B2B SaaS media intelligence solutions. His international track record in new market development includes the successful “Go to Market” strategies and international teams he has built in Asia, Europe, and North America over the past five years.

Phil Walker
Export Manager, Christie International

• Phil's background includes 20 years of global export and channel sales and service with a wide range of FMCG products. 
• He leads on export sales at Christie International – which includes his remit for Southeast Asia.  
• Christie International partners with UK brands to build and operate their distribution networks overseas. In this function they effectively become the brand owner’s Export Department – in which Phil’s team take care of transportation, labelling, shipping, documentation, registrations, distributor management and credit control.

Alexander Falter
Vice Chair, BritCham Vietnam and General Manager ECCO

• Alex is responsible for the production operations of the Danish brand in Vietnam
• Alex joined ECCO in 2016 following an 8 year stint as founder of a sustainable fashion garment manufacturer in Northern Vietnam.
• Alex has a broad range of experience at Managing Director level in the fashion and footwear sector along with turn-key project completion, supply chain management and stakeholder communication. 
• Alex has a pan-European/Asian background having been born and raised in Switzerland and lived in the UK, Spain and for the past 10 years in Vietnam.

Richard Porter
Country Director, DIT Thailand

• Richard is Country Director to the Department for International Trade (DIT) at the British Embassy in Bangkok, where he has served since 2017. 
• Prior to that he worked at the British Consulate in Sao Paulo helping British healthcare companies to export across the Latin America region. 
• Richard previously spent ten years with boutique management consultancy firm PA Consulting and started off his career as a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service.