Steven Okun, the Founder and CEO of APAC Advisors, provides analysis and commentary on the US government and its impact on geopolitics.

He is a leader on corporate public affairs, ESG, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. His clients include private equity firms and the sustainable business network BSR. In addition, he serves as a Senior Advisor for the Global Private Capital Association, a Senior Advisor to Kroll and is the Head of External Affairs for the American Association of the Indo-Pacific.

He spent the first twelve years of his career in Washington, DC, including serving for five years in the Administration of President Bill Clinton. He is a veteran of numerous US presidential campaigns. An in-demand speaker for businesses and conferences, Steve frequently appears as an expert analyst on CNBC and Channel NewsAsia and other global media, provides the weekly International News Review for MONEY FM (Singapore) and contributes commentary to Nikkei Asia, The Straits Times, The Business Times, Eco-Business and Asia Times.

Living in Singapore since 2003, he created and led public affairs in Asia-Pacific for UPS and KKR. He served five terms as Chair of the AmChams of Asia Pacific and three terms as Chair of AmCham Singapore. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Ong Kian-Ming is currently the Program Director, Philosophy Politics & Economics, at Taylor’s University, Malaysia). The PPE program will be the first of its kind in the country.

Ong Kian-Ming was the Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Malaysia from July 2018 to February 2020. He was a two-term Member of Parliament from 2013 to 2022, serving the largest parliamentary constituency in the country.

He was a former Fulbright Scholar and holds a PhD in Political Science from Duke University, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. Prior to his political life, he was formerly a lecturer at UCSI University, a researcher at the Socio-Economic Development and Research (SEDAR) Institute and the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Studies (INSAP) and a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the Kuala Lumpur office.