Shahid Shayaa founded Berkshire Media after spending more than fourteen years in the world of business consulting and transformation. Known for his penchant in managing business turnarounds, his ability to grow the company to greater heights through innovation and without external funding in a highly competitive world of advertising is something to be admired.
Once regarded as a disruptor in the advertising and marketing industry, Shahid is instrumental in pushing the boundary of social analytics through data science and data-driven approaches in order to obtain actionable insights for strategic decision makers. A self-taught programmer since he was 14 years of age, Shahid conceptualised and developed the sentiment and emotion text analytics engine SENTIROBO ™ and EMOROBO ™, a proprietary machine learning algorithm that is vital to the formulation of data driven communication campaigns for clients across various industries.
His notable achievement in recent years was through a research project which he founded known as the National Consumer Predictor (NACOP) project. NACOP challenges the boundaries of social analytics in the world of micro-economics. This approach, combined with smart data categorization and text algorithms, able to predict the state of an economy by replacing Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) using a new alternative indicator known as Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI). CSI was developed using millions of social data and can be used for economic forecasting. His work is being published in academic journals and conference papers, setting a new path to the evolution of social analytics in behavioural economics.
He now advises top leaderships and senior executives on strategic communications for publicly traded companies and the public sector. Shahid holds a First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) from the University of Sheffield (UK). He published and contributed various academic white papers on social analytics since 2012. He was featured as the Top 40 Under 40 by The Prestige, The Entrepreneur, Astro Awani and many other media.

Abdul is presently Director of Government Affairs and Policy at General Electric Malaysia, responsible for engaging across all levels of government, supporting all of GE’s businesses in Malaysia. Prior to his current role, Abdul was Director of Global Public Affairs for Intel in Malaysia, where he engaged with federal and local governments, multi-lateral organizations and trade organizations to influence public policies and programs in the areas of trade, investments, technology and labor.



He started his career as a research engineer in the US and has since held technical, consulting and corporate affairs roles at United Engineers Malaysia, Accenture and Microsoft. He holds a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering, and a masters in International Business, both from the University of Toledo, Ohio. He is an active member of AMCHAM's Government Relations Committee.

Umesh leads the Reputation team at Edelman Malaysia, where he is responsible for driving strategic communication initiatives for the firm’s key clients across corporate, technology and public affairs. In his role, he draws on his experience across key markets in Asia, having led programmes spanning both external and internal communications.

Umesh has over 10 yrs experience in corporate reputation across financial services industry, insurance, banking, aerospace, technology, defence, automotive and manufacturing.

With experience in managing prominent projects and ability to understand critical communication drivers and trends in multiple markets, his key competencies lie in reputation management, strategic communication, influencer marketing, media relations, community management and brand communications.

A strong foundation in marketing and public relations, backed with academic and professional accolades is what he brings with him to his profession.

Adib Zalkapli is a political risk and government relations consultant at Southeast Asia's leading public affairs firm, Vriens & Partners. Through the firm he has worked with multinationals from various industries including food, FMCG, financial services, internet, mining and healthcare. Apart from advising corporations, Adib also regularly shares his political analysis and insights with the media and at closed door briefings. He has been interviewed by various international media organisations for his views on current affairs. He has also presented at C-level forums in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and various briefings organised by multinational investment banks and fund managers. He joined Vriens & Partners after working at the British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur as a Political Analyst. Adib had also worked as a journalist in Malaysia covering domestic politics and current affairs.