Mr. Chow Kon Yeow is Penang’s fifth Chief Minister. He assumed the State’s top leadership role after Pakatan Harapan’s thumping victory in Malaysia’s 14th General Elections in May 2018. He has also been a Penang State Executive Councilor since 2008.
Born in November 1958, Mr. Chow holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (Honours) from the University of Science, Malaysia (USM). He is married to Madam Tan Lean Kee and blessed with two children.
Mr. Chow started out as a journalist before becoming the political secretary of DAP’s former Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Tanjong, YB Lim Kit Siang from October 1986 to 1990. After winning the Pengkalan Kota state seat in 1990, he became Member of Parliament for Tanjong in 1999. He defended Tanjong for another two terms (2004 and 2008). The 2008 elections, which ushered in the new DAP administration under the then Pakatan Rakyat, also saw him winning the Padang Kota state seat and his appointment as the State Executive Councilor overseeing the Local Government and Traffic Management portfolios.
DAP’s continued triumph in the 2013 elections saw Mr. Chow retaining his Padang Kota constituency. He continued to serve as the State Executive Councilor with Flood Mitigation added to his existing portfolios.
In the historic 14th General Elections, Mr. Chow successfully defended his Padang Kota state seat and won the Tanjong parliamentary seat. He has been the DAP Penang State Chairman since 2000 and DAP National Vice-Chairman since 2004. In a recent interview after his swearing-in, the fifth Chief Minister of Penang reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensure delivery of three mega projects, namely the Penang Transport Master Plan, flood mitigation and affordable housing. Undaunted by the higher expectations, he takes this as a challenge to serve Penangites and find ways to make this state, a better home for all.
Besides that, Mr. Chow also aims to transform Penang into ‘A Family-Focused Green and Smart State that Inspires the Nation’ with the Penang2030 Vision and this is the current focus of the State Government.

Chargé d’Affaires Manu Bhalla has served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur since August 2023. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, his prior assignment was the Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Alternate Senior Official for APEC in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in Washington, D.C. His previous roles with the Department of State have included serving as the Deputy-Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia; Director of the Middle East Partnership initiative (MEPI) Regional Offices in Rabat and Abu Dhabi; Economic Section Chief in Singapore; Political Unit Chief in Kabul; Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Hub Officer for the Middle East, based in Jordan; staff assistant in the EAP Bureau; and, vice-consul and
Political Officer in the Philippines. Prior to joining the Department of State, Mr. Bhalla spent 12 years in consulting and business development roles in over 20 countries. His positions included the VP for Professional Services at Internet Commerce Services in New Hampshire, VP for International Operations for M&I Bank. His seven years with SEER Technologies included tenures as Consulting Manager for Asia (Singapore) and Consulting Manager for Scandinavia (Copenhagen). Manu has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Danish Engineering Academy, an MBA from Boston College, and a M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College. He speaks Danish, Hindi, and some
Spanish.

Fairul is the Consulting Director for ERM Malaysia’s Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change (CSCC) team. He focuses on client account development, sales, and comprehensive delivery of ERM consulting services to provide strategic value to clients. Prior to ERM, he accrued 20 years of experience in business development, market development, sales, and marketing in professional qualification programs, ESG/sustainability business consulting, and assurance based on international standards such as the GRI, UN Global Compact, ISO26000, SA8000, and AA1000. A local graduate with an MBA from UNITAR International University and a Diploma in Banking from UiTM, Fairul began his career with Citibank, Telekom Malaysia, Bureau Veritas, SGS, ACCA Malaysia, BSI and ICDL Asia. Most recently, he served as the Vice President of Programme & Advisory at the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM), focusing on ESG & Sustainability and Corporate Governance for the board of directors.

Rajah Rasiah, a Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya, holds a doctorate in Economics from Cambridge University and was a Rajawali fellow at Harvard University. He has a rich academic and advisory history, including holding the Khazanah Nasional Chair of Regulatory Studies, serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Malaya, and being associated with various institutions worldwide. He has delivered lectures and policy talks at numerous universities and is known for his work on technology, development, and industrial policy. His research and policy contributions, recognized by various international organizations, have resulted in over 280 publications. Beyond technology and development, he has explored areas like foreign investment, human capital, public health, and the environment. In 2014, he received the Celso Furtado prize for his contributions to economics, and in 2017, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor in Economics by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education. In 2018, he received the Merdeka Award for academic excellence.

Suresh is Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Malaysia Design Center, the largest semiconductor Design & Development Center in Southeast Asia.

Besides driving the development of advanced Integrated Circuits (IC) design, he collaborates extensively with the external ecosystem - universities, government, and industry partners to drive the application of innovative technologies for the greater good.

Isabel Fan focuses on driving Tesla’s business growth in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. By promoting general adoption of all-electric vehicles and sustainable energy, she aims to create a better living environment towards a zero-emission future.

With the career of corporate management and sales operation in major corporations in the U.S. and Asia Pacific over the past 30 years, Isabel spent almost 20 years working for Apple Inc. in Asia Pacific with extensive experience in channel retail development, enterprise and education market development. She has unparalleled expertise in strategic planning, partnership, sales operations with an emphasis on improving efficiency and productivity to drive results.

Isabel has devoted her passion in technology and how it works to enhance people’s life.

Admen Hassan currently heads SME Academy, in charge of capacity development of SMEs through Centre for Entrepreneur Research and Development (CEDAR), a subsidiary of SME Bank.. Admen has also represented Malaysia as a speaker in a number of international engagements pertaining ESG and SMEs, including several United Nations and APAC events. Admen was recently elected a Resource Person, Expert Panel Meeting for ESG Center of Excellence, by Asia Productivity Organisation based in Japan. Admen is also SME Bank's Champion for ESG Modality and alternate Chairman of the ESG Working Committee. Prior to CEDAR SME Bank, Admen was Head of Sustainability Outreach at Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and has over 24 years of working experience working with over 50 local and international brands.

In September, 2015, Shanthi joined AMCHAM to lead the efforts to develop JA, which was under AMCHAM, and to move it successfully into a separate legal entity. This was successfully executed on 25 th April 2016, and with the support of AMCHAM the founding sponsor, JA has increased student impact from 5000 to almost 60,000 in 7 years. Having successfully navigated the pandemic, Shanthi is
seeking ways to bring more experiential learning to our Youth, pivoting on support of Corporates, the expertise of a globally recognised NGO and the excellent support of the Ministry of Education.

Where there is a will, there is a way! And our Youth need us!

Praga is the Vice President of Finance-Global Operation at Advanced Energy Inc. He has over 24 years of professional experience in corporate reporting, taxation, incentives, company restructuring and business modelling. He also has expertise in financial re-engineering, risk management, acquisitions in the Asia Pacific region, and transfer pricing. Prior to joining Advanced Energy, he was with PwC and several MNC companies. He currently holds a CA(M), FCCA, ACPA and MBA (UK). He has contributed thought leadership at various industries and the mainstream media and is a frequent speaker at various events including forums and seminars organised by MIA.

Soon Kuek of Lam Research Corporation is Managing Director and General Manager for Lam Manufacturing Malaysia, the company’s latest and largest advanced technology production facility at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park in Penang.

Lam Research is a global supplier of innovative wafer fabrication equipment to the semiconductor industry. Sized at 700,000 square feet, Lam Manufacturing Malaysia manufactures key products for all of Lam’s customers across the globe.

Born and raised in Penang, Soon Kuek is excited to head the new factory in Penang after living and working in the USA for more than 20 years. Prior to this role, she was senior director of supply chain management, as well as senior supplier business manager and engineering manager at Lam Research in California, USA. Before joining Lam, Kuek spent 11 years at Xerox Corporation, where she held several roles.

Soon has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Kentucky and a MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology.

YC Lim has over 18 years of working experience across technology industries, with the past 7 years with Honeywell. In his current role, YC is responsible for driving growth with key customers and strategic verticals, government relations, business capability-building, new business development, and talent in Honeywell’s Malaysia and Singapore operations.

Prior to his current role, YC was the Strategy and Marketing Director of Honeywell Southeast Asia. He was responsible for the corporate strategy, enterprise and vertical key accounts business development, and internal transformation projects.

Before Honeywell, YC was a management consultant with Booz & Company, covering technology & telco industries in Southeast Asia. He also has a brief stint with PADU – setting up the Program Management Office to implement the Malaysian Education Transformation Blueprint for the Education Ministry.

Early in his career, YC was a Research Engineer specializing in semiconductor design and network protocols programming. YC graduates with BSc. and MSc. In Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from INSEAD. He has authored a US patent for an optical device feedback self-test methodology.

Liong Chian Min is the Managing Director of Renesas Electronics Penang, responsible for developing and executing Renesas business strategies. He comes with more than 25 years of working experience in semiconductor industry and finance operations. This has given him both breadth and depth of understanding for the industry and the ability to connect business plans with corporate goals. Prior to this role, he was the Finance Director of Renesas Electronics Penang, who led the company to be successfully awarded Principal Hub status.

Before joining Renesas, he was the Site Financial Controller of HGST Technologies Malaysia, Finance Manager of SilTerra Malaysia and Assistant Manager in PricewaterhouseCooper Penang. His exposures in different semiconductor organizations and audit background have also shaped his expertise in the areas of regulatory compliance, cross-functional partnership and strategic operational decisions.

He is currently part of the Program Advisory Committee for Peninsula College Georgetown.

Born and bred in Penang, he was a recipient of JPA Full Scholarship and graduated with First Class Honors degree of Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Birmingham, England. Currently he is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).

Wilson has been in managerial level for more than 10 years. He must define the business strategy, build and manage the teams and grow sustainably the Integrated Clean Energy Solutions. He also defines, builds, coordinates and executes a go-to-market strategy for Integrated Clean Energy Solutions and generate new business opportunities.

He needs to identify opportunities to develop new Clean Energy solutions. Prior to Ditrolic Group, he was attached with Festo Sdn Bhd. He joined Festo as his first role as an application engineer role. Festo is a German based mechanical company which doing more on hydraulic and pneumatic systems. His clients were semiconductor, food industry, glove manufacturers, palm oil industry, water industry and general manufacturers.

He also attached with Schneider Electric Industries (M) Sdn Bhd for 7 years. Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management.

Then, he was moved to an Energy Efficiency division and took up an Assistant Account Manager role. He also became an energy consultant to oversee, audit the plant and the potential energy efficiency that the customers can improve.

Dr Amani Salim is a seasoned engineer, researcher, and project manager with expertise in nanotechnology, biomedical, electrical, and materials engineering.

She was the first non-American Muslim PI for a NASA project, an honour earned post-PhD at Purdue. An award-winning innovator, Amani has worked on mission-critical projects under prestigious organisations like NASA, EPA, NSF, and NIH. She’s currently channelling her talent into entrepreneurship, driving impactful innovation in Malaysia with global ambitions

About nanoSkunkWorkX

nanoSkunkWorkX (nSWX) is a hard science + deep technology Moonshot Factory. We absorb graphene from upstream decarbonisation processes to engineer and implement powerful, scalable, and cost-competitive devices that redefine product categories in biosensors and diagnostics, energy storage, semiconductors, and others. We invented a sustainable, low energy, low footprint, in-line electrochemical process to enable quick, scalable, and infra-light deployment to enable radical enhancements to the price-performance ratios of multiple product classes that address humanity’s greatest challenges and needs.

Iqbal Shamsul is an MIT Computer Science graduate, with a robust background in trading, risk management, and capital markets at Morgan Stanley Commodities.

He excels in identifying unconventional solutions where others see status quo, leveraging his expertise in technology, economics, and management. His unique ability to observe and synthesise drives his steadfast dedication to progress and innovation.

About nanoSkunkWorkX

nanoSkunkWorkX (nSWX) is a hard science + deep technology Moonshot Factory. We absorb graphene from upstream decarbonisation processes to engineer and implement powerful, scalable, and cost-competitive devices that redefine product categories in biosensors and diagnostics, energy storage, semiconductors, and others. We invented a sustainable, low energy, low footprint, in-line electrochemical process to enable quick, scalable, and infra-light deployment to enable radical enhancements to the price-performance ratios of multiple product classes that address humanity’s greatest challenges and needs.

Balan Shanmuganathan is the Senior Engineering Director of Sustainability at Seagate Technology. He has been with Seagate for the past 29 years, starting in Environmental, Health and Safety. During this time, he has had work assignments in Europe and in the United States giving him a global perspective on stakeholder expectations. For the last 18 years, he has been working in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. In his current role at Seagate, Balan manages the overall Sustainability program for the company including Operational Environmental Footprint, Product Environmental Compliance, Responsible Sourcing of Minerals, and Supply Chain Due Diligence. Over the last 4 years he has been working with customers and suppliers in the area of circularity and was involved in the production of the industry first hard drive with harvested post-consumer components. He has been actively participating in the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) since 2004, leading and participating in various workgroups. He is currently residing in Penang, Malaysia.

Tan Lye Huat (also known as LH Tan) is a highly driven individual who loves to work in a fast paced and challenging environment. He is experienced in Strategic Supply Chain Management & talent development, with a strong background in material planning, Manufacturing and demand/supply planning of all types of indirect materials. He is a very result oriented leader in driving transformation in supply Chain, strategic sourcing and commodity management.

Mr. Tham Chee Aun is the founder and CEO of Ditrolic Energy Group with over 14 years of experience in the energy transition, solar and renewable energy field.

As one of the early starters of the industry in South East Asia, he has broad experience in business development, project execution, corporate and project structuring as well as wide exposure in renewable energy finance and contracts.

In his capacity as the CEO, he provides strategic direction to the company and manages operation in the key strategic area of the group businesses.

To date, Mr. Tham Chee Aun has successfully developed and owned more than 450MW of projects in various countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. He also sits on the board of two Fortune 500 Independent Power Producer subsidiaries through joint venture with Ditrolic Energy.