Strategy, Risk Management and Design for Sustainability

Wai Fong Boh is President’s Chair and Professor of Information Systems at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. She is currently the Deputy Dean of Nanyang Business School (NBS), Director of Information Management Research Centre at NBS, and she serves as co-Director for both Singapore Agri-Food Innovation Lab (SAIL @ NTU) and NTU Centre in Computational Technologies for Finance (CCTF). She received her PhD from the Tepper School of Business at the Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Boh is an established researcher in the area of knowledge management and knowledge sharing. She also conducts research in the areas of innovation management and entrepreneurship. She has published in a number of top IS and management journals, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Association Information Systems, OBHDP, Research Policy, and Information & Organization. Throughout her career, Professor Boh won several research awards including an award for the Top Five IS Publications of the Year 2007, the best Professor in Information Technology 2012 (awarded by CMO Council) and NBS Research Excellence Award for ITOM division in 2007, 2009 and 2016 respectively. She has also secured research grants amounting to USD1.8 million, as a Principle Investigator. She is currently Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly, and has been previously AE for Management Science and ISR. Further, she is currently on or had been previously on the editorial board of multiple journals, including Journal of Management Information Systems, Organization Science, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Information & Organization. Prof Boh has also served as Program Co-Chair for ICIS 2019, and served as Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair for PACIS 2018 and 2013. Professor Boh is a seasoned and versatile instructor who teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She has also taught at the executive level running many executive teaching seminars and workshops. Professor Boh is also sought after by private organizations as well as government agencies to conduct training programs.

Professor “Vish” Viswanathan obtained a Ph.D. in Operations Research with minor in Operations Management from Case Western Reserve University in 1992, MBA (Gold Medalist) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1986, and a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1984. He has been a faculty member at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for 32 years. He has taught previously at Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University in Texas. Currently, he is Professor of Operations & Corporate Sustainability at Nanyang Business School. He also serves as the Director of the Centre for Business Sustainability, and as Cluster Director of the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N). He has previously served as Associate Dean (Research), Head of the academic Division of Information Technology & Operations Management (ITOM), Director of the PhD Program, Program, Director of MBA specialization in Technology & Operations and Program Director of MDP@Nanyang. Prior to entering academia, Vish worked as an Operations Auditor and as an IT Software Specialist. Vish was a member of the team responsible for the curriculum design and redesign of the full-time MBA into a one-year MBA program. As Head of ITOM, he was involved in developing the initial curriculum for the MSc (Technology Management) segment of the Renaissance Engineering Program. He was the founding Program Director of the NTU-Waseda double MBA program and was involved in developing the curriculum for the NTU-Waseda double MBA and the MBA (Technology & Operations) specialization. He was also involved in developing the curriculum for the Management Development Program @ NTU, as its Founding Program Director. He also recently championed the program design for the MBA (Sustainability & Innovation) Track. In addition, as Program Director, he has been recently involved in designing the curriculum for several in-company executive programs on Climate and Sustainability and for the NTU Executive MSc in Sustainability Management. Vish’s teaching interests are in Corporate Sustainability, Decarbonization, Circular Economy, and Operations. He currently teaches in the EMSc, MBA, EMBA, PMBA, Nanyang Fellows MBA, and in many open and in-company custom Executive Programs. His research interests are in Corporate Sustainability, Energy Modelling, Life Cycle Analysis, Business Model Innovation, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Systems, Urban Mobility, Optimization, and Scheduling. His research has been published in Financial Times and BusinessWeek ranked top tier Business journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, Production & Operations Management, and Journal of Operations Management, and other top journals in the field. He is serving or has served as Senior Editor, Editorial Board Member, or Associate Editor in top journals such as Decision Sciences, Production & Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, IEEE Transactions in Automation Science & Engineering, and International Journal of Production Research. He has made several appearances in Who’s who in the World, Who’s Who in Asia, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering lists. He was selected for the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He was awarded the prestigious Nanyang Award for Research Excellence in 2010.

Adam Switzer holds concurrent positions as Professor of Coastal Science at the Asian School of the Environment; Assistant Dean (Development) at the College of Science; Director of CIFAL Singapore and Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS). He is a broadly trained coastal geoscientist and the overarching driver of his research is to apply interdisciplinary geoscience to solve contemporary coastal problems at local, regional and international scales. His main research areas investigate catastrophic marine inundation events (tsunami or large storms), sea level changes, the evolution of coral reefs and tropical coastal systems. After obtaining a BSc and PhD in Geosciences from the University of Wollongong, Australia he accepted an Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong fellowship to study at The University of Hong Kong where he held positions as Post-Doctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor. Adam is an internationally recognised expert in coastal science. In the field of coastal hazards Adam has pioneered the study of storm and tsunami deposits with studies in Australia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. Here, he focuses on the use of geophysical techniques like Ground Penetrating Radar and the sedimentary study of sand and boulders deposited by extreme events. His Quaternary geology work focuses on the coastal evolution of tropical coastal systems in Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and China where he uses geological techniques to reconstruct past environmental change and investigate the role of sea level change, climate variability and human influence on the evolution of tropical and sub-tropical coastal systems. His work on coral reefs and tropical coasts focuses on coral records of environmental change including the study of past ocean changes, pollutants, storm and tsunami events and heavy metal sedimentation. His research program at the Earth Observatory of Singapore aims to facilitate the development of safer and more sustainable communities in Asia. His research currently involves collaborations with people from ten Asian nations. In 2022 he was awarded the Wing Ip medal by the Asia Oceania Geoscience Society for unselfish co-operation and leadership in Geoscience in the Asia Oceania region. Adam he has been PI or Co-I on 20 grants in Singapore (worth >$18M) and he has authorship on >120 peer-review publications. He was a founding editorial board member of the journal Communications Earth and Environment from Nature. Adam is also passionate about science communication and has appeared in documentaries for Mediacorp (Singapore), Curiosity Channel (Discovery) and BBC (UK) and delivered invited talks a numerous international venues including the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Matthew Dearth is Associate Professor (Practice) of Sustainable Finance at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Before transitioning to academia full time, Dr. Dearth was Managing Director at Silvercrest Asset Management (Singapore) and head of the Singapore office. His 30+ years of finance industry experience also includes leadership roles at Marshall Wace, Goldman Sachs, and Booz Allen & Hamilton. From 2016 to 2023, Dr. Dearth taught postgraduate finance courses at Singapore Management University in subjects such as sustainable investing, alternative investments and asset management. He was recognized on the Dean’s Teaching Honor List for Top Adjunct Faculty (Postgrad) from 2019-2022. In the fall of 2023, Dr. Dearth joined NTU full-time where he teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive courses in sustainable finance, and is a member of the academic advisory committee for the Centre for Sustainable Finance Innovation. He is a co-author of “Getting Started in Alternative Investments” (Wiley, 2023) and has published multiple case studies on investment management topics. Dr. Dearth holds a PhD (General Management) from Singapore Management University, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University.

Constant Van Aerschot Director for Asia Pacific, Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Mr. Constant Van Aerschot is the Director for Asia Pacific at Accounting for Sustainability (A4S). A4S was established by HM King Charles III in 2004, when he was The Prince of Wales. A4S’s aim is to inspire action by finance leaders to drive a fundamental shift towards resilient business models and a sustainable economy. Constant is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, a Director of Earth on Board, an organisation dedicated to sustainability training for Board of Directors, and a member of the Executive Council for United Nations’ ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN). He has more than 15-years’ experience in sustainability with a particular expertise in the built environment. His previous position was Director Asia Pacific at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and was the senior policy researcher at “Cooling Singapore”, a project funded by NRF.

Nilesh Jadhav Head, Energy Performance & Sustainability, Smart Infrastructure-RSS, ASEAN/APAC Adjunct Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University Singapore Member, Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) Silver Member, International Solar Energy Society (ISES) With over 20 years of experience in the field of clean energy and decarbonization, Nilesh Jadhav is a passionate champion of accelerating the net-zero transition for organizations and communities. He is the Head of Energy Performance and Sustainability business (ASEAN) at Siemens, Smart Infrastructure-RSS, where he leads the delivery of end-to-end decarbonization solutions and digital services for sustainability. Nilesh Jadhav is previously the founder and CEO of Qi Square Pte Ltd, a Singapore company focused on digitizing the building industry for a sustainable future. He is also a passionate clean energy technopreneur. His experience spans across technology development, operations management, R&D outfits, and start-ups in the clean energy space. He has been actively involved in clean energy policy development through participation in projects such as Singapore’s Energy roadmaps with NCCS and sitting on boards of government and semi-government institutions such as the Sustainable Energy Association (SEAS) and Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC). He has been involved in writing the Technology Primers on Smart Grids and Solar Technologies for the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS, Singapore) and also was the project lead for developing Singapore’s first Technology Roadmap in the area of Energy Efficient Building Technologies with the Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore. He is a published author (book: Green & Smart Buildings- advanced technology options, Springer, 2016) and also a visiting Professor of Practice at Universities in Singapore and India.

David Hill Regional Head Risk and Analytics, SE Asia Willis Towers Watson David is Regional Head of Willis Towers Watson’s Risk and Analytics for SE Asia with 30 years of risk and insurance advisory experience. He now leads risk advisory services together with a team of actuaries, analysts, climate scientists, engineers, forensic accountants, strategic risk consultants, and alternative risk transfer specialists.  Previously David has held senior global in-house roles as Head of Enterprise Risk and Head of Insurance in the FMCG and Marine sectors with Cadbury and AET.  He also has extensive Risk Management consulting experience in Asia and Europe in past roles with Insurers and Brokers advising on insurable and ESG risk management.  His in-house responsibilities included establishing and embedding Enterprise Risk Management frameworks following principles of ISO31000 and COSO. In these roles he has defined risk appetite criteria for the BoD, directed operations management in their risk management responsibilities and presented regular board reports to uphold strong ESG practices. David graduated in Mechanical Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and Fellow of the Institute of Risk Management in London.