Based in Singapore, Francois Lancon joined ManpowerGroup on 3 December 2018 as the President for Asia Pacific and Middle East (APME) region. Francois oversees all ManpowerGroup's connected brands and offerings across the APME region -- Manpower, Experis, Right Management and ManpowerGroup Solutions.

Prior to joining ManpowerGroup, Francois was the Vice President for Oracle Corporation Singapore Pte Ltd. He was responsible for managing Oracle’s Asia Pacific business and setting the company’s strategy for growth, performance, and profitability across the 25 countries in the region.

Before Oracle, Francois was Managing Director for SAP Southeast Asia, where he led successful teams that contributed to high business growth. He joined SAP from Avaya, where he was President of Asia Pacific, responsible for leading Avaya’s operations across the entire region, including the sales and support of the company's technology, applications and industry-specific businesses. The role also included responsibility for business planning and strategy development, customer care, marketing and management of Avaya’s country offices, and channel partner programs for Asia Pacific.

Francois brings 30 years of experience in driving successful businesses in Asia Pacific, EMEA, and North America in a variety of industries, including telecom, hardware, software, and services. He has spent the past 15 years in Asia Pacific. He holds degrees in Business and Computer Science from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Superieure D'Electricite respectively.

Strategic, purpose-led, and results-driven, Ivan is a senior business leader with more than 23 years of experience in consumer goods, food & beverage, telecommunications, and packaging industries. His time living and working in Asia and Europe has brought him a breadth and depth of understanding when it comes to local markets and global perspectives.

Ivan is presently Managing Director, Malaysia and Singapore of Unilever Food Solutions. He is an advocate of preparing talents for the new future of work through reskilling and upskilling and has a reputation for embedding psychological safety in his teams to maximise their potential.

Passionate about the future of food, he leads a team building alternative protein brand The Vegetarian Butcher in Malaysia and Singapore to provide tasty, healthy and sustainable food options for consumers. As part of his role, he oversees food waste reduction initiatives in Unilever’s value chain, from manufacturing to point of sale.

Ivan enjoys learning about new technology and believes that both technology adoption and talent transformation form the backbone of digital acceleration to meet customer needs 24/7.

Pei Chuan is a senior lecturer in the Department of Management & Organisation at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. She is also the Deputy Academic Director for the MSc in Human Capital Management and Analytics (HCMA) programme. Her research and teaching interests include talent attraction and retention; diversity, equity and inclusion; design thinking and employee experiences; mentoring and career success; work-life balance, and cultural intelligence and global mobility. She was awarded the NUS Business School Teaching Excellence Award in 2018, 2020, and 2021.

William Thomas is the Director of the Economist Corporate Network in South-east Asia. An experienced advisor to senior business and government leaders, he helps organisations understand the strategic, operational, and talent implications of geopolitical changes.

William holds a PhD in public policy from George Mason University in the US, as well as a degree in economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA. His academic research has centered on managing change in large, multinational organisations, with an emphasis on organisational culture.

William is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel, having spent much of his 21-year career as a strategic planner for complex operations such as humanitarian assistance and counterterrorism. He was Associate Professor of Political Science at the US Air Force Academy, and later taught at Georgetown University in Washington DC and as a Fulbright Scholar at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Having worked in Asia since 2012, William has focused on leadership development and organisational change as a consultant, leadership coach, and training facilitator.