Webinar: Asia Regional Strategic Forecast

Simon Baptist is Editorial Director and Chief Economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Prior to his current role, he has held a number of other senior management and editorial positions in the business, including Managing Director for Asia, Regional Director of our Asia editorial team, Director of Global Forecasting, and Consulting Director in both Europe and Asia

Simon’s focus is on the global economy, national and international political developments, and public policy. He engages with business, government and international organisations, helping them to understand the operational and strategic implications of the EIU’s forecasts.

He has a doctorate in economics from and was a lecturer at Oxford University, along with degrees in economics and science from the University of Tasmania. His academic research investigated technology and the determinants of productivity in manufacturing firms.

Pamela Qiu is the Network Director of the South-east Asia chapter of The Economist Corporate Network. She advises multinational corporations on the latest economic, political and market developments affecting business in the Asia Pacific region. She regularly chairs Economist events and roundtables, and delivers custom briefings to senior business executives. She joined The Economist in June 2011.

Prior to joining The Economist Group, Pamela worked as a policy analyst and associate at the Singapore Ministry of Finance, where she worked on policies to tackle socio-economic problems such as inequality and unemployment. She also worked on policies that were featured in the Singapore Budget. From 2009 to 2011, she was a researcher for the Center for Public Economics at the Civil Service College, the Singapore government’s core institution for public policy and economics research. Her research areas included the role of government in markets, public private partnerships, privatisation, fiscal policy, and behavioural economics. From 2004 to 2006, Pamela also worked as a market analyst with Prudential Health Insurance, based in London.

Pamela holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in development studies, both from the London School of Economics.

David Ng is the managing director for International SOS in Malaysia.

Prior to this David was the managing director for DHL Malaysia and Brunei where he led an organisation of 800 people and successfully drove the company’s revenue growth and profitability. His success earned him the Malaysia Business Award for Outstanding Leadership in Logistics in 2012.

David was also the managing director for DHL Express Indonesia for five years during which DHL Express Indonesia was awarded the country’s Most Admired Company Award for four consecutive years from 2006 to 2009.

David is also the co-deputy chairman for the British Malaysia Chamber of Commerce.

Adib Zalkapli is a director at BowerGroupAsia’s Malaysia office where he is responsible for client services and government relations. An expert in navigating Malaysia’s complex political environment, Adib has served multinationals from various industries including the internet, food, fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, mining and healthcare.

Prior to joining the private sector, Adib was a political analyst with the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, where he supported the mission in pursuing British foreign policy priorities and commercial interests in Malaysia. He previously worked as a journalist in Malaysia covering domestic politics and current affairs.

Adib holds a master’s degree in international relations with distinction from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom where he conducted research on the national security issues facing Thailand and Singapore.