Ms Chen Huifen
Editor, The Business Times

Chen Huifen started her career with SPH Media in the digital realm, initially as a content producer for BT Online, before branching out to become a journalist.

She left in 2002 to teach English and International Understanding in rural Japan, only to realise that she missed the newsroom buzz. Post-Sars, she returned to The Business Times to develop a new beat in biomedical sciences for the publication. Other than tracing Singapore's R&D drive, she has also covered technology, macroeconomics, government policy, and healthcare. She has also overseen the Young Investor Forum as well as the SME sections of the paper. She is the founding editor of BT's bimonthly The SME Magazine in 2010.

Huifen switched to a full-time supervisory role in 2014 and in the past one and a half years, helped Wei Kong and other key members of the leadership team to steer the newsroom into adopting a digital-first mindset.

Ms Dawn Lim
Executive Director Design Singapore Council

As Executive Director of DesignSingapore Council (Dsg), Dawn sets the vision and strategy for Singapore’s national agency for design.

Since taking over the reins in 2022, she has positioned Singapore Design for the future –focusing on design's role in shaping emerging technology, sustainability and systems of care. She also oversaw the relaunch of Singapore Design Week held every September and the debut of Dsg’s global showcase, Future Impact, at Milan Design Week 2023 and again in 2024. She is also the Co-Commissioner of the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Architecture and leads Singapore’s highest design accolade – the President's Design Award.

She has two decades of experience in public and private sector trade agreements, policymaking, partnership development and industrial strategy in Asia and Europe. She honed her business and commercial acumen in the shipping industry at PSA Corporation, and put that to good use subsequently at the Singapore Economic Development Board attracting the world’s top companies to invest in the country to drive economic growth.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Master of Science from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dawn has presented on the power of design across international platforms such as the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, SXSW, ChangeNow Summit, Intercorp Festival of Innovation, Singapore Design Week, as well as with partners like JLL, Stagwell, Deloitte Centre for the Edge, WGSN. She is a UK Design Ambassador, advisory member to the Seoul Design Award and has been invited as a jury member on a wide range of design platforms including the James Dyson Award.

Ms Jenny Lee
Senior Managing Partner Granite Asia

Jenny Lee is a senior managing partner at Granite Asia and has been with the firm senior leadership since 2005.

Jenny brings decades of experience investing in innovation and technology across Asia and globally, with a proven track record of translating capital into real economic impact. At Granite Asia, she has led the firm through a significant evolution — from a venture capital specialist into a multi-asset investment platform spanning private credit and growth equity.

A self-starter, an investor and an entrepreneur, she has been instrumental in backing technology-enabled businesses that drive productivity, digitization, and new innovative consumer applications and products. Connecting businesses and founders across markets, industries and applications with technology innovation, she is best known for investments in sectors like Consumer Tech, Food and Agritech, Energy Sustainability and Automation Technologies. Her portfolio includes 21 companies valued at over $1 billion each. She has had 18 IPOs up to date, including 5 recent IPOs since 2021, across 5 different global exchanges, and numerous portfolio company exits via M&A.
Jenny’s global investment track record over two decades and early operation and finance work experience with Singapore Aerospace in Singapore; Morgan Stanley, and JAFCO Asia in Hong Kong enhanced her role as a preferred board member with deep domain expertise and global investment experience.

Born and raised in Singapore, Jenny is highly respected in the Asia business community and serves as a board member of Temasek since 2022. She also serves on the governing boards of both Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Duke-NUS Medical School. In addition, she is also a member of Singapore’s RIEC; Singapore Business Federation; Asia Business Council; and the International Advisory Council of Edmond de Rothschild.

Jenny has been a member of the Forbes Global 100 VC Midas list since 2012 and was the first woman to break the top 10 in 2015. She was also recognised by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in the past 3 years (2022-2024). In 2019, Jenny was named to the Forbes Asia Power Businesswomen 25 list and received the Business Times’s Outstanding Overseas Executive Award. In 2016, she was named to the Vanity Fair New Establishment list, Fast Company Most Creative People in Business list, and is consistently recognised by The New York Times and CB Insights among the top 100 venture capital investors worldwide, ranking #8 among top venture capitalists in Asia.

Jenny graduated from Cornell University with an M.S. and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Dr Leslie Teo
Senior Director of AI Products, AI Singapore

Leslie is Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore where he is tasked with catalysing the use of AI in businesses. He and his team work with companies to identify important use cases and build enabling AI products to support such use cases.

Leslie is passionate about data, data science, machine learning, and AI. He pivoted from a career in economics, finance, and investing in 2019. That year, he joined Grab as Head of Data Science, Policy, and Data Initiatives and Advisor to the CEO. In that role, he sought to answer critical business and social questions using data and build products that provided relevant insights, such as congestion patterns and creating safer bike paths. He helped lay the foundation for the data science and analytics role at Grab and Singtel’s digital bank (GxS).

After Grab, Leslie was Managing Director at Great Eastern Life Insurance for Data and Strategic Transformation. He and his team were responsible for enabling data analytics and data science across the organisation and fostering business transformation capabilities to deliver value in areas such as distribution, marketing, risk management and digital products.

Before Grab, Leslie was the Director of the Economics and Investment Strategy Department and Chief Economist at GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. He oversaw the team responsible for asset allocation, total portfolio construction, systematic investing, and identifying critical long-term trends that would impact GIC’s portfolio. He remains an advisor to the government on reserve management issues.

Leslie was also at the International Monetary Fund. During his Fund career, he worked on financial sector restructuring, financial stability, public debt management, monetary policy and operations. 

He was also Head of the Financial Surveillance Division at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Leslie has a strong belief in education. He was a Board member of the Pacific Pension and Investment Institute and the National University of Singapore. He was a Vice President of the Economic Society of Singapore, chaired the advisory board for NUS’ Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and advised NUS’ Investment Committee and Business School.

Leslie has a Liberal Arts and Sciences degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Economics and Finance from the University of Rochester. He has a Master’s in Information and Data Science from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, he is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a CFA charter holder.