The Council is the highest decision making authority within MBAN and is led by the President. It develops, considers and decides on all key decisions of the Association.
Alan Lim is the co-founder and CEO of MediaBanc Group; the biggest media monitoring and insights company in South-East-Asia since 1997. He fully exited the business in mid-2014 when the company was listed in the ASX as iSentia Group Ltd, formerly known as Sentia Media and before that Media Monitors. Prior to MediaBanc Group, Alan, who obtained a BSC in Marketing and an MBA from the United States in 1987 worked in the advertising industry for close to 10-years at The Star media group in Kuala Lumpur, and at Asatsu, an international Japanese advertising agency in both Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo. An entrepreneur by heart, Alan Lim co-founded a market intelligence agency by the name of Pacific Forum (with offices in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and Tokyo) and an advertising agency called Grandmont in Kuala Lumpur before his exit in 1997 to start MediaBanc Group. Today, Alan Lim has moved into the significant second half of his life where he spends most of his time; he is the Principal Advisor for Nexea Angels, a venture builder, and he mentors & coaches many young Entrepreneurs in his spare time as part of his ‘giving back to society’. He also gives his time to MBAN (Malaysian Business Angel Network) as the President and also participates as an investor in many startup companies in the SEA region.
Dr Melissa Foo is a global investor and portfolio manager focusing on impact investment, ecosystem development and innovation. Melissa was based in New York from 2013 – 2016 and worked on multiple earlystage deals in FinTech, Healthcare, Education, B2B, Real Estate Technology and Social Enterprise. Melissa consults for the Malaysian government on Ventures and Corporate Entrepreneurship (Ministry of Finance – Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre) and Social Innovation (Prime Minister’s Department – National Innovation Agency).She is a speaker and mentor at MaGIC Academy and Lean StartupAsia. Melissa received an MBA from Columbia Business School with a dual-concentration in Family Enterprise Management & Impact Investing. Melissa also serves on the board of her family healthcare company based in Malaysia. Prior to that, she obtained her dental qualifications from the University of Melbourne and was attached to the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Department of Hospital Sungai Buloh, specializing in trauma and facial reconstruction. When she is not identifying the next big thing in impact and innovation, she is passionate about travel, meeting people, making connections and giving. Her philanthropic work with the family organization serves underprivileged communities across Southeast Asia.
He is passionate about getting Corporates to embrace change and use technology to innovate in this fast changing business environment. He advocates for corporations to learn and work with startups. In his 20 year stint in PwC both in Malaysia and in London, he helped corporates navigate the changing business landscape and when he was Managing Director of Ricoh Malaysia he brought about transformation of their business model to double their revenues in 6 ½ years. After that he was Group CEO at a local chemical manufacturer and distributor, and later as Group CEO of Rotiboy. He now runs his own consulting practice.
Peter has a Design Thinking certification from the MIT Sloan School of Management and has run sessions to help corporates innovate. He is now a coach at the MIT/Asian School of Business MBA program in Kuala Lumpur. He is also a Vistage CEO Chair and coaches CEOs to become better leaders, make better decisions and transform their lives. Peter has personally invested in close to 15 startups and mentors them under NEXEA Angels, an early stage VC of which he is a partner.
Former Vice President of Investment for Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, the Malaysia government agency that financially supported the entrepreneurship journey of more 1,000 technology startups. Xelia is now the Managing Partner of ScaleUp Malaysia, a hybrid growth stage accelerator cum venture capital overseeing investors relation and partnership. She hopes to continue using her understanding and passion for investment in startups to elevate the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Malaysia and the region.
Dr. Siva has been an Entrepreneur and Angel Investor over the last 30 years and has a Ph.D in Venture Capital from the University of Edinburgh In Scotland. He is the President of the Malaysian Business Angels Network (MBAN), the Association that represents high net worth Angel investors. He is also on the Management Committee of the Malaysian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (MVCA) He was also the Founder & Past President of TeAM, the Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia, and was Director of TeAM’s Policy Institute. In his role as a Founder and longtime Advisor to TeAM he has also written White Papers and submitted many policy recommendations to the Government of Malaysia. Dr.Siva is an active Angel Investor and has made several investments in technology companies in the education, medical device, Internet based businesses and User Experience (UX) industry. He is also the Chief Investor of Proficeo Ventures Sdn Bhd an Angel investment company. He is also Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of Proficeo Consultants, an Entrepreneur Coaching & Mentoring company that has coached 1,000 companies in Malaysia over the last 8 years including the highly successful “Coach & Grow Program” under Cradle Fund and the Ministry of Finance.
Azra’I Shu’Ib, started his career with several banks & financial institutions, such as Bank Bumiputra (M) Sdn Bhd (1983 – 1987), Malaysia Credit Finance Bhd. & Amanah Factor Sdn Bhd (1987 – 1989), Perwira Affin Bank Bhd. (1989 – 1991) & Malaysia Credit Finance Bhd. (1993 – 1996). Later he managed his own construction and trading companies for over 5 years. Some of the companies he manned are Thethani Engineering Sdn Bhd & Budi Urusan (M) Sdn Bhd. He continued his journey into the Government sector where he served with Small Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC); an agency under the purview of Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for over 6 years in various positions; among others are Deputy Director, Strategic Planning Division, Deputy Director, Financial Assistant and Monitoring and Regional Director, SMIDEC Northern Office. His current position is as the General Manager - Head, Incubation and Technopreneurs Development of Technology Park Malaysia; an agency under the purview of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI).
Dr Ng is an Innovation & Commercialisation Consultant experienced in the translation of R&D investment into revenues. Analytical, creative and highly adaptable to new and ambiguous information. Demonstrated capacity in identifying and evaluating new technologies, conducting technical & market due diligence, identifying investment risks, performing business planning analysis and providing end to end facilitation for commercialisation activities. Skilled technology, market analyst with experience across a range of sectors. A certified innovation skills and technology transfer trainer. A motivated team player who can lead teams to complete tasks efficiently and effectively. An active team member that provides mutual support to colleagues to achieve a common purpose.
Elain is a Co-Founder and Director in Ata Plus, a Malaysian licensed Equity Crowdfunding platform. Upbeat and optimistic, she believes nothing is impossible and all challenges are just another form of opportunities. This proves to be the fuel in her 23-year career in the areas of management, business strategy, human resource, business development, relationship management, marketing and corporate communications. She has served notable organisations, namely Petronas, MDeC, Malaysia Debt Ventures, DiGi Telecommunications and Packet One Networks. She currently sits on the Board of Western Union Payments Malaysia and the Chairman of Western Union Internal Audit Committee, while being actively involved in the start-up community, advising entrepreneurs in funding, strategy and operations. Elain is instrumental in establishing Ata Plus’ partnerships, deal screening and operations framework. Elain graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc in Actuarial Science and MSc in Operational Research.
Matt is Chief Innovation Officer of Sunway Group and Director of Sunway iLabs. Sunway iLabs is a smart partnership between Sunway University, Sunway Group and Sunway Ventures to foster entrepreneurship and stimulate market-driven innovations with the end goal to help entrepreneurs build their business and accelerate scale up. He is also an active Council Member of the Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN), the official trade association and governing body for angel investors and angel clubs in Malaysia.
Previously he was a commercialisation specialist in PlaTCOM Ventures (a subsidiary of the Innovation Agency Malaysia), and gained significant entrepreneurial experience through three start-ups he co-founded in the UK, Singapore, and Malaysia. Before he started out as an entrepreneur, Matt was a consultant at the Cambridge-MIT Institute and Library House in Cambridge (UK) and an Analyst at Imperial Innovations in London (UK), one of Europe’s leading Tech Transfer Offices.
Matt is trained at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), where he gained a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and a MSc in Science & Business. He was also a Research Scientist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge and served as an Exco member of the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Society.
Matt was recently recognised as one of the personalities of the year (2020) by PC.com and Business Today for the positive impact that he has created for the community through the various innovation projects in Sunway iLabs.
Experienced Fintech ecosystem builder based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Karen has over 20 years of experience in Strategy, Communications and Marketing.
She is the Head of Malaysia for She Loves Tech, the world's largest pitching platform for women-led and women-impact entrepreneurs. Most recently, GSMA Foundation appointed Karen to be one of their mentors for the Pacific Islands/Myanmar region startups program, a yearly initiative with the Australian government.
Karen is the current President of the Fintech Association of Malaysia, a national platform to support Malaysia to be the leading hub for fintech innovation and investment in the region.
