Speaker Categories: Human Construct

Dorji Yangki

Director of the Office of the Governor, Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority

Dorji Yangki is the Managing Director of the Office of the Governor of Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), Bhutan’s Special Administrative Region established under Royal Charter in 2023. One of Bhutan’s first female architects, she brings over three decades of experience in public service, academia, and private practice in Bhutan and abroad.
A former Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dorji is a strong advocate for climate-resilient and biophilic design rooted in Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness values. She helped establish Bhutan’s first national heritage conservation office and led major restoration projects, including Taktsang Monastery and Semtokha Dzong. She also authored Bhutan’s first Green Building Guidelines and drafted the national Architecture Guidelines, now adopted nationwide.
Dorji has been a leader in advancing architecture in Bhutan and the region, serving as the first elected President of the Bhutan Institute of Architects and the first female Chair of the South Asian Association of Architects (SAARCH). She studied architecture in Australia and has trained internationally in Japan, France, Norway, the Netherlands, India, the USA, and the UK.

Teresa Wong

Chief Risk Officer, Zurich General Insurance Malaysia Berhad

Teresa Wong is the Chief Risk Officer at Zurich General Insurance Malaysia Berhad, overseeing the Property & Casualty Segment and leading sustainability risks for Zurich’s Malaysian entities. 

With over 35 years in the insurance industry, from underwriting, project management in integration/M&A, risk management, and sustainability, Teresa is dedicated to supporting the business through a robust enterprise-wide risk management framework. 

She is passionate about driving key strategic sustainability initiatives and fostering capacity building within both the organisation and the broader financial services industry in Malaysia. 

She is also actively involved in promoting community resilience under the Urban Climate Resilience Programme (UCRP) in collaboration with our network partners. 

Qiyun Woo

Founder, The Weird and Wild, 2024 Global Citizen Youth Leader

Qiyun Woo is an environmental communicator and the creator of The Weird and Wild, a visual medium that makes climate science accessible through comics and visual elements. She uses comics, videos, and social media to make scientific concepts, policies, and information accessible to a digital audience. The work of Woo has gained traction, and she has been featured in major news outlets such as Grazia, WWD, Vogue, and L’Officiel, as well as local media outlets such as The Straits Times and Channel News Asia. She has also been named a National Geographic Young Explorer by National Geographic. As a Singaporean climate activist who uses creative storytelling with a passion for making climate science understandable, Woo is passionate about science communication and loves telling stories about complex issues.

Claire Wong

Executive Director, DBS Foundation

With a career spanning public sector economic development, banking and philanthropy, Claire is the Team Lead at the DBS Foundation. DBS Foundation uplifts lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities by catalysing the growth of businesses to spark solutions to complex problems. Prior to this role, she spent more than 7 years with the Singapore Economic Development Board, involved in industry development in Singapore and as the Centre Director in Washington DC. Subsequently, she moved into consulting and then corporate banking for the energy sector.

Claire has a BSc (Economics) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MPhil (Economics) from the Christ College, University of Cambridge.

Mary Ann Tsao

Chairwoman, Tsao Foundation

Dr Mary Ann Tsao is the Chair of the Tsao Family Office, which aims to deploy all its assets for impact through their investments and philanthropy. She is also the Vice Chair for the newly established Tsao family foundation as well as the Chairwoman and Founding Director of the Tsao (Ng Yu Shun) Foundation, a Singapore-based, but regionally oriented operational foundation. Established in 1993, the Tsao Foundation is dedicated to issues of population ageing, successful longevity and the well being of older people. Dr Tsao also serves on numerous boards and committees, and is currently a Board Director of Lausanne-based Family Business Network (FBN) International as well as a trustee for Wellesley College, her Alma mater. She’s a frequent speaker on philanthropy, family office as well as population ageing and longevity. For her work on ageing, Mary Ann has received numerous national and international awards, including being named by WHO in 2022 as one of the first fifty global pioneers working to make the world a better place for older people. She is an US-trained paediatrician with a public health background.

Thiti Thongbenjamas

Managing Director, OCTAVE Living

As Managing Director, Octave Living, Thiti is responsible in driving the overall performance of OCTAVE Living including its real estate and hospitality/wellness businesses in various strategic global destination.   

With over 26 years of experience in hospitality, wellness, and real estate, Thiti brings extensive expertise in finance, investment, operational efficiency, and development. His background includes real estate development, including mixed-use and integrated destinations. Throughout his career, he has worked across the United States, Europe, and Asia with prominent hospitality brands, including Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott, Hard Rock Hotels and Resorts, and Club Med Resort. From 2006 to 2017, he played a key role in establishing Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts’ footprint in Asia.

Thiti graduated from University of California, Berkeley, in Environmental Design and Planning and serves on the boards of several private and public companies, offering strategic guidance to diverse projects in hospitality and real estate development.

Yiru Shen

Founder, The Gentle Group

Shen Yiru is the founder of GentleFoods, established in 2020. With a background in biochemistry and commercial experience in the medical device sector, she set out to address the dietary challenges faced by individuals with dysphagia (swallowing difficulties). Driven by her passion for creating nutritious and palatable food solutions, Yiru has led GentleFoods in developing essential therapeutic meals that support both health and quality of life. Today, the company is a trusted provider of such solutions in Singapore, with ambitions to expand across Asia.

Jamal Safiulla

Director – Asia Pacific Region, Access to Energy, Schneider Electric

With over 25 years of experience in power quality, energy management, and mergers & acquisitions, Jamal Safiulla currently leads Schneider Electric’s Access to Energy (A2E) initiatives across the Asia Pacific region. His expertise spans product engineering, system design, and project execution, with a strong focus on developing IoT-based solutions for remote energy management and system protection.

Jamal is deeply committed to advancing sustainable energy access in underserved communities. He actively collaborates with international and local NGOs, corporate foundations, and philanthropic organizations to drive impact in critical sectors such as healthcare, education, and livelihoods. His work bridges technology and development, empowering communities through innovative energy solutions.

Matthew Rycroft

Former Permanent Secretary, UK Home Office

Sir Matthew Rycroft is about to start an advisory career in the private sector following 35 years as a UK Civil Servant. His most recent positions were as UK Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development, and most recently Permanent Secretary of the Home Office. Before that he was the COO for the Foreign Office, the Prime Minister’s private secretary for foreign affairs, and the Ambassador to Bosnia.

Sumitra Pasupathy

Founder & Partner, Karuna Advisory Impact

Sumitra Pasupathy is a social innovator, ecosystem builder and systems change leader, with over 25 years of experience globally across business and impact sectors. She is the Founder of KAI, a philanthropy advisory, and Co-Founder of Philanthropy Dialogues, a global majority-led action and learning platform that advances inclusive, equitable systems transformation for climate and planetary well-being by creating whole-ecosystem resilience. 

Sumitra also co-founded Playeum, Singapore’s pioneering organisation for learning through play, and served as the Executive Director of Ashoka Innovators for the Public for Malaysia and Singapore. She is a Skoll Fellow, serves on the board of the Singapore Art Museum, Avanti Fellows, and Playeum. She also advises Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ Shifting Systems Initiative and a member of the newly founded Asia Climate Lab initiative that supports and accelerates just energy transition and bio-regional initiatives. 

She coaches on inner leadership, in order to holistically shift the full continuum of capital, leadership, and governance. Her early career stems from product innovation, securing two patents. She has a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.