EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Thomas Zilliacus

Thomas Henrik Zilliacus, who was born in Helsinki, Finland, combines a distinguished career in business and in politics.

Holding a Master of Science in Economics from the Hanken business school in Helsinki, he was at the age of 25 elected to the Helsinki City Council. The same year, Nokia Corporation hired him as their global head of corporate marketing & brand, corporate communications, PR and IR. After successfully converting Nokia’s image from a manufacturer of paper products and car tires to that of a cutting-edge telecommunications and mobile phone company, he was asked to move to Singapore to build Nokia’s Asian business.

As Nokia’s first ever Regional Director Asia-Pacific & Managing Director SouthEast Asia he oversaw the growth of Nokia’s Asian business from scratch to what became Nokia’s largest market area in terms of revenue worldwide. He left Nokia to build his own business.

He founded Asia-Pacific Strategic Alliances Group, a company with holdings in real estate, IMM (Internet, Mobile & Media) and sports, and Mobile FutureWorks Inc (MFW) a company with global activities and investments in mobile media, mobile services and mobile hardware. Together, the two groups have founded more than 100 different businesses, with a combined market value of more than 3 billion USD. 

Thomas Henrik Zilliacus has acted as a member of the Board or Advisory Board of several companies in technology, media and finance. He has chaired boards, nomination committees and remuneration committees of large listed companies.He has also been actively involved in sports management. He was chairman of the Finnish football champions HJK and was a major share-holder of a sports company which built, owned and managed entertainment and sports complexes as well as ice-hockey teams in Europe.

ADVISOR

Koh Boon Hwee

Koh Boon Hwee is a highly accomplished businessman from Singapore. Educated at Saint Andrew's School, Singapore, he went on to receive a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, and an MBA (Distinction) from the Harvard Business School.

Koh was appointed Chairman of the Singapore Telecom Group in 1986 and then joined the Singapore Airlines board in March 2001.

He served as Chairman of the SIA Engineering Company; a Director of Agilent Technologies Inc, and Norelco UMS Holdings Limited; Executive Director of MediaRing Limited and Tech Group Asia Limited. He serves on the boards of Temasek Holdings as a Director; AAC Acoustic Technologies Holdings Ltd and Infiniti Solutions Private Limited. He is also a Council Member of the Singapore Business Federation.

On 1 January 2006, Koh became chairman of DBS Bank. He joined DBS as a director on 15 June 2005.

At the 2008 National Day Awards, Koh was awarded the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (Distinguished Service Order).

Advisor

SVEN-CHRISTER NILSSON

Sven-Christer Nilsson is a Swedish businessman. He was Managing Director of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson from 1998 to 1999. Since then, he has held various assignments on corporate boards and been a venture capital investor. He is Founder of Startupfactory, a Swedish accelerator and investor.He is a former board member of TeliaSonera, the leading mobile and fixed line operator in the Nordic and Baltic region and a former board member of Assa Abloy, among others. As chairman of the Management Foundation for SR, SVT and UR, he has had influence over Sweden's Television and Sweden's Radio. He was elected in 2002 as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Advisor

STEPHEN STONEFIELD

US-born Stephen Stonefield has a long and distinguished banking career. As former Chairman of Credit Suisse Asia-Pacific, former Executive Board member of Credit Suisse First Boston and former Managing Director of Smith Barney in New York, his career has spanned senior positions in the USA as well as in Asia.

FORMER Advisor

JORMA NIEMINEN

Jorma Nieminen ( 25 January 1942 Salo - 26 September 2015 Salo ) was the founder of Mobira, later renamed Nokia Mobile Phones, and served as its CEO until 1987. Mobira became the world leader in mobile phones in 1986. After that, Nieminen was the founder and CEO of Benefon until 2013.

FORMER Advisor

PEKKA TARJANNE

PH.D. Pekka Tarjanne (September 19, 1937 Stockholm, Sweden - February 24, 2010 Hattula, Finland) was the Director-General of the Postal and Telecommunications Administration and Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union. He was also a Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland.

FORMER Advisor

SIMON MURRAY

UK-born Simon Murray was the Group Managing Director of Hutchison Whampoa in Hong Kong. Whilst heading Hutchison, he founded a mobile phone company and, after turning it into the global brand "Orange", it was sold in 1999 for US$36 billion to Mannesmann.

From 1994 to 1998, Simon was the Executive Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group in Asia. He established his own company, General Enterprise Management Services Ltd (GEMS), a mid-sized investment group operating across Asia. Simon was a founder of Distacom which made a number of mobile telecoms investments including Madacom in Madagascar, Spice Telecom in India and Sunday Communications in Hong Kong.

Murray was the chairman of Glencore from 2011 to 2013 and chairman of Gulf Keystone Petroleum from 2013 to 2015. He has served on boards and held advisory positions with a number of other large companies, including Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Usinor SA, Hermes, General Electric (USA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Macquarie Bank, N.M. Rothschild, and Bain.