Leading from Singapore: DHR Executive Forum 2026

Emilie Couton is a travel technology executive and multicultural leader with more than 24 years of experience in the hospitality industry. As Chief Executive Officer of Accor Plus since July 2025, she leads the region’s premier hospitality subscription and loyalty network. Her career includes more than two decades at Accor, where she helped expand the regional portfolio from 250 to 1,200 hotels across 38 brands and, as Vice President of Digital Marketing, Loyalty and Guest Experience for Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, led digital customer initiatives and the regional rollout of Accor Live Limitless.

Emilie previously served as Managing Director for Asia Pacific at D-EDGE Hospitality Solutions, overseeing regional distribution and account-management partnerships. She is also an industry educator and speaker who created the Digital Campus curriculum, which trained more than 1,000 hotel executives, and has shared her expertise at forums including Web In Travel, INSEAD, and ESSEC.

She holds an MBA in Strategy from ESSEC Business School.

Prasad Kale is a Singapore-based technology executive, angel investor, and strategic adviser with more than 25 years of leadership experience in product development, digital transformation, and scaling B2B technology businesses. As an Advisory Board Member and limited partner at Neon Fund, he supports early-stage Indian B2B SaaS and generative AI companies, while also mentoring and investing in enterprise technology ventures.

Previously, Prasad served as Chief Digital Officer at TVS Digital, leading corporate innovation, product engineering, and solutions across automotive, fintech, and digital manufacturing. Earlier roles at HPE/HP and Dell encompassed cloud transformation, hybrid-cloud consulting, industrial IoT strategy, managed services, and infrastructure delivery across Asia-Pacific and Japan, following nearly a decade in telecommunications, database, and infrastructure engineering at Procter & Gamble.

He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Laurence Liew is a Singapore-based AI innovator, educator, and global advisor with more than 25 years of technology leadership experience spanning artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and cloud architecture. As Director of AI Innovation at AI Singapore since 2017, he has helped build the national AI ecosystem by advancing talent development, research, and enterprise adoption, including creating the AI Apprenticeship Programme. He also co-chairs the Innovation and Commercialization working group at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence and serves on the board of Singapore’s Gambling Regulatory Authority.

Laurence also co-developed the AI Readiness Index, which has been used internationally, and has held senior corporate and advisory positions including Microsoft Regional Director, Chair of an ISO AI Technical Committee, and APAC General Manager at Revolution Analytics. An entrepreneur, he founded Scalable Systems and 1degreenorth, helping establish Linux, cloud, and HPC infrastructure networks across Asia-Pacific.

He holds a Master of Technology in Knowledge Engineering and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore, where he later taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor.

Ivan Ng is a business and technology leader with more than 30 years of international experience in enterprise transformation, innovation, and corporate governance. As Chief Technology Officer of City Developments Limited and Managing Director of CityNexus, he directs the group’s global technology strategy, digital roadmap, and technology risk governance. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing and contributes to startup growth as a Partner Committee Member at SG Growth Capital.

Ivan serves on the National Library Board’s board and Audit and Risk Committee, the Governing Council of the Singapore Institute of Directors, and as a Board Adviser to the IT Management Association. His earlier executive roles include Managing Director of Asia at ServiceNow and President of Strategic Clients, Group CTO and CISO at Pactera.

Recognized as IDG CIO of the Year for CIO50 ASEAN and Hong Kong and as a 2018 NUS Outstanding Computing Alumni Award recipient, he is a Senior Accredited Director, holds an Executive Diploma in Directorship from Singapore Management University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from NUS, and holds CISM, PMP, and Certified Chief Information Security Officer credentials.