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. Recognised 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.

Dr. Ralph Ostertag is a technology executive with more than 26 years of experience leading digital transformation across the FMCG, automotive, and financial services sectors. At The HEINEKEN Company, he serves as APAC CIO, directing digital, data and AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise application strategies across 24 markets while sponsoring the company’s largest SAP S/4HANA transformation. He also leads HEINEKEN’s Global GenAI Lab in Singapore and co-founded Tiger Tribe, an internal digital innovation agency that has grown to 60 employees globally and received two Cannes Lions awards.

Previously, Dr. Ostertag spent more than a decade at Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz in senior CIO and vice-presidential roles spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. He is the founder of Ximpact, which promotes AI literacy among educators and develops AI-enabled tools for reading disabilities, and he serves as Vice Chair of EuroCham Singapore’s Digital Economy Committee and as a Non-Executive Director of HEINEKEN Lao Brewery.

A five-time CIO100 ASEAN Award recipient and Asia 200 Digital Leader, he holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Augsburg and executive credentials from Stanford GSB, Cambridge Judge Business School, Singularity University, and IMD. 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.