Third Wave of Cloud Computing: AI and Computing Paradigm Shift

Chris TUNG joined Alibaba Group as Chief Marketing Officer in January 2016, and has since exerted considerable influence in the global marketing community. His leadership has been instrumental in fortifying Alibaba's brand portfolio, combining best-in-class creativity with the latest technologies. As a result, numerous recent independent surveys have recognized Alibaba as the most valuable Chinese brand. He led the phenomenally successful Double 11 Shopping Festival, spearheaded Alibaba's global Olympics sponsorship, and created the Uni Marketing methodology. This unique marketing methodology, along with its associated tools, has supported over 180,000 global brands in running effective marketing campaigns across Alibaba's platforms.

Panel Discussion: Harnessing AI to Promote Sustainability Across Industries

Selina YUAN is Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International. She oversees a global team spread across APAC, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, playing a pivotal role in bringing the benefits of Alibaba Cloud's technologies to millions of customers worldwide. With a career spanning over two decades, Selina possesses extensive experience in expanding technology enterprises on an international scale.

Tech for Innovation, N³ Powered by AI

Olympic AI Agenda

Dr. Hong TANG holds the position of International CTO and Chief Architect at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group. After beginning his tenure at Alibaba Cloud in 2010, he led the Apsara core engineering team to develop the pivotal cloud operating system and the software backbone of Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure. During the pandemic, he took a three-year leave and made his return to Alibaba Cloud in 2023. Prior to Alibaba, Dr. TANG held the role of Engineering Director at Ask.com, where he managed the search infrastructure. Later, he joined Yahoo as a Senior Principal Engineer, focusing on the R&D of Hadoop. Dr. TANG earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Zhejiang University, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reshaping Alibaba Cloud for the Generative AI Era

Mr. Junhua Wang is responsible for Alibaba' s big data platform and machine learning platform, supporting the large-scale data storage, compute, analytics, and machine learning needs within Alibaba Group while powering Alibaba Cloud' s enterprise customers from various industries. He has over 20 years of experience in research and development focusing on big data analytics. Before joining Alibaba Cloud, Mr. Wang was Vice President and R&D Head of NewsBreak. He led the team to build a state-of-the-art recommendation and ML stack, initiated a series of growth and product innovations, and ultimately brought the company to profitability. Prior to that, he was at Microsoft, holding the roles of Vice President and Distinguished Engineer for the Search and AI Platform organization. He was responsible for search, object storage, big data compute, and deep learning platforms and frameworks, supporting Bing, Office 365, Azure and Microsoft' s large language model research. Mr. Wang received his bachelor's degree in computer science and management (dual degree) from University of Science and Technology of China and his master's degree in computer science from New York University.

Empowering AI Innovation Worldwide with Alibaba Cloud

Xinjun (Jimmy) Yang is the Director of PolarDB, Database Products Business Unit, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. He is in charge of the development of PolarDB, a flagship OLTP database product from the Database Team. Before joining the Alibaba Group, Xinjun worked as an InnoDB Architect at Oracle and a Group Manager at Sybase.

Future of Cloud-native Databases: Serverless, AI-powered One-stop Data Management Platform

Dongliang GUO is Vice President of Product and Solution at Alibaba Cloud International. For over two decades, he has dedicated himself to the realm of data intelligence and AI, assuming diverse roles in R&D, consulting, and sales. He has extensive experience in helping customers with cloud transformation and AI adoption. On a personal note, he is a passionate developer and tech enthusiast, always eager to explore the new frontiers of data and AI.

Panel Discussion: Empowering the ISV Ecosystem with AI on Cloud

Dr. Wei LIU is Head of ESG Strategy at Alibaba Group, where he is instrumental in establishing the company’s approach to climate action and other ESG initiatives. His expertise contributed to the creation of Alibaba's first ESG Report. During his 20 years' experience across various regions, Dr. LIU focused on biodiversity, climate solutions, and socioeconomic development. He is also active in several advisory roles, being a member of the UN’s World Adaptation Science Programme, the ESG committee of the China Association for Public Companies, and the International Advisory Council of Climate Impact X in Singapore.

Panel Discussion: Harnessing AI to Promote Sustainability Across Industries

William XIONG is Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group and General Manager of Enterprise Service Cloud. He is responsible for the business development and operation of Enterprise Service Cloud, including Energy Cloud, Sales & Procurement Cloud, Financial Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and the Enterprise Mobile Application Development Platform. Prior to Alibaba Cloud, William was Technology Senior Director of Ant Group. He was CTO of Worldfirst, responsible for the Ant International B payment technology, and led the implementation and partnerships of e-wallets in several countries, including Paytm in India, Dana in Indonesia, and TNG Digital in Malaysia. William has rich experience in software and mobile development, e-wallets, insurance, data platforms, and carbon neutrality. He and his team aim to offer inclusive, end-to-end, value-driven cloud-based services and products to enterprises.

Panel Discussion: Harnessing AI to Promote Sustainability Across Industries

Fireside Chat: Revolutionizing Retail: Harnessing AI to Transform Consumer Experiences and Operations

Closing Remarks

Chris is an accomplished Alliances Director with a track record of driving strategic partnerships and alliances to propel business growth and expansion within the region. With 30 years of experience in the field, he possesses a deep understanding of the intricate dynamics of channels and alliances and has a keen insight into forging mutually beneficial collaborations across. As the Alliances Director for Alibaba Cloud in Europe, Chris oversees the development and execution of alliance strategies that align with Alibaba Cloud partner policies to meet aggressive regional growth objectives. Chris expertise lie in identifying, nurturing, and managing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, including industry leaders and technology and channel partners to drive innovation, increase market presence, and unlock new revenue streams and opportunity to drive partner growth. Chris is passionate about building and maintaining strong relationships with partners across geographies and industries, leveraging Alibaba Cloud vision to make it easy to do business anywhere by leveraging Alibaba Cloud global public cloud platform to deliver cost effective, alternative services and choice to partners in Europe. Prior to his current role, Chris held key leadership positions in global alliances and business development at Huawei Enterprise, where he honed his expertise in forging strategic partnerships and driving business growth across EMEA.

Panel Discussion: Fueling the Future of Industry with AI

Dr. Junjie LAI currently works as Senior Director of Engineering and Solutions at NVIDIA China. His primary responsibility encompasses leading his team to work closely with NVIDIA's key customers in China and develop tailored industry solutions. Dr. LAI received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University, and finished his Ph.D. study at INRIA, France. His Ph.D. research focused on the architecture and performance modeling of General-purpose Computing on GPUs (GPGPUs). Dr. LAI is currently concentrating on high-performance computing, parallel computing, and artificial intelligence, as well as their application across industries. He has notable expertise in the fields of performance modelling and performance analysis.

Accelerated Computing: The Path Forward for Generative AI

Thomas Konietzko has been President of the International Canoe Federation since November 2021 when he was elected at the ICF Congress in Rome, Italy. His affiliation with canoeing dates back to his time as a paddler between 1978 and 1984 and subsequently as a canoeing coach until 1990. He received a German Order of Merit in 2018 for his extensive contributions to the sporting community in the Saxony-Anhalt region. He was conferred the title of Honorary Member of the European Canoe Association (ECA) in 2016 and Honorary President of the Country Sports Federation in 2009.

Panel Discussion: Harnessing AI to Promote Sustainability Across Industries

Dr Miao Chun Yan is an award-winning computer scientist and educator, and serves as the President's Chair Professor and Chair of the School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCSE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She is an expert on Human-Centered AI and has made significant contributions to research in health, ageing, education, and digital industry.

Under Dr Miao's leadership, NTU SCSE has achieved top world rankings in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and AI. She is also the Founding Director and Lead Principal Investigator (PI) of the S$50mil Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute, Alibaba's first and largest joint research institute outside China.

Dr Miao has received numerous awards for her work, including the NRF Investigatorship Award 2019, the Innovative Applications of AI Award from AAAI in 2018 and 2020, and the Public Administration Medal (Silver) from the Singapore Government in 2023. She was also named one of Singapore's "100 Women in Tech" by IMDA/SCS/CNA in 2020.

Green AI,  Application & Business Impact

Alex is a pioneering senior executive with over 20 years of diverse experience spanning eCommerce, digital innovation, management consulting, and retail industries. With a stellar track record, Alex excels in spearheading new business ventures, fostering customer growth, orchestrating enterprise-level digital transformations, and adeptly managing P&L responsibilities. Demonstrating versatility, Alex assumed various senior management positions across technology, management consultancy, fashion, retail and wholesale sectors in multiple countries and regions. Notably, he served as the Chief Digital Officer for Asia-Pacific and India at a prominent European conglomerate before joining BP. As an ardent proponent of digital transformation and innovative technology adoption, Alex currently leads BP's Customer & Consumer Digital Transformation. His strategic vision focuses on delivering future-back, customer-centric, transformations, positioning BP at the forefront of the digital and AI transformation.

Panel Discussion: Fueling the Future of Industry with AI

In 1996, Veruschka Becquart moved from France to Ireland, where she pursued her studies and built a career in high tech and consulting. In 2004, she shifted to the tourism industry at Atout France, working in Dublin, London, and Paris, specializing in business tourism and later becoming Head of Cross-functional Projects for the General Manager. At the same time, she studied at HEC and obtained her Executive MBA in 2016. Her career took another leap in 2019 when she was introduced to the Caocao Mobility Paris project by Mr. Liu, the company's President. Convinced of its potential, she joined as director of development, marketing and communications. Two years later, she was promoted to Vice President of Caocao Mobility France and, as of January 2023, she holds the position of Managing Director.

Panel Discussion: Fueling the Future of Industry with AI

In 2023, Stephen Leung was appointed Group Chief Information Officer, General Manager, and Head of the Technology and Productivity Division, taking charge of the information technology initiatives of BEA Group in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, and overseas branches. He plays a pivotal role in the Bank's digital transformation journey, driving the adoption of latest technologies and fostering an innovative culture within the Group. Having worked in various Hong Kong, Chinese, European and American banks for over 25 years, Mr. Leung has solid experience in application delivery, IT services management, technical development and innovation.

Panel Discussion: Fueling the Future of Industry with AI

With 25 years of multidisciplinary experience in Retail, 8 years in China and 9 years in Salesforce, I specialise in helping brands connect efficiently with customers. Customer success, trust-building, and team support are my priorities. Adaptation to the 4th industrial revolution, mastery of customer data, and fascination with China’s retail innovation drive my entrepreneurial enthusiasm. As Senior Director of Global Technical Partnerships at Salesforce, I contribute in driving the success of the Salesforce/Alibaba partnership. My role involves customer onboarding, support, and facilitating migrations to Salesforce on AliCloud. With a focus on technical excellence and strategic collaboration, I guide multi national customers to land successfully in China by ensuring “global CX consistency while being relevant locally”, fostering business growth in China. My leadership promotes cross-functional teamwork and innovation, positioning our partnership as a transformative force in the industry, delivering exceptional value in the digital landscape.

Panel Discussion: Fueling the Future of Industry with AI

Alexander Walden has extensive work experience in various roles and companies, currently leading as CEO of Ververica, the original creator of Apache Flink®, since March 2022. His expertise encompasses leadership, consulting, architecture, and project management. Alexander has a diverse educational background. He acquired a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of IT Management (MITM) from Bond University in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Before that, he earned a Bachelor of Business with a focus on Hospitality and Tourism Management from Macquarie University between 2002 and 2004. His earlier education includes an Abitur from Bischof-Neumann-Schule, completed in 1993. In addition to the formal education, he has obtained various certifications from reputable institutions such as Microsoft, VMware, EMC, and NetApp. The certifications range from areas like cloud computing, virtualization, data management, and administration.

Panel Discussion: Empowering the ISV Ecosystem with AI on Cloud

Accelerated Computing: The Path Forward for Generative AI

Cedric VdB serves as the Executive Director of The International Academy of Sport Science and Technology (AISTS). Previously, he assumed the role of Head of Strategy and Education at AISTS where he oversaw the development and operations of AISTS’ world-leading Master in Sport Management & Technology. Between 2010 and 2021, Cedric held various roles at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on key strategic initiatives of the organisation. He is a graduate of the AISTS MAS programme and holds a Master's degree in Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain (UCL). Formerly a 400m runner, Cedric remains actively engaged in athletics and participates in triathlons, cross-country skiing, and surfing.

Panel Discussion: Harnessing AI to Promote Sustainability Across Industries

Panel Discussion: Empowering the ISV Ecosystem with AI on Cloud

Welcome Speech

Dr. Hong TANG holds the position of International CTO and Chief Architect at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group. After beginning his tenure at Alibaba Cloud in 2010, he led the Apsara core engineering team to develop the pivotal cloud operating system and the software backbone of Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure. During the pandemic, he took a three-year leave and made his return to Alibaba Cloud in 2023. Prior to Alibaba, Dr. TANG held the role of Engineering Director at Ask.com, where he managed the search infrastructure. Later, he joined Yahoo as a Senior Principal Engineer, focusing on the R&D of Hadoop. Dr. TANG earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Zhejiang University, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Navigating the Future with Alibaba Cloud

Exploring the Frontier of Database Technology in the Go Asia Initiative

With 25 years of multidisciplinary experience in Retail, 8 years in China and 9 years in Salesforce, I specialise in helping brands connect efficiently with customers. Customer success, trust-building, and team support are my priorities. Adaptation to the 4th industrial revolution, mastery of customer data, and fascination with China’s retail innovation drive my entrepreneurial enthusiasm. As Senior Director of Global Technical Partnerships at Salesforce, I contribute in driving the success of the Salesforce/Alibaba partnership. My role involves customer onboarding, support, and facilitating migrations to Salesforce on AliCloud. With a focus on technical excellence and strategic collaboration, I guide multi national customers to land successfully in China by ensuring “global CX consistency while being relevant locally”, fostering business growth in China. My leadership promotes cross-functional teamwork and innovation, positioning our partnership as a transformative force in the industry, delivering exceptional value in the digital landscape.

Panel Discussion: Transforming Customer Experience Through Salesforce Digitalization

Panel Discussion: Transforming Customer Experience Through Salesforce Digitalization

Chris is an accomplished Alliances Director with a track record of driving strategic partnerships and alliances to propel business growth and expansion within the region. With 30 years of experience in the field, he possesses a deep understanding of the intricate dynamics of channels and alliances and has a keen insight into forging mutually beneficial collaborations across. As the Alliances Director for Alibaba Cloud in Europe, Chris oversees the development and execution of alliance strategies that align with Alibaba Cloud partner policies to meet aggressive regional growth objectives. Chris expertise lie in identifying, nurturing, and managing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, including industry leaders and technology and channel partners to drive innovation, increase market presence, and unlock new revenue streams and opportunity to drive partner growth. Chris is passionate about building and maintaining strong relationships with partners across geographies and industries, leveraging Alibaba Cloud vision to make it easy to do business anywhere by leveraging Alibaba Cloud global public cloud platform to deliver cost effective, alternative services and choice to partners in Europe. Prior to his current role, Chris held key leadership positions in global alliances and business development at Huawei Enterprise, where he honed his expertise in forging strategic partnerships and driving business growth across EMEA.

Panel Discussion: Transforming Customer Experience Through Salesforce Digitalization

Fireside Chat: Advancing Asia's Digital Future: Integrating AI into Cloud Solutions and Fostering Talent to Boost AI Innovation

BMW ConnectedDrive: Our Public Cloud Journey

Dr. Junjie LAI currently works as Senior Director of Engineering and Solutions at NVIDIA China. His primary responsibility encompasses leading his team to work closely with NVIDIA's key customers in China and develop tailored industry solutions. Dr. LAI received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University, and finished his Ph.D. study at INRIA, France. His Ph.D. research focused on the architecture and performance modeling of General-purpose Computing on GPUs (GPGPUs). Dr. LAI is currently concentrating on high-performance computing, parallel computing, and artificial intelligence, as well as their application across industries. He has notable expertise in the fields of performance modelling and performance analysis.

Fireside Chat: Advancing Asia's Digital Future: Integrating AI into Cloud Solutions and Fostering Talent to Boost AI Innovation

Fireside Chat: Advancing Asia's Digital Future: Integrating AI into Cloud Solutions and Fostering Talent to Boost AI Innovation