CPD points will be applied for with the Law Society of Hong Kong and the outcome will be updated in due course.

Summit Chairpersons

Brian W Tang, Managing Director, ACMI and Founding Executive Director, LITE Lab@HKU 
BRIAN W TANG is an innovator, ecosystem builder and educator at the confluence of law, technology, finance and social impact who has held senior leadership roles across three continents in global investment banking, international law firms and now a leading university. Brian was named by Asia Legal Portal as One of the 30 People to Watch in the Business of Law in 2022.

Currently, Brian is founding executive director of LITE Lab@HKU, University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law ‘s interdisciplinary and experiential programme that fosters law, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship that has won Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) Legal Innovation in Operations (LIO) Award 2022 and World Commerce and Contracting Innovation & Excellence Award for Outstanding Cooperation & Collaboration APAC 2021.

Brian is co-chair of Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (ALITA) and board member and founding Regtech Committee co-chair of Fintech Association of Hong Kong, and organized Hong Kong’s first legal hackathon for Global Legal Hackathon.

Brian spent nearly 20 years at Credit Suisse (Hong Kong), Sullivan & Cromwell (New York) and Mallesons (Perth), where he advised on some of the world’s largest and first-ever capital markets and M&A deals, and project and micro financings.

Jonty Vavasour, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Bupa Hong Kong
Jonty Vavasour is General Counsel and Company Secretary for Bupa Hong Kong, where he leads a team of 8 lawyers across Bupa’s insurance and health services businesses.  Jonty has recently returned to his role with Bupa after spending the past 2 ½ years with Aon in New Zealand as Executive Director in its Mergers and Acquisitions insurance team.  Prior to his role with Aon, Jonty held various legal roles with Bupa across Hong Kong and London where he primarily advised on cross border M&A transactions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships across emerging markets.

Jonty is passionate about enabling better health outcomes for Bupa’s wide range of insurance and health services customers.  He has a particular interest in ensuring Bupa’s customers have a frictionless healthcare journey, and is keen to promote digital transformation and data driven decisions to assist in this purpose.

Speakers

Chin Yeoh, Partner, Ashurst
Chin Yeoh is a partner in our Hong Kong corporate practice and our global Japan practice.

Chin is recognised as one of the leading M&A lawyers in Asia, being the sole winner of the Lexology Client Choice Awards in the M&A category for Hong Kong in 2021 and 2019.

Chin has 18 years of experience advising on public and private M&A and private capital transactions in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.  He has significant experience advising on investments in the technology, telecommunications, infrastructure, energy, chemicals, mining, agriculture, food, financial services, cryptocurrency/blockchain/fintech infrastructure and services, insurance, real estate, healthcare, textiles/apparel and retail sectors. He also advises venture capital investors and high growth companies on fundraising rounds.
Clients consider Chin as a "trusted adviser," further stating "Chin is very dedicated, responsive and provides carefully considered and commercial advice." (Chambers and Partners 2022).

Landmark transactions which Chin has advised on include advising ITOCHU Corporation on its US$10.3 billion acquisition of 20% of CITIC Limited together with Charoen Pokphand Group, Digi.com on its US$12.1 billion merger with Celcom as well as Spring REIT on its successful defence of the hostile takeover offer from PAG, the first hostile offer for a REIT in Hong Kong.

Chin is qualified to practise in Hong Kong, England and Wales, Ireland and Australia. He regularly acts as international counsel to clients on their investments in many jurisdictions throughout the globe. Chin also lectures annually on cross border contracts and M&A at the Peking University Law School.


Sophie Lyall, Partner, Ashurst
Sophie is a partner in our Hong Kong office, specialising in all aspects of restructuring, insolvency and special situations matters, with over a decade of experience working in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

Sophie works with financial stakeholders across the capital structure, insolvency practitioners, agents, trustees, issuers and borrowers in relation to distressed situations, where a resolution is achieved either through consensual means or, where necessary, enforcement or formal proceedings. She also has experience acting for financial institutions, distressed credit funds and other alternative capital providers in relation to both secondary debt and special situations lending.


Drew Macaulay, Managing Director, Consilio
Drew Macaulay is a Managing Director of Consilio, a global leader in Legal Consulting & Legal Services.

"Drew is Consilio's primary subject matter expert in cross-border litigation, regulatory and internal investigations. Drew has particular expertise with multi-jurisdictional anti-corruption/bribery/FCPA and cartel investigations involving the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.  

Over the last nine years, Drew has led projects for Consilio clients in more than 20 countries.  In addition to client project work, Drew has management responsibility for Consilio's UK offices.

Areas of expertise:
Multijurisdictional investigations and litigation
Regulatory and internal investigation management
Multilingual eDisclosure and document review projects
European data privacy legislation
Computer forensic investigations
Complex preservation and data collection exercises

Gareth Hughes, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton
Gareth Hughes is a partner in the firm’s Hong Kong office and a member of the International Dispute Resolution Group. His practice focusses on major commercial litigation, international arbitration and white collar / regulatory defense matters.

With over 25 years’ experience in the region, Mr. Hughes advises major corporates, financial institutions and high net worth individuals in connection with complex commercial disputes, often with a cross-border component to them. His matters involve proceedings in the courts or before arbitral institutions, including arbitrations under the HKIAC, LCIA, SIAC, CIETAC, UNCITRAL and ICC rules.

He also frequently advises on internal and regulatory investigations, including in particular those involving the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Independent Commission Against Corruption. His work has encompassed financial services, corporate finance, private wealth, fraud, private equity, insurance, judicial review and shareholder related matters.

Mr. Hughes has become one of Asia’s most respected and experienced litigators. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific lists him in its Hall of Fame and he is also recognized as a leading individual for dispute resolution in PLC, Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global. Benchmark Litigation (Asia-Pacific) (2021) names him a Dispute Resolution Star, and he is also recognized by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2022) for his anti-corruption and compliance and international arbitration practices.


Rod Francis, Head of Asia, Financial Crime Compliance, FTI Consulting
Rod Francis is a Senior Managing Director and leads the Financial Crime Compliance practice in Asia at FTI Consulting. He is based in Hong Kong.

Rod is a senior compliance professional who has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. The majority of his career has been spent in risk management related roles covering a range of business sectors and products including consumer/retail, wholesale, corporate and investment, wealth management and asset management banking. For the last 12 years, he has been based in Hong Kong covering the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and prior to this, he was based in London covering Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Rod was Citibank’s APAC Regional Head of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance for eight years. This role encompassed responsibility for AML compliance for the global consumer bank for EMEA.  In this role, Rod was the senior executive leader responsible for, and instrumental in, leading Citibank’s successful AML change program in response to U.S. regulatory commitments. During this period, he also had responsibility for economic sanctions compliance and anti-bribery & corruption.

In APAC, Rod also worked for UBS where he held a number of senior management positions including APAC Head of Central Compliance where he was responsible for establishing and implementing the unit in the region as well and as a global unit for regulatory reporting. He was also the APAC Head of Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Compliance.

Prior to 2007, Rod was based in London covering EMEA working for tier one banks. Amongst compliance roles for financial institutions, he was the EMEA Regional Head of AML and Sanctions for both Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, incorporating central compliance and operations compliance for each respectively. He implemented Morgan Stanley’s first EMEA regional AML Compliance function and assisted Credit Suisse in EMEA redesigning it’s regional AML program with focus on both efficiency and effectiveness.  

Rod has a broad in-depth knowledge and experience in all aspects of AML, sanctions and anti-bribery compliance, is a member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and the Director of Membership and Board Member of the Hong Kong Chapter of ACAMS.  He regularly speaks at industry events including ACAMS seminars.


Sandeep Jadav, Regional Lead (Asia), Technology, FTI Consulting
Sandeep Jadav is a Senior Managing Director and the Regional Lead for Technology in Asia at FTI Consulting. He is based in Hong Kong.

Mr. Jadav has over 17 years of experience working in forensic technology alongside top global law firms, corporates, financial service institutions and investigatory agencies.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Jadav worked as a director at a Big Four firm in London, overseeing a period of unprecedented growth in the Forensic Technology and Discovery Services team, while winning and delivering large e-discovery, digital forensics and cyber projects. Prior to that, he was Head of Computer Forensics at CRA International.

Relevant Experience:

• Acting as the lead in a coordinated global data collection that spanned over 15 countries and 500 custodians for a large, multinational car manufacturer.
• Working with a top U.S. law firm under Office of Foreign Assets Control orders to collect, link and investigate multiple terabytes of structured and unstructured data in relation to multi-million-dollar payments going in and out of sanctioned countries in the Middle East.
• Engineering and leading the on-site “clean-up” team following the most famous hack in history at a large global entertainment company, allowing the client to resume normal business operations within days.
• Giving evidence at the International Court of Arbitration following the identification, collection, processing, review and electronic disclosure of 10 terabytes of data in relation to an international dispute between companies in India and Italy.
• Helping win and deliver the largest e-discovery case in Europe, a £700 million dispute between the NHS and a large global technology firm, which has run for over nine years.

Mr. Jadav holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from King’s College London.


Kathryn Weaver (Solicitor - Hong Kong, England & Wales), Partner, Employment, Immigration & Reward | Head of Hong Kong Office | Head of Employment, Lewis Silkin | Ius Laboris | Global HR Lawyers
Kathryn Weaver is the Managing Partner of Lewis Silkin’s Hong Kong office and the Head of Employment for Asia Pacific. She is dual-qualified in England & Wales and Hong Kong and listed as a recognised practitioner for Hong Kong employment law in all the major legal directories. Kathryn has practised employment law for almost 15 years and is regularly called on to speak at legal and HR conferences and events in the region on topical employment law matters. 

Kathryn has extensive experience of advising multi-national employers in the Asia Pacific region on international employment law matters, including acting as in-house employment counsel to several global companies whilst on secondment. Her work spans both contentious and non-contentious matters, such as implementing partnership programmes and equity schemes, coordinating litigation, carrying out contract, policy and compliance reviews, advising on restructuring and terminations, and negotiating settlements.”


Bryan Jung, Practical Law Hong Kong Lead, Thomson Reuters
Bryan is the Practical Law Hong Kong Lead.  Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, he practiced commercial and administrative law in Canada and worked as an in-house lawyer at a listed group in Hong Kong.  He is a qualified lawyer in British Columbia, New York and Hong Kong.


Alexander Shaik, Equity Partner and General Counsel, ADM Capital
Mr. Alexander Shaik is an Equity Partner and General Counsel of ADM Capital.

He has 20 years legal and commercial experience working on corporate and structured finance transactions.  Mr. Shaik has been involved in over 150 innovative private credit and equity transactions in most of the key Emerging Markets across Asia and Eastern Europe, including Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Croatia, Japan, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand. 

Before joining ADM Capital in 2005, Alexander Shaik was employed in the Hong Kong office of  the US law firm, Sidley Austin, and he has also worked with the Tokyo office of UK magic circle firm, Allen & Overy. 
Mr Shaik’s role involves supervising legal, structuring, execution and regulatory issues arising in respect of the ADM Capital Group’s private credit investments in the Asia-Pacific region.


Marco Chung, Group Head of Legal, CLSA
Marco is currently the Group Head of Legal at CLSA and is also an executive director of a Hong Kong listed company, CLSA Premium Limited (HKEx Stock Code: 6877). Before joining CLSA, Marco spent approximately 10 years at Morgan Stanley Asia, holding various senior positions including, the Regional COO role of the Private Funds business and the Regional Head of Legal role for both the Private Funds business and the IBD M&A business. He was awarded M&A individual of the Year in 2019 by the Association of Corporate Counsel. He was a corporate attorney at Slaughter and May (London and Hong Kong) for more than 7 years prior to that. 


Cynthia Chung, Partner, Head of Human Resources and Pensions Group, Deacons Hong Kong
Cynthia Chung is the Head of Human Resources and Pension Group and Head of the Corporate Commercial Group at Deacons.  She has 27 years of experience in all kinds of advisory work related to employment and labour and on retirement schemes and provident funds.  
She advises clients on both contentious and non-contentious labour matters and the preparation of trust deeds and related documents for retirement and pension schemes.  Her clients include employers who are multi-national companies and statutory bodies and MPF/ORSO service providers.  She is the Executive Committee Member and Honorary Legal Adviser of The Hong Kong Retirement Schemes Association, Member of the Retirement Scheme sub-committee of the Law Society and the Guidelines Committee of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, Vice Chair of the Municipal Services Appeal Board and Chief Adjudicator of Immigration Tribunal.

She is recognised as a Band 1 Lawyer in Employment (China) in Chambers Asia-Pacific, “Hall of Fame” for Labour and Employment in Legal 500 Asia Pacific and a Thought Leader in Labour & Employment and Pensions & Benefits in Hong Kong by the Who’s Who Legal. 


Winnie Ma, Director – General Counsel and Company Secretary, Hang Lung Group Limited
Winnie has been practising laws in HK and Mainland China for 24 years.

Winnie is the Director – General Counsel and Company Secretary of Hang Lung Group and Hang Lung Properties. Under her leadership, Hang Lung was awarded “Awards of Excellence in Corporate Governance” from The Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies in 2021. Hang Lung develops and manages a diversified portfolio of world-class properties in Hong Kong and the nine Mainland cities of Shanghai, Shenyang, Jinan, Wuxi, Tianjin, Dalian, Kunming, Wuhan and Hangzhou under the “66” brand. Hang Lung is recognized for leading the way in enhanced sustainability initiatives in real estate as it pursues sustainable growth by connecting customers and communities and creating compelling spaces that enrich lives.

Before joining Hang Lung, Winnie was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel of PCCW and she led and closed the eMPF platform deal, the most significant reform of the MPF system since its introduction, that reshapes and automates the administrative models of MPF schemes. She was the Vice President, Head of Corporate of Walmart China, and was instrumental in exiting a decade-long joint venture with China Resources. Winnie was made the General Counsel of Hutchison Telecommunications when she was 35, and she negotiated with Hong Kong Government on various regulatory issues.

Winnie is a general counsel, a supporter of women in leadership, a firm believer of “We Can Have It All”, and a mother.


Vincent Ng, General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs, Klook
Vincent Ng is the General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs at Klook, an Asia-based travel platform. As the first lawyer at Klook, Vincent established the legal function across five locations within the first year, building a full spectrum of legal support and operationalising many of the contracting processes for the company. His team supported the rapid growth of Klook and the adaptations through the pandemic, as well as several rounds of private fundraising, which brought the company to unicorn status.
Prior to joining Klook, Vincent was an in-house counsel with Hyatt Hotels and Deutsche Bank. Vincent is currently also a board member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, Hong Kong, and a part-time lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.


WINNIE YEUNG, Chief Legal Counsel, Corporate External and Legal Affairs, Microsoft Greater China Region 
Winnie Yeung serves as Chief Legal Counsel of Microsoft’s Corporate External and Legal Affairs team for the Greater China Region.  She manages a team of more than 20 legal and government affairs professionals, providing support to Microsoft’s sales and business operations in the region and collaborating with customers on the cutting edge of business, legal and regulatory issues to help drive their digital transformation.  She is a member of the senior business leadership team in Microsoft GCR.  

Yeung joined Microsoft in 2004.  Prior to her current role, she was the General Manager of the Commercial Legal team for Microsoft GCR, as well as the Lead Counsel for Microsoft Hong Kong.   Before joining Microsoft, Yeung was with Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong, specializing in IT licensing, intellectual property rights and privacy protection. 

Yeung graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. She is accredited as a solicitor in Hong Kong and England and Wales. She also holds an MBA from the University of Toronto.  She currently serves as a member of the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education in Hong Kong, and as Vice President of Hong Kong Information Technology Federation.  


Eric Szweda, EVP, General Counsel, Polygroup 
Eric is Group General Counsel at Polygroup Holdings Ltd., a global consumer products group based in Hong Kong, which owns several brands including Lumations. Eric is a dual qualified Hong Kong solicitor and an American attorney, who has litigated and arbitrated cases as an advocate globally.  Eric was educated at Cornell University (economics/labor management) and Vanderbilt University (law).  

Shih-Jern Liang, Senior Vice President, General Counsel – International, Ralph Lauren
Shih-Jern Liang is Senior Vice President and General Counsel, International at Ralph Lauren, where he manages legal and regulatory matters across the APAC and EMEA regions. He is part of International senior management and also supports the Company’s government relations and public affairs strategy. 

Mr. Liang was previously in private practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he worked in the firm’s New York, London and Hong Kong offices, focusing on capital markets and corporate finance transactions in various regions including North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. 

Mr. Liang is a graduate of University College London and Harvard Law School. He is admitted to practise in New York, England and Hong Kong. He has a keen interest in mentoring and is active through various university alumni mentoring initiatives. 


Edmund Lau, Head of Litigation Hong Kong – UBS AG
Edmund Lau is the Head of Litigation, Hong Kong at UBS AG.   In his current role, Mr Lau and his team manages all contentious litigation and regulatory matters on behalf of UBS AG in Hong Kong and across the APAC region where cross border issues arise.

Mr Lau has been an in-house litigator for approx. 18 years after leaving private practice and has headed the litigation teams at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Royal Bank of Scotland.  Mr Lau has also worked at the Securities and Futures Commission as a senior counsel within its Legal Department before taking up his current role at UBS AG.  Mr Lau has gained extensive knowledge and experience in his various roles in handling cross border contentious issues in the financial services sector, both in the form of disputes and litigation as well as regulatory investigations that involve multiple regulators in differing jurisdictions.