The Honourable Sin Chung-kai, JP
Legislative Councilor (IT), The Government of the Hong Kong SAR
Sin Chung-kai has served as a Member of Legislative Council since 1995. He is well-known as a strong advocate for transforming Hong Kong into a leading digital city that enjoys human rights, rule of law, fair competition, free flow of information, democracy and economic prosperity.
In 1998, Sin Chung-kai became the first legislator representing the Information Technology Functional Constituency (ITFC) when he won 63% of the total vote in a field of three in the LegCo election. With his Digital Hong Kong 2005 as the blueprint, he immediately pushed for the complete liberalization of telecommunications market, promoted an advanced regulatory framework and, proposed a series of initiatives to develop Hong Kong¡¦s IT and Telecommunications industry.
With majority support of IT constituency, Sin Chung-kai was re-elected in the 2000 LegCo election by gaining 74% of the total vote. During his second term of office, he introduced a Private Member Bill on Fair Competition to create a fairer business environment for IT industry. To protect the interest of IT industry, Sin Chung-kai worked to raise the professional status of IT profession, fight against cybercrime, promote e-commerce, IT in Education and e-Government as well as to draw the public and Government¡¦s attention on the issue of digital divide in our society.
In September 2004, Sin Chung-kai won his third-term of representing ITFC in the LegCo election after a campaign in which he has outlined an IT proposal - Ubiquitous Information Society to explore how new industries, such as wireless technologies, digital entertainment industries and e-Learning, and regional co-operation can be further developed to maintain the sustainable growth of IT industry.
Outside of the legislature, he is a Council Member of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; the Board of Directors of Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited; a member of the Housing Authority and the HKSAR Government¡¦s Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee. He also serves on various other advisory boards both in the public and private sectors.
Born and educated in Hong Kong, Sin Chung-kai obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1982 and his Master in Business Administration degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1997.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Vincent Franceschini
Chairman, Storage Networking Industry Association
Vincent Franceschini is the current Chairman of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Board of Directors, leading this organization to fulfil its storage industry mission. SNIA is a worldwide non-profit organisation delivering architectures, technology standard proposals, education and services that will propel storage networking solutions into the broader worldwide market. Franceschini was previously Vice Chairman of the SNIA Board 2002 and 2003 and Treasurer of the SNIA Executive Committee in 2004. In 2005, he also led a new initiative at SNIA to define the role of the Storage Industry in the Grid solutions space. Prior to this, Franceschini drove the launch of the SNIA strategic alliances program as well as the SNIA International Committee, a group he previously chaired to organize the worldwide expansion and coordination of SNIA in Australia / New Zealand, Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan and South Asia. Besides his leadership role within SNIA, Franceschini co-chairs the Storage Networking Community Group of the Open Grid Forum. With over 16 years experience in developing technology solutions, Franceschini¡¦s expertise covers storage networking technologies, solutions and markets, software development, real-time systems, customer support and technical marketing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Graham Penn
Associate Vice President, Asia/Pacific Storage Research, IDC Asia/Pacific
Graham Penn has more than 44 years of extensive experience in the IT industry as a programmer, end-user, systems analyst and market analyst.
Graham is based in Sydney, Australia where he directs and coordinates storage research in 14 countries around the Asia/Pacific region. This program has established IDC as the premier market analysts for storage in the Asia/Pacific market.
Prior to the current appointment, Graham was General Manager Research at IDC Australia and from 1995 to 1998 he was IDC New Zealand Country Manager. From 1989 to 1995, he was the senior analyst for personal computers, peripherals and workstations at IDC Australia, building the program into the key industry data source and a major contributor of revenue for the organization.
Graham is a well-known presenter at industry- and vendor-sponsored events throughout the Asia Pacific region. In recent days he has focused on trends related the storage market, information and document management.
Prior to joining IDC, he was responsible for the preparation of specifications for a distributed online stock control system for a grocery products company. He has held previous positions with a major Australian retail chain, as computer programmer, corporate planning manager and as information services manager.
Graham has been regularly quoted in print and electronic media in Australia and New Zealand, and has contributed numerous articles and columns to trade journals throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Graham received Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) degree from the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Management, an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia, a Member of the Graduate Management Association, a Fellow of the Retail Management Institute of Australia, and an Associate of the IEEE Computer Society.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Paul Liu
Manager, Information Technology Division, Chong Hing Bank Ltd, Hong Kong
Dr. Paul Tak Shing Liu, aged 44 (as of year 2007), is the department head and manager of Information Technology Development Department of Chong Hing Bank Ltd., a director of Chong Hing Information Technology Ltd., a director of Net Alliance (H.K.) Ltd., and a school manager of Liu Po Shan Memorial College. Dr. Liu was awarded Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, in 1993. From Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Dr. Liu was awarded M.Sc. (Physics) (1989), H.B.Sc. (Physics) (1987), B.Eng. (Electrical Engineering) (1986), and B.Sc. (1984). He was also awarded Dean of Science medal, Lakehead University, 1984. Dr. Liu has working experience in workflow systems, banking system, stock trading, hospital application, and microwave component design. Dr. Liu specializes in banking applications, workflow system, data-mining, artificial intelligence, finite element method, and system simulation, etc. He is also members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS), and Hong Kong Institute of Directors (HKIoD).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Peter Chan
Regional Head of IT, INVESCO Hong Kong Ltd
Peter Chan is Director ¡V Regional Head of IT of INVESCO Hong Kong Ltd, in which he has served for over 18 years. Mr. Chan is responsible for overall IT strategy and operations in INVESCO in Asia Pacific region.
Mr. Chan received his Master degrees in Information Technology Management from Macquaire University, NSW, Australia. He has over 23 years of experience in IT industry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Brad Unruh
Director, Global Software Business Line,
Hitachi Data Systems Ltd.
Brad has spent most of his career in the storage software space and brings more than ten years of IT, software, and storage services experience to Hitachi Data Systems. As Director of Global Software Business Line, Brad is tasked with insuring the success of various storage solution offerings including Storage Area Management, Business Continuity, Content Archiving and Tiered Storage. His focused efforts require nearly constant interaction with current and future customers as well as the channel partners. This experience is in turn communicated back to corporate to insure that the storage products truly meet the needs of the business.
Prior to joining Hitachi Data Systems, Brad spent the previous decade at SAP AG, Storage Networks, and StorageTek. At SAP, Brad successfully focused on the field integration of R3 to Linux. At Storage Networks, he was accorded the opportunity to help define and build the Storage Services Provider model. Most recently Brad played a key role at StorageTek where he helped define and bring to market STK's current Information Lifecycle Management strategy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Lawrence Li
Systems Engineering Manager, Hong Kong, Symantec Hong Kong
Lawrence Li is systems engineering manager for Symantec Hong Kong, responsible for ensuring all IT strategies for the territory are executed in alignment with the corporate global standard. Leading an engineering team, Li plays a key role in delivering prominent IT projects with his responsibilities ranging from solution planning and implementation to project management and post-sales support.
Li joined Symantec through the company's merger with VERITAS Software. Prior to that, Li joined VERITAS Software as senior system engineer in 1999 following the company's acquisition of Seagate Software Network and Storage Management Group. Since 1999, Li had held several leading positions at VERITAS Software responsible for overseeing data availability, company's product management and business development.
Li has a strong background in engineering and product management in the local IT industry. Before working at VERITAS Software, Li was system engineer for Seagate Software Hong Kong, a company he joined in early 1999. Prior to this role, he was senior system engineer for leading system integration company Powerwave where he led a team selling networking solutions.
Lawrence graduated from City University of Hong Kong with a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Paul Kessler
Practice Manager, NetApp Global Services, Asia Pacific, Network Appliance, Inc.
Paul is an experienced manager with over 12 years experience consulting in technology solutions solving business problems in various industry verticals. He possesses an additional 4 years acting as a key member of financial accounting teams within the financial industry.
Paul currently manages the Asia Pacific Solutions Practice for Network Appliance where he leads a team of specialized and cross-regional experts; these experts specialise in storage related solutions ranging from disaster recovery, information lifecycle management (ILM), data security and compliance. He and his team work with customers to solve storage related business issues and cross-regional deployments for global enterprise customers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Benny Chan
Product Marketing Manager ¡V Data Center Solutions, Cisco Systems Asia Pacific
Benny Chan is a Product Marketing Manager in the Product, Technology and Solutions Marketing Group of Cisco Systems Asia Pacific. His role is to provide solutions marketing support and to grow the Cisco Data Center business in the Asia Pacific region.
Benny has 18 years of experience in open systems, data communication and storage networking areas with exposure in consulting, business development, product management and solutions marketing. Before joining Cisco in 2001, Benny was a senior consultant in NCR Greater China. He has also held a number of technical and consulting positions AT&T Global Information Solutions, Sun Microsystems AP, and Philips Information Systems AP.
Benny holds a Bachelor of Science (Computer Studies) from The University of Hong Kong.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Mark Brown
Business Development Manager, North Asia, Overland Storage Inc
Mark is a Business Development Manager for Overland Storage Inc covering North Asia.
Mark started his consulting career as a Chief Engineer with Tomtec KK, Tokyo, where he led and implemented challenging backup storage solutions. Mark then joined SAP Japan and later BakBone Software as a Pre Sales Consultant. In these positions he has successfully led and implemented installations of SAP, Oracle, Informix, MySAP Databases, operated server storage & backup management systems.
Since joining Overland Storage, Mark has successfully implemented many solutions using the REO Series disk-based backup and recovery appliances in Asia Pacific. The REO Series is the industry's most widely adopted product in its class with over 3,000 units installed worldwide. REO has been honored with the "Best New I/O Technology", "Best New Enterprise Storage Produc", "Backup & Storage Product of the Year", "Best of the Best" new storage product as well as "Best New Storage Product" awards.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Berkeley in Japanese. |
