Dr Michael Khor Kok Seng was born in Penang in 1946 and was educated in St Xavier’s Institution, Penang, Malaysia and University of Malaya Medical Centre where he graduated with MBBS in 1970. He gained his specialist qualification Member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and Diploma in Child Health (London). He started work as a Lecturer and Specialist in Paediatrics at the University of Singapore and subsequently returned to Penang where he worked in the Specialists Centre from 1977 until 1996 as Consultant Paediatrician and from 1996 till the present in Island Hospital as its Founder and Consultant Paediatrician.
Among his various professional activities and responsibilities, he was the National President of the Federation of Private Practitioners’ Associations of Malaysia (FPMPAM) from 1995 till 1998, President of Penang Medical Practitioners Society 1986-1987 and its present Trustee (since 2003). He served the Ministry of Health in the Private/Public Panel Advisory Board from 1995-1998 and helped formulate the present Private Healthcare Services and Facilities Act. He served as the founder Director and Member of the Management Committee of Island Hospital as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the same from 1996 till 2015.
Alvin Yapan is both an author and a filmmaker. A fellow at the 2022 Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange (WrICE) of Sing Lit Station (SLS) and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. His works, both in fiction and film, delve into the uncanny aspects of contemporary encounters with the non- and post-human. His first novel in the vernacular, Ang Sandali ng mga Mata (This Moment of Eyes, 2006), and his collection of short stories, Sangkatauhan Sangkahayupan (Humanity Bestiary, 2017), both received the Philippine National Book Award. His filmography includes Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (The Dance of Two Left Feet, 2011), and Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe (The Rapture of Fe, 2009), recognized as best digital feature films of the year in the Philippines and at the Cairo International Film Festival, respectively. He finds time to produce and direct films in the middle of his teaching commitments at the Department of Filipino, Ateneo de Manila University. He feels that his writing and filmmaking mutually reinforce each other.
Randy M. Bustamante was a writer, book editor and literary translator. He held teaching positions in universities both in Manila and in Boston for 20 years. He was an editorial consultant, creative writing teacher, and mindfulness seminar facilitator before passing away in 2020. Worship the Body was his last collaboration with the author.
Nimisha Tailor is a competition and regulation specialist with international experience. She has advised large tech companies, central banks, think tanks and international organisations in the areas of digital finance, digital trade, data governance, e-commerce and logistics. She has worked on consulting projects in Asia Pacific, United States and Latin America and brings a gender lens to digital policies and regulations. Previously, she was Deputy Director at the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore and has worked at competition authorities in United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia (secondment).
Nimisha is passionate about developing the next generation of leaders and mentors young female professionals and university students, globally and regionally. As a mentor for the NexGen Keynote Women Speakers programme, she has supported talented women to make impactful speeches on stage by drawing on her public and private sector work experience.
Nimisha served in the UK Government Economic Service and has a MSc degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Deborah Wong is a Rhysling Award and Pushcart Prize nominated Malaysian poet. She holds a LLB (Hons) from University of London and the Associateship of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (AMII). A devoted fan-fiction writer, she finally answered the call to be a storyteller, by attending the summer intensive creative writing programme at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her writing can be found in Ricepaper Magazine, Thought Catalog, Blood Bath Literary Zine, Strange Horizons, Dark Matter Magazine Halloween Edition, and many other local as well as international online literary journals and anthologies. Recently, she self-published Autopsy of Sentiments, a personal and intimate confessional poetry chapbook about grief, unrequited love and kinship. Deborah writes full-time and lives with her dancing-queen mom, melodrama-enthusiast mama, and a feminist calico cat. ME IN YOUR MELODY is her debut novel.
Raju Chellam is author of Organ Gold published in 2018, on the illegal sale of human organs on the Dark Web. He’s a former editor of Dataquest, India’s first dedicated publication on the ICT industry, and former BizIT Editor of The Business Times, Singapore. He is a regular contributor to The Straits Times (Singapore), The Edge (Malaysia), and Dataquest (India). He has been appointed on the Panel of Advisers of the Singapore Writers Festival from 2021 to 2023. Raju is a Fellow of NUS ACE (Advanced Computing for Executives), Fellow of SCS (Singapore Computer Society), and Chair of Cloud & Data Standards at Singapore’s ITSC (IT Standards Committee), and on the Executive Committee of SGTech Singapore. His list of articles and blogs are at https://rajuchellam.com.
Adrian Tan is a self-employed Fractional CMO, Future of Work influencer, HR tech consultant and content creator based in Singapore. He helps HR companies in South-East Asia to drive awareness, leads and sales. He is the host of The Adrian Tan Show, where he interviews HR leaders and influencers on the future of work and co-host Work It, a work related podcast by CNA. He has been featured as one of the top HR influencers in Asia and globally by various publications and platforms. Adrian writes regularly on CNA and his website: adriantan.com.sg.
Frederick Lim is a retired journalist and an author of two novels. He is also a travel blogger. He was formerly a senior editor with Singapore’s leading TV & digital network CNA and had a career in journalism spanning 20 years. While at CNA he produced numerous news and current affairs feature stories, reality shows and documentaries and won multiple journalism awards. Before that he was in stockbroking and business.
Justine Camacho-Tajonera was born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines. Despite starting a corporate career in telecommunications, she pursued her master’s degree in Literature and Cultural Studies to keep her close to her first love of writing (and reading). She has had her poetry published in several anthologies and local publications, and has self-published several books in various genres. She maintains a personal blog, Claiming Alexandria. She is a marketing professional in the Philippines, is married, and has two children.
Yugel Losorata is a journalist-musician, born and raised in the Philippines.
Since the year 2000 he has written articles touching various subjects in the fields of entertainment, arts, lifestyle, business, and sports. He has been composing and recording songs released in the form of physical and digital albums, EPs, and singles.
He co-founded two bands, Syato and The Pub Forties, where he served as chief songwriter, co-singer, and bass player for 20 years combined. He also wrote for and collaborated with other artists.
Losorata’s byline has appeared in various Philippine publications with nationwide circulation, including Manila Bulletin, Philippine Star, and Manila Standard where he has been writing a weekly column. Online, he has contributions uploaded on Yahoo Philippines (Southeast Asia), and Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP.ph). He also worked as staff writer at the Manila Bulletin and senior copy editor for CNN Philippines.
As author he wrote four books at the height of the pandemic. In 2020, he penned “How To Survive The New Normal,” and “30 Midnights Of Flash Fiction.” In 2021, his novel “The Lust Regime,” and a collection of short stories, “Rhythm & Bruise,” were published, with the latter featuring a Foreword by the Philippines’ “King of Talk” Boy Abunda.
The family man is currently residing in the United States of America.
Widely known as Mr Toilet, Jack Sim broke the global taboo around toilets and sanitation. He founded the World Toilet Organization (WTO), a global non-profit working towards a world with clean, safe toilets and sanitation for everyone, everywhere, at all times. Born in a slum in Singapore in 1957, he learned entrepreneurship and gumption from his uneducated mother who started a series of small businesses. He was also inspired by the gumption of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and grew up watching the amazing transformation of his country from third world to first. From school failure, he became a serial commercial businessman (sixteen businesses). After attaining financial independence he left the rat-race to become a serial social entrepreneur. After fighting the bureaucrats, he enrolled at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and graduated with a Master’s in Public Administration at the age of 56. He also graduated at Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program at age fifty-nine. Some of the awards he won are: Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Ashoka Global Fellow, Queen Elizabeth’s Points of Light Award, Clinton Global Initiatives Fellow, Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment for 2008. For his contribution to humanity, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK in 2022.
