Archives: Authors

Lee Su Ann started weaving stories since she was in high school, usually found scribbling in the shade of a tree under the watchful eyes of her school’s majestic clock tower. The clock tower of St George’s Girls’ School in Penang would later be the inspiration and setting for her second novel, A Stitch in Time.

She published her first short story when she was 16. After graduating with a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Diploma in Comprehensive Writing, she has since then been a test-tube baby scientist, a medical writer and an amateur actress /scriptwriter in her church’s own stage production.

Her first novel, The Curse, won a literary prize in 2005 and was later used as a literature textbook in Malaysian schools. She was also a runner-up in the Calistro Prize in 2013 and a health journalism award in 2014.

She is married to her bestie and partner in crime, and enjoys creating stories for her playful twins.

T. A. Ong is an Intellectual Property lawyer in the Philippines. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of the Philippines and a Masters of Laws with Certificates of Specialization in Business Law and Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked in SyCipLaw and a start-up before opening her online independent bookstore, Blithe Books. She has taught intellectual property and special commercial laws in the University of Cebu.

Eliza Victoria is an award-winning Filipino author. Her books include Dwellers (winner of the Philippine National Book Award for Best Novel), Wounded Little Gods, the graphic novel After Lambana (a collaboration with artist Mervin Malonzo), the science fiction novel-in-stories Nightfall, the short story collection Seventeen Prayers to the Many-Eyed Mother, and the poetry collection What Comes After. She has had stories and poetry published in various venues since 2007, most recently in The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, The Apex Book of World SF, Future SF, Multispecies Cities, and Asian Literature Project. Visit her at elizavictoria.com.

The Early Learning Program of Penguin Books offers a diverse collection of children’s books designed to support curriculum learning across various age groups, from infants and toddlers to pre-schoolers, ensuring engaging and age-appropriate content. These thoughtfully crafted books cater to the developmental needs of young learners and promote essential cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, fostering a love for reading from an early age.

The list offers picture books, story books, coloring books, activity books, workbooks, reference books and other innovative titles and formats.

NIRMALYA KUMAR is Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at the Singapore Management University. Previously, he headed strategy at Tata Sons, reporting to the chairman of the $100-billion Tata Group with 6,75,000 employees. Nirmalya has taught at Columbia University, Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland), London Business School and Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University). He has also been a visiting fellow at BITSoM, Cambridge Judge Business School, Indian School of Business and INSEAD.
Nirmalya is one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy and marketing. As a consultant and speaker, he has worked with over fifty Fortune 500 companies in sixty countries. He has served on more than twelve boards of directors, including those of ACC, Ambuja Cement, Bata India, Tata Chemicals, Ultratech and Zensar.
Thrice included in Thinkers50 (the biannual listing of the top fifty management thinkers in the world), he received their Global Village Award for his contributions to the business community’s understanding of globalization and emerging markets before being inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Ronaldo Soledad Vivo Jr is a Filipino novelist, musician, and graphic artist. He is the author of the novels Ang Kapangyarihang Higit sa Ating Lahat (The Power Above Us All) and Ang Bangin sa Ilalim ng Ating mga Paa (The Abyss Beneath Our Feet). He has been recognized for his contributions to Philippine literature as the finalist for the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award and recipient of both the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera and the Premyong LIRA. He is the founder of UngazPress, a collective of writers from the town of Pateros. He is also an award-winning filmmaker whose short films have been screened at festivals and cinemas in the Philippines and overseas. As a musician, he runs Sound Carpentry Recordings, which releases music on cassette, CD, and vinyl for worldwide distribution.

Karl R. de Mesa is a longreads journalist and photographer who has reported on stories in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Singapore. He is an award-winning author of horror fiction and reportage books—finalists for the Philippine National Book Awards for journalism and non-fiction. His photo essays have appeared on CNN Philippines Life and Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature. Ronaldo Vivo Jr’s The Power Above Us All is his first novel as a translator. More at https://linktr.ee/karlrdemesa

Penguin Select Early Learning Program offers a diverse collection of children’s books designed to support curriculum learning across various age groups, from infants and toddlers to pre-schoolers, ensuring engaging and age-appropriate content. These thoughtfully crafted books cater to the developmental needs of young learners and promote essential cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, fostering a love for reading from an early age.

The list offers picture books, story books, coloring books, activity books, workbooks, reference books and other innovative titles and formats.

Aneeta Sundararaj trained and practised as a lawyer before she decided to pursue her dream of writing. She also created and developed a website and called it How to Tell a Great Story. The aim remains to make it a resource for storytellers. Her writing has appeared in many magazines, ezines and journals. Some of the noteworthy book projects she’s worked on include Knowledge of Life: Tales of an Ayurveda Practitioner in Malaysia, The Banana Leaf Men and Mad Heaven: Biography of Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. M. Mahadevan. For a while, she contributed feature articles to the lifestyle section of a national newspaper. Many of Aneeta’s short stories have been longlisted, shortlisted and won international literary competitions and awards. Her most recent and bestselling novel, The Age of Smiling Secrets was shortlisted for the Anugerah Buku 2020 organised by the National Library of Malaysia. Incidentally, edited versions of various chapters of this novel have appeared in multiple anthologies, most notably in We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture, School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with Commonwealth Writers, 2018. Throughout, Aneeta continued to pursue her academic interests and, in 2021, successfully defended a doctoral thesis entitled Management of Prosperity Among Artistes in Malaysia.

Sharon Sim, a financial industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, stands out for her commitment to investing in profit with purpose . As the Co-Founder and General Partner at Purpose Venture Capital, she actively pursues a mission to build and invest in technology ventures that contribute positively to society.

Her extensive career includes senior roles at renowned global banks such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, where she provided investment advice to institutional fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, and ultra-high net worth investors. Sharon’s expertise extends to wealth management and private banking, with major institutions like J.P. Morgan and UBS.

Sharon’s multifaceted role extends beyond traditional finance. She serves as the CEO of a Singapore-based Single Family Office and co-founded Women in Family Offices, showcasing her dedication to diverse leadership. However, Sharon’s true passion lies in giving back and empowering women in financial matters and shaping their financial destinies. Her journey reflects a blend of financial acumen, leadership in the investment space, and a strong commitment to social impact and gender empowerment.

With over 23 years of experience in the financial sector, Serena Wong is a seasoned advisor on family wealth, investing, banking, business development for family offices, and champion for women in business. She thrives where connections matter, particularly across cultures, family generations, and gender.

As Head of Advisory at Kamet Capital, a Singapore-based multi-family office, she led a team that delivered investment management, wealth planning, administrative services, and philanthropy advice to Asia’s most innovative entrepreneurs.

Serena held senior management roles including Head of Indonesia market for JPMorgan Private Bank and won the Business Partnership Award for large cross-business lines transactions. She honed her investment banking experience with Société Générale Corporate & Investment Bank where she worked in Paris and London covering Metals & Mining and Project Financing. She started her career at GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

Serena holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Bachelor of Social Science (with Honours) degree from National University of Singapore.

Serena is passionate to amplify women’s voices in business; she was a founding committee member of JPMorgan’s Women Interactive Network in Asia. She advocates for women and wealth and closing the women wealth gap. She is Co-Founder of Women in Family Offices, a professional group that supports women decision makers in Asia’s family office sector. To give back to her alma mater, Serena is Council Member for the Asia Pacific region at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Over more than 25 years, Stephen (“Steve”) Thomas has led programs designed to earn and protect corporate reputations.

In 2022, Steve established TAVO Advisory to help organisations achieve valued results by providing counsel on complex matters relating to reputation, trust and stakeholder engagement.

Steve was Head of Group Brand and Communications at AIA Group from 2012 to 2021. AIA, which is listed and headquartered in Hong Kong, is one of the world’s largest life insurers.

Prior to AIA, Steve was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Affairs for Citigroup (“Citi”) in China.

Steve began his career at Burson-Marsteller (now Burson), a leading global public relations firm, working in the firm’s Melbourne and Hong Kong offices.

Steve’s professional recognition includes being named multiple times in PR Week’s Power Book list of the world’s most influential PR professionals as well as the Influence 100, Provoke Media’s annual compilation of the most influential in-house communicators around the world. In 2020, Steve was named the In-House Communications Professional of the Year by the Asia-Pacific Association of Communications Directors.

Steve is a Board Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations and from 2014 to 2020 he was Chairman of the Hong Kong chapter of the Arthur W. Page Society.