Archives: Authors

Mohd Firdaus Raih is a bioinformatician and computational biologist by profession. He has published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books of high standing in the scientific community. He has also written widely on science and technology as well as higher-education issues in various newspapers and magazines.

Nidhi Upadhyay is the bestselling author of That Night and I Hear You, and in her spare time—if you squint hard enough—you might find her as an engineer and headhunter. But her greatest interests are her children, her husband—who is disillusioned that her writing career is his retirement plan, and a puppy who thinks he owns her. She is often found hiding her current search history from her boys. If not busy researching a way to kill, drown or dispose of bodies, Nidhi can be found reading thrillers or screaming at her children.

Chris Mabey is an Emeritus Professor of Leadership at Middlesex University Business School and became a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society in 2002.
He has held a career-long interest in how organizations develop their leaders. More recently his research and writing have turned to leading ethical leadership and the enigma of cultural leadership in Myanmar. He recently led an ESRC-funded Seminar Series on Ethical Leadership: Philosophical and Spiritual Approaches.
Chris has 11 academic books to his name (and 20 or more refereed papers), each subject to critical peer-review. One text he authored in Human Resource Management has sales of 21,500 to date.

Danny Jalil majored in Multimedia Arts and studied Creative Writing and Screenwriting at LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, during which time he wrote numerous short stories and film scripts.
His short film comedy “Spun” was nominated the merit prize at the National University of Singapore Student’s Union (NUSSU) Inter-Tertiary Video Festival.
He has also written movie reviews and conducted interviews for First Magazine and has had his works published in Singapore’s Greatest Comics (Nice One Entertainment) and ACTOR (A Commitment To Our Roots).
His novel The Machine Boy was a winner of NAC’s Beyond Words: Young and Younger Award and published by Straits Times Press and he has also written the graphic novel Lieutenant Adnan and The Last Regiment, illustrated by artist Zaki Ragman, published by Asiapac Books.

Elaine Chan
Elaine has been a journalist for more than two decades, covering Asia and China’s phenomenal rise, writing for the likes of South China Morning Post, Bloomberg News and the Associated Press. She began her journalism
career in Hong Kong, arriving in the city the same day as the last British governor of the then colonial city. In the year that Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, she relocated to Shanghai to work for Knight-Ridder Financial and Bloomberg, serving as the latter’s first Asian bureau chief.

While growing up in her native Singapore, she trained in Western art and painting, but realising she’d never be a Van Gogh decided to pursue journalism to write stories that would help the underdogs and right some of
society’s wrongs.

In 2009, Elaine moved into public relations, specialising in M&A and capital market transaction communications, working on some of the region’s biggest cross-border deals. But she returned to her bigger passion – journalism, which she believes is the society’s conscience – in 2017, and is currently a senior
editor at the South China Morning Post.

Keeping a sense of adventure and humour is what keeps her going. She continues to paint occasionally, and harbours hope of one day hosting a mini exhibition of her works.

Elaine has an MA in Social Science.

Lee Jeong-ho
Jeong-ho has been a journalist covering Asia and China for South China Morning Post, and News1 Korea. He believes media exists for the progression of democracy, to empower individual citizens of democratic ideals via the spreading of information. Media that fails to serve this purpose becomes an
institution for propaganda, he believes.

Jeong-ho grew up in South Korea and Australia. He had also worked as an officer for the South Korean Air Force, before he became a journalist – preparing analytical reports and papers on sensitive and high-profile matters of concern to North Korean politics and human rights issues. He solidified the value of democracy and the danger authoritarianism during his service, and
decided to pursue journalism to protect democratic ideals and freedom of individuals.

He is a PhD student in politics at King’s College London. He has a master’s degree of international studies in Chinese area studies from Seoul National University, and a bachelor’s degree in media and communications and Chinese studies from Sydney University.

Gary Lai is an economist whose writing has appeared in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), the Daily Caller (USA), the Toronto Star, and the Daily Monitor (Uganda), among other publications, on topics ranging from Aboriginal employment in British Columbia to girls’ education in Hong Kong.
Gary’s interest in poverty issues led him to found the anti-poverty campaign TKO Poverty at Columbia University in 2005. Gary received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Southern California and a Master of Economics from the University of Hong Kong. He also attended the University of British Columbia Allard School of Law and Columbia University. Lai was shortlisted for a Chevening Scholarship and was nominated for a JCI Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in 2016.

Nabeel Ismeer builds solar power plants across Asia during the day.
He spends his nights writing, centred around the question ‘What if?’. What if the stone age had a Leonardo Da Vinci, was Lascaux her Mona Lisa? What if prehistoric leaders resorted to discrimination when they had no answer to the ice age? What if mitigating climate change can also help reverse inequality and further humanity?
His writings, which include themes of climate change and inequality, have been published in print and online magazines.
The Hunter’s Walk is his first book.

Ram Anand is a published writer, filmmaker, and a former journalist based in Malaysia. He had also spent over eight years writing for various news publications in Malaysia- namely Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider, The Malay Mail. He periodically writes opinion pieces in The Malay Mail after leaving journalism in 2018.
He recently finished a Masters in Directing Film and Television at Bournemouth University, United Kingdom, and has written and directed three short films to date, two in United Kingdom, and another in India. His Tamil language short film made in India, Andhi, is currently being previewed at several film festivals across India.

Desmond Kon is the author of an epistolary novel, a quasi-memoir, two lyric essay monographs, four hybrid works, and nine poetry collections. A former journalist, he has edited more than twenty books and co-produced three audio books, several pro bono for non-profit organizations.
Trained in book publishing at Stanford University, Desmond studied sociology and mass communication at the National University of Singapore, and later received his Masters in theology (world religions) from Harvard University and Masters in fine arts (creative writing) from the University of Notre Dame.
In addition to grants from the National Arts Council and Singapore International Foundation, Desmond has enjoyed literary appointments at the Notre Dame Poetry Fellowship, NAC Writer-in-the-Gardens Residency, and NTU-NAC Creative Writing Residency.
Among other accolades, Desmond is the recipient of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, Independent Publisher Book Award, National Indie Excellence Book Award, Poetry World Cup, Singapore Literature Prize, two Beverly Hills International Book Awards, and three Living Now Book Awards.

Vivek Iyyani is a globally recognized leadership expert and keynote speaker, helping organizations and leaders work better together in the new normal. Vivek has spoken worldwide, to organizations and enterprises from Fortune 500 companies to associations to government institutions. He is the founder and CEO of Millennial Minds-a company that has helped leaders and teams leverage twenty-first century collaboration skills globally. He has been invited to many international media outlets to share his opinions as a thought leader on the Millennial generation. Some of his recent features include Channel NewsAsia, Money FM, Straits Times, SME Entrepreneur Magazine, CEO Magazine, and National Integration Council (Singapore Prime Minister’s Office). He has authored two other books entitled Empowering Millennials and Engaging Millennials. Learn more at https://www.vivekiyyani.com and follow him at @vivekiyyani on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.