Tag: Chief Technology Officer

Jakarta, Indonesia – GoTo has appointed William Xiong as its new group chief technology officer. He joins GoTo from Alibaba where he served as vice president of Alibaba Cloud, general manager of enterprise service cloud and general manager of international industry solution development.

William, a French citizen, brings more than 25 years of experience in software and product development, with a strong background in e-wallets, insurance core systems, business intelligence, data platforms, and ESG platforms.

In his new role, William will lead GoTo’s group technology strategy, with a focus on building a development team and leveraging the latest technology to improve efficiency and drive customer satisfaction through innovative products.

Prior to Alibaba Cloud, William was the senior director of engineering at Ant Group, where he led e-wallets implementation and cooperation in many countries across Asia, including PayTM in India, Dana in Indonesia, TNGD in Malaysia, GCash in the Philippines, Bcash in Bangladesh, Easypesia in Pakistan, Kakaopay in Korea and True Money in Thailand. 

During his tenure at Ant Group, William also served as CTO of TNGD, and CTO of Worldfirst where he was responsible for Ant International’s B2B payment technology. Prior to this, he held senior roles at several high-profile technology companies including eBaoTech, SAP and Siemens.

Speaking on his new role, he said, “I am excited to join GoTo Group at such a pivotal time in its growth journey. The opportunity to contribute to Indonesia’s leading digital ecosystem and work with a team that is committed to innovation and excellence is truly inspiring. I look forward to leveraging my experience to drive the technological advancements that will shape the future of the company.”

Meanwhile, Patrick Walujo, CEO at GoTo Group, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome William to GoTo as our group chief technology officer. His extensive experience and proven track record in leading large-scale technology initiatives make him a perfect fit for our company. William’s leadership in driving our technology vision forward will be invaluable as we continue to evolve and scale our business.”

William’s appointment follows a series of GoTo’s technology-driven partnerships with Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent to improve its digital services.

Singapore – AIA Singapore has announced the appointment of Afees Ashroff as its new chief technology officer with immediate effect, and he will report to Wong Sze Keed, chief executive officer at AIA Singapore. 

Ashroff is a highly experienced leader with a wealth of experience spanning over 20 years in both banking and insurance sectors. He has been with AIA Singapore since 2018 and has a profound understanding of the organisation, where he was most recently head of digital technology. 

With his new appointment, Afees will continue to focus on enhancing customers’ digital experiences by developing and implementing world-class, cutting-edge technology strategies aligned to deliver AIA Singapore’s vision and business priorities as a customer-centric leading life insurer.

Afees will succeed Peter Lee who has decided to step down to take some time to focus on personal matters.

Speaking about Ashroff’s appointment, Sze Keed said, “I am delighted to welcome Afees to the leadership team as chief technology officer. I am confident that Afees will be a strong addition to my management team and will continue to drive AIA Singapore’s digitalisation agenda across our organisation to deliver the best service experience for our customers. More importantly, with Afees’ appointment, AIA Singapore remains committed to our people-first culture; where talent development and internal mobility will ensure we give the best opportunities to our people.”

She added, “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Peter and his efforts in steering the team. Peter is a highly respected industry veteran and will be fondly remembered for his positive influence in creating a cohesive culture within the technology division and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavors.”

Sydney, Australia – Global recommendation platform Outbrain has announced key appointments to its C-suite team namely Yonatan Maman as chief technology officer and Andraz Tori in the newly-created executive role of chief product officer. Ori Lahav, who is the current chief technology officer as well as a co-founder and general manager for Israel, will transition his responsibilities and focus on cross-company strategic initiatives, while continuing his role in Israel.

Maman joined Outbrain in 2011 as a senior software engineer and has served as vice president of engineering for the past five years. While leading Outbrain’s research and development team, he brought modern practices and new capabilities to the growing engineering organisation. 

Meanwhile, Tori has served as head of recommendations and data science at Outbrain for the past four years, following Outbrain’s acquisition of Zemanta, of which he was a founder.

The newly-appointed executives will support Outbrain’s growth by building upon the company’s existing technologies and product offerings to align with the evolving needs of publishers, brands and advertisers as they increasingly seek to drive measurable outcomes while building deeper engagement with audiences. Both Maman and Tori will report to David Kostman, Co-CEO of Outbrain.

Kostman said, “Under Ori’s esteemed leadership, Yonatan and Andraz have helped transform our engineering team into a world-class technology organisation, built a mature infrastructure fit for supporting our partners, and helped us reach over $1 billion in revenue.”

Meanwhile, Lahav commented, “Yonatan and Andraz bring distinct strengths and capabilities to our team, and we’re fortunate to have a succession stemming from internal drivers of Outbrain success. I’m confident they will have a positive impact on the engineering organisation and the future of Outbrain as our company continues to evolve to meet the needs of this dynamic industry.”

Manila, Philippines – Karen Yang Chiang, formerly of local fintech GCash, has joined local parenting-focused ecommerce platform as its new chief technology officer. In her new role, Chiang will manage the company’s product, engineering and project delivery teams.

She will also focus on developing the technology, architecture and scalability to support the company’s evolution into an online-to-offline (O2O) parenting ecosystem spanning integrated commerce, content and community experiences.

Chiang previously served as the head of enterprise architecture, strategy and innovation for Mynt, GCash’s parent company.

Speaking on her new role, Chiang said, “I am very honoured and excited to embark on this journey with the edamama team. I look forward to building the next evolution of our platform, enabling us to continuously provide trusted and innovative products and services for our customers.”

Meanwhile, Bela Gupta and Nishant D’Souza, founders at edamama, commented, “Underpinning our mission to help parents simplify decision-making is a customer centric platform built on a robust technology stack. We’re thrilled to welcome Karen to our leadership team to bring our product and engineering roadmap to new heights as we build a leading omnichannel brand.” 

They added, “Karen’s track record of scaling start-ups, along with passion for the customer as a mother of three, makes her a true growth partner to us as founders, and an inspiration to all women in technology.”

Since its launch in 2020, edamama has raised a total of US$25M in funding from leading strategic, financial and angel investors, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Gentree Fund, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Kickstart Ventures, Innoven Capital, and Foxmont Capital Partners. 

Jakarta, Indonesia – Hypefast, the house of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia, has appointed Mohammed Alabsi, former senior vice president of engineering at e-commerce platform Bukalapak, to be its new chief technology officer.

In his new role, Alabsi will be joining the senior leadership team, and will be managing Hypefast’s tech team, focusing on developing technology to support the development of the company’s end-to-end tech-driven retail ecosystem.

Alabsi is a seasoned technology leader with experience in the US, Asia, and the Middle East. He brings over 17 years of experience in the technology industry, with a proven track record of building AWS services powering the infrastructure of tech companies worldwide. He was also a founding member of Amazon’s advertising and B2B e-commerce businesses. In addition, Mohammed is active in the startup scene, advising and investing in startups across SEA and the US.

Commenting on his appointment, Alabsi said that the opportunity to build and accelerate technology innovation for Hypefast gained his attention from the start, especially the idea of developing ultra-relevant tech solutions for the e-commerce native brands in SEA based on real problems and challenges they are facing when managing their own portfolio brands. 

“We want to use this to bring innovation and effective solutions to the brands. I also look forward to building Hypefast’s new best-in-class tech team and together taking Hypefast one step closer to the company’s vision,” he added.

Meanwhile, Achmad Alkatiri, Hypefast’s founder and CEO, commented that they are excited to welcome Alabsi to their leadership team, as his diverse experience in tech makes him distinctively suited to drive innovation as Hypefast accelerates their tech-driven retail ecosystem and brings solutions to e-commerce native brands.

“His experience, combined with our best-in-class team in retail and e-commerce, will lead our continued investment in the leadership team for the industry and strengthen Hypefast’s commitment to super-charge the growth of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia,” said Alkatiri.

Singapore – Creative and communications network dentsu in Asia Pacific has appointed Christina Lee, former vice president at Kering Technologies APAC, to be its new chief technology officer (CTO). Lee commences the role in April this year.

In her new role, Lee will be responsible for providing technology strategy, industry-leading capabilities, and solutions to enable business growth and drive day to day operations through transformational business and technology initiatives. She will be based in Hong Kong, and will be part of both global and APAC senior management teams.

Lee brings with her over two decades of senior leadership experience in information and digital technology. She also has a strong track record of consulting and industry experience in strategy, business transformation, business partnership, vendor management and solution delivery, as well as aligning and advancing IT as a tool and driver for the business of Fortune 500 multi-national brand companies.

Aside from her recent stint at Kering Group, Lee has also held a senior leadership role at L’Oréal, where she led IT for the most strategic and complex region and successfully established the tech organization strategy for APAC. Moreover, Lee sat on the judging panel for the Case competition, Enactus Singapore, a community of student, academic, and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action, and served as a mentor during her leadership at Kering.

Lee said that she has ambition for technology to be a champion of change for brands and businesses to optimise their business practice, and also be a strategic partner to help businesses to get maximum benefits from the data and technologies.

“Dentsu values technology and innovation at the heart of its culture and I could not be more excited to be working together with this incredible, high performing team of technology professionals,” she added.

Meanwhile, Dominic Shine, dentsu’s global chief technology officer, shared that Lee is a committed leader who is passionate about organisational design, understands the problems that will be faced during hyper-growth, and is energized by solving these problems. 

“She brings with her strong experience and a successful track record in driving significant transformational change through technology across organisations, as well as in the delivery of data and digital products. I look forward to having her on the team,” said Shine.

Bangkok, Thailand – SCB TechX, a joint venture between the Siam Commercial Bank (SCBX) Group and digital business transformation company Publicis Sapient, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Sharp as its chief technology officer.

Sharp will be responsible for further developing an engineering and technology unit within SCB TechX. With more than 25 years of global professional experience in engineering, architecture, consulting and transformation, Sharp has led client engagements for some of the world’s largest brands from North America, Europe and for the past 12 years across Asia Pacific.

Before joining SCB TechX, Sharp served as managing director for ASEAN at Publicis Sapient. He spent 24 years at Publicis Sapient, where he also headed technology and delivery across APAC and served in a variety of consulting and delivery capacities.

Speaking about his appointment, he said, “SCB TechX represents a new class of technology company built to help banks and financial services organisations meet customers’ expectations for sophisticated and convenient digital banking and non-banking services.” 

He added, “Combining the talent, expertise, world-class technology and cross-sector experience of the SCBX Group and Publicis Sapient, SCB TechX is poised to usher in the next generation of technological capabilities.”

Meanwhile, Trirat Suwanprateeb, CEO at SCB TechX, commented, “We are delighted to introduce Sharp as chief technology officer to lead SCB TechX’s key mission in developing and delivering new capabilities in technology, platforms and innovations.” 

He added, “We are confident that Mr. Sharp’s knowledge, experience and expertise will contribute to the company’s growth and drive SCB TechX to achieve its goal of becoming one of the largest and best-in-class fintech companies in the ASEAN region within the next 3-5 years.”

Montreal, Canada – Independent programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) adtech, Hivestack, has appointed Mina Naguib, former senior director and chief architect at advertising ecosystem Samsung Ads, to be its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Naguib is a tech industry veteran since 1997, and his expertise spans many areas including data centre management, cloud and virtualization, low-level system development, web and application development, and distributed systems. During his previous role at Samsung Ads, Naguib has managed the design, operations, and growth of various advertising technologies and teams. Prior to this, he was an architect at creative marketing and communications agency Cossette. Naguib has also participated in the IAB Tech Labs in defining industry frameworks for European and US privacy compliance.

In his new role, Naguib will be responsible for the long-term strategic direction of the organization’s overall technology function. He will establish technology standards to direct strategic design, as well as manage and implement an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure. Naguib will also play a key role in recognising and analysing trends and innovations that would directly impact the company’s products and performance.

Commenting on his appointment, Naguib said, “I am thrilled to be joining the Hivestack leadership team at such a transformational time for the industry. I look forward to working closely with Andreas, Bruno and the entire team to ensure Hivestack’s technology is world-class, empowers our customers, and is a joy to use.”

Meanwhile, Andreas Soupliotis, Hivestack’s founder and CEO, said, “Mina is widely respected within the ad tech industry and joins our team at a pivotal time and brings with him a wealth of knowledge to support our efforts of driving innovation across the DOOH landscape.”

Bruno Guerrero, Hivestack’s chief operations officer, shared that it is an incredibly exciting time for them at Hivestack as they continue to design and build market-leading technology for the advertisers and media owners within the DOOH ecosystem.

“Having Mina join our team is a testament to our commitment to driving innovation across the DOOH industry and we are fortunate to have him joining our team,” said Guerrero. 

Just recently, Hivestack has launched its programmatic DOOH marketplace in Malaysia, where brands, agencies and omnichannel demand-side platforms (DSPs) can access the Hivestack platform to plan, activate, and measure programmatic DOOH campaigns via private marketplace (PMP) and open exchange deals.