Director of Economic Studies Programme
Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia
Sunway University

Yeah was appointed professor of economics at Sunway University in 2016. Prior to academia, he spent nearly three decades in the private sector, most notably as chief economist at the country’s pioneer credit rating agency. He currently serves as president of the Malaysian Economic Association and as a member of the National Wage Consultative Council, as well as the Policy Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister. He is also a former external member of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee.

Senior Economist
United Nations

Marshall is part of the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. His specialisms include poverty analysis, including multidimensional poverty, growth and inequality dynamics, social protection reforms and industrial policy. In Malaysia, his work focused on the socioeconomic impacts and policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic; the tracking and reporting of Sustainable Development Goals performance, including supporting Malaysia’s Voluntary National Reviews in 2021 and 2025; and research into the challenges faced by the undocumented population in Sabah.

Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister

Nurhisham currently serves as head of the secretariat of Pasukan Petugas Pengurusan Krisis (Crisis Management Task Force). He plays a key advisory role, supporting the prime minister on matters relating to the economy, investments and capital markets, social protection, and other relevant areas. He is a former chief strategy officer at the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and served as head of the Economics and Capital Markets Department, overseeing economic surveillance of more than 20 global economies and contributing to EPF’s investment process. He presently sits on the board of directors of ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd, a Ministry of Health company.

Director
Social Wellbeing Research Centre (SWRC)
Universiti Malaya

Norma has served as SWRC director since 2013. Under her leadership, the centre has grown into a prominent hub for interdisciplinary research in social policy, ageing and social protection. She is a former secretary of the National Economic Advisory Council in the Prime Minister’s Department, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Universiti Malaya and executive director of the International Institute of Public Policy and Management. She has served as an adviser and consultant to various international organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, International Labour Organisation, European Union and Asian Development Bank.

Director
ISIS Malaysia

Cheng heads the Economics, Trade and Regional Integration team, where he oversees the institute’s economic policy research across its work areas and coordinates the economic programme’s projects and engagements. His research covers topics in applied economics, centred on labour economics, jobs, wellbeing and social protection. Some of his current projects examine how emerging technologies shape the future of work, society and development.

Senior Economist
Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Sanchita is attached to the Regional Cooperation and Integration Division in ADB’s Economic Research and Development Impact Department. She contributes to the division’s flagship publications, knowledge products and analytical studies. Her research interests include regional cooperation initiatives and related issues, such as trade, logistics, industrial corridors, tourism, the digital economy and institutions. She is a former lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Centre of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, as well as a former fellow of the regional economic studies programme, coordinator of the Singapore APEC Studies Centre and co-editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Economies.

Associate
German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Dannhauer researches Germany’s relations with Southeast Asia at SWP. She is also a senior research fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, where she led research and programmes on Southeast Asia from 2023 to 2025. She is a former researcher at the Asia-Pacific Research and Advice Network, an internal think-tank supporting European Union decisionmakers.

Special Envoy of the President
Indonesia

Mari is the special envoy for international trade and multilateral cooperation, and vice-chair of the National Economic Council. She is a former special envoy for climate finance and advised the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs on sustainability, energy transition and blended finance. She is also the former Indonesian trade minister and minister of tourism and creative economy. She has more than 30 years’ experience across academia, diplomacy, international organisations and government. Mari is currently professor of international economics at the University of Indonesia and a board member of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

Analyst
ISIS Malaysia

Jaideep is an analyst in the Economics, Trade and Regional Integration team. His research focuses on industrial and trade policies, including their interplay in geoeconomics. He is a former special officer to Malaysia’s deputy investment, trade and industry minister and Overseas Development Institute fellow in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

President
Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC)

Shafie is a veteran trade unionist with an illustrious career spanning 47 years, from 1979 to 2026. As president of UNI-MLC, he champions workers’ rights across the services sector. He is a former deputy president of the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services and deputy president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress. Regionally, he serves as general-secretary of the ASEAN Services Employees Trade Union Council and internationally, he sits on the board of UNI Global Union, Geneva, Switzerland.

Deputy Director of Research
Khazanah Research Institute

Choong is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also an adjunct associate professor with the Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development, Sunway University.

Senior Economist
The World Bank

Shakira joined the World Bank in 2016 and is currently a senior economist at the bank’s Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Finance Hub in Kuala Lumpur. Her work focuses on macroeconomics, female labour force participation, childcare provision, education reform, learning loss and recovery, and adult skills assessment. She is a former economist at Bank Negara Malaysia and was briefly attached to the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

Lecturer
Department of Southeast Asian Studies
National University of Singapore

Serina is an associate fellow in the Malaysia Studies Programme at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. She teaches environmental politics, religion, magic and anything about Southeast Asia by sea. Trained as a conservation scientist specialising in seagrass human-habitat interactions, her practice is in community empowerment through citizen science, community research and ecotourism. She also studies artisanal fisheries resource management at Kelab Alami, a community organisation in Johor that she co-founded in 2008. Her research includes (un)sustainable development, Malaysian rural politics and political ecology. Serina is an Iskandar Malaysia social hero award winner for environmental protection and Malaysia’s ambassador for Citizen Science Asia.

President
Environmental Protection Society Malaysia (EPSM)

Nithi joined EPSM, an all-volunteer-run society, in 1983. Under his tenure as president, the society introduced three sustainability instruments in Malaysia — Local Agenda 21, Global Reporting Initiative and ecological footprint analysis — as part of its sustainable living in Malaysia programme. He is also director and regional coordinator of Climate Action Network Southeast Asia, which comprises 40 civil society organisations in 10 countries. He has been a participant in the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since COP6.

Assistant Professor
Institute of Asian Studies
Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Goh’s career spans research, education, government and intergovernmental organisations. He began his career as a researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he participated in projects on international trade and large-scale investments in the bioeconomy, conducting extensive field studies in Kalimantan. He subsequently worked at Malaysia’s National Innovation Agency, where he was involved in the implementation of the National Biomass Strategy 2020, with a particular focus on Malaysian Borneo. His monograph, Transforming Borneo: From Land Exploitation to Sustainable Development, was published in 2023.

Senior Researcher
ISIS Malaysia

Zayana’s work spans the intersection of climate policy and emerging economic sectors, energy transition, climate adaptation and broader environmental sustainability. She has authored multiple research papers covering nature-positive finance, Malaysia’s positioning in the critical minerals and rare earth supply chain and most recently, the governance of AI infrastructure and its environmental implications.

Chief Executive Officer
Health Transformation Office
Ministry of Health

Yap is a former consultant for the World Bank and World Health Organisation. He served as country technical director for the Malaysia Health Systems Research project, a collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Harvard University. His clinical experience includes serving on the frontlines in a variety of hospital and clinic settings in the United Kingdom, rural Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur.

Social Protection Specialist (Care and Support Systems)
UNICEF Malaysia

Lee leads the care and support systems portfolio, focusing on every child’s and family’s right to care and to be cared for. She works at the intersection of research, programme management and advocacy to strengthen care and support systems for children in Malaysia. She is a former senior analyst at ISIS Malaysia, where she led the Social Policy and National Integration team and published research on the care economy, women’s political and workforce participation, ageing and social welfare.

Chief Executive Officer
Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation (YTAR)

Kularetnam specialises in education and higher education. At YTAR, he leads initiatives to expand access to higher education, develop leadership and build capacity for a more progressive, equitable and inclusive Malaysia. He advocates more holistic approaches to higher education and scholarship admissions, and has spoken publicly about moving beyond test scores to consider how education can support human flourishing.

Chief Executive Officer
ProtectHealth Corporation

Hazwan’s role at ProtectHealth is to strengthen strategic purchasing through public-private partnerships to make healthcare more affordable and accessible for all, in alignment with the Ministry of Health’s national agenda. He drives initiatives that advance healthcare payment transformation in Malaysia and foster innovation to improve patient outcomes and care quality. He is committed to building a competitive and resilient health financing ecosystem that promotes sustainability and equity for all Malaysians.

Fellow
ISIS Malaysia

Tan heads the Social Policy and National Integration team. An interdisciplinary researcher, she enjoys connecting the dots across policy areas, with work spanning public health, gender and care. She is a former research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and head of campaigns at the Women’s Aid Organisation.

Economic Change Lead
The Next Economy

Trebeck is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. She is also a strategic adviser to the Centre for Policy Development and teaches at the University of Edinburgh. She is a distinguished visitor at the Australian National University’s Planetary Health Equity Hothouse; 2024 thinker-in-residence at the Australian Health Promotion Association; new economics senior fellow at the Zoe Institute; and fellow of The Post Growth Institute. She co- founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and WEAll Scotland. She instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) — comprising Scotland, New Zealand, Finland, Wales, Iceland and Canada — the story of which is the subject of the documentary Purpose.

Minister (Law and Institutional Reform)
Prime Minister’s Department

Azalina has held her current portfolio since December 2022. In overseeing the Legal Affairs Division, she actively spearheads major national governance and institutional reforms, including the drafting of the progressive AG-PP Bill to separate the roles of the attorney- general and public prosecutor and proposals for fixed-term limits for the prime minister. She is a former minister of youth and sports, tourism minister and Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker. A lawyer by training, she has contributed significantly to legislative oversight by chairing multiple parliamentary select committees focused on critical socio-legal matters and institutional reforms.

Executive Chairman
ISIS Malaysia

Faiz provides high-level counsel to the government on geopolitics, defence and security, as well as the evolving landscape of global geoeconomics. At ISIS Malaysia, he spearheads policy innovation and leads strategic track-two diplomacy. He is the Malaysian representative to the ASEAN Regional Forum Experts and Eminent Persons, and co-chair of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Good Governance and a distinguished adjunct professor of the International Islamic University of Malaysia.