Menu
Menu
CONVERGE: Indo-Pacific Critical Tech Forum 2024
All rights reserved.
Alan Turley is the Minister-Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy
in Tokyo, Japan. He leads a team of 36 U.S. Commercial Service professionals in Tokyo and Osaka that is dedicated to promoting closer trade and economic ties between the United States and Japan. The CS Japan team promotes U.S. exports to Japan, encourages Japanese direct investment into the United States, works to improve the trade and investment climate in Japan and advises the leadership in the Department of Commerce on trade-policy issues regarding the bilateral commercial relationship.
Prior returning to Tokyo, Mr. Turley was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for China and Mongolia in Washington D.C., where he was responsible for International Trade Administration (ITA) programs in
those markets. From 2002 to 2016, Mr. Turley was Vice President for International Affairs in Asia Pacific for FedEx Express. Twice a winner of FedEx’s coveted “Five Star Award”, Mr. Turley helped manage FedEx’s rapid growth and expansion in Asia, including the building of China’s first international air express hub, the founding of FedEx’s wholly-owned operations in China, and the approval of FedEx’s purchase of TNT Express.
Mr. Turley’s previous service in the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service started in 1986 in Japan, where he headed the Major Projects and Transportation Equipment Unit. Mr. Turley then served as the Director of the Commercial Service’s International Marketing Center at the U.S. Embassy in London before moving back to Asia to become Deputy Senior Commercial Officer at the American Institute in Taiwan. From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Turley was the MinisterCounselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and after that service he returned to Japan to serve in the same capacity at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Alan Turley was educated in public schools in Cheshire Connecticut and was graduated from the University of Virginia with High Honors in 1983. After receiving his B.A., Mr. Turley spent two years studying Chinese in Taiwan at National Taiwan Normal University’s Mandarin Training Center.
Mark Bryan Manantan is the lead investigator of CONVERGE and the Director of Cybersecurity and Critical Technologies at the Pacific Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the Forum, he leads the US Technology and Security partnerships with Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea as well as the Cyber ASEAN cyber-capacity building project. Currently, he is a member of UNESCO’s AI Experts Without Borders and serves on the institutional advisory board of the Australian National University’s Philippines Institute. His area of research examines the intersection of diplomacy, security, and governance of technology and innovation, in Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
Akira Igata is a Project Lecturer at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo. He is also the Director of the Economic Security Research Program (ESRP) at RCAST.
He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington DC, Pacific Forum (PF) in Honolulu, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra, and Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) in Prague. He is also the Non-Executive Director at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).
He has been quoted widely in Japanese news outlets such as the NHK, Nikkei, Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, Sankei, Kyodo, and Yahoo! News. He also appears regularly on Japanese TVs, radios, and internet programs as an expert commentator on economic security issues.
Internationally, he has been quoted in the media such as CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Quartz, Nikkei Asia, Le Figaro, Handelsblatt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Euractiv and Al Jazeera.
He advises the Japanese government, bureaucracy, and the private sector in various capacities.
Konark is a lawyer who contributes regularly to discussions on the semiconductor ecosystem, with his contributions being acknowledged in the SIA-IESA semiconductor “readiness assessment” report under the iCET (initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) between the U.S. and India.
He has also researched certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm. He had earlier worked at India’s antitrust regulator – the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where he was a member of the Internal Coordination Committee on the Think Tank on Digital Markets.
George Tan – is a semiconductor and IT industry stalwart, he led the export control team at a PwC and a US legal firm; Bryan Cave, helping to grow and develop that practice in Asia. George started to involve in export control since 1985. He is familiar with Asian export control regimes and is an advisor to multinational corporations, small & medium enterprises and sovereign clients on strategic goods controls, with a particular focus on compliance and enforcement.
Michiel Sweers is Deputy Director-General for Enterprise & Innovation and Director of the Innovation & Knowledge Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. He obtained his Masters in Economics (with distinction) from the University of Limburg at Maastricht (now Maastricht University) in 1994, successfully participated in a postgraduate year for financial and economic policy advisers at Erasmus University Rotterdam and has since followed several courses in public finance, tax policy and environmental policy at the London School of Economics and at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr Sweers started his professional career in 1996 at the Ministry of Finance as an economic policy adviser. Following this, he worked as deputy head of the Budget Policy Division and as head of the Export Credit Insurance and Investment Guarantees Division. Between 2006 and 2010 he was Deputy Director of the Labour Market and Socioeconomic Affairs Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. His last position saw him return to the Ministry of Finance, where he served as Deputy Director-General for Tax & Customs Policy and Legislation. In this capacity, he chaired and participated in several advisory committees on tax reform. In his current post as Director of the Innovation & Knowledge Department, Mr Sweers is responsible for Dutch innovation policy. This includes national innovation instruments and budgets, promoting public-private partnerships through the ‘Top Sector Approach’, multilateral and bilateral innovation cooperation, space policy, and intellectual property policy. As Deputy Director-General for Enterprise & Innovation, he is also active in the broader area of enterprise policy.
Ben Scott is a Senior Advisor at the National Security College. He has over 25 years’ experience in diplomacy, think tanks, intelligence and international development. His last job was at the Lowy Institute, where he directed a project on Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order and at the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), which he represented in Washington, DC from 2016-2020. Ben has published widely on national security decision making, international order, US grand strategy and competition with China, cyber strategy and intelligence.
Daisuke Kawai is a Project Assistant Professor and the Deputy Director of the Economic Security Program at RCAST, The University of Tokyo.
He also holds the position of Senior Researcher at the Keio SFC Institute, Asia Fellow at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the Strategic Advisor to the Quad Investors Network (QUIN).
Previously, he was a Research Fellow for Indo-Pacific Affairs at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), and Research Fellow at GRIPS.
In 2024, he has been nominated as a David Rockefeller Fellow (DRF) of the Trilateral Commission, and the head of DRF Asia-Pacific Group.
Manoj Harjani is a Research Fellow and Coordinator in the Military Transformations Programme (MTP) within the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. Prior to joining MTP, Manoj was part of the Future Issues and Technology research cluster at RSIS, where he worked on building up the school’s research agenda and networks at the intersection of science, technology, and national security.
Mina Takazawa is the Director of Government Affairs at CELA Microsoft Japan, where she has developed advocacy strategies on the company’s most critical business and regulatory issues. Her areas for focus are cybersecurity and sustainability. Prior to this, she was a Japanese diplomat since 2003, havineg served as Senior Policy Coordinator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Political Counsellor at the Japan Embassy in Russia, and as a First Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Japan Embassy in the US.
Started career in cybersecurity at Trend Micro in 2011. Currently leading a group of threat researchers in Trend Micro Cybersecurity Institute. Also experienced in cybersecurity incident response, and capbalitiy building.
A corporate representative at Japan Cybercrime Control Center.
Sandy is OpenAI’s head of policy for the Asia Pacific region. Previously, she held several policy and governance roles at Meta, served as a U.S. diplomat, and led the International Rescue Committee’s legal access program for displaced persons along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Ralph is the founder and is the current Chief Executive Officer of Senti.AI, the leading AI company in the Philippines. With 8 years of experience as an educator and researcher at De La Salle University, Manila, he expanded his boundaries and help organizations adapt to AI. His research work is focused on applying Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence in advancements in Philippine Language, sentiment analysis, and disaster management. He was selected and recognized by Google as one of the global Google Developer Experts for Machine Learning since 2019.
Isha Suri is a Research Lead at the Centre for Internet and Society, India where she manages the research verticals on telecommunications, digital competition, internet governance and new and emerging technology. She co-authored the Market Study on the Telecom Sector in India (2021), commissioned by the Competition Commission of India and is a member of several research bodies including the Data Governance Network, India, and the India Internet Governance Forum. She has also worked as a consultant with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, India.
Kristi Govella is Associate Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St. Antony’s College. Her research examines the intersection of economics, security, and governance in the Indo-Pacific, including economic statecraft, government-business relations, regional institutions, alliances, and global commons governance. She is an Adjunct Fellow at East-West Center and Pacific Forum and Editor of the journal Asia Policy. She previously held positions at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Harvard University, and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
Aiko Shimizu is the AI National Skills Director at Microsoft and an Adjunct Fellow at the Pacific Forum.
Prior to her current role, Aiko held various roles, including at Twitter, BMW and Daimler urban mobility joint venture SHARE NOW, Bloomberg, the United Nations, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Aiko received her graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She received her Bachelor’s degree with Honors in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Chicago.
Louis P. Alarcón received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, in 1995 and 2002 respectively and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010. He has been a faculty member of the University of the Philippines Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute since 1995, and is a faculty affiliate and laboratory head of the Microelectronics and Microprocessors Laboratory. His research interests are centered on the design of very low energy integrated circuits and systems for resilient large-scale sensor networks.
Jeff is an experienced private and public sector executive leader and manager and seasoned innovator. His first career was in the Australian Federal Government in law enforcement working in transnational and organised crime. He then moved to the private sector operating from the UK and Australia for global IT startups, large multinational tech companies, systems integrators and consulting before creating EarlyBirds with Kris Poria. In recent years, he has been engaged with Australian and allied nations defence, national security and Fortune 500 companies assisting them to develop and implement critical technology enabling strategies and solve ‘wicked technical problems’.
Dr. Quimba is a Senior Research Fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. He is concurrently the Project Director of the Philippine APEC study center network (PASCN). His research interests include trade and industry development, innovation, e-commerce, and regional integration. He has contributed to chapters to books and published papers related to Philippine industry development and innovation activity. His most recent book contribution is the Philippine perspective published as a chapter in “The Making of the Indo-Pacific Economic Frameworks (IPEF)”
