Maree Myerscough
General Counsel, Asia & Pacific
Conergy Asia & ME Pte. Ltd.
Maree is the General Counsel, Asia & Pacific for Conergy, a renewable energy company focused on downstream solar energy solutions.

At Conergy, Maree is a member of the senior management team and responsible for managing Conergy’s legal affairs in the Asia Pacific region.  She provides legal advice and transaction support for each of Conergy’s business units.  Maree also provides strategic advice to the directors on investment opportunities, corporate governance and general commercial matters and helps to manage and mitigate disputes across the region. Prior to joining Conergy, Maree worked with another renewable energy company where she focused on project financing renewable energy projects across the region.

Before moving to an in-house role, Maree was a senior associate at Latham & Watkins in Singapore and gained extensive transactional experience in all areas of project development and financing. Maree was actively involved in the pro bono community, serving in various roles to facilitate pro bono opportunities for international lawyers in Singapore. Maree is qualified to practice law in Australia and England & Wales and has been based in Singapore for ten years.  

Speakers And Panellists

Kent Phillips
Partner
Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee
Kent has over 15 years experience as a dispute resolution lawyer, concentrating on international arbitration in both London and Singapore. Kent has conducted arbitrations under leading institutional rules in most major seats, under both civil and common applicable laws. 

His extensive trial experience includes high value commercial disputes across a number of sectors and jurisdictions. His final years in London were spent leading disputes between high profile Russian oligarchs, with merits hearing of claims involving some US$3bn. From Singapore he is routinely involved in disputes relating to services and infrastructure in the resources, energy and oil & gas sectors. These include construction and commodities matters and often involve South East Asia or India.

He conducts all stages of proceedings, from interim measures to advocacy at trial. He also holds full registration as a foreign lawyer to appear before the Singapore International Commercial Court. Kent has been recognised by Chambers Asia Pacific as a leading individual for Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (Singapore) since 2014. He regularly sits as an arbitrator and is on the SIAC panel. He is a director of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – Singapore branch.

Mark Cooper
Partner
Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee
Trusted by clients to deliver solutions in efficient and effective ways, he is the lawyer you want with you as you navigate the jurisdictions comprising the fast-developing ASEAN region.

Mark Cooper is "one of the best corporate lawyers in the market". In 2016, Asian Legal Business listed Mark in its "40 Under 40" list showcasing "40 of the brightest young legal minds in the region".

Trained in London, Mark has been in Asia for several years. He is head of the firm's Indonesia desk and works regularly on transactions in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Mark's transactional experience encompasses all of the key sectors for the region.

If you are looking at a corporate transaction in the region, Mark is the lawyer to help you execute it.

Noor Meurling
Senior Foreign Legal Consultant
Dewi Negara Fachri & Partners (in association with Hogan Lovells)
Noor Meurling is a partner at Hogan Lovells and a Senior Foreign Legal Consultant at DNFP in Jakarta. She is one of Asia's leading mergers and acquisitions practitioners, having advised in joint ventures and acquisitions within the region and internationally since 1989. Noor has practiced law in Singapore, Auckland and Jakarta.

She has been rated for in-depth experience in Indonesian investment and transactional work in the Legal 500 Asia Law Profiles and Chambers amongst other legal directories and for her strengths in simplifying complex Indonesian investment and regulatory issues. Noor is active in business and industry circles in the region and promotes a number of charity and outreach programs.

Cheng Soon Keong
Director, Advisory
BDO Singapore
Soon Keong has over 27 years of professional and commercial experience. These include operating as the CFO of a regional group listed on SGX Mainboard, the Singapore Managing Director of a NASDAQ listed professional services group and heading up a number of M&A, Corporate Finance, Valuation and GRC/SOX practices of mid-tier accounting firms in Singapore. He has also held various supervisory and managerial positions with multi-national companies and a big-four firm in his formative work years.

Swetha Vijay
Director
ComCap LLC
Swetha Vijay is a Director at ComCap LLC and heads its Asia operations. 

ComCap LLC is a global boutique investment bank with focus on technology, ecommerce and the retail ecosystem. With a presence in San Francisco, Singapore and Europe, ComCap has recently completed or has active transactions in Southeast Asia, Australia, India, United States, Europe, Japan and Latin America.

Swetha has ten years of corporate finance experience in Southeast Asia and India servicing Asia Pacific and global clients. Most recently, Swetha was a Vice President at Houlihan Lokey’s affiliate in Southeast Asia where she originated and executed various transactions in the telecommunications, technology and consumer space.

Swetha has also worked at Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance in Singapore and with DBS Bank as a part of their Mergers & Acquisitions team working on buy-side and sell-side advisory deals in the telecommunications, oil & gas and technology manufacturing sectors.

Swetha has experience working on two tech startups in Singapore.

She graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India (MBA) and has a Bachelors degree in Engineering.

Darrell Chan
Vice-President, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific
Head Of Corporate Legal & Public Regulatory Affairs, APAC.
Heading the legal and public regulatory affairs teams in APAC, Darrell is responsible for Discovery's legal, regulatory, licensing and corporate affairs dossier in the region. Supporting Discovery's ambitious plans, he oversees the Group’s growing portfolio of equity stakes in new businesses, coordinates its external affairs, and leads, with the rest of the APAC leadership team based in Singapore, Discovery’s transformation from a traditional media business into an innovative digitally-focused company.

With over a decade dealing with TMT issues in-house, Darrell is well versed with the fast-changing and dynamic landscape in the high technology and media sector.

Before joining Discovery, Darrell was Head of Legal for Expedia Asia, and was responsible for the company’s legal, public policy and corporate governance work. Interfacing with tax, finance and other key stakeholders, Darrell and his team led the charge to solve complex legal and regulatory issues, and open up markets in Asia, including India, Taiwan, Korea and China. 

Dag Ove Solsvik
Legal Counsel/Advokat
Head of DNV GL Group Legal, Region Middle East, Asia & Pacific
DNV GL - Group Legal - Singapore
Dag Ove is responsible for the legal operations of the DNV GL Group in Region Middle East, Asia & Pacific. He advises the divisional, regional and country management teams on various legal issues such as contracts, claims/litigation, governmental affairs/statutory requirements, restructuring, M&A and other legal issues that arise in the day to day operations of the DNV GL Group in the various jurisdictions in his region. Solsvik qualified in Norway and has previously served as a deputy judge in his home country. He has also worked in the Norwegian ministries and as external lawyer with both contentious and non-contentious matters. He joined DNV GL Group in 2011, working at its Oslo headquarters as corporate counsel before moving to Shanghai in 2013 as head of group legal region APAC. He moved to Singapore in 2016 in the same role after an internal reorganization.

Andre Toh, CVA, FCPA (Australia), CA (Singapore)
Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, 
ASEAN Valuation and Business Modelling Leader, 
Ernst & Young Solutions LLp
Andre Toh is a partner with more than 20 years of experience in Ernst & Young Transaction Advisory Services in Singapore. He is the ASEAN leader for Valuation & Business Modelling, and market segment leader for Government & Public Sector. In his daily work, he assists clients in their capital agenda through advanced decision modelling, assessing business sustainability, and valuations. 

Andre speaks regularly at forums and conferences on valuations, and has written various thought leadership articles on the subject. He has appeared as an expert in the Courts of Singapore as well as arbitration proceedings.

Andre is a Chartered Valuer and Appraiser with the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers of Singapore (IVAS), a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and a Fellow of CPA Australia.

Vivek Chhabra
Head Of M&A
F&N Ltd
Vivek Chhabra is a Chartered Accountant with more than 30 years experience in FMCG space. From 1985, Vivek spent 10 years with RJR Nabisco's food business in India and in Singapore. From 1995, for almost 20 years Vivek was with Heineken's Asia Pacific Joint venture, initially as Country Finance Manager in Papua New Guinea and in Vietnam and then as Finance Director for Asia Pacific. From 2004 to 2014, Vivek was Director Regional Business Development when he spearheaded the group's entry into several emerging and frontier markets across Asia Pacific via greenfield, M&A, joint venture, etc. In all, Vivek completed more than 20 transactions valued at USD 1.25 billion. From 2007, Vivek was also the Regional Director for South Asia overseeing the 3 plants in South Asia.

Vivek joined Thai Beverages/Fraser & Neave in April 2015 and has worked as President of the soft drinks business in Thailand before returning to Singapore recently to head the M&A function for the region.Vivek has received awards from governmental bodies in Vietnam and India and has also been a member of World Bank/IFC Private Sector Reform program in Vietnam, the Industry and Finance sub-committee of the GPC in Singapore and was the Vice Chairman of the South Asia Business Group in the Singapore Business Federation. 

Gavin Ingram
General Counsel Asia Pacific and Vice President Strategic Planning
Global Blue
Gavin Ingram is General Counsel Asia Pacific and Vice President Strategic Planning for Global Blue. Gavin also acts as Company Secretary for Global Blue’s Singapore entities. Prior to Global Blue, Gavin was Legal Director Asia for AdventBalance which is a new and innovative law firm that seconds their lawyers to sit with the clients during the term of the secondment. Prior to AdventBalance, Gavin was General Counsel Asia for the Australian listed company BlueScope Steel (formerly BHP Steel) where Gavin managed all legal and compliance issues across BlueScope’s Asia footprint. In this role, Gavin was awarded the leading in-house counsel award in Asia-Pacific by AsiaLaw in 2007.

Gavin started his career in private practice as an infrastructure lawyer at Blake Dawson Waldron (as it then was, now Ashursts) and Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills). Gavin holds Law and Commerce degrees from Australia and most recently completed his MBA (with Honors) through the University of Chicago.

Gavin has significant experience in navigating the challenges of Asia’s diverse legal systems.

Brian Loo
Head of Mergers & Acquisitions
SMBC Nikko Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
Brian Loo is Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for SMBC Nikko Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Based in Singapore, his team is responsible for origination and execution of advisory mandates for clients involved in M&A transactions in South East Asia and Oceania.  Prior to being with SMBC Nikko, Brian had worked with other financial institutions such as Daiwa Capital Markets, HSBC, ABN AMRO as well as OCBC Bank in their respective investment banking teams.

To date, Brian has over 14 years of experience having advised clients on equity capital markets and cross-border M&A transactions focusing in South East Asia.  Brian had advised clients on various deal structures such as takeovers, business and asset sales/acquisitions, significant minority acquisitions, JV/business alliance agreements, sale auctions, distressed sale, IPOs, RTOs, secondary ECM fund raisings, private fund raisings etc.  His deal experience spans sectors such as industrials, TMT, pharmaceutical, mining, infrastructure, transport, consumer/retail and F&B.

Brian held a scholarship with and started his career in the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.  He holds a Master of Science in Applied Finance from the Singapore Management University and a Bachelor Degree (First Class Honours) in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.