Rising above recession: the data-led approach

Leandro Perez leads marketing across the Asia-Pacific region for Salesforce. Previously at Salesforce, Mr Perez led the global corporate messaging team, which is responsible for crafting and disseminating the Salesforce corporate narrative to 50,000 employees and to millions of customers globally each year. 

He has worked for TIBCO, HP and Autonomy and holds a bachelor of computer science (honours) from the University of New South Wales. Born in Argentina, raised in Sydney, with extensive time abroad in the United States, Mr Perez now lives in Sydney.

Siew Choo Soh is the chief information officer for Asia at MetLife. She is responsible for end-to-end technology delivery, partnering with the business to build leading digital experiences for customers.

Previously she was the head of technology for consumer banking and big data and artificial intelligence at DBS Bank. She was responsible for driving the bank’s digital transformation and AI-driven agenda and its adoption of agile ways of working and cloud-native architecture.

Ms Soh has over two decades of experience in senior technology leadership roles in corporate and investment banking, having worked for J.P. Morgan across Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong before joining DBS. She is also an avid advocate for women in technology, driving innovative initiatives in areas including mentorship, allyship, recruitment and retention. She was named as an honoree in IBM’s Women Leaders in AI lists for 2019 and 2021.

In 2020 she was also recognised as an awardee in the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech List organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Computer Society. In addition, she has received a Distinguished Computing Alumni Service Award from her alma mater, the National University of Singapore School of Computing, for bringing honour to the university in her career.

Asha Poulose Johnson is the vice-president for data analytics at GE Healthcare. In this role she is responsible for driving profitability and growth in support of GE Healthcare’s key priorities by putting data to work. With a team spread across the United States, Europe and South Asia, she oversees areas including the creation of data-based artificial intelligence and machine learning products, data management, and data platforms, building on a cloud-native strategy for enterprise and IoT data. She is also the chief information officer for the business’s intercontinental region consisting of Asia (excluding China) and Latin America.

She has more than 25 years of digital and management experience, with deep expertise in developing digital strategy to achieve the business imperatives of GE and its customers. She is highly experienced in data analytics, software product development, and building and leading high-performing global teams in global and regional roles. In addition, she is passionate about working with early-career staff and academia, and about aiding diversity initiatives.

She holds a master’s degree in engineering from IIT Mumbai and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from NIT Calicut. She is a steering committee member of the centre of excellence for data science and artificial intelligence of NASSCOM, the apex body for the IT industry in India. She is the recipient of numerous industry recognitions, most recently being named one of the world’s leading enterprise data leaders for 2022 by CDO Magazine.

Nick Merry is the head of partner and member analytics at Flybuys, an Australian loyalty programme with over 8m members. An experienced consumer analytics leader, he is skilled at helping organisations maximise the benefits of data and analytics.

With more than 20 years of experience in telecommunications, retail, financial services and utilities, on the client and service side, Mr Merry takes a pragmatic approach to the development and implementation of analytics and data strategies to support commercial outcomes. After starting his career in the mining industry in the late 1980s, he moved into retail and consumer analytics in 2000 and has seen a range of industries respond to boom and bust cycles over this time.

Charles Ross is currently director of thought leadership research for Asia, where he covers a territory spanning from Australia to India. His team works with many Western multinationals from the Fortune 500 but increasingly with Asian multinationals, governments, small and medium-sized enterprises, and high-growth technology firms as well.

Mr Ross is currently based in Singapore and has most recently managed the region’s technology research practice. He has led a number of projects analysing the implication for business of new technology trends such as blockchain, fintech, smart cities, big data, cloud computing, entrepreneurship and the internet of things, for Hitachi, Cisco, Telstra, Microsoft, Wipro, Akamai and the Singapore government. He is a frequent speaker at finance and technology events, recently giving keynote presentations at events in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.

Prior to joining The Economist Group, Mr Ross ran an investor-communications consultancy where he managed stakeholder research projects and developed an index that tracked the corporate-governance practices of emerging-markets companies. Prior to that he founded a firm that manages initial public offerings across Europe, North America and Asia.

Mr Ross holds a master of business administration, focusing on strategy and organisational change, from the University of Oxford.