Moderated by Phil Robinson

Phil Robinson, Principle Consultant, Lonsdale Systems, Australia; Processworks, Singapore

Phil Robinson has worked with information technology for more than thirty years.   During his lengthy career, he has been involved in the planning, analysis and implementation of a diverse range of business, engineering, scientific and technical information systems.

Phil is an experienced workshop facilitator and has led numerous workshops in the course of his consulting assignments.  He has extensive training experience, earning a reputation as a lucid and knowledgeable presenter.  Phil has presented training courses for clients in Australia, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore Taiwan and Thailand.

As well as presenting courses, Phil has authored numerous courses for industry and three University units.  Earlier in his career, he wrote two books on programming Apple computers.  The books were published in a number of countries including the USA, UK and as translations in Germany and France.  More recently, Phil has co-authored two award-winning articles describing an original organizational theory and a chapter for a book on enterprise architecture.

Phil has a degree in Electrical Engineering and has trained as a Group Work Leader.

THE PANELISTS:

Ramanathan Ramanan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CMC Ltd, India

Ramanathan Ramanan was inducted to the board of CMC in October 2001 as Director and Chief Operating Officer. In December 2003, he was elevated to the position of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Mr Ramanan is also a director of the US-based CMC Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMC.

Prior to joining CMC, Mr Ramanan was with the company's strategic partner, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he had a long and distinguished stint. He joined the organisation as a software engineer in 1981 and rose to become Vice President in 1999, two years before he made the move to CMC.

Over the past two decades Mr Ramanan has shouldered a wide range of responsibilities in India and abroad. He has held positions such as project leader and group leader and represented TCS as its overseas Regional Manager in the US. The latter period saw the organisation's American operations grew exponentially, and Mr Ramanan is credited with initiating a slew of significant relationships with several multinational companies that made the growth possible.

The 45-year-old Mr Ramanan has been exposed to a wide range of software and hardware environments. He has been associated most closely with TCS's telecom and networking practices in the US, the UK and Europe. He was a core member of the team that developed the outstanding local area network product, Falcon, an effort for which he received an award from the Computer Society of India in 1986.

From July 1996 Mr Ramanan headed TCS's Bangalore operations, which registered impressive growth while focusing on providing solutions for the financial services and telecom industries. Later, he headed TCS's strategy consulting practice and, additionally, was responsible for nurturing the organisation's relationships with Microsoft, Amex and others. He has played a key role in TCS's strategic business-development initiatives in the Asia Pacific region. Mr Ramanan continues to be an integral part of TCS's strategy group.

Roel Hernandez, President and CEO, Cheq Systems, Philippines

Roel has more than a decade's worth of experience in the fields of data communications, telecommunications, and IP network systems engineering. He has also worked in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, with several prestigious industry names.

He was one of the pioneers of Internet proliferation in the Philippines, and managed more than twelve ISP nodes across the country, including Gatesway Online (now Infocom Davao), which he built into Davao City's first-ranked Internet provider in under a year.

In 2003, he co-founded CheQ Systems, Inc. and is currently holding the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. He also holds a director position and a member of the advisory board of SeQure Technologies, a network security firm. Prior to CheQ Systems, Roel served as President of Ecommsite Solutions, a software development firm.

Bok Hai Suan, Director, Corporate Information Systems, NCS Pte. Ltd.

Bok Hai Suan is the Director of Corporate Information Systems in NCS Pte. Ltd. Bok oversees the Group’s IT policies, information systems and infrastructure in the region. He has more than 20 years of experience in the various aspects of Infocomm Management.

A frequent speaker in conferences, he has also contributed articles to books and magazines. He is a member of the Singapore Computer Society and a certified IT Project manager.