Meet the advisors
Council of
Advisors
Avvanz Advisory Council
Avvanz Advisory Council consists of global veteran leaders from multiple disciplines. The Council with diverse expertise strives to guide and mentor Avvanz in paving Avvanz’s way to success. The Council acts as a resource that provides industry specific and market specific domain knowledge that include talent concerns, needs, best practices and trends. The Council also offers unbiased insights and ideas purely from a third party point of view and is not involved in the operations of Avvanz in any way.
Chia Hock Lai
Chia Hock Lai has nearly two decades of experience in the financial and technology industry, having worked in Singapore’s GovTech and NTUC Income. An alumnus of NUS and NTU, he is the founding president of Singapore Fintech Association, a founding board member of the Global Fintech Institute, and co-chairman of the Blockchain Association Singapore.
He is a council member of and strategic advisor to numerous fintech startups and organizations, such as ASEAN AFIN, IEEE C/BDL, Singapore Sichuan Trade & Investment Committee, IBF, and a Fellow of the Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS). He frequently speaks on topics related to fintech and blockchain at international events and universities.
Gary Faraci
Gary Faraci has more than 30 years of corporate leadership experience in the Technology industry. He has managed teams globally and has physically travelled to 39 US States and 37 different countries during his career. He has an in-depth exposure to diverse cultures, people and their business practices. He has worked with multiple generations and has an amazing personality that enables him to adapt to and lead the different age groups. He has even co-hosted a customer simultcast of Bill Gates discussion to 135,000 attendees. Gary has held senior leadership positions in Arrow Electronics and now is with IBM’s Watson Internet of Things in a Strategic Alliance Business Development role.
David Wee
David has spent 3 decades of his career in diverse organizations that include government agencies (National Productivity Board and Bank Negara’s ICLIF), MNCs (GE and J&J) and conglomerates (SinarMas Group). He has served in Chief Talent Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer roles across the globe.
He has managed GE’s Executive Leadership Programmes in Crotonville, New York; led leadership centres in Brussels, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo and served as a consultant to many Asian organizations that include Garuda Airlines, Samsung, Wipro and Bank Negara. David holds degrees and certificates from National University of Singapore, INSEAD, University of Michigan and MIT’s Sloan Business School. He was co-author of Lights, Camera and Action and served in an editorial capacity for the Productivity Digest and the Singapore Productivity Casebook. He has spoken at numerous conferences and delivered workshops across the world including the renowned American Society for Training and Development in Denver, Colorado. He also serves as a Board Advisor for the Institute of Advance Studies in Complex Choices,