James Hewes started his career in media working at BBC Worldwide, the commercial division of the BBC, the UK state broadcaster. He worked in their publishing business, BBC Magazines, from 2001 to 2012 building a track record of success in marketing, digital and print media, events and international business development.

He was the launch Publisher of olive magazine and grew BBC Magazines’ licensing portfolio from 8 to 55 editions including 20 editions of Top Gear Magazine. James was also a key member of the team that sold BBC Magazines to private equity in November 2011 for £120m and was Publishing Director for Top Gear, Good Food, Easy Cook and Lonely Planet Magazine, responsible for the brands across print and mobile applications. He was also a Director of the BBC Haymarket Exhibitions joint venture.

As Publishing Director of Dubai-based Gulf News Publishing from 2013 to 2016, he had responsibility for more than 30 product areas and launched new brands across digital, live events and print including the group’s first consumer title in Arabic. He was then Interim CEO of The Art Newspaper from 2016-2017 whilst also running his own company, Soho Consulting.

Melissa Bell is the co-founder and publisher of Vox, the genre-defining cultural affairs publication that reaches millions of people across its award-winning podcasts, television shows, digital video platforms and website.

Melissa previously oversaw all the editorial networks at Vox Media, the parent company of its flagship brand Vox, as well as its other publications SB Nation, Eater, The Verge, Curbed, Recode, and Polygon. In 2019 and 2021, Melissa helped to negotiate the acquisitions and mergers with New York Magazine and Group Nine, as well as the 2023 investment for NowThis News in partnership with Accelerate Change.

Vox Media is the fastest growing modern media company known for its standout technology, high-fidelity advertising, and editorial networks that go deeper into the topics passionate people care about most. Melissa has been named one of the Most Connected Women by Marie Claire, Most Powerful Women in Washington by the Washingtonian, and a top media Changemaker by Digiday.

Benny Luo is the founder of NextShark.com, a leading AAPI media company covering news, business, politics, entertainment, and culture that reaches up to 20 million people per week across social platforms. NextShark has been cited by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, BBC, CNN, Fox, and more and has led coverage of anti-Asian violence since the beginning of 2020.

Previously, he was the founder of NewMediaRockstars.com, a leading media company covering digital entertainment that was acquired in 2013. In 2018, Luo was inducted into the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Media.

Elaine is the head of visual media for APAC at Bloomberg News, overseeing visual coverage of current events in business, finance and politics, and producing visuals for impactful storytelling. The APAC team’s coverage of the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong won the SOPA Award for Excellence in News Photography.

Prior to Bloomberg, Elaine was assignment editor for News in APAC at Getty Images, after starting her career on the picture desk at the Australian Associated Press in Sydney.

Silva Shih is responsible for the cross-strait international and digital narrative teams at CommonWealth Magazine. She is also the co-founder of the transnational news community, Hacks/Hackers Taipei.

Adrian has served in roles related to digital content and mobile service strategy and partnerships in the Asia-Pacific and European regions for the past 20 years.

He was responsible for managing Google Pay's partner relationships with European merchants. Now, he is in charge of Google's news partner relationships in Taiwan, with his jurisdiction including both Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Over the past three years, he has been responsible for facilitating the cooperation between Taiwanese news media and publishing industry with Google, promoting various initiatives including the Google News Initiative (GNI), product collaborations, and different digital transformation programs.

Eric Lee is the VP of Greater China at Taboola, the world’s largest content discovery platform. Taboola serves over 450 billion recommendations of content, products, and services to over 1.3 billion unique online users every month.

Eric is a digital native with more than a decade of working experience in Taiwan, China and the US. Before joining Taboola, Eric was the Chief Operating Officer of JD.com Blackdrogan, responsible for the operation of JD’s proprietary data and marketing solution platform. Prior to joining Blackdrogan, Eric was the Head of Platform Partnership for Greater China and Korea at Google.; leading programmatic buying and performance marketing, Google Ad Exchange, and strategic partnership developments for top clients.

Mr. Hsueh-Hai Hu has been serving as the President of Chunghwa Telecom Consumer Business Group since July 2023. In this role, he leads teams to promote the integration of fixed-line, mobile, and Wi-Fi networks, creating an “Always Broadband Connected” broadband environment, and is dedicated to developing innovative smart life services. Recently, in response to the government’s policy, Chunghwa Telecom has actively cooperated with domestic content providers to support Taiwan’s original content.

He has accumulated over 37 years of experience in the telecommunication market since he joined Telecom Laboratories in 1986. He held various management positions, including Managing Director of Marketing Department of Mobile Business Group, Deputy VP of Marketing Department of Chunghwa Telecom, President of New Taipei Branch of North Business Group, VP of Mobile Business Group, and VP of Consumer Business Group respectively.

Mr. Hu had received his M.S. degree in Transportation and Communication Management Science from National Cheng Kung University.

Ryan Takeshita: Chief Global Editor at PIVOT, a Tokyo-based media startup focusing on business and global issues.

Ryan was Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost Japan and reporter for The Asahi Shimbun. He was a visiting fellow at Stanford University.

Premesh Chandran is the Regional Program Director for the Asia Pacific Regional Office responsible for leading the design and implementation of strategies that maximize our effectiveness in supporting human rights and expanding democratic inclusion in the Asia Pacific region.

Premesh provides Open Society with a nuanced understanding of the social, economic, and political factors that drive change across the region, coupled with an entrepreneurial and problem-solving approach grounded in his business experience. He has expertise in new media and technology and understands the importance of analytics in shaping strategy.

Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, Premesh spent more than two decades successfully leading efforts to protect and promote free speech and independent journalism in Malaysia. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia’s most popular independent news website. Despite operating in a challenging political environment, Chandran oversaw the expansion of Malaysiakini’s readership to more than 8 million people in English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil.

Chandran also co-founded Asia Mobiliti, a technology company focused on improving public transportation and logistics. Chandran is a TED senior fellow and has served as a business coach to more than 60 companies. In 2010, he received the Asia Foundation’s Chang-Lin Tan Fellowship.

With nearly 20 years of integrated marketing experience in various independent & network agencies like George P. Johnson, Jonathan has taken on key leadership roles, with a proven track record in business growth and expansion specialising in experiential and B2B marketing.

In his last role, Jonathan was Senior Vice President / Managing Director at MOI Global, an award winning multi-specialist global B2B agency in the business of creativity, where he reported to Global CEO and was part of Global Leadership Team. During his tenure, he grew the agency’s revenue 16-fold, expanded from 3 to 65 full-time staff and picked up over 15 industry awards in 6.5 years. As head of APAC, Jonathan even managed to grow the business during the COVID-19 pandemic by pivoting to virtual events & account based marketing (ABM).

Skilled in stakeholder management, P&L management, business development, product development and marketing communications, Jonathan’s expertise lies in building world class teams, growing businesses rapidly, and developing intelligent solutions that help clients to differentiate, transform and grow. Over the last 2 decades, Jonathan has delivered award-winning events and campaigns for FSI, luxury, government and tech brands like UBS, Prudential, Google Cloud, Facebook, Cartier, Starwood Hotels & Singapore Tourism Board.

With technology changing the way we live and play, Jonathan is passionate about connecting with people the human way and the art of storytelling. In his new role as Chief Growth Officer at TSL (The Smart Local), he looks forward to doing that on a larger scale by shaping the future of hyperlocal content for a growing ecosystem and developing end to end creative solutions for the world's largest brands.

Career highlights include:

• Clinching double Gold awards for B2B Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year at Marketing Magazine’s Agency of the Year Awards
• Industry awards for Best Business Event, Best Multichannel Campaign, Excellence in Integrated Marketing
• Speaking at MICE Show Asia 2022 to industry audience about the future of MICE and business travel as the world starts to open up
• Doubling revenue for 2 consecutive years (100% YoY growth for 2018 & 2019)

Motoko Imada is the CEO and founder of Mediagene Inc. and the founder of Infobahn Inc. She is a highly influential figure in the digital media industry, having founded Mediagene in 1998 and developed it into a company that publishes 15 digital media brands, including Business Insider Japan, GIZMODO, and Lifehacker, with a total of 30 million unique users per month.

She began her career in the publishing industry in 1991, where she was involved in editing, publishing, and negotiating overseas copyright deals for books and magazines. In 1994, she played a key role in launching WIRED Japan as its business manager.

In 2015, Imada established Infobahn Inc, a digital agency, through a new split-off company. She was a fellow at Dentsu Institute from January to December 2018, and since 2022, she has served as a committee member for the Keizai doyukai, Association of Corporate Executives.

Imada's numerous accomplishments include winning the Web Grand Prix Web Person Award in 2013, serving as a mentor for the EY Women Entrepreneur Accelerator Program. Imada's innovative leadership in the digital media industry has paved the way for many entrepreneurs in Japan and beyond.

CM Liu, who served as the 8th Honorary Chairman of MBAT, is a seasoned media professional with over 25 years experience in fashion, luxury, media planning, event marketing, and public relations. He earned an MBA in Media Management from Fordham University, New York, and has held various positions at Condé Nast Taiwan for over 20 years.

CM is committed to media integration and combining different resources into innovative all-media service solutions for clients. He has also spearheaded the introduction of many new initiatives to the local market and, under his transformative leadership, digital revenue at Condé Nast Taiwan surpassed print in 2017, while revenue records continue to tumble each year.

He has also firmly established Vogue Taiwan as the number one brand in the industry, where it consistently outperforms key competitors on social media platforms.

Lily Wang, the current director of the Digital Business Division at TVBS, possesses over 20 years of experience in B2C, B2B product, and commercial strategy planning. Her expertise spans a range of fields including entertainment, media, and OTT streaming platforms. Lily Wang has held vital roles in product and strategic marketing at companies such as Yahoo Kimo, Taiwan Mobile, and KKBOX. At TVBS, she is devoted to leading the company in digital transformation and fostering innovation within her team.

During 2022-2023, Lily Wang focused on strengthening the digital setup of TVBS. Her emphasis on data and agile culture enabled her to successfully enhance TVBS's digital influence, monetization capacity, and technological application strength, thereby establishing TVBS's leading position in the digital media space. In 2023, the Health 2.0 interactive digital service she led won the APB+ 2023 "Excellence Award of Media Transformation." Lily Wang took it a step further by steering her team to collaborate with HTC, successfully bringing the reality show "Being Busy with Just Glamping" into the metaverse domain. Leveraging her forward-looking vision and rich experience, Lily continues to exert a leading role in the digital media industry.

Chia Lun is responsible for Talent Sustainabilty@CW, a digital initiative focused on helping organizations attain talent sustainability and transforming Taiwan into a talent magnet. Previously, Chia Lun held positions including senior reporter, special assistant to the Chairperson, digital transformation director and business operation director. She was responsible for digital subscriptions, global partner development, and organizational development projects. Prior to joining CommonWealth Magazine, Chia Lun had worked in China, Germany and France in fields of human resource, marketing and journalism. She has degrees from Columbia Journalism School and Sciences Po in Paris.

Co-founder, editor in chief, and podcaster of Business Next media, www.bnext.com.tw, established in 1999 in Taiwan focusing on hi-tech and internet economy.

During John’s 30 years of career as journalist and editor, he covered various area, from semiconductor, computer, communication, software to internet. He has done one on one interviews with numerous industry heavyweight leaders, including Bill Gates, Andy Grove, Larry Ellison, John Chambers, Michael Dell, Steve Wozniak, Jerry Yang, and Jack Ma.

In addition, he has also done quite a few international special reports exploring the competitive edge of countries like Israel, Finland, Singapore, and South Korea regarding their respective technology development.

John got his bachelor’s degree in Power Mechanical Engineering in Tsinghua University, and his master’s degree in Journalism in Taiwan University.

He can be reached at john@bnext.com.tw

• Ph. D. of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University.
• Founder CEO of Pubu / Chairman of Taiwan E-book Associaton / Suervisor of MBAT / Suervisor of TDPF
• JT founded Nuazure Innovative Technology in 2009 and launched the Pubu eBookstore service (www.pubu.com.tw) in 2010. It was Taiwan's first digital content platform that combined both C2C and B2C business models, encompassing media types such as eBooks, eMagazines, audiobooks, and video courses. The platform currently boasts nearly 400,000 publications and over a million registered members.

Raime Chu has been in the journalism industry for 30 years; he has worked in the newspaper and magazine industries, and he is currently leading the company through a digital transformation.

Experience:

• Assistant Managing Director of Studio Classroom
• Executive Supervisor of Magazine Business Association of Taipei
• Director of Taiwan Digital Publishing Alliance
• Director of the Chinese Christian Literature Association
• Taiwan Top 100 MVP Managers in 2013

Introduction:
Joseph Tsai has been participating in the planning, development, and marketing of internationally award-winning digital products for Studio Classroom. Tsai has also led a project team that worked with LINE to launch a daily English learning service with over 2.3 million subscribers.

In addition to his involvement in the digital business, he has been engaged in international affairs, which include the regular publication of three periodicals in mainland China and the broadcast of television and radio programs in the US and Europe regions.

Tsai was selected as one of the "Taiwan Top 100 MVP Managers" in 2013. He currently serves as a director of the Taiwan Digital Publishing Alliance and the Chinese Christian Literature Association.