Advisory Board - ASEAN

Judy Bei is the Global Head of Payments and Receivables at Standard Chartered Bank. Based in Singapore, Judy has more than 15 years experience in cash management in the United States and in Asia. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Judy was in various global and regional leadership roles at Citigroup in New York, managing institutional and consumer transaction banking products. She launched the world’s first open loop transit payment platform in New York and advised Fortune 500 corporations on cash management needs. At the beginning of her career, Judy spent four years in management consulting helping multi-national corporations develop growth strategies. Judy was born in China and possesses an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. She has three daughters and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

Grace has over a decade of experience in advising financial institutions and payments companies on regulatory matters in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Singapore and Hong Kong. A former in-house counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Grace regularly interacts with key regulators, and is closely involved in regional regulatory reform initiatives.

Grace is a strong advocate for digital innovation, investments and critical infrastructural transformation. She is a payments specialist and has advised multinational technology companies, digital assets exchanges and brokers, , and other trade finance and e-commerce companies in relation to licensing and payments services regulations in Asia. Grace sits on the board of Singapore's key blockchain association, ACCESS, and is part of the AML Working Group of Global Digital Finance.

Grace is also an IAPP Fellow of Information Privacy, and sits on the IAPP Women Leading Privacy Board where she is the key representative for Asia.

Meghan Connolly joined American Express in November 2018 as SVP & GM, GNS Asia Pacific where she is responsible for our Global Network Partnerships where we partner with banks across the region for card issuing and acquiring.

Meghan joined from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore where she has worked for the past 12 years in a variety of roles leading product, marketing, credit and operational functions in over 25 markets across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. She has been responsible for a wide range of financial retail products, from deposits and mortgages to personal loans and credit cards. She has overseen these portfolios creating customer communications strategies, implementing card acquisition and activation programs, and developing customer segmentation strategies.

Meghan has a proven track record of leading large and diverse teams to deliver strong business growth. She is a strategic thinker, a customer advocate, and a strong relationship manager. Prior to Standard Chartered Bank, Meghan spent 10 years at MBNA in roles of increasing responsibility in marketing, risk and credit card operations. She brings a global perspective having lived and worked in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Singapore.

Meghan frequently speaks on leadership and diversity. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and continued her executive education at Oxford University in the U.K. Meghan is married with two children and puppy named Chester. This year she is attempting to master golf (again).

Michelle started her career in business development covering the enterprise and public sectors in ASEAN before joining Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) in 2011. Passionate about the money market, she leverages her background in technology and finance to provide innovative, customized solutions for WUBS clients. 

She has spoken in various events in the last few years. She recently joined the Women In Payments Advisory Board and cherishes the opportunity to contribute further to the financial services industry. 

Michelle holds two postgraduate degrees – MSc (Financial Engineering) and MSc (Information Systems). She is also a CMS Licensee representative for WUBS Financial Services. 

Jasmin joined DBS Bank Limited in Apr 2009. She currently heads the Group Cash Product Management covering Group Corporates Payables, Receivables and Deposits products. From Sep 2016 to July 2018, she was in charge of the Singapore Cash Product Management team to grow the SG Corporate Cash business. Prior to Sep 2016, Jasmin led the Singapore Institutional Banking Group Operations and was a member of the Singapore Management Committee in DBS.

Prior to joining DBS, Jasmin was an Executive Director with JP Morgan Chase Bank NA, Singapore where she managed the Asia Pacific Futures & Options Brokerage and House businesses for 10 years and then moved on to lead Emerging Markets Investment Banking operations that spanned across 9 countries in Asia region. In 2008, she worked in Merrill Lynch Global Services and led their Global Wealth Management Services hub operations supporting both Asia Pacific and EMEA markets.

Jasmin started her professional career at Singapore Exchange Limited (formerly known as Singapore International Monetary Exchange), where she led the operations, risk management & project management teams within the Clearing House division from 1991 - 1996.

Jasmin received Bachelor of Business Administration from National University of Singapore.

As VP, Head of Partnerships, Gajia works with financial institution partners around the world to expand Airwallex's payment network and end-to-end financial services platform. She and her team also work with other global technology platforms on joint initiatives to provide businesses of all sizes with a truly borderless financial services experience.

Before joining Airwallex, Gajia was the Director of Strategic Partnerships - Financial Services & Ecosystem for Xero's business in Asia where she led a team responsible for partnerships with major banks and non-bank financial services providers across Asia, as well as growing Xero's ecosystem of API connected applications, creating a platform of integrated solutions for small businesses and their advisors.

Gajia has held various roles across financial services in London, Melbourne and Singapore and has worked directly with the private wealth, small businesses, institutional and retail sectors.

Akita has over 19 years of diverse experience in retail financial services and payments, having worked with companies such as Elavon, Mastercard, Visa, Barclays, HSBC and Citi, across different roles in business transformation, propositions, strategy and business development. Having lived and worked in five different countries, she brings a rich understanding of markets at different stages of development, across Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa. She completed her Bachelors from Delhi University and MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur. Akita is passionate about people and building relationships, and was included in LinkedIn’s first set of Power Profiles for Singapore in 2013.

Christine Tan (Jang) is Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific – Financial Institutions Group for Wholesale Payments, based in Singapore. In this role, she will assume leadership responsibility for banks, broker-dealers and non-bank financial institutions portfolios across the region, providing strategic advice and capturing opportunities to grow our business with both existing and new clients

Prior to this position, Christine was Head of Treasury Services, ASEAN for responsible for embedding the end-to-end TS model in every market across Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, ensuring resiliency and robustness in product offering, service model and control environment. She was also the Head of multinational corporates (MNCs) for Asia Pacific for five years and has a wealth of MNC experience in the region across multiple key markets. Christine joins J.P. Morgan from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), where she was Head of Regional Treasury Sales for South Asia, with responsibility for developing and executing the sales strategy for pan-Asia subsidiary business of multinational clients and for large corporates in the region. Prior to her time at BAML, Christine spent 12 years at Citi in a number of regional roles, including head of the Hong Kong Global Subsidiaries Group.

Christine also worked as an analyst covering Asian airlines and airports earlier in her career, where she also engaged in aircraft financing through structured trade finance, global cash management and fuel hedging for airlines.

Christine holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Kansas, USA.