Jessica Huang Pouleur Partner OPENSPACE VENTURES

At Openspace Ventures, Jessica leads OSV+, Openspace Ventures' mid-stage growth fund, and is a Director on the Investments team.

 She has over 14 years of growth- and late-stage investment and corporate strategy experience across Asia Pacific. Her previous roles include leading the investment team in Southeast Asia for Providence Equity Partners – a global telecommunications, media and technology sector focused private equity fund. More recently, she headed Corporate Strategy & Business Development, APAC, for The Walt Disney Company, where she helmed key strategic initiatives and M&A across the region. Earlier in her career, Jessica worked in the Healthcare Investment Banking and Asia Debt Capital Markets teams at Citigroup.

 Jessica holds a BA in Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Xue Gong Assistant Professor NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Xue Gong is Assistant Professor and deputy coordinator of Master of Science in International Political Economy programme at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is also a Non Resident Scholar at Carnegie China. Dr Gong’s current research interests include International Political Economy, China’s economic diplomacy, regionalism and governance, and geoeconomics in the Indo-Pacific. Dr Gong has contributed to leading peer-reviewed journals such as the World Development, International Affairs, the China Review, the Pacific Review, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Harvard Asia Quarterly. She has two co-edited books on the Belt and Road Initiatives and several book chapters on China’s economic statecraft, China’s corporate social responsibility and Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia. Dr Gong has also produced various op-eds, policy and working papers for international think tanks and media outlets.

Deborah Elms Founder & Executive Director ASIAN TRADE CENTRE

Dr. Deborah Elms is the Executive Director and Founder of the Asian Trade Centre (ATC) in Singapore. She is also President of the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA) and the Board Director of the Asian Trade Centre Foundation (ATCF).

Dr. Elms is on the board of the Trade and Investment Negotiation Adviser (TINA) at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). She is on the International Advisory Council for APCO (2021-Present) and was a member of the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance and Chair of the Working Group on Trade Policy and Law. She was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Trade and Investment Council for 2018-2020.

Prior to founding ATC/ATCF and the ABTA, she was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Dr. Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University.

She is the author of numerous articles, editor of several books, writes a bimonthly column for Borderlex, and regularly publishes the Talking Trade Blog at www.asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade. Dr. Elms also routinely appears on television and in major newspapers and magazines around the world to comment on trade and economic issues.  Dr. Elms is also makes frequent appearances at a range of global trade and economic workshops, conferences, capacity building sessions and negotiations.