We are incredibly excited to welcome a distinguished guest on today's podcast. While we typically delve into conversations with CIOs and technologists, today we're shifting gears with Mukta Arya, the Chief Human Resources Officer for Asia Pacific at Societe Generale. Mukta brings a wealth of experience in HR leadership, and we are thrilled to have her join us to share her insights.

I also discovered that she is the author of several thought-provoking books, including a collection of intense poems that I am gradually reading to fully appreciate and absorb!

We are going to take a little detour from the usual theme of our podcasts today. Our client is a senior technologist and the CIO of a major bank but that's not the accomplishment we want to focus on for today. Instead, we're going to talk about running.
Chang has run several 1000 kilometres and has finished several challenging runs in Hong Kong including the Four Trails. He does all this being a family man with 3 children and a demanding job! Today we will talk about how he got into running and we'll focus on two of his epic runs. The Pekoe Trail in Sri Lanka which he helped inaugurate and his attempted Camino De Santiago run (600+ km). So let me extend a warm welcome to the one and only Chang!

Background

Mental toughness

Physical toughness

Family

Connection between running and work

Random questions

The Sri Lankan trail

Camino De Santiago trail

To finish:

Today on The Pinpoint Asia Podcast, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Toa Charm, a visionary leader who has a wealth of experience in the technology space. 

With over three decades of experience across AI, Big Data, FinTech, corporate innovation, and entrepreneurship, Dr. Charm has held senior positions at global giants like HSBC, IBM, and Oracle. 

He’s the founding chairman of the Data Literacy Association (DaLa), driving data empowerment across industries, and a key mentor to some of Asia’s most promising start-ups. 

Our goal today is to understand more about DaLa, why he chose to start this association and the benefits of being a member of DaLa.

First of all, let me welcome Dr Charm to the podcast!

1. DaLa’s Vision and Mission

2. Data Literacy Empowerment and Digital Transformation

3. DaLa’s Impact on the Industry

4. Personal Insights and Future Goals

5. DaLa Events and Awards

Introduction:

We've all been hearing about AI and how it's about to take over the world!

Today on the Pinpoint Asia Podcast, we are honoured to have Kevin Pereira, MD of Blu Limited which is a consulting firm that specializes in Artificial Intelligence. He is also a guest lecturer at HKUST and teaches 'Big Data in Finance' and 'AI in Marketing' to MBAs and MFin students. We are going to ask him many questions pertaining to AI to learn more about the topic.

Questions:

1. Background & Career Journey:

2. The Role of AI in Business Transformation:

3. AI Innovation & Trends:

4. Challenges & Ethical Considerations:

5. Future of AI:

6. Inspiration & Advice:

I have always wanted to speak to our podcast guest today to learn how he consistently maintains a smile while managing what I imagine to be a very high-pressure job as a global CIO for a top financial conglomerate. Let me welcome Pradeep Hegde (Global CIO for CLSA) to the podcast.

I want to take a step back and talk about how you have gotten to where you are. Role as a Global CIOTrends in the industry advice to budding technologists

Today on the podcast, we have data expert Oliver Graeser who is the Head of Data & Insights at Parcel Perform.

Our goal today is to give everyone a 101 on Data and to dissect the difference between Data Modeling/Analytics, Data Lakes and so on.

Questions for Oliver - background

1. Could you please talk about your background? What got you interested in technology and in particular data analytics?

2. You transitioned from the banking/quant world into a pure tech role. What inspired this change?

Data 101

3. Can we start off with a basic 101 on Data? Could you please break down all of this for us or put it into context? What is the relationship between Data Science/Data Analytics/Data Modeling/Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?

4. Could you paint a rough flowchart on how data progresses from one stage to another? We hear of terms like Data Lake, Data Buckets and so on. For the average person who does not know much about how data is collected and processed, could you give us an overview of this?

5. We know what a relational database is (like SQL Database). Why would one need a non-relational database? Also, what is No SQL?

6. We also hear about technologies like Hadoop, MongoDB, etc. What are the applications of these kinds of technologies?

Data Science and Predictive Analytics

7. Could you give a real-world example of the application of Data Science?

8. What does Parcel Perform do? How do these concepts relating to data apply to Parcel Perform's workflow?

9. What is the difference between good predictive analytics and AI?

10. On the subject of AI, what is LLM and where are the situations in which one would need them? How does data science tie into LLMs?

Future of AI/Data

11. In your opinion, how much of what we hear about AI is a fad vs something to be seriously considered and concerned about?

12. How is AI shaping your line of work?

13. What can engineers do today to not be replaced by AI in the future?

Advice for budding technologists

14. What is your advice to budding technologists graduating from universities and wishing to pursue something in data science?

We had the incredible privilege of hosting Brian Wong on The Pinpoint Asia Podcast! As the 52nd employee of Alibaba and the author of "The Tao of Alibaba," Brian shared invaluable insights into the company's journey from a startup to a global e-commerce giant. Our conversation covered his unique experiences at Alibaba and the principles that fueled its phenomenal success. Brian's stories and wisdom provided a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of one of the world's most influential tech companies. It was an enlightening and inspiring episode that you won't want to miss!

Mental Strength

Insights on Alibaba

Abel is an accomplished technologist with several years of experience in the DevOps space. He has been the DevOps lead for many high-growth firms such as Xendit, Cake Group, and Foodpanda.

Today, we are going learn about DevOps and Cloud from him. We will also talk about his background and try to understand what made him the tech guru that he is!

Abel's background

You've been to many parts of the world like China and Africa and are now in Singapore. Could you talk to us about your background? What got you interested in technology and what keeps you interested in tech?

The 101s

Let us start off with architecture. Perhaps we can start with the basics.

Could you tell us what architecture is and how it has evolved? We have heard of two-tier and three-tier in the past. What are they? As far as applications go, there are other architecture terminologies that are being used these days. For example, microservices architecture and monolithic architecture. Could you please tell us what they are? Also, what would be a real-world example of this?

DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineer, DevSecOps and PaaS

Moving onto some 101 about DevOps, could you please define what that is? What did tech people do before DevOps was in practice? What makes someone a good DevOps practitioner? Is there a difference between Application and Infrastructure DevOps?We also hear the term SRE being used interchangeably with DevOps. What is the difference between the two? What about DevSecOps and PaaS? What are they?

Cloud 101

Moving onto the basics of the Cloud, the basic premise is that the infrastructure that was on the premises in a company can now be shared through combined computing power in a data center which is called the Cloud. Is that description somewhat accurate? There are so many Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud and so on. What are the differences between them? Other than pricing does the Cloud matter much to a developer? We hear about terms like Kubernetes, Containers, and so on. What are they?

Leading people

You have also lead a large number of people and we have some questions relating to this. The first one is which one do you find more enjoyable? The leading people bit or the tech bit? How should a hardcore techie learn to people manage? What are some of the challenges you have encountered with this? At some point, the general perception is that if you do not manage people, your career tends to stagnate. How much truth is there to this?

Trends in the industry

How will DevOps evolve in the future? Is AI/Predictive Analytics really going to disrupt industries in the future or is it more hyped?

Advice to budding technologists

What sort of advice would you give to budding technologies these days? Is a degree as important as it once was? Or, can one self learn the most pressing topics which universities don’t exactly teach? Would you have any other comments or anything else you want to share?

Our guest today has extensive experience as a CIO with large banks. He has successfully set up and managed 3 sizeable Technology Development Centers in the mainland and has played a key role in the initiation of 2 startups including one in the FinTech space in the mainland. Let me welcome Greg Au Yeung to the Podcast!

Today on the podcast, we are going to ask Greg about how his career trajectory and we are also going to delve into his experience setting up development centers in China and the future of technology there. Greg has recently started his own YouTube Channel called Inspiring China (https://youtu.be/JyrVpCGc5Ug) 

Intro Questions:

More questions about China:

Technology Questions:

YouTube Channel:

Personality:

Thank you so so much for your time and for sharing your wisdom with our audience

Today we are grateful to be talking to the Deputy Chief Product Officer of PwC's Digital Products Group.

Sarah Johnson comes from a unique background. She used to be the Operations Manager for the Polar Challenge / South Pole Race and spent 3 months in Antarctica for this. After a few more roles in technology, she is now the Deputy Chief Product Officer of the Digital Products Group arm of PwC.

Today on the podcast, we will ask her a few questions about her current role and try to glean some wisdom from her. After that, we will also talk to her about her personality and her contribution to society and to women in particular. So let me extend a warm welcome to Sarah and thank her for agreeing to do this!

Questions:

Digital Products Group:

Personality:

Final questions: