Jessica Cheam
Jessica is the founder and Managing Editor of Eco-Business, an award-winning journalist, TV presenter, director, producer, and a social entrepreneur.
She sits on the Board of Directors of Singapore-listed ComfortDelGro, serves as Strategic Advisor to Blue Planet Environmental Solutions, and is founding Director for Embodhi (Singapore), a non-profit for women empowerment in Asia. She is also an associate member of the Singapore Institute of Directors, and currently chairs the Climate Action SG Alliance – an initiative supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources to advocate climate action and raise public awareness on climate issues.
A Singapore Press Holdings scholar, she has won many journalism awards, including the Earth Journalism Awards in 2009, Young Journalist of the Year by Singapore Press Holdings in 2010, the ASEAN Green Technology Journalism Award in 2011, and the Sustained Environmental Reporting by a Journalist Award in 2015 for her efforts in contributing to environmental journalism over the last decade.
She is the published author of ‘Forging a Greener Tomorrow: Singapore’s journey from slum to eco-city’. She is also an adjunct research associate for the Centre for Liveable Cities, a Singapore think tank focussed on creating and sharing knowledge on liveable and sustainable cities.
In March 2018, she was announced the winner of the Women of the Future Southeast Asia Awards for the media and communications category. She was also named as one of LinkedIn’s Power Profiles for Singapore for 2018.
Professor Dr. Vladan Babovic
Vladan Babovic is Professor at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at National University of Singapore. Vladan holds PhD. degrees from both UNESCO-IHE and Delft University of Technology, as well as a business degree from IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland). Prior to joining NUS, he was Head of Emerging Technologies at the Danish Hydraulic Institute (1995-2002), Chief Technology Officer at Tetrasys, Switzerland (2002-2004) and Senior Research Scientist at WL | Delft Hydraulics (2003-2005).
He is a leading scientist in the field of hydroinformatics where he has been spearheading research in machine learning and artificial intelligence from early 1990s. In more recent years, his work on flexibility and real options pertaining to decision-making under deep uncertainties in water- and climate-related domains is gaining wide recognition.
In addition to being a leading researcher and educator, Vladan is a scientist entrepreneur who was instrumental in securing funding and subsequently lead establishment and managed growth of research institutes, such as Singapore Delft Water Alliance (SDWA) and NUSDeltares both of which he is the founding Director. Under Vladan’s leadership SDWA grew to financially fully self-supporting research institute and strength of approximately 80 researchers. Following success of SDWA, Vladan was appointed to lead establishment and growth of new Alliance, NUSDeltares.
One of Vladan’s passions is creating enthusiasm towards water related issues among students and community in general. Establishment of IAHR Student Chapter at the National University of Singapore; Aquatic Science Centre @ Sungei Ulu Pandan and Singapore Netherlands Water Challenge are but few initiatives he has spearheaded.
Constant van Aerschot
Constant is managing the Asia Pacific regional office of WBCSD, a global CEO-led organisation of 200 forward thinking businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. Members are companies from all sectors and economies, representing a combined revenue of US$8.5trillion, employing 19 million people.
Constant is a construction sector and sustainability expert. He is advising construction authorities on green building policies. He is advising the Global Buildings Performance Network, a leading think tank on the built environment. He co-authored and reviewed many publications.
Today, Constant supports global WBCSD projects in Asia Pacific. He helped for example, set up the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a global coalition of more than 30 MNCs that pledged >US$1.2bn to invest in infrastructures to stop plastics leakage in the ocean. He also shares latest knowhow, tools and methodologies that help businesses become more sustainable. He is a regular speaker and invited jury member for sustainability awards.
His previous roles include VP Public Affairs & Sustainable Development at LafargeHolcim, corporate strategy senior analyst at Alcatel-Lucent and civil engineer. He is Director of three Singapore-based non-profit organisations and was a Board member and treasurer of a Foundation in France and for a UN Environment Initiative (SBCI)
He holds a Civil Engineering Master’s degree from ETHZ (Switzerland), an MBA from Cranfield University (UK) and a Director’s Diploma from SMU-SID (Singapore).
He is an avid badminton player and a former competitive car racing driver.
