Kishore Mahbubani

Singapore Ambassador to the United Nations

Kishore Mahbubani, the author of “Can Asians Think?” (www.steerforth.com), is a career diplomat and an occasional writer.

In his diplomatic career, he has served in Cambodia (during the war in 1973-1974), Kuala Lumpur, Washington DC and New York. He is now serving his second stint as Singapore’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Mr Mahbubani was President of the Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002 when Singapore was serving on the UN Security Council. He was also Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998.

Mr Mahbubani received a First Class honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Singapore in 1971. From Dalhousie University, Canada, he received a Masters degree in Philosophy in 1976 and an honorary doctorate in 1995. He also served as a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1991 to 1992.

Mr Mahbubani has published several articles in leading journals and op-ed articles in newspapers and magazines. Through his writings (some of which have been published in a volume entitled, “Can Asians Think?” [Steerforth Press, Vermont]), he has been described by The Economist as “an Asian Toynbee, preoccupied with the rise and fall of civilizations” and by The Washington Post as a “Max Weber of the new ‘Confucian ethic’”.

Mr Mahbubani also serves in various advisory capacities to organizations such as the International Peace Academy, New York, Institute of International Education, New York, the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Global Strategy Group and The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, Brandeis University.

Mr Mahbubani is married to Anne K. Markey and has three children.

Ong Keng Yong

Secretary-General
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Mr. Ong Keng Yong is the Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) since 1 January 2003. Mr Ong started his public service career by joining the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in June 1979. From 1984 to 1988, he was the Charge d’Affaires of the Singapore Embassy in Saudi Arabia. From 1989 to 1991, he served as the Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission in the Singapore High Commission in Malaysia. Following this, he was appointed the Minister-Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission in the Singapore Embassy in the United States of America (USA) till 1994. He returned to the MFA as Director in charge of American and European affairs and was concurrently the Press Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. From 1996 to 1998 he was Singapore’s High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to Nepal. Mr. Ong was then seconded to the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in September 1998 as the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister and concurrently to the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MITA) as Deputy Secretary. In June 1999, he took on the concurrent job of Chief Executive Director of the People’s Association (PA), a grassroots-based community development organization in Singapore. In December 2002, he stepped down from his appointments in the PMO, MITA and PA to return to the MFA before taking up the post of Secretary-General of ASEAN, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Mr Ong had served on the boards of NTUC Media Co-operative Ltd, The Esplanade Co Ltd, Singapore Management University, the Housing and Development Board, the National Heritage Board and Singapore Post in a non-executive capacity. Mr. Ong graduated from the then University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Law (Honours) degree and the Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA) with a Master of Arts in Arab Studies (Distinction) degree.

B. Ramalinga Raju

CEO
Satyam Computer Services Ltd

S atyam was incorporated in India in 1987 and is one of the pre-eminent IT services companies. It is present in 45 countries with 12,500 employees serving close to 300 global customers. Raju also found Satyam Infoway, now called SIFY, an Associate Company of Satyam and India’s largest Internet service provider and first Indian company to get listed in NASDAQ.

Raju has an MBA from Ohio University, USA and has attended the Owner/President course at Harvard. Raju has won several awards and global accolades which include Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999, Dataquest IT Man of the Year in 2000, and CNBC’s Asian Business Leader - Corporate Citizen of the year award in 2002 Raju is presently on the Executive Council of NASSCOM, National Council of CII and on the Board of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade among others. He is also a member of International Advisory Panel of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor.