WIPO - IPOS International Executive Programme in Intangible Asset Management - IP Unleashed! Navigating the Innovative Economy in the age of AI

Thitapha has over 20 years’ professional experience, along with 76 policy papers and articles in major regional newspapers and technical journals.  While at the ASEAN Secretariat during 2001/13, she designed, convened and/or took part in about 330 inter-governmental and expert group meetings, plus training programs for some 8,500 government officers and business person.

These comprised both executive and working level professionals with a mandated focus on SMEs and entrepreneurship development, intellectual property rights, competition and consumer protection policies, trade negotiations and dispute settlement, women’s economic empowerment, and regional economic integration. 

As SME Development Lead, Thitapha coordinated sequential training programs for some 6,500 entrepreneurs as well as government and business enablers in ASEAN under a USAID-funded project during 2013/18.  Subsequently, she became a Consultant to the International Trade Center, Geneva, as well as an Advisor to several international service providers and ASEAN business groups.  She joined the World Intellectual Property Organization in June 2022 as Director of the WIPO Singapore Office, which is dedicated to serving ASEAN Member States in fostering the use and leverage of IP for the benefit of everyone, everywhere.

Paul specialises in intellectual property law and commercial dispute resolution.

Before joining IPOS International, Paul was sole corporate counsel for a well-known Singaporean brand, where he was responsible for a broad range of commercial matters, including worldwide trademark registrations and oppositions, management of external counsel, contract review, and training. He has experience working in private practice for both Singapore and Scottish law firms. His practice focused on intellectual property and commercial arbitration. He also taught commercial law, intellectual property and real estate law at a Scottish university. Paul was admitted to the roll of solicitors in Scotland in 2010.

Dr Yong Ee Hou is an Assistant Professor from the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Nanyang Technological University. He received his BSc in Mathematics, BSc in Physics, MSc in Statistics from Stanford University, and PhD in Physics from Harvard University. His research focuses on using new and emerging state-of-the-art methods from mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, topological data analysis, and statistics to analyze big data of complex systems such as DNA, RNA, biological networks, social networks, financial markets, etc., in order to understand their behavior, pattern and interaction. His work has been published in top journals such as Science, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, etc.

Educator, Systems Developer, Academic Researcher, Computer Engineer, User Experience Designer, Weiquan wears many hats. 

In his current role as Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, Weiquan develops Immersive Technology solutions (such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality Simulations) for improving patient outcomes, enhancing student learning and safeguarding educator sanity. His research interests include figuring out if, how and why all this technology tangibly and measurably affects human learning. 

In his past life, Weiquan worked closely with the aviation industry to develop next-generation immersive pilot training systems. His award-winning solutions have helped change the world for the better (or so he hopes!). He even runs courses to teach others to do the same. In terms of academic qualifications, Weiquan holds a Bachelor's degree in Computing and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Brian Lim is the Managing Director and APAC GM of Primer AI. Primer is an AI company headquartered in San Franciso focusing on the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies including Large Language Models (LLMs)to help augment human intelligence and solve business problems. In his role, he also advises governments, investors and startups on AI strategy and product development. Primer's awards include CB Insights Top100 AI company (2018&2020), Intelligent Applications Top 40(2021), Data50 Global #3 in AI/ML(2022) and A16z Top 50 AI companies championing American Dynamism(2024).

Before joining Primer, Brian was Senior Vice President and Head of GIC Labs, the in-house innovation labs of GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, where he led a team in research and implementation of emerging technologies for enhancing decision making. Prior to GIC, he held multiple roles in Citi, Standard Chartered and the Singapore Ministry of Finance.

Brian is also an Adjunct Faculty at Singapore Management University (SMU), Industry Advisor to the Social AI Studio at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Mentor for the Singapore-MIT Alliance Research and Technology (SMART) Innovation Centre and a member of the MIT Technology Review Global Insights Panel. Brian holds a Master of Science in Computation for Design and Optimization from MIT and a Master of Science in Computational Engineering from NUS.