2019 Speakers

Chris Cho

eSports at Supercell since Aug 2016 in Seoul Korea.

Danny has over 20 years’ experience in IT industry including distributors and manufacturers. He has been working in ASEAN for over 16 years as IT engineer, Product Marketing, and Sales Director. As the GM of Mineski International, He is responsible to the board for the successful operation and management of the company. He helped pioneer business models in eSport BU. He commenced as the GM in May 2017, having previously been sponsoring Mineski eSport events for 6 years and starting esport league in SEA since 2010.

I’m a gamer, writer, and all around consumer of fast foods. With over 8 years of experience in the China and Asia market, I have experience in communications marketing for consumer and entertainment brands. I have helped brands such as Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, iRobot and others enter and compete in the China market.

My specialties include audio and video editing, brand PR strategies and execution, and internal talent development. My passion is linking people together to create new experiences.

I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese and all things video games.

Having been within the Games and Esports Industry since 1997 and recognized with the German Game Developer Award as well as winner of the European Games Award, Frank has a verifiable history of commitment to growth and expansion of businesses in both mature and emerging markets across the Asia Pacific Region, the US, and Europe. 24+ years of corporate leadership and entrepreneurship in the media, gaming and exhibition industries comes with certain expertise: Frank adepts at achieving maximum operational output with minimal resource expenditure. Frank has also consistently exceeded performance goals. Through strategy and his expertise in exhibitions and conferences (B2B, B2C), he established GDC Europe as one of the most important game industry conferences in the world and Games Convention Asia (GC Asia) as one of the main industry events in Asia.

Frank started to work in the Esports Sector in 2000 and created the first world-leading Business Platform for eSports, International Esports Conference (ESCONF), in 2004. At the end of 2004, Frank founded the German Esports Association and was elected Chairman of the German Esports Association. In 2008, he was elected as Vice President of the International Esports Federation.

Being part of an international network of senior level relationships through active participation on boards, and industry associations, Frank enjoys his position as global esports & games industry leader. He is focused on developing overall corporate growth strategies and partnerships in the areas of media, publishing, sponsorship and entertainment.

Hai is co-founder of Spawn Point, a strategic advisory firm that operates at the intersection of gaming and esports. He routinely speaks publicly about esports to the gaming industry and collaborates with the Nevada Esports Alliance, UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, and Esports Integrity Coalition on emerging esports issues. With more than three decades of experience in technology, and more than a decade in gaming, his acumen fuels solutions that thrive at the intersection between industries. He is a regular contributor to iGaming Business, and section editor of iGaming Business North America’s Fantasy and eSports Section. He is also an owner of Chaos Theory, Singapore’s first professional esports team.

An expert technologist, Hai is also co-founding partner at Neomancer, a technology strategy and management group. He is credited with designing and orchestrating the first AR demo on the floor of the NYSE and the first AR tool deployed on the floor of NYMEX. Over the last several years, he has been a technology ambassador for Open-Source VR, showcasing the opportunities that VR can bring to the motion picture and iGaming industries.

Under his leadership at Neomancer, the company forged a development relationship with Continent 8 Technologies that led to Hai’s appointment as CIO. During his tenure, Hai and his team helped the company expand into Asia.

Ian Smith is the esports Integrity Commissioner and has held that role since ESIC was founded in July 2016. Ian is a UK lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in traditional sports, primarily in regulation and governance. While still in private practice, Ian advised clients in football, cricket, rugby, motorsport, golf and other sports. His particular focus has always been the connection between the athlete and the rules and regulations that govern the athletes’ professional life – contracts of employment and endorsement and the link from team to domestic governing body to regional governing body to international governing body – who owns what and who can sell what and what rules apply when!

Ian left private practice in 2004 to go in-house as legal director of the Professional Cricketers’ Association in the UK where he was responsible for advising players on a range of issues, but also negotiating, on their behalf, the contracts, rules and regulations that applied to them, such as the Anti-Doping and Anti-Corruption Codes. For two years between 2013 and 2015 Ian also ran the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA), the umbrella body for all the Player Associations in International cricket, which meant he dealt with the terms and conditions under which players participated in the Cricket World Cup, the World T20 Championships and the Champions Trophy and was the player representative on the Security Directorate of all major events through to 2015. He sat on the Athletes Committee of UK Anti-Doping for five years.

A by-product of his work in cricket was having to develop an expertise in match-fixing and how to combat it. He drafted the first set of Anti-Corruption Directives implemented in English cricket in 2000. He learned the human impact of these regulatory issues whilst advising and representing players who were perpetrators and witnesses to some of the biggest challenges to cricket’s integrity over the last 15 years. Ian is a passionate advocate of sporting integrity and the eradication of all forms of corruption in sport from the top level of governance down. He has been instrumental in the formation of ESIC and drafting and establishing the ESIC Programme.

Ian was born in Durban, South Africa, and got his law degree at the University of Natal before emigrating to the UK in 1989. He is married and has twin sons who are far better gamers than him (except at Gran Turismo, where Ian considers himself amongst the best in the world). When not on the road for this role, he lives a quiet life with his family in Bristol and runs trails when he needs to stop thinking.

Jason was brought into Alisports to manage the China event and marketing teams, as well as to build out international capabilities for the company. Jason is responsible for the strategic planning and execution of esport competition IPs around the world. He began his career with several successful tech start-ups in Canada, all centered around gaming and esports. He has been involved in VoDs, live streaming, fantasy and wagering, and led APAC esports for one of the largest game publishers in the world.

Justin Widjaja came from a marketing & management background. Lived in Shanghai for 1 year and was exposed to the mobile esports scene in China.

Justin is also a gamer by heart, he has been gaming since early teen, went semi-pro on CS:GO & Dota2 for a while before deciding on to a ’normal’ office job.

Worked in 2 IT startups and a Tech Importer company for the past 3 years, he decided to jump into the Esports Wagon.

Started ONIC Esports with one of the founders on May 2018 and have achieved grandiose titles in South East Asian scene.

ONIC was founded in a true belief that Esports is the future of entertainment. With no benchmark in sight, Justin experienced first hand all the operations work in an esports organization starting from being a team manager, content & art director, finance & legal up to being a scout for talents.

Having achieved such benevolent achievements with the team in such a short period of time, ONIC succeeded to raise funds from multiple well-known VCs in South East Asia.

Mark has held commercial and leadership roles at a global sports agency, broadcast media and government positions. While his business acumen put him on the road to success, his fervent support for Liverpool FC and the Singapore national football team ensured his found joy in his various roles.

At MP & Silva, Mark as Head of Media Sales (APAC) was involved in distributing major international sports content and leading key projects such as the broadcast of the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore, DBS Regatta, and launching StarHub’s live sports news show SuperSports 360. He also led MP & Silva’s partnerships with
the Football Association of Singapore and Badminton Asia Confederation, and was a key member of the team which launched the beIN SPORTS channels in Indonesia.

Mark also held the position of Senior Manager in Sport Singapore’s Sports Broadcast Development Division and was Head of Broadcast for the 1st Asian Youth Games Singapore 2009.

At StarHub, Mark covered a variety of cross-functional roles such as sports content programming, scheduling, content acquisition, marketing, promotion and production. He led the Euro 2008 Pay-Per-View campaign and launched the Football Channel on StarHub’s Sports Pack with the key acquisition of the English Premier League.

Mark’s mantra that has served him well throughout his career – Once you have made a decision, follow it through and don’t look back.

Quang Tran Vinh works in Appota group, which is the leading developer and provider of creative platforms for Vietnam’s digital entertainment industry. Appota has a powerful ecosystem of 50 million-plus users, with over 10 million monthly active users, making Appota one of the top 3 game publishers in Vietnam. The company also owns Vietnam’s top Gaming Creator multi-channel network and is one of Google’s biggest advertising partners in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Appota’s vision is to become the largest entertainment technology ecosystem in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Stephen is the Director of Global Strategy and Partnerships of the Esports Integrity Coalition in the Asia Pacific Region. As a forensic accountant with accompanying qualifications in law, his background as an experienced forensic expert has given him exposure to the investigation and resolution of multi-million dollar fraud cases. Further to this, his experience in business growth and technological development has guided a number of start-up digital organisations to growth and success. Stephen plays a pivotal role within ESIC, particularly in his pioneering of technological advancements and forensic expertise within ESIC’s integrity services administered globally.

A passionate gamer at heart since young, Terence Ting has worked in esports for the past decade since 2006 – mainly in various roles at professional esportteams abroad and local.

In 2017, Terence would eventually go on to start his own esports team in Team Flash and become one of the earliest team owners in the SEA region, establishing professional gaming teams in both Vietnam and Singapore. In the last two years, Team Flash has become one of Asia’s most recognizable esports teams – having won Vietnam’s first world championship for esports at the Arena of Valor World Cup in July 2019.

With Terence as CEO, Team Flash has built successful teams in top esporttitles like Arena of Valor, League of Legends and FIFA – signing more than 30 esports players across Southeast Asia in the last two years. Team Flash has won more than USD$400,000 in the last 12 months, an unprecedented prize money record for an esports team from this region.