The Asia 21 Young Leaders Forum revolves around the Asia 21 Fellows, a core network of leaders among leaders from diverse professional backgrounds, who are tasked to serve one-year terms. Read the summit agenda here:

2006 CLASS OF ASIA 21 YOUNG LEADERS

AUSTRALIA

Kathleen Reen is the Regional Director for Asia Projects of Internews, an international non-profit media development organization devoted to increasing access to information for people worldwide. Reen is based in Bangkok, Thailand and oversees projects in 12 Asian countries, including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, East Timor, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. Reen has worked on media and development projects throughout Asia since 1998, when she founded Internews’ media support program in Indonesia. She has led research, training and grant-giving initiatives in countries across the region; including efforts to support the rebuilding of Timor’s devastated media environment and the establishment of a national media assistance program in Pakistan that included Pakistan’s first ever national radio programs for women, and the first employed female broadcast journalists. For the last year she has been working with dedicated teams of professionals and volunteers who are providing urgent information via radio and satellite facilities to populations effected by the tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and the earthquake in Pakistan, she has designed and has led efforts to increase the coordination between international humanitarian agencies and regional media outlets and supports staff teams in those countries.   Working journalist and producer Reen’s first overseas assignment was in Cambodia where she was the youngest registered journalist ahead of the UN sponsored elections in 1993. She reported the war in Bosnia and helped develop the UN mission's TV unit in Croatia and its partnerships with local television stations across the five Republics of the Former Yugoslavia. Reen holds a bachelor of arts degree in communication and broadcast journalism from Charles Sturt University. In addition to hernative English language, Reen speaks Bahasa Indonesian.

CHINA

He Fan is Assistant Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is also Deputy Director of the Research Center for International Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Editor-in-Chief of the World Economy Journal, a leading academic journal in China. Dr. He is one of the most active young economists in China and the youngest intellectual ever to lecture the top Chinese state leaders. His fields of interest include international finance, Chinese macro-economy and international political economy. He is the author or editor of 8 books and more than 50 papers in professional economics journals. During the last few years, Dr. He has worked on a broad range of issues, such as, RMB exchange rate policy, China’s foreign trade and FDI policy, financial system reform as well as Asian monetary cooperation. He is a consultant for the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce and is deeply involved in many policy discussions. At the same time, Dr. He has written extensively for a broader public audience. He is a columnist for many newspapers and magazines. Dr. He is also an economics commentator for China Business Report, CCTV2 and a regular guest on Dialogue, CCTV9. Dr. He received his doctor’s degree (2000) and master’s degree (1996) in economics from the Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Hainan University in 1993. From 1998-2000, he was a visiting fellow at Harvard University.

Ada Tse is President and CEO of AIG Global Investment Group – Asia (AIGGIGAsia), where she is responsible for the investment and asset management businesses of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) in the Asia Pacific region, including listed equity, private equity, real estate and business development. Ms. Tse also heads the AIGGIG Asia ex-Japan direct investment practice and is Chief Executive Officer of the flagship AIG Asian Opportunity Funds. This family of funds aims to achieve substantial long-term capital appreciation through the purchase, active management and disposal of a portfolio of privately negotiated investments in companies across the region. Prior to joining AIGGIG Asia in 1996, Ms. Tse was engaged in financial advisory services and equity capital markets work at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York and Hong Kong. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Ms. Tse was an attorney at Sullivan and Cornwell in New York. Ms. Tse received a B.A. with honors in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. She has also attended the Stanford Business School Executive Program. Ms. Tse serves as an Advisory Committee Member of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, advising the SFC on policy matters regarding its regulatory objectives and functions. She is a Hong Kong Chapter Member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and a member of the Friends’ Committee of the Asian Cultural Council.

Tiantian Xu is a Founding Principal of the Design and Architecture Beijing office, DnA _Beijing, an inter-disciplinary practice of city planning, urban design and architectural design. A broad scale of projects such as Inter Modal Transportation Point in Yan Tai City, Song Zhuang Artist Village in Beijing, and Ink Painting Museum in Inner Mongolia address new relationships between architecture and urbanism in contemporary Chinese culture. Tiantian Xu has taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) School of Architecture. Her current research NOMADIC CITY is a case study on contemporary migratory urbanization in Erdos City, Inner Mongolia. Tiantian Xu received her Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design and Bachelor of Architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Before starting DnA_Beijing, she was living and working for various firms in the U.S. and the Netherlands.

INDIA

Barkha Dutt is Managing Editor of NDTV 24x7, India's leading English satellite television channel, that beams to more than a 100 million homes across South Asia and the Middle East. Barkha Dutt is also the host of India's most popular talk show, We the People, awarded the Best Talkshow for five consecutive years by the Indian Television Academy. Her area of specialisation is conflict reporting, including frontline reporting from Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the Middle East. She is the winner of several national and international awards, including the Global Leader for Tomorrow from the World Economic Forum, and the Commonwealth Broadcasters' Award for Best News reporting.

INDONESIA

Andru Subowo is the Managing Director of Bramadi Capitala private investment holdings and asset management company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company holds a diversified investments portfolio both in listed and private equities, focusing on finance, properties and retail sectors in SE Asian Region. He served as Finance Director of PT Bramadi Pratama, a financial consulting company before joining the Board of Bramadi Capital in year 2000. He is currently serving on Board of Commissioners of Indosiar – One of Indonesia’s Largest TV stations, and on Board of Directors of SK Mall one of the largest shopping center in Indonesia. Socially, he is the Secretary General of Indonesia-USA Chamber of Commerce, and as the Treasury of Indonesia-Philippines Business Council. He represented self employed from Indonesian delegates for the first APEC Young Leaders Forum in Monterey Mexico. He is the ambassador of University of Southern California (USC) and one of the chair persons for USC Alumni-Indonesia. Mr Subowo received both his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and MBA degree in Finance from University of Southern California (USC) in the United States, where he also joined the Army ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corp) during his undergraduate studies.

JAPAN

Mitsuru Claire Chino is General Manager in the Legal Department at Itochu Corporation, an international trading company that she joined as a corporate counsel in 2000. Claire was born in the Netherlands and spent her formative years in England, Japan and the U.S. She received her B.A. (cum laude) from Smith College and her J.D. from Cornell Law School. She was admitted to the California bar in 1991. She worked for an international law firm in its Newport Beach (California), Hong Kong, Tokyo, and San Francisco offices, specializing in cross-border transactions. She became the firm’s partner in 1999. The World Economic Forum selected her as one of the “100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow” in 2003 and as a “Young Global Leader” in 2005. In her spare time, she lectures at Keio University Law School and Hitotsubashi Business School. She is an Advisory Council member of Cornell Law School and a member of the President’s Counsel of Cornell Women of Cornell University. Claire is co-chair of the Corporate Counsel Sub-Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. She is active in promoting women’s interest in corporate Japan.

M. James Kondo is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Healthcare and Social Policy Leadership Program at the University of Tokyo. He is also a Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of the Japan Healthcare Policy Institute -a think-tank committed to addressing the most pertinent healthcare issues of our time. James was a long-time member of the McKinsey Global Institute and was a Co-Leader of McKinsey's Asia Pacific Global Strategy Practice. James was born in the U.S., grew up in the U.K., went to high-school in Japan, attended Keio University in Tokyo, was a visiting student at Brown University, and graduated from Harvard Business School. He was designated a New Asian Leader (2004) and Young Global Leader (2005) by the World Economic Forum (Davos).

MALAYSIA

Khairy Jamaluddin is a Director of ECM Libra Capital, a leading Malaysian investment bank, and Deputy Leader of the ruling United Malays National Organisation’s Youth Wing (UMNO Youth). Prior to this he served in the Government for five years rising to the position of Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister and Director of the Policy and Communications Division in the Office of the Prime Minister. He left Government earlier this year to contest in the UMNO party elections. While in Government, he was responsible for strategic policy initiatives undertaken by the Prime Minister and coordinating policy formulation across Government. He also headed the strategic committee for the 2004 General Elections tasked with crafting key messages for the Barisan Nasional campaign. He has been involved in UMNO politics since 1999, rising through the ranks at the branch, divisional and national level. His main interest in UMNO has been in the field of education and how the party can compliment the efforts of the Government to bring better quality education to the rural areas. He is also the Chairman of Akademi Pemuda, UMNO Youth’s think tank, which is responsible for formulating action plans and grassroots programmes for party members and the younger generation. He has degrees from the universities of Oxford and London and is a member of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

PAKISTAN

Zahid U. Jamil is a Barrister-at-Law and Senior Partner at Jamil & Jamil Barristers-at-Law. He is a specialist in Banking, International Law, Property Law, Constitutional, Conflicts of Laws, Corporate Finance, Securitization, International Law of Trade (WTO), Privatization, Petroleum Law, Recovery of Loans, Transportation Law, Corporate and Commercial matters. Mr. Jamil has been, as a member of the Information Technology Law Forum, Ministry of Science & Technology, responsible as the core drafter of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002 and is currently working on the drafts of the Cyber Crimes Law, the Electronic Banking Law, Telecommunication & Convergence Law and the Anti-Trust Law relating to the Information Technology Industry of Pakistan.  At present he is advising the U.S. Government on a major project based in Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan on various regulatory issues and advising the first Pakistani Export Finance Agency Ltd. (PEFGA) on issues from incorporation to treaty reinsurance, Export Credit and Trade Law. He is a Professor of U.S. Constitutional Law at the Sindh Muslim Law College, University of Karachi, and also lectures in U.K. Constitutional Law for the LL.B. (Hons), University of London at L'Ecole, Karachi. He graduated from University College, London with an L.L.B. (Hons), is a Barrister of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London, U.K and an advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan.

PHILIPPINES

Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV is the Chairman and CEO of the National Youth Commission, Philippines. Bam is one of the Philippines’ most dynamic youth leaders today. He was initiated into Philippine politics when his uncle, Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was assassinated in 1983 and took part in the succeeding protests as one of the youngest speakers during the time. Bam graduated summa cum laude, BS Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University. He was valedictorian of his batch as well as the Student Council president. He was made Chairman of the National Youth Commission (NYC), the main youth policy-making arm of the Philippine Government in 2003. Previous to this, he was Commissioner-at-Large for two years. His other advocacies include being the spokesperson for Read to Lead (a reading advocacy campaign) and Children’s Hour (a fund raising project for less fortunate children), and an ambassador of the Haribon Foundation, (an NGO for the environment). Bam also hosts Breakfast, a youth-oriented TV morning talk show aired over ABS-CBN’s Studio 23 and is the youngest person appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to head a government agency.

Harvey Kehis the Executive Director of Pathways to Higher Education at the Ateneode Manila University, an organization that aims to help marginalized students gain access to quality higher education in the Philippines. Harvey became the youngest Ford Foundation grantee in the world at the age of 22 and he has helped more than 300 poor but deserving students gain a better future by providing them with an opportunity to enter top-notch universities. Aside from this, Harvey also sits as the youngest Board Member of Synergeia Foundation, a coalition of various public and private institutions and individuals aimed at promoting education reform in the Philippines. Furthermore, Harvey also hosts two regular radio programs and writes a weekly column for People’s Taliba (a national daily). He teaches part-time at the Department of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University.

SINGAPORE

Gan Su-lin is a Council Member of the National Youth Council and Director of the School of Technology for the Arts, Republic Polytechnic. She is a media psychologist by training who, since returning to Singapore in 1996, has become a familiar face in Singapore’s youth development scene recognized as a tireless champion for the holistic education of Singapore’s youth. Her vision for youths is “Heads that understand, Hearts that empathize, Hands that freely give”. Two values most often manifest in her youth development work are a definition of wealth that extends far beyond material possessions, and the belief that hang hang chu zhuang yuan (Mandarin for “every field of work can produce a top scholar”). Dr Gan’s deepest wish is that she can help youths realize they can be zhuang yuan.

SOUTH KOREA

Jungwook Hong Jungwook Hong is Chairman and CEO of Herald Media, a leading mediagroup in Korea. His holding company, Kalia Inc., is the largest shareholder of Herald Media. He is the publisher of Herald Media's publications, including The Korea Herald, the nation's largest English newspaper, and The Herald Business, a leading Korean business and entertainment daily.

Mr. Hong is on the boards of all Herald Media's subsidiaries and serves on the boards of the Korea Newspaper Association, the International Press Institute Korea Committee, and the Korea Press Ethics Commission. Moreover, Mr. Hong is a board director of the Korean-American Association and a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of Asia Society. He is also an avid patron of the arts, serving on the Operating Advisory Committee of the National Museum of Korea, the Operating Committee of the Seoul National University Museum of Art., and the Advisory Committee of the Gloria Opera Company.

Previously, he worked as an investment banker and lawyer in the U.S. Mr. Hong was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005 and an Asia 21 Fellow by the Asia Society in 2006. He has published many articles and books, including Seven Acts Seven Scenes, an autobiography that has sold over 1.3 million copies to date.

Mr. Hong received his A.B. from Harvard University and J.D. from Stanford University. He also studied at Peking University in China and Seoul National University in Korea. In 2005, Mr. Hong received an honorary doctorate in politics from Yongin University in Korea.

TAIWAN

Bi-khim Hsiao is a Member of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan. Although she is one of the youngest members, Bi-khim Hsiao has been active in Taiwan politics for over a decade. She is currently Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Legislative Yuan and has been elected Vice President of Liberal International, an organization of liberal political parties around the world. She has also been the Director of International Affairs for the governing Democratic Progressive Party, Consultant to the Mainland Affairs Council, spokesperson for Chen Shui-bian’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, Advisor to the Office of the President, Secretary General of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, and President of the Taiwan Association for Women in Sports. In addition to foreign policy issues, Bi-khim Hsiao continues to be outspoken on immigrant rights, gender equality, sports, human rights and other issues in Taiwan.

THAILAND

Apimongkol Sonakul is a Member of Parliament, Thailand. In this capacity his responsibilities include, reform of the electricity supply industry, encouragement of private sector investment, and the establishment of a power sector regulatory body. He is also a Spokesman and Member of the Parliamentary Committee for Energy and a Deputy-Spokesman for the Democratic Party. Previously, Apimongkol Sonakul was a Policy and Planning Analyst in the energy policy and planning office of the Ministry of Energy. He received his engineering degree from Oxford University and a Master of Arts in Business and Managerial Economics from Chulalongkorn University.

USA

Eric Garcetti is President of the Los Angeles City Council, overseeing the operations and initiatives of the legislative branch of government in the nation’s second-largest city. He also represents the Thirteenth District, comprising Hollywood and neighboring communities in the heart of Los Angeles. Prior to his election, Garcetti was a professor of public policy, diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College and the University of Southern California and he has worked and studied in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Africa, and Western Europe. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities, and at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Rhodes Scholar. He is an avid photographer, jazz pianist and composer and currently serves as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve.

Katie Hongis the Deputy Director of the Pacific Northwest program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In that capacity, she supports the Director for the Pacific Northwest program with the day-to-day management of the foundation’s local grant making as well as strategic development and implementation of programs and new initiatives that help vulnerable children and families in the Pacific Northwest. Prior to coming to the Foundation, Hong served as the Director for the City of Seattle’s Office of Housing. Previously, Hong was a White House Fellow, working in the White House Chief of Staff’s Office. Hong also spent time as an executive policy adviser to Gov. Gary Locke and as a program examiner in the Office of Management and Budget in WashingtonD.C. Hong holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago. She is active in the community, serving as a board member ofthe Asian Community Leadership Foundation, a community leaders program in the Seattle area for emerging Asian Pacific American leaders. She’s also taught as an adjunct professor at Seattle University’s Institute of Public Service and is a graduate of Leadership Tomorrow in Seattle/King County and the Coro Fellows Program in Northern California.

Parag Patel is a Senior Director of the VMware division at EMC Corporation. One of the world's largest technology companies, EMC is a $10 billion leader in storage and information management products. Mr. Patel has held numerous executive sales and marketing positions in the industry and has also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and remains active in various international development-related activities. Mr. Patel completed a B.A.S, in Electrical Engineering and History, from Stanford University. He then completed an M.B.A., at Harvard University. His is an expert on issues that include: regional issues(India and South Asia); science and technology; high technology; and Third World development.

Joshua Ramois a Managing Director at Kissinger Associates. Ramo advises some ofthe largest corporations in the world and governments at the ministerial level and above. He is the youngest partner in the history of Kissinger Associates. Previously, Ramo worked in the advisory and banking business in China. Prior to entering the advisory business, Ramo was the youngest-ever Senior Editor and later Foreign Editor and Assistant Managing Editor at TIME Magazine. Among his nearly two-dozen TIME cover stories were the 1997 Man of the Year Profile of Andy Groveand an award winning profile of Kofi Annan. Today, Ramo is regarded as one of China’s leading foreign-born scholars. His last paper, The Beijing Consensus, which promoted China’s development approach as a viable alternative to the Washington Consensus, is among the most widely circulated papers by a foreigner in China. Raised in Los Ranchos, New Mexico, Ramo has been, among other things, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, twice Chairman of a $1million Dan David Prize selection committee, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, an advisory board member of the Leaders Project and co-founder of the US-China Young Leaders Forum. He has worked in South African AIDS hospices, including during a 2001 sabbatical. An avid pilot, he holds two U.S. National point-to-pointair speed records and has written a book, No Visible Horizon, about his experiences as a competitive aerobatic pilot. Ramo was trained as an economist and holds an MA in Economics from NYU and a BA(Hons) from the University of Chicago in Latin American studies.

VIETNAM

Dinh Q. Leis the Founder of Untitled Space, a residency project in Ho Chi Minh City, and Co-Founder of the Vietnam Art Foundation in Los Angeles. Dinhwas born in Ha Tien, a small town near the Cambodian border, in what was South Vietnam. When he was ten years old, he and his family escaped to Thailand, where they spent nearly one year before immigrating to Los Angeles. He began his art education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1989 and continued his studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree. In the early 1990s, Lê visited Vietnam and by the middle of the decade was spending most of his time in Ho Chi Minh City, where he currently lives.