We organize a series of ad-hoc fireside chats each year, where we invite in speakers who have done outstanding work in their respective fields to speak with our community.
These fireside chats are held throughout the year. In the past, we have had the privilege of hosting speakers with deep expertise in fields ranging from governance, to entrepreneurship, to conservation, and art.
December 2025 Fireside Chat with Mr Siranat Scott
Mr Siranat Scott is a Thai marine conservationist and former advisor to the Director-General of Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation.
He has been integral to efforts to protect the country’s marine environments—and further leads the “Sea You Strong” Project to engage local communities in beach clean-ups across Southern Thailand.
We had the privilege of hosting Mr Scott for a wide-ranging conversation on his journey to working in marine conservation; his experience launching the Cheeva Samutr Foundation to support Thailand’s park rangers; and his perspective on partnering with local and regional governments to tackle the issue.
November 2025Fireside Chat with Ms Goy Zhenru
Ms Goy Zhenru is founder and principal architect of Goy Architects. A supporter of vernacular architecture and craftsmanship, she has developed a style that adapts traditional forms to reflect a spirit of modernity. The firm aims to explore heritage through materials by applying textures not commonly seen or used—for example, the integration of coffee leather or banana fibre paper into a project. Her projects in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, have spanned residential projects, farm-stay resorts, public and private learning facilities, and industrial buildings.
We were privileged to host Ms Goy for a wide-ranging conversation on working at the intersection of art, culture, and heritage conservation. She shared about how her dissertation (a comparative study of two Northern Thai architects with very different styles!) inspired her work today; how she integrates Southeast Asian designs and motifs into her work; and how she views differences in architectural design between countries in the region.
November 2024Fireside Chat with Ms Debbie Aung Din Taylor
Ms Debbie Aung Din Taylor is a social entrepreneur who co-founded Proximity Designs. Proximity was founded in Myanmar in 2004 to provide financing, small-farm agricultural technology, and climate-smart agronomy services, to small farmers in their journey out of poverty. Since 2004, Proximity has collaborated with over 10,000 villages and enabled 4 million people in rural Myanmar to afford basic food, healthcare, and education, for their families.
We were fortunate to host Ms Taylor for a wonderful conversation on working at the intersection of social impact and business, and continuing to operate the organization despite sociopolitical instability. She shared how Proximity’s ethos centers on staying close to the customers they serve—being in their shoes, understanding their needs and hopes, and co-designing with them.
November 2023Fireside Chat with Ms Jiawen Tang
Ms Jiawen Tang is the Co-Founder and President of Hive Health, a healthcare startup backed by leading Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator. Hive seeks to offer best-in-class digital health insurance to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines, revolutionizing access to quality, affordable healthcare for millions of Filipinos — one SMB at a time.
A former graduate of Columbia University, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Kennedy School, Jiawen also brought with her a wealth of experience in consulting and working at prominent international organizations like the United Nations and World Bank.
We were fortunate to have her in for a wide-ranging conversation on her journey founding a company in Southeast Asia, particularly as a female founder; her experience with the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem; and her insights from having led the company over the last few years. The discussion touched on a broad spectrum of key ideas, such as the need to build good organizational culture, the importance of being clear on what one’s mission is, and the urgency of recognizing that the Southeast Asian market is very diverse and is rapidly-evolving.
April 2023Fireside Chat with Mr Gita Wirjawan
The former Indonesian Minister of Trade and Chairman of the 9th World Trade Organization (WTO) Conference in 2013, Mr Wirjawan’s realm of expertise spans all sectors, ranging from government, to finance, to education, to philanthropy. He is the founder and present Chairman of the Ancora Group too, an Indonesian business group with interests in private equity investing, natural resources, real estate, sports, and music.
As part of his commitment to increasing access to quality education for all, the Ancora Foundation has sponsored the training of hundreds of kindergartens serving underprivileged children throughout Indonesia.
We had the privilege of hosting Mr Wirjawan for an eye-opening conversation on subject matter ranging from geopolitics, to economics, to philanthropy, and were fortunate to have learnt from his deep expertise in a wide range of fields. The discussion touched on ideas ranging from his thoughts on the action required to lift educational achievement in the region, to his reflections on how technology can be harnessed for social good while simultaneously mitigating the dangers associated with it.