CONFERENCE KEYNOTES
Jason Bennett Thatcher
Tandean Rustandy Esteemed Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
Speaker bio: Professor Jason Bennett Thatcher holds the Tandean Rustandy Esteemed Professorship at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a Full Professor at Alliance Manchester Business School, UK. He also serves as Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, and holds a permanent faculty role at the Technical University of Munich, Germany’s leading technical university.
An internationally respected scholar, Professor Thatcher studies digital leadership, cybersecurity, and technology-enabled decision-making. His work is published in leading journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and the Journal of Applied Psychology, and he is known for building cross-cultural research collaborations across Asia, Europe, and North America.
Professor Thatcher has been recognized multiple times as the top global scholar on the AIS-8 Senior Scholar list (2014, 2020, 2021, 2024) and has received Best Paper awards from MIS Quarterly and the Academy of Management. With over 20,000 citations, he is also a recipient of several lifetime achievement awards from professional associations in information systems.
He currently serves as a Senior Editor at MIS Quarterly and ambassador for the Journal of Operations Management, and has previously served as Senior Editor at Information Systems Research and on MISQ’s Policy Committee.
Rina Neoh Siew Lian
Managing Partner, Ficus Capital
Speaker bio:Managing Partner at Ficus Capital—the world’s first Shariah-compliant venture capital fund. With over 25 years of experience spanning both corporate and entrepreneurial realms, Rina brings a wealth of knowledge from having ideated, incubated, accelerated, or scaled more than 80 startups across various industries. Her impressive track record includes introducing two IPOs on the Australian Stock Exchange and executing complex cross-border M&A strategies throughout Asia Pacific. Beyond her business acumen, Rina is a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, educational empowerment, and poverty
eradication.
Her numerous accolades, including recognition as one of Singapore’s Most Inspiring Businesswomen and among the Top Women Venture Capitalists in Singapore, reflect her impact on the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Rina is also the Winner, (Business and Entrepreneurship) The Tan Sri Dato Napsiah Omar, Women Leaderships Award in 2022, awarded Affin Evicta Top 30 Women of Excellence, Malaysia 2024 and was the only women General Partner from Malaysia Featured in Global Private Capital Association’s (GPCA) inaugural Southeast Asia Women Investors 2025 Directory.
