Judges

Jean Eric Salata is the Chairman of EQT Asia. He previously founded Baring Private Equity Asia in 1997 and led the management buyout that established BPEA as an independent firm, which eventually became one of the largest private equity firms in Asia. In 2022, BPEA merged with the Swedish-listed firm EQT to create a global private markets firm spanning the US, Europe, and Asia.

EQT in Asia has 350 team members across 8 offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Sydney. EQT has invested approximately USD35 billion in the Asia Pacific region since 1997 in over 180 transactions across our Private Capital, Infrastructure, and Real Estate strategies. EQT’s portfolio in Asia employs more than 410,000 people.

Mr Salata brings an international perspective, having lived in Chile as a child, completed his education in the United States, and lived and worked in Asia since 1989. Mr. Salata graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Finance and Economics.

Cilia has a double degree in sustainable innovation and international business from HEC Paris and the NHH and started her career as trainee for the Norwegian Mission to the UN, assisting on the negotiations of the UN SDGs.

Prior to joining EQT, Indahl was CEO of the impact investing organization Katapult and Sustainability Director at Aker Biomarine. She also holds several board positions to help companies with sustainable transformation. In 2016, Cilia co-founded the non-profit association Sustainability Hub Norway that helps companies integrate sustainability into their strategies and she also represents Norway on the jury for the Nordic Council’s Environmental Prize.

Clara Chan is the inaugural CEO of the Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC), the investment arm of the HKSAR Government, bringing over a decade of senior leadership experience from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, where she spearheaded the private markets team to achieve remarkable results while contributing significantly to Hong Kong’s financial stability and financial infrastructure development. A barrister admitted by the High Court of Hong Kong, she has been recognised for her leadership and influence in the finance industry. She was honoured with the Asia Industry Leadership Award by the 100 Women in Finance in 2016, named by the Private Equity International to its global list of “40 under 40” in 2020, and featured among Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen in 2024 and Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Asia in 2025.

Eric setup Happiness Capital, the global venture capital arm of the Lee Kum Kee Group with the
mission to create global impact and make the world a happier place. The investment portfolio
covers US, UK, Europe, Israel, Japan, mainland China and Hong Kong, from seed to growth stage.
Environment (both Earth and Space), Sustainable Food Systems, Health and Trust are the main
investment areas. Happiness Capital is a Certified B Corp, which is not common among global
Venture Capital firms. He is a member of the Policy Research Committee of the Financial Services
Development Council HK, and a board member of Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity
Association.

Prior to joining the Lee Kum Kee Group, Eric co-founded AGENDA in 2000 and grew it to the largest
independent digital marketing agency in Asia, which was acquired by WPP in 2008. Stayed with WPP
after the acquisition as the Chief Client Officer (Asia Pacific) of the WPP Wunderman network. Eric’s
first venture was an AI cancer diagnostic and treatment planning startup in the UK and US in 1994, which was acquired. He was with Cap Gemini US, a global consulting group, as Director of e-Business in 1997-2000 to help Fortune 500 companies on digital innovations. Eric was an AI research scientist and university lecturer in the UK in early 90s.

Dr. Cheng is a Co-Founder of Cornerstone Robotics. He has served the company in
various capacities including R&D and Finance and is currently the company's Vice
President of Operations & Business Strategy. ‍He received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins
University, where he studied under Prof. Russell Taylor, widely known as the "Father of Medical
Robotics”. With over 13 years of engineering expertise in surgical robotics technology and a senior
leadership role spanning Cornerstone’s growth till now, Alexis bridges the gap between engineering and
commercialization success, ensuring that Cornerstone leads the way towards a world with accessible
robotic surgery.

Eugene Tang, the South China Morning Post’s Managing Editor for Business & Projects, has spent three decades in financial journalism and in the business of real-time news.

His career began in 1994 as a corporate news writer for The Edge weekly newspaper in his native Malaysia, followed by 14 years as a reporter, editor, bureau chief and team leader at Bloomberg News in Malaysia, Japan and China.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Mr. Tang has spent more than a decade living in mainland China, covering everything from economic policies to financial markets and earthquakes in Beijing, Shanghai and China’s far-flung provinces.

Prior to joining the SCMP, Mr. Tang was Asia-Pacific Product Director at The Wall Street Journal’s publisher Dow Jones & Co., where he was responsible for the company’s Dow Jones Newswires real-time news and content licensing for the Factiva news database business.

As SCMP’s Managing Editor, Mr. Tang oversees coverage of financial markets, banking and finance, property, technology, healthcare and the business of climate change.