Dr Deborah Elms is Founder and Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre. The Asian Trade Centre works with governments and companies to design better trade policies for the region. Dr Elms is President of the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA). She served on the Trade and Investment Council of the World Economic Forum from 2017-2019, on the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance and was Chair of the Working Group on Trade Policy and Law. She was also a senior fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Trade Academy.  

Previously, Dr Elms was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior Fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in international relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University. Dr Elms publishes the Talking Trade Blog. 

Ramesh Subramaniam is the Director General of the Southeast Asia Regional Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He oversees ADB’s relationship and public sector work (including all technical assistance, knowledge generation and dissemination, and grant and loan projects) in all countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He is also in-charge of ADB’s support for all subregional cooperation initiatives in the region, including ASEAN, Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area, Greater Mekong Subregion, and Indonesia–Malaysia–Thailand Growth Triangle.

With ADB for over 20 years, Ramesh has worked on several projects across the Asia–Pacific region. Infrastructure financing is among his primary areas of interest. He represents ADB on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on long-term investment and infrastructure development. He has a PhD in Economics from McMaster University (Canada), and has had post-doctoral fellowships in development economics and corporate finance and industry at Yale University (USA) and University of St. Andrews (UK).

James Villafuerte is a senior economist at the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department. He contributes regularly to the Asia Regional Integration Report and has conducted extensive research and training on macroeconomic issues, including capital flows; crisis theories, mechanisms, and lessons; and regional integration issues.  

Prior to joining ADB, he was an economist at the World Bank and senior economist at the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria, Australia. 

Oliver is Head of Economic Content for Refinitiv’s Datastream platform, which is the oldest and most trusted database covering over 14 million economic time series. He oversees content, strategy and development of the platform to ensure clients have access to the right data on which to support their business decisions. Oliver is relatively new to Refinitiv, having started in August of 2020. Prior to that, he worked as an independent consultant providing a range of economic consultancy services to central government, regulators and FTSE 100 corporations. Oliver holds a bachelors degree in Economics and a masters degree in Real Estate Development from the University of Westminster. 

Wendy Yamazaki is Senior Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Strategy (APAC, ex-China), at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and is based in Singapore.  Wendy joined Refinitiv in Oct 2020, which is now part of LSEG. She has more than 15 years of experience in both private and public sector in the financial industry. Wendy was previously with the International Department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, responsible for formulating international policies for the financial sector and representing the MAS at regional forums. Wendy was also a Consultant at the Asian Development Bank, working with governments in ASEAN+3 countries on the development of regional bond markets. In her early part of her career, Wendy was in the Credit Risk Management Department at Sumitomo Mitsui Corporation Bank.

Wendy holds a Bachelor in Business Administration and a Masters in Social Science (Applied Economics) from the National University of Singapore.

Wendy is married with 3 boys and a dog and enjoys swimming in her free time. 

Mrs. Riza joined Bank Indonesia in 1996 and started her career in the Accounting Department. She received her Master Degree in Economics from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2002.

Currently Mrs. Riza served as the Head of Macroeconomic Group in the Economic and Monetary Policy Department. Prior to this position, she was the Deputy Director of the External Assessment and Exchange Rate Division in the same department (DKEM), following her last assignment as the Deputy Director of the Balance of Payments Group in the Statistics Department (DSta).