The Asian Captive Conference 2023 - Upcoming Events

Abdul Halim Jantan

Founder, Sterling Group of Companies

Abdul Halim is the founder of the Sterling Group of Companies. He has successfully established Sterling as the premium independent power plant broker in the insurance and reinsurance market and expanded the company’s portfolio to include specialised industries such as space, aviation, marine hull, and Employee Benefits, by leveraging on technological advancement in Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Modelling. 

Since then, he has become an entrepreneur with other business interests and remains centrally focused on engineering, insurance advisory and risk management services.

Prior to establishing the Sterling Group of Companies, he served as the CEO of American Malaysian Insurance Berhad for 14 years.

Bernard Yap

Partner, Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Malaysia

Bernard is Head of Private Client Services and Financial Services within the Tax Practice in Ernst & Young Malaysia. He has been actively involved in compliance, regulatory and consultancy engagements for Malaysian financial institutions, working alongside entrepreneurs and their business enterprises.

He also works with the EY Global tax policy network to help develop and implement policy initiatives — both as an external and internal advisor to governments and regulators.

He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia.

Doreen Fadli

Head of Business Policy, Labuan Financial Services Authority

Doreen is the Head of Business Policy at Labuan FSA. She is responsible for the formulation of developmental policies to promote businesses in Labuan IBFC. She is also on the insurance and risk assessment task forces at the authority. Prior to joining the business policy unit, she was head of the licensing department there.

Doreen is an Associate Member of The Malaysian Insurance Institute and Member of the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. She holds an MBA from Universiti Malaysia Sabah and a Bachelor of Accountancy with Honours from Universiti Teknologi Mara. She also holds certificates in AML/CFT and a Diploma in MII.

James Wong

Director - Strategic Risk Consulting, WTW Risk & Analytics Asia

James is the Director for Strategic Risk Consulting at WTW Risk & Analytics Asia. He has over 20 years of experience with professional accounting and risk management firms. Since joining WTW in 2017 as the practice’s regional leader, James has led over 80 risk consultancy projects including assessment and quantification of complex and emerging risks, as well as risk finance programme optimisation.  

During his career, he has collaborated with specialty subject matter experts to utilse data to provide risk management insights, optimise cost of risk and implement captive insurance vehicles.

Julie Ng

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, RAM Ratings Services Bhd

Julie is the Deputy CEO at RAM Ratings. In her current role, Julie oversees RAM’s non-rating business divisions of data analytics and economic research, as well as spearheads strategic initiatives and R&D for new product development and collaborations for RAM Group.

She has served RAM in various capacities in the last 28 years, encompassing credit risk modelling and validation, Basel compliance, and risk strategy and framework. She was seconded to the Corporate Debt Restructuring Committee, Bank Negara Malaysia to assist with the corporate restructuring during the Asian Financial Crisis.

Julie holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from Universiti Utara Malaysia and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Kiritharan Sandra Kumar

Group Insurance Manager, Global Insurance Limited

Kiritharan Sandra Kumar has been in the insurance industry for 12 years. He currently serves as the Group Insurance Manager for MBf Holding Berhad and has been responsible for the group’s captive programme for four years.

He has led major transformation initiatives including turnaround programmes and was instrumental in setting up the captive program for MBf Holding and its subsidiary known as Carpenters Group at Pacific region.

Kiritharan previously served with Genting Malaysia’s captive programme. He was invited by the Reserve Bank of Fiji to participate in the joint working committee to address the capacity of Fiji’s local market.

Lawrence Bird

Director of AsiaPac Captive and Insurance Management, Willis Towers Watson

Lawrence currently serves as the Director of the Asia Pacific region for Captive and Insurance Management at Willis Towers Watson. He has been in insurance for 35 years including 23 years in captive management. In the captive industry, Lawrence has worked in Guernsey for 7 years, Bermuda for 16 years, and re-located to Singapore earlier this year to head up the Asia Pacific captive practice for Willis Towers Watson.

He has experience with an enormous variety of captives, related managed entities, industry groups, and regions.

Lee Warner

Chief Executive Officer, HLAP Limited

Lee is currently serving as the CEO of HLAP Limited.

Lee has spent more than 35 years as an insurance broking professional, working throughout Asia and the South Americas. He has spent nine years within the London market and the balance of his career dealing with complex large and specialised risk in Asia.

In 2005, Lee was appointed Managing Director of Heath Lambert Far East. Following an MBO in 2006 the company later changed its name to HLAP Ltd. and with a dedicated and committed team he successfully grew the account portfolio to over USD 20 billion (sum insured).

Muhammad Balyan Suleiman

Chief Executive Officer, Energas Insurance (L) Labuan

Muhammad Balyan is currently Chief Executive Officer, Energas Insurance (L) Labuan and Head of Insurance, Group Risk Management of Petronas. He has been in Group Insurance since joining Petronas in January 1992 until now.

He was appointed to the Board of Directors and as Chief Executive Officer of Energas Insurance (L) Labuan, a captive insurance company of Petronas, in March 2018. He is also a board member of Labuan Reinsurance (L) Ltd.

Muhammad Balyan received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Actuarial Science and Finance from Temple University, United States in 1991. He is an Associate of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (AMII).

Nazri Wong Abdullah

Principal Officer, Park Lane PCC Limited

Nazri Wong is currently the Principal Officer of Park Lane PCC Limited. He is an experienced finance professional and brings extensive exposure from various industries including telecommunications, oil & gas, and construction.

He was the CEO of Etiqa General Insurance (Cambodia) Plc, leading pioneering work and operations in the non-life insurance segment. He was also with Etiqa International Holdings Sdn Bhd as Head of International Operations & Special Projects, Etiqa Offshore Insurance (L) Ltd, and Etiqa Life International (L) Ltd as the Principal Officer and Head of Labuan Operations. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with IIB Insurance Brokers Sdn Bhd in various capacities, where his last position was as Chief Operating Officer.

Nicholas Yeo

Founder & Actuary, Nicholas Actuarial Solutions Sdn Bhd

Nicholas is founder of Nicholas Actuarial Solutions which was set-up in 2015. He has over 15 years of experience in actuarial work including life insurance, family takaful, general insurance, general takaful, employee benefits, pension, medical insurance, reinsurance and insurtech startups. Nicholas previously held actuary roles in Malaysia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

Outside of traditional actuarial work, he has significant experience in captive insurance, offshore insurance, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
Nicholas graduated from Bayes Business School with First Class Honours in BSc Actuarial Science and is a Fellow of both the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK) and the Society of Actuaries (US).

Nick Garrity

Chief Executive Officer, International General Insurance Co. Ltd. (IGI), Labuan Branch

Nick is the Chief Executive Officer of International General Insurance Co. Ltd. (Labuan Branch). He is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in the general insurance and reinsurance industry in Europe and Asia.

Nick was Head of Sales APAC for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and has considerable experience in serving market bodies in addition to the Labuan International Insurance Association Council: in Singapore, a council member for both the Singapore Insurance Brokers Association and the Reinsurance Brokers Association Singapore.  In 2011, he established and chaired the Singapore Reinsurance Market Contract Certainty Working Group and is still a member.

Nik Mohamed Din Nik Musa

Director-General, Labuan Financial Services Authority

Nik Mohamed Din currently serves as the Director-General of Labuan Financial Services Authority. He is also the Vice Chairman of International Islamic Financial Market, Chairman of the Financial Stability Committee of Labuan FSA, and serves on the Board of Directors of Financial Park (Labuan) Sdn Bhd.

He joined BNM in 1991 and has served in various areas within the central bank, including bank regulation, Islamic banking, takaful, money services business regulation and market development of international finance of Labuan IBFC.

He holds a Chartered Banker certificate from the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Accounting.

Rob Curtis

Managing Director, Market Development; Co-CEO, AM Best Asia-Pacific (Singapore)

Rob Curtis is the managing director for market development for the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Co-CEO of AM Best’s Singapore subsidiary.
He has more than three decades of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to joining AM Best in 2022, he was the head of the major groups and technical expert teams at Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA), responsible for the development of Hong Kong’s new group-wide supervision and macro-prudential frameworks.
Rob holds advanced degrees in the areas of financial services and management and is a distinguished fellow of the IAIS and an honorary fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Roy Sharma

Managing Director and Principal Officer, Asia Reinsurance Brokers (Labuan) Ltd., Chairman, Labuan International Insurance Association

Roy Sharma is the Managing Director and Principal Officer of Asia Reinsurance Brokers (Labuan) Ltd and Chairman of Labuan International Insurance Association. He is also the President Commissioner of PT ARB Indonesia and a Board member of ARB’s parent company.

He commenced his career in the insurance industry in 1994 as an insurance broker and joined Antah Sedgwick Chartered Insurance Brokers. Thereafter he joined Aon Risk Services Malaysia and Aon Risk Services Singapore. In 2006, he then joined Arthur J Gallagher Asia (L) Bhd a reinsurance broker that was rebranded as Asia Reinsurance Brokers (Labuan) Ltd in 2008 and has been its Managing Director since 2007.