PI Apparel 2017 Speakers

Lauren Bowker is a creative materials alchemist & designer with a user experience, chemistry and textiles background. Mainly designing and prototyping materials innovation, experience & magick. Aesthetics lay at the heart. Key skills & interests lie in the relationship between people and emerging technologies within materials, particularly the experience of the consumer, and innovating through the design of new material, interactions, services and surfaces. Creating new dimensions of experience, to foster participation and the transparency of information using wonder and beauty.

Hans M Buehr first came into contact with the Intimate Apparel Industry during his time as an intern whilst studying Industrial Management in Germany. After graduation, he did a 6 month course in Warp knitting at Karl Mayer Academy in Obertshausen which was further enhanced by a 9 month internship at various raw material and accessories manufactures and dye houses in Europe. Starting in Autumn 1983 at Triumph International Overseas, for the next 30 years, he dedicated his efforts to supporting the growth of Triumph in Asia. Currently Hans is an independent consultant, Hans contributes to the Industry in many areas, giving talks at various Univer for the industry.

Cherry Chan is PIC of The Mills, a landmark revitalization project from Nan Fung Group scheduled for completion in 2018. A celebration of shared industrial legacy with Hong Kong and a step towards a future of applied creativity and innovation, The Mills is built on a foundation of legacy and heritage. Previously, Cherry has 15 years of experience in the fashion industry, ranging from product development, manufacturing, supply chain management, to sales and marketing. In her previous role as CEO, she steered her company Milagros into becoming the go-to partner for emerging brands in need of technical and operational supply chain support. She was instrumental in the launch of various fashion and lifestyle brands, including setting up the first supply chain office for Tory Burch.

A graduate of the Diocesan Girls' School, Angie began her career with a 17-year spell at the Shun Hing Group. She was eventually promoted to Managing Director of TDI, Transportation Displays Int'l Ltd., the exclusive advertising concessionaire for many of the territories’ major outdoor advertising contracts, including Kai Tak International Airport and Kowloon-Canton Railway. She subsequently joined Commercial Radio, the trendsetter of local audio broadcast, where she contributed as General Manager. In 2005, Angie answered the family calling and joined the Clover Group as CEO. Since then, Angie has been voted by Forbes Asia as one of Asia’s Power Business Women 2014 and was elected as the Chairwoman of The Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries' Association Ltd.

Anderson Lee is a frequent speaker on apparel and sustainable forums. He is Chairman of the Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium (SFBC); a board member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) in the U.S. since 2013 and be re-elected for another term; a Director of Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries’ Association (HKIAIA); a convenor in the Fashion Industry Development Committee (FIDC) of the HKSAR. Lee has been a voting member of the Outdoor Industry Association Sustainability Working Group in the U.S. since 2008 in the creation and piloting of the Eco Index. In Hong Kong, Lee steers a number of government-funded projects to foster coherence among innovators and contributors in Hong Kong and China in alignment with the 12th through the 13th Five Year Plan. This includes building a guidebook for SMEs to achieve triple-bottom-line through the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Low Carbon Manufacturing Programme (LCMP) to provide effective carbon emission disclosure and reduction. Lee actively promotes awareness among the industry through addressing Greenpeace’s ‘Dirty Laundry’ report, among investors as a panel speaker at the 2°C+ Water organized by China Water Risk and the BIP Forum in 2016 showcasing the success of latest homegrown and collaborated  textile technologies  and helping to groom a Circular Economy. Lee has been invited as one of the judges for the EcoChic Design Award in Hong Kong since 2012 to 2017, a judge for the Bank of China Corporate Environmental Leadership Awards for 2016 and 2017 and a judge for the World Fashion Design Competition for 2016 and 2017. The goal is to bring awareness through leading practice sharing in Hong Kong and China.

Stanley Szeto is the Exectuive Chairman of Lever Style Inc., a Hong Kong-based apparel manufacturer serving clients such as Alexander Wang, All Saints, Cerruti 1881, J Crew, John Varvatos, Paul Smith, and Uniqlo. Established in 1956, Lever Style supplies its clients over 10 million garments a year. Its products include men’s and ladies’ woven shirts, blouses, pants, skirts, suits, jackets and outerwear. Mr. Szeto joined Lever Style in 2000 and became CEO in 2001.

Lever Style is known for its product development capability and technical competency. It has also been re-engineering its manufacturing systems to improve speed and flexibility. Its story has been profiled by CNN, Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and various other media organizations. Lever Style is also known for its environmental sustainability. In 2008, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) selected the company as its first apparel industry partner for the Low Carbon Manufacturing Program, and it recognized the company’s low carbon footprint by granting it the Silver Award.

In 2009, HSBC selected Mr. Szeto to be the public spokesperson for its major media campaign in Hong Kong promoting environmental sustainability. Keenly involved in promoting the industry, Mr. Szeto is Chairman of Hong Kong Textile Council, Vice-Chairman of Hong Kong Garment Manufacturers Association, Director of Federation of Hong Kong Garments Manufacturers, Director of Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, and Textiles Advisory Board Member of the Hong Kong Government. Recognized for his contributions to the industry, Mr. Szeto received the 2009 Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong from the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. Mr. Szeto is also a frequent guest speaker on CNBC, Bloomberg and other business news channels.

Prior to joining Lever Style in 2000, Mr. Szeto worked at J.P. Morgan’s mergers and acquisitions unit, and later at PAMA, an Asian buyout firm with over US$1 billion under management. Mr. Szeto served on the boards of companies in PAMA’s portfolio, focusing on strategy and management issues. Mr. Szeto graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, triple-majoring in Finance, Entrepreneurial Management, and Legal Studies.

Sarah Chessis is the Founder and CEO of Isabella Wren.  She is a former finance sales specialist turned fashion maven and exceptional entrepreneur who is the driving force behind Isabella Wren.  After spending time with Mondial-d getting into the fashion trade, Sarah broke out on her own in 2013 and has since built Isabella Wren into a well respected high end women’s custom clothing brand.  It was Sarah who had the vision to combine the latest digital technology with beautiful clothing design to make Isabella Wren what it is today.  Her inspirations are behind all the Company’s designs and it is her determination to find the solution to fit that has pushed the Company to leverage 3D technology and smart pattern systems to produce wonderful clothes for professional women.  Her previous working experience in the world of finance included time spent at highly respected institutions such as Religare, BNP Paribas, E*TRADE Financial, Societe General and ING Barings.

Ferdinand Diener is the Process and Quality Manager at Helly Hansen, a 140 year old heritage technical sportswear brand from Norway. He has extensive experience within manufacturing and production both working in Asia and Norway. As part of his current role, he will see through the process of implementing PLM into Helly Hansen’s daily product operations.

Jackie Fung is the Senior Business Analyst for Lafayette 148 New York, a women’s fashion apparel company based in SOHO with shops expanding throughout the US and China. Jackie has been at Lafayette 148 New York for over 10 years and during this time, has helped implement various systems ranging from WMS and POS, to upgrading existing systems from ERP to PLM.  Jackie enjoys working with end users to optimize the PLM process to meet their needs.

Julia Gaimster is a Prof of Practice (Fashion) and Assoc. Head of School at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining HKPU she was at London College of Fashion where she undertook a variety of roles including Associate Dean of Postgraduate Teaching and Associate Dean School of Design and Technology. Julia has worked on international educational projects for UNIDO, the EU and The British Council. She has acted as an external examiner and validation adviser for a number of higher education Institutions in the UK and internationally. Berg published her book Visual Research Methods in Fashion in 2011. She has extensive experience in the use of technology and e-learning to support design education and has published and lectured in this field.

Grace Hsu has 8 years of experience in the Fashion Industry, focusing on improving efficiencies through technology solutions. She assumed the role of PLM Consultant at Gerber Technology for several years where she successfully implemented projects covering womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, home goods, and accessories. Grace later joined an established American teen brand, Aéropostale, at which she acted as the trusted business partner in company initiatives by planning, developing, and delivering application enhancements and BI reports. She then moved into the New York luxury fashion company, Michael Kors, where she held a significant role in working with the business and a third party vendor to build an in-house system for the Footwear and Accessories divisions. Her expertise lies in on time, organized, and sustainable project delivery, while ensuring business needs and goals are met. Grace now works as a Business Consultant at Lectra, and is actively presenting to the Greater China Fashion & Apparel industry the immense value of Lectra solutions and services.

Alexis Kantor is Target’s VP of Owned Brand Technical Development and Quality.
She leads multiple teams around the globe, focused on technical design, raw material development, and product quality assurance.

Through collaboration with cross functional teams across the enterprise and continuous innovations in technology, raw material development, body size studies, and construction standards, these teams focus on ensuring quality, fit, function, safety and value for the guest.

Prior to joining Target, Alexis worked for Victoria’s Secret in all aspects of product development including working overseas in Israel for VS/Mast. Alexis graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Women’s Studies.

As a leader of people, Alexis strives to maintain an environment where challenge is expected and risk is rewarded, where personal and professional achievements are celebrated, and where a balance between professional and personal growth is possible and encouraged.

In addition to responsibilities related to her title, Alexis is involved with multiple business councils at Target. She acts as an advocate for The African American, The Hispanic, and The Women’s Business Council(s), and is a sponsor for the Pride+ Business Council.

Alexis is very active with various local community organizations. She is on the Board of Directors for Family Equality Council and is very actively involved with Avenues for Youth, a local non-profit with national recognition. Her family has been participating as a Host home for LGBT homeless youth for multiple years.

Greg Karpinski is the Chief Operating Officer for Isabella Wren.  He is primarily responsible for managing the company’s production operations and back office systems.  He has more than 19 years of management and investing experience across a range of industries.

Prior to joining Isabella Wren he had served as CEO of MAXpower Group Pte Ltd. Previous to that position, he had spent eight years at Standard Chartered, finishing his time at the bank as Managing Director with Standard Chartered Private Equity (“SCPE”) and Co-CEO of the USD658m Standard Chartered IL&FS Asia Infrastructure Growth Fund (“SCI Asia”).

Eddie is Corporate IT Director at Tristate Holdings and has worked in the IT industry for 20 years. He is an expert in business-driven applications and leads cross-country implementation projects including ERP, Point of Sales, Product Lifecycle Management platform and drives organizational transformation to meet strategic objectives. In addition, Eddie has extensive experience in deploying IT systems in multicultural and multi-brand environments across Europe and Asia. Prior to Tristate, Eddie worked for VF Corporation in Asia for several cycles of ERP and retail system deployment.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abinash-sahoo-350b2a25/

Lynn Tan is Co-founder and Director of Bodynits International Pte Ltd. With an MBA in Retailing and Wholesaling from the University of Stirling, her passion for performance and active wear pushed Lynn and siblings from their first production room in the backroom of her family home in Singapore to a regional player in Asia today. Bodynits Group of companies manufacture for global brands in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Celine U has been working in the fashion industry for more than 20 years; right after graduating from Dong Hua University (formerly known as the China Textile University) with a Masters Degree, she worked as a designer for 3 years before joining Les Enphants, where she has been for 15 years. Les Enphants is one of the biggest children’s clothing companies in China. Celine rols as Head of Merchandising Planning makes her responsible for the streamlining of processes governing planning, designing and product development. Since 2010, as the Project Manager for the Les Enphants PLM, Celine led the team to successfully implement the solution in 3 years. Today, she continues to lead the team in optimizing the system to achieve higher efficiency.

Mr. Kenneth Wong, Managing Director of Top Form International Limited, has joined the Group since 1997. He is responsible for the Group’s business development and marketing activities.

Mr. Wong is an active member in the industry; he is currently the Honorary Chairman of Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries’ Association, the Chairman of Multi-Textiles and Fashion Accessories Council for Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Member of the Fashion and Textiles Training Board of Hong Kong Vocational Training Council and was a panel member of the Textile and Clothing Research Projects Assessment under Innovation and Technology Fund of HKSAR.

In 2015, he was awarded the “Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong” by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, to show his distinguished contributions to the industry, and as a role model for modern industrialists.

An annual ultra-marathon and marathon finisher since 2013.

As the Head of Global Sources Launchpad, a sub-business division of Global Sources (NASDAQ-GSL GSOL), Ben’s mandate is to help hardware startups successfully get into global distribution channels. He is responsible for building Startup Launchpad – Asia’s largest tradeshow + tech conference event for hardware startups to get into distribution – and manages the company’s cross-border O2O distribution channels for emerging brands in the Asia Pacific region. His team is also helping earlier stage startups in validating their value proposition by leveraging crowdfunding platforms. 

He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with a B.A. in International Business & Management, and from Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Master’s in Business Administration. 

Co-founder of Pivot88, Isabelle believes in removing the walls between organizations and teams to enable collaboration emerging from better insights and understanding. As a trained lawyer and holder of a MBA degree, Isabelle previously worked in Procurement, Quality & Business Process Optimization helping North American and Asian companies to align their international operations. With Pivot88, her objective is to multiply the benefits of quality digitization by leading the successful implementations of the Pivot88 solution worldwide.

Tom is the CEO and Founder of Metail, the revolutionary body shape and garment fit visualisation company. An Economics graduate from Cambridge, Tom's career has spanned all forms of new media, from Sportal to 3 and most recently as Head of Gaming at Inspired Gaming Group. Tom has also founded the Cambridge technology start-up recruitment fair Silicon Milkround Cambridge, has been an active member of the UK government's DCMS Think Tank on the Convergence of Media (2009), a Demos working group on technology legislation and is the inspiration behind the launch of the government’s Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). Tom is also a patron for the creative industries incubator MeWe360 and a Non-Executive Director of emerging personal wellness technology startup Chiaro.

Eddie Chan is the CEO of Lever Style Inc. He originally joined Lever Style in 1988 as Marketing Manager, taking up increasingly senior roles over 15 years until he left the company in 2003. He then rejoined Lever Style as president & COO in 2015.

In between his two stints at Lever Style, Eddie worked at vertically-integrated textile & garment manufacturer Esquel Group, where he held senior executive positions in a variety of areas including sales, production, technical development, and operational excellence. His last role was Group Director of Operational Excellence, reporting to Esquel’s Vice- Chairman & CEO. Before Esquel and Lever, Eddie started his career by serving short stints at TAL, Laws Group, and Mast Industries Ltd.

Mr. Bart De Meirsman has over 25 years of experience in the apparel manufacturing, sourcing and textile industry and is currently Managing Director of Quiksilver Asia Sourcing Limited. Based in Hong Kong, he is responsible for Global Sourcing Operations for the Quiksilver brands, which include DC and Roxy and oversees offices in Vietnam, Indonesia and China.

Prior to joining Quiksilver he held key sourcing and supplier management positions based in Singapore, Central America, USA and Hong Kong for well-known companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Gap Inc., American Eagle Outfitters, Land’s End and C&A. 

As a native of Belgium, De Meirsman began his manufacturing career in Italy and then went on to co-found an apparel factory in Tunisia that focused on supplying woven and knit products to the European market. 

With this core foundation, De Meirsman was able to build a solid understanding of the manufacturing process from start-to-finish and integrate that with the ever changing demands of the apparel retail industry.

Since 2015 Joachim held the position of Managing Director at Hugo Boss Industries Ltd, a German luxury fashion house. He joined Hugo Boss in Men’s tailoring in 1984 and since then held a variety of positions, including Head of Pattern Design, Head of Technical Product Development and Head of Product Excellence. He believes that the textile industry is catching up to global technology trends and his aim is to create an environment at Hugo Boss that is open minded and strives to be prepared for future challenges.

Alexis Man is the Garment Engineering Director of the Product Innovation Department at TAL Apparel Group. Trained as an Industrial Engineer, he received his MBA from The University of Hong Kong. Alexis has more than 15 years experience in Pattern Engineering, Garment Engineering, Production System Improvement and Lean Manufacturing. He is a leading expert in body scanning, 3D pattern design and virtual fittings.

Alex Thomas is the Vice President of Manufacturing Excellence and Technical Services at VF. He has spent his professional life between Europe and Asia working with various brands and retailers. In the 1990's, Alex was based in Switzerland, India, Denmark and London working with various European fashion brands. In 2002, Alex moved to China to work with K-Swiss where he led the company's portfolio of brands in China and SE Asia in many functions from Design and Development through to Operations, Production and Quality over a 10 year period. In 2012, Alex joined VF Asia in Hong Kong, where he is currently based leading the Engineering teams and VF's 3rd Way program.

Jacker Chan is Head of Production for INTERSPORT Development (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. and a member of the Executive Management committee, responsible for both Order Management and Quality Management of the INTERSPORT Exclusive Brand.

Jacker has worked with the INTERSPORT group for 13 years, including 3 years in INTERSPORT International Corp. in Switzerland. Becuse of his diverse role background, Jacker has experience of a range of functions across Product Development, Logistics and Supply Chain Operations, IT, SAP Projects, Corporate Social Responsibility, Order Management and Quality Management.

Quinn Lai is a serial entrepreneur in Hong Kong and the United States. His startups have achievedimpacts in different ways from enabling impoverished students to learn more effectively to prolonging(or even saving) the lives of terminally ill patients. He was also a Hewlett Packard (WebOS) productmanager and a McKinsey consultant. Utilizing his training and experiencein design thinking and needfinding, he has been involved in the development of multiple MNC’s innovative products/processes,including but not limited to card based multitasking UI for mobile devices, next generation automotiveinfotainment system and a car design processHis current venture, EONIQ (http://www.eoniq.co) aims to revolutionizehow watches are designed andbring custom time pieces to everyone.

Throughout 20 years of experience first as a manufacturer and then with Siemens, Alastair  has  focused on  the  gains in  operational  efficiency  delivered by  advanced automation,  then  MES/MOM  and  now on  digitalization,  Industry  4.0 and  the consumerization of manufacturing. Siemens has  been at  the  forefront of  each  wave of  social  advancement  since  the second industrial revolution.In2007, conscious of the impact that software would have on  manufacturing,  Siemens  acquired  UGS and  added  Product  Lifecycle Management to    our    Industrial    Software    portfolio. In    combination    with Manufacturing  Operations  Management,  Intelligent  Automation  and  Advanced Analytics  capabilities,  Siemens  uses  the  Teamcenter  Collaboration  Platform to bring  the  virtual  world of  product  design and  the  real  world of  manufacturing operations execution into a seamless integrated Digital Enterprise Software Suite. Alastair  currently  leads  a  global  team of  Digital  Enterprise  Thought  Leaders, working  with  multinationals to  digitally  transform and  become  more  flexible,  cost effective, transparent, collaborative organizations. Alastair holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Loughborough University of Technology in the UK and lives in Italy with his wife and four children.

Lynn Tan is Co-founder and Director of Bodynits International Pte Ltd. With an MBA in Retailing and Wholesaling from the University of Stirling, her passion for performance and active wear pushed Lynn and siblings from their first production room in the backroom of her family home in Singapore to a regional player in Asia today. Bodynits Group of companies manufacture for global brands in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Ms Chan is experienced in textile and apparel manufacturing, sourcing and retailing. Prior to joining HKRITA, she was Division Merchandising Manager in Ralph Lauren, responsible for global sourcing, cost planning, merchandising, and material and product development. Before that, Ms Chan was with a number of global textile and apparel companies including Burlington WorldWide Limited, Esquel Group, Gap International Sourcing (Holdings) Limited and Smart Shirts Limited, responsible for global sourcing, merchandising, licensing, and research and development.

Ms Chan graduated with a Higher Diploma in Textile Technology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and obtained a Master of Science degree in Textiles and Clothing Management from the University of Leeds.

As Research Director for IDC Retail Insights Asia Pacific, Mike Ghasemi is responsible for production, development and growth of the IDC Retail Insights program covering technology needs and trends in the retail industry. Mike is also responsible for driving the overall direction of the retail industry research in Asia Pacific and integration with global IDC Retail Insights. In addition, he leads the definition, creation, and production of IDC market intelligence solutions for countries across the region.

Before joining IDC, Mike spent 15 years in the IT industry, with 10 years in retail information technology software solutions. He has worked in senior management and leadership positions with multinational and local companies across the region and has been extensively involved in the retail industry from IT solutions positioning to advising national and regional retail associations on technology trends and road map. Mike is one of the founding council members of the International Association for Enterprise Information Security and also a member of Singapore and Australia Institute of Management and a recipient of Deloitte Enterprise 50 Award.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as an MBA from De Montfort University, UK.

As Director of Social Consciousness and a member of the Leadership Forum for women’s clothing designer EILEEN FISHER, Amy supports the company’s efforts to practice “business as a movement.”   Amy collaborates internally and externally to guide the company toward ever-increasing human, environmental and economic sustainability, including co-leading the company’s Vision2020 work.  Amy chairs the advisory board of Social Accountability International and serves on the boards of Made-By, the American Sustainable Business Council, and the New Conversations Project of Cornell University.  In 2011, Amy rode from New York City to Washington, DC, on her self-built bamboo bike as part of the Brita Climate Ride.  

From a young age, Hilmond has been immersed in the world of garment manufacturing through the teachings of his father. He would listen to his father speak about various details that go into a garment, both directly and indirectly. In Hilmond’s mind, things like quality and construction have always gone hand in hand with social responsibility and sustainability to create a garment. It’s upon this foundation that Hilmond has built a passion towards the fashion industry, not simply manufacturing, but from raw materials, all the way to the end customer. It is Hilmond’s goal to bring a millenial element of surprise to his company, in order to revitalise and rebirth the entire supply chain, by way of rethinking and reworking the raison d’être in garment manufacturing. Currently, Hilmond works closely with numerous departments including raw material development and sourcing, product and development, merchandising, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, production, and marketing. It is Hilmond’s hope to influence belief in a new way of thinking in a still traditional fashion industry.

Anderson Lee is a frequent speaker on apparel and sustainable forums. He is Chairman of the Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium (SFBC); a board member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) in the U.S. since 2013 and be re-elected for another term; a Director of Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries’ Association (HKIAIA); a convenor in the Fashion Industry Development Committee (FIDC) of the HKSAR. Lee has been a voting member of the Outdoor Industry Association Sustainability Working Group in the U.S. since 2008 in the creation and piloting of the Eco Index. In Hong Kong, Lee steers a number of government-funded projects to foster coherence among innovators and contributors in Hong Kong and China in alignment with the 12th through the 13th Five Year Plan. This includes building a guidebook for SMEs to achieve triple-bottom-line through the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Low Carbon Manufacturing Programme (LCMP) to provide effective carbon emission disclosure and reduction. Lee actively promotes awareness among the industry through addressing Greenpeace’s ‘Dirty Laundry’ report, among investors as a panel speaker at the 2°C+ Water organized by China Water Risk and the BIP Forum in 2016 showcasing the success of latest homegrown and collaborated  textile technologies  and helping to groom a Circular Economy. Lee has been invited as one of the judges for the EcoChic Design Award in Hong Kong since 2012 to 2017, a judge for the Bank of China Corporate Environmental Leadership Awards for 2016 and 2017 and a judge for the World Fashion Design Competition for 2016 and 2017. The goal is to bring awareness through leading practice sharing in Hong Kong and China.

Originally from Dublin, Julia studied Applied Chemistry before running off to Spain to pick oranges and learn Spanish. Julia is a trained Carpenter and Leather Smith and now works as the R&D Manager for the Clover Group, an intimate apparel manufacturer based out of Hong Kong. Julia has now been with Clover for two years and is charged with collecting and discovering all the amazing new tech and science on offer with which she shows the team what is possible in the world right now and for the future. In this capacity, Julia gets to visit and work with  real mad inventors to see if it's possible to apply any of it to Clover's garments, machinery and factories, or workforce. Sometimes they can and other times, they can't but she believes that a million new ideas come from every unsuccessful one.

Lauren Bowker is a creative materials alchemist & designer with a user experience, chemistry and textiles background. Mainly designing and prototyping materials innovation, experience & magick. Aesthetics lay at the heart. Key skills & interests lie in the relationship between people and emerging technologies within materials, particularly the experience of the consumer, and innovating through the design of new material, interactions, services and surfaces. Creating new dimensions of experience, to foster participation and the transparency of information using wonder and beauty.

Michael Collinson is the Senior Vice President for Quality Assurance and Manufacturing excellence at PVH far East Limited and has worked there for the last five years but has also worked for several large garment manufacturers in Asia, Luen Thai ltd. and in the United Kingdom where his career started with Claremont garments.

Michael is an experienced professional within great experience in Apparel Manufacturing with strong Industrial and Quality Engineer background with over 25 years’ experience within the fields of Work Study, Industrial Engineering, Productivity / Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing Excellence and Planning & Performance and specializing in process improvement / cost reduction and improving efficiencies and driving change within the organizations he has been employed.

As Research Director for IDC Retail Insights Asia Pacific, Mike Ghasemi is responsible for production, development and growth of the IDC Retail Insights program covering technology needs and trends in the retail industry. Mike is also responsible for driving the overall direction of the retail industry research in Asia Pacific and integration with global IDC Retail Insights. In addition, he leads the definition, creation, and production of IDC market intelligence solutions for countries across the region.

Before joining IDC, Mike spent 15 years in the IT industry, with 10 years in retail information technology software solutions. He has worked in senior management and leadership positions with multinational and local companies across the region and has been extensively involved in the retail industry from IT solutions positioning to advising national and regional retail associations on technology trends and road map. Mike is one of the founding council members of the International Association for Enterprise Information Security and also a member of Singapore and Australia Institute of Management and a recipient of Deloitte Enterprise 50 Award.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as an MBA from De Montfort University, UK.

Originally from Dublin, Julia studied Applied Chemistry before running off to Spain to pick oranges and learn Spanish. Julia is a trained Carpenter and Leather Smith and now works as the R&D Manager for the Clover Group, an intimate apparel manufacturer based out of Hong Kong. Julia has now been with Clover for two years and is charged with collecting and discovering all the amazing new tech and science on offer with which she shows the team what is possible in the world right now and for the future. In this capacity, Julia gets to visit and work with  real mad inventors to see if it's possible to apply any of it to Clover's garments, machinery and factories, or workforce. Sometimes they can and other times, they can't but she believes that a million new ideas come from every unsuccessful one.