Vincent Hoong, Chief Executive, Singapore Land Authority

Vincent Hoong is chief executive of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). He holds a bachelor of law (Second Class Upper Division Honors) from National University of Singapore. He has also completed the advanced management program at Harvard Business School, Harvard University. After being admitted to the bar as an advocate and solicitor, he entered private practice, specializing in banking and commercial matters. In 1984, he joined Singapore Legal Service. He held various judicial appointments in the Supreme and Subordinate Courts as an assistant registrar, magistrate, coroner, and district judge, respectively. In 1997, he was posted to the Ministry of Law to head one of its land departments. In 2001, he transferred to SLA, which was formed from a merger of four Ministry of Law departments. He was initially appointed as a director of one of SLA's divisions. A year later, he was appointed as deputy chief executive. In 2009, he was appointed as SLA's chief executive. He holds the concurrent statutory appointments of registrar of titles and deeds and controller of residential property. He also cochairs the Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment (SG-SPACE) Committee. Hoong is active in the National Heritage Board, where he is a member of the Preservation of Monuments Board. He is a member of the Singapore Academy of Law's Lawnet Management Committee and chairs one of its subcommittees. He also sits on the Orchard Road Development Commission and is a member of the Marina Bay Review Committee.

Abdul Karim Al Raeisi, Executive Manager, Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC)

With more than 14 years of experience in the municipal SDI/GIS and town planning sector, Mr. Abdul Karim Al Raeisi today serves as the Spatial Data Centre Executive Manager at the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC). Abdul Karim's mandate is to focus on the planning, management, and execution of one of the key components of the Emirate's ambitious e-government program; the Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure program (AD-SDI). AD-SDI empowers government and society with convenient, open access to high-quality and up-to-date geographic information, and spatially enabled e-government services. In addition to his broad field experience, Abdul Karim holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Al Ain University of Science and Technology, a Higher Diploma in Electronic Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Management from the Higher College of Technology in the UAE. As a leader in a fast growing and dynamic industry, education was a main component in his career, and to compliment his rich previous experience, he recently obtained a Masters Degree in Entrepreneur Leadership in 2010 from INSEAD University, The Business School of the World. Mr. Abdul Karim has also completed the "Abu Dhabi Government Top Management Programme" to develop the administrative leadership capability of the Emirate.

Hiroshi Murakami, Vice-President, PCGIAP, Japan

Hiroshi Murakami was born in Japan in 1958. He received a Master of Science in Geophysics in 1983 from Tokhoku University and then started working for the Geographic Survey Institute which is now the Geospatial Information Authority (GSI). He received a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Georgia in 1990 and became Head of the
the GIS Promotion Office of GSI in 1997. In 2001 he became Chief of the Cartographic Section at the United Nations in New York. In 2005 he was named Deputy Director of the Topographic Department at GSI and in 2009 became Deputy Director of the Planning Department at GSI.