[Webinar] Singapore Insolvency Conference 2021

Mr Edwin Tong, SC – Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Second Minister for Law

Mr Edwin Tong SC was appointed Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law on 27 July 2020. Prior to this, he served as the Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Health from 1 July 2018 to 26 July 2020.

At the Ministry of Law, he focuses on the development and promotion of Singapore’s legal and dispute resolution sector. He also handles wide-ranging aspects of law reform, including intellectual property, corporate restructuring and insolvency, and legal aid.

Before taking office, Mr Tong spent his entire working life at Allen & Gledhill LLP, one of the largest law practices in Singapore, where he practised extensively in corporate and commercial disputes, restructuring and insolvency matters, and international arbitration. In that time, he was concurrently Head of the Restructuring and Corporate Insolvency Department, Co-Head of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department, and a member of the Exco. He was widely acknowledged to be a leading lawyer of the Singapore Bar, and was consistently cited and recommended for his expertise in dispute resolution and as a restructuring and insolvency practitioner in various leading international legal publications. In recognition of his advocacy skills, professional standing and extensive knowledge of the law, he was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.

Mr Tong was educated at St Joseph’s Institution, Raffles Junior College and later read law at the National University of Singapore.

Angela Ee – Vice-Chairperson, Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore (IPAS); Partner, Ernst & Young Solutions LLP

Angela leads EY’s restructuring and insolvency practice in ASEAN. She has extensive restructuring and insolvency experience involving complex legal and commercial issues across various industries.  Angela advises companies and stakeholders in distress situations and takes on appointments as Judicial Manager, Scheme Manager, Receiver and Liquidator. As a Capital Markets Services licensed representative, she specializes in the restructuring/judicial management of listed companies.

Angela is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner, practicing member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and the chairperson of ISCA’s Insolvency and Restructuring Practitioners Committee, Fellow and Vice Chairperson of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore, a member of the International Insolvency Institute and an advisory board member of the Singapore Management University’s Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative.

Sushil Nair – Chairperson (Insolvency Practice Committee), The Law Society of Singapore; Deputy CEO, Drew & Napier LLC

Named Singapore’s Restructuring Lawyer of the Year for 2019 by Best Lawyers International and consistently recognised as a leading individual in the restructuring and insolvency space by various publications and rankings, Sushil is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Drew & Napier and also heads up its Corporate Restructuring & Workout practice group. Sushil has been in practice for some 30 years, with the majority of that time focused on restructuring. Sushil’s practice is focused on the Asia Pacific region, with much of it revolving around Indonesia and China, where he has been involved in some of the largest restructuring exercises in Asia.

Sushil chairs the Insolvency Sub Committee of the Law Society of Singapore and has been appointed a member to a number of government committees involved in the development of the law relating to insolvency and restructuring in Singapore. Sushil also sits on the boards of the Singapore Accountancy Commission and Sports Singapore.

Manoj Pillay Sandrasegara  – Chairman, IPAS; Partner, WongPartnership LLP

Manoj Pillay SANDRASEGARA leads WongPartnership’s cross-border restructuring practice in Asia. He has extensive experience in complex cross-border debt restructurings acting for borrowers, court-appointed administrators and special situation investors. The notable restructuring and insolvency matters he has recently been involved in include Pacific International Lines’ ground-breaking restructuring of its US$3.3 billion debt, Wirecard Asia Holdings Pte Ltd in relation to the fallout from Wirecard AG’s insolvency and Xihe Holdings in its US$1 billion restructuring.

Manoj is the Chairman of the Insolvency Practitioner’s Association of Singapore. He is an elected member of the International Insolvency Institute and an advisory board member of the Singapore Management University’s Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative. He was appointed by the Ministry of Law to the Committee to establish Singapore as a debt restructuring centre in Asia. He is also a regular speaker on the international circuit on cross-border restructurings. ​

As a long-recognised Tier 1 Restructuring and Insolvency practitioner in major publications such as Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 and IFLR1000, Manoj was also placed as one of only two legal practitioners in Singapore in the 2021 edition of Who's Who Legal :​Thought Leaders - Global Elite.

Patrick Ang – Managing Partner, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP; Vice-Chairman, Rajah & Tann Asia

Patrick has three decades of experience handling contentious and non-contentious matters. His areas of expertise include corporate restructuring and insolvency, acting for financial institutions and companies in high-profile landmark cases including Hin Leong, Nortel Networks, Lehman Brothers and Swiber.

Patrick is globally regarded as a pre-eminent lawyer, having been consistently named in legal directories like Chambers Asia Pacific, IFLR1000 and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. His market-leading reputation is endorsed by Chambers Asia Pacific, where he is ranked ‘Band 1’ lawyer since 2008 and is commended as a “widely respected practitioner” and “one of the leaders in the area.” Who’s Who Legal recognised him as Lawyer of the Year for Restructuring & Insolvency in 2020 and also as a Global Elite Thought Leader for his “truly outstanding” expertise, an accolade conferred on the top 2 percent of all practitioners listed globally across their guides.

In 2018, he was inducted into the prestigious American College of Bankruptcy as a Fellow, making him the only Singaporean (and the fourth Asian lawyer) in this honorary public service association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals.

Chee Yoh Chuang – Senior Partner, RSM Singapore

Yoh Chuang is a senior partner of RSM Singapore and Executive Director of RSM Corporate Advisory Pte Ltd where he heads the Restructuring and Forensics Services. He is an Associate Mediator with Singapore Mediation Centre and a Licenced Insolvency Practitioner with more than 30 years of experience in insolvency and restructuring, acting as Judicial Manager, Scheme Manager, Receiver, Liquidator and Financial Advisor in corporate restructuring. He has also actively involved in investigation assignments, including conducting special audit on companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore.

Yoh Chuang is a member of the Board of Directors, Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore. He was a member of the Insolvency Law Review Committee and received the ‘‘Minister for Law Outstanding Volunteer Award’’ in 2012.

Ashok Kumar – Director, BlackOak LLC

Ashok is a well-respected veteran in the area of corporate restructuring and insolvency, with 30 years of experience in legal practice. Handling both the contentious and non-contentious aspects of this practice on cross-border as well as domestic deals, Ashok regularly acts for debtors, creditors, financial institutions, funds and insolvency professionals, providing practical solutions when companies are in a distress or near-distress situation. Ashok is consistently named as a leading lawyer in this practice area in various reputable ranking publications, including Chambers Global, Chambers Asia, IFLR 1000, Legal 500, Asialaw, Who’s Who Legal, PLC Which Lawyer Yearbook and Best Lawyers International.

Ashok has also contributed significant time and resources towards the development of the corporate restructuring and insolvency field in Singapore and the region. He sits on various boards and committees, and has released several publications related to his core practice area.

Keith Magnus - Chairman, Evercore Asia; Global Partner, Evercore

Keith Magnus is Chairman, Asia, Global Partner and Member of the Global Management Committee at Evercore, the world’s largest independent investment bank. Mr. Magnus founded Evercore’s business in Singapore and quickly grew Evercore’s presence in the region, securing the prestigious title of “Best M&A Adviser” in Singapore for four out of five consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019) at the Asset Triple A Awards. To date at Evercore, he has personally originated and advised on approximately S$200 billion worth of transactions across over 50 deals, with a double digit number of them over S$1 billion each in deal value. Evercore has also secured the title of Best Independent Advisory Firm in Asia. Mr. Magnus previously was Chairman UBS Investment Banking in Singapore & Malaysia including overseeing corporate finance in South East Asia and MD and Head of regional investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank where he secured numerous industry awards.

Mr. Magnus is Board Director of Sports Singapore, NTU Business School Council, the Anglo-Chinese Schools Foundation, and was previously Board Director of Sentosa Development Corporation. Mr. Magnus has double degrees in Law and Economics (Accountancy) from Monash University, Clayton, Australia.

Lee Eng Beng, SC – Senior Partner, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP; Chairperson, Rajah & Tann Asia

Lee Eng Beng, SC is a Senior Partner of Rajah & Tann Singapore and the Chairperson of Rajah & Tann Asia. Eng Beng was appointed Senior Counsel in 2008 and is a highly-regarded lawyer, having been recognised as a Thought Leader in Who’s Who Legal for Restructuring & Insolvency, as well as a Band 1 leading lawyer in restructuring and insolvency as well as in commercial litigation in Chambers Asia Pacific.

Eng Beng’s areas of expertise include a wide range of insolvency and banking advisory work, and the debt restructuring of large businesses and public listed companies. He has published widely in the field of insolvency law and commercial law generally and his articles are often judicially cited in the Singapore courts. Eng Beng was formerly a Justices’ Law Clerk in the Supreme Court of Singapore and a Lecturer and Senior Adjunct Fellow in the National University of Singapore, teaching various subjects including insolvency law, securities regulation and company law. He was also awarded the Public Service Medal in recognition of his contributions to MinLaw’s insolvency law reforms in 2014.

Nick Gronow - Senior Managing Director (Corporate Finance & Restructuring), FTI Consulting

Nick Gronow is a Senior Managing Director in the Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment of FTI Consulting and he is based in Singapore. He has more than 20 years of experience in financial and operational restructuring, corporate recovery and transaction advisory.

Nick has extensive experience advising bank groups, private equity funds, bondholders and corporations throughout the Asia Pacific region. He has led assignments across a broad spectrum of situations, ranging from regional and global financial restructurings to designing and implementing performance improvement programs for companies in developing countries, and from performing comprehensive due diligence advisory roles with respect to business acquisitions to conducting corporate recovery assignments to maximise value for stakeholders.

Nick provides pragmatic and realistic advice to guide clients dealing with difficult and complex business issues, and he focuses on achieving results and outcomes rather than dealing in theories. With experience across the Asia Pacific region and in a number of high profile global matters, he has considerable industry, Asia regional, and international experience across his 20 year career. He has lived in Asia for over ten years.

Michael Horn – Partner, Head of Restructuring Services and Head of Sustainability Services, KPMG (Indonesia)

Michael Horn is KPMG Indonesia’s Head of Restructuring Services and co-leads ESG & Sustainable Finance services. With more than 30 years of restructuring experience across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US, he has also held leadership roles in project and structured finance, legal and credit/risk. 

His restructuring experience spans multiple economic downturns, including COVID-19, the Global Financial Crisis, the Asian Financial Crisis, Japan’s Lost Decade, the 2003 Korean securitization collapse, the oil & gas downturn since 2015 and the 1990-1991 US recession. His most recent engagements have involved financial restructuring, government rescue funding of SOEs and non-performing loan resolution planning.

Michael has worked in Asia-Pacific for a substantial part of his career, including more than 10 years in Indonesia and multiple postings in Singapore. He has also worked in Sydney, Tokyo and New York.

Stuti Jain - Director, Head of Workout & Recovery Management, Deutsche Bank AG

Stuti has extensive experience advising financial institutions and corporates in Asia facing stress situations. Her current role at DB entails managing the bank’s lending portfolio for counter-parties in financial stress and protecting the bank’s capital by monitoring any early signs of stress and devising appropriate credit strategies. Stuti has spent over a decade in the region working on complex cross-border matters involving China, Singapore, Indonesia, India, BVI, Cayman and Hong Kong.  

Stuti is a Chartered Accountant and also holds a Masters in Global Finance from the Stern School of Business, New York and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. She also sits on the Board of IWIRC International representing the Asia Networks. Prior to that she has been on the IWIRC Hong Kong Board since 2013.

Rizwan Rizal Abidin – Director (Investment and Restructuring), PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (Indonesia)

Mr Rizwan Rizal Abidin is currently Director of Investment and Restructuring at PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (Persero) (PPA for short), an institution of the Indonesian government that is engaged in asset management of assets of distressed Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Rizwan oversees restructuring and turnaround activities of a portfolio of SOEs and investment activities of a Special Situations Fund. He also manages PPA’s existing investments on loan, structured debt, and hybrid financing.

He has more than two decades of experience in investment banking, private equity, and corporate restructuring. Before joining PPA, he was Managing Director at IndoSterling Capital (2019-2020), Chief Investment Officer at NWP Retail - Warburg Pincus (2017-2019) and Director/Head of Merger & Acquisition as well as various leadership roles at CIMB (2004-2017) in the areas of investment banking and corporate finance.

He is widely recognized in Indonesia with several awards including Top 3 M&A Banker/ Financial Advisor based on transaction size by Mergermarket in 2017, part of the team that won Best Bank: M&A Advisory Indonesia by Euromoney R.E in 2017 and Deal Maker of The Year & Cross Border Deal of The Year (Mergers and Acquisition Awards).

Tham Sai Choy – Independent Director, DBS Group Holdings & DBS Bank

Mr. Tham Sai Choy is an independent director on the board of DBS Bank, South-east Asia’s largest bank and the recipient of multiple global best bank awards. He also serves on the board of Keppel Corporation, a multinational conglomerate with interests in offshore and marine, property, infrastructure and asset management.  Other current board appointments include Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore International Arbitration Centre and Mount Alvernia Hospital.

During a long career at KPMG, he worked with a wide range of companies serving their needs in audit, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, forensic investigations, debt restructurings and insolvencies. When he retired from professional practice at the firm, he was chairman of its Asia Pacific operations and a member of KPMG’s global board and global exco.

Stephanie Yeo – Partner, WongPartnership LLP

Stephanie is a Partner in the Restructuring & Insolvency and Special Situations Advisory Practices at WongPartnership LLP. Her main area of practice is restructuring and insolvency with a focus on formal and out-of-court cross border restructurings.

Notable matters Stephanie has been involved in include acting as co-lead counsel for Pacific International Lines in their recent successful US$3.3 billion debt restructuring and as lead counsel for the Japanese bankruptcy trustee in Re Opti Medix (in liquidation) and another matter [2016] SGHC 108, a landmark decision recognizing the trustee’s appointment over two British Virgin Islands companies that was nominated for Most Important Recognition Decision in the Global Restructuring Review Awards 2017.

Stephanie graduated from Singapore Management University and is admitted to the Singapore Bar. She is a member of INSOL and Class X of the III NextGen Leadership Programme. She was seconded to the Restructuring Group in the New York office of a leading law firm for seven months during 2018 to 2019.

Debby Lim – Partner, Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP

Debby focuses on all areas of contentious insolvency and asset recovery work (including major commercial disputes) and investigations. These often involve complex and multifaceted litigation in the aftermath of cross-border corporate collapses. Debby has recently appeared before the Singapore Court of Appeal (with a full bench of five Judges) in SK Engineering & Construction Co Ltd v Conchubar Aromatics Ltd and another appeal [2017] SGCA 51, Diablo Fortune Inc v Duncan, Cameron Lindsay and another [2018] SGCA 26 and AnAn Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd v VTB Bank (Public Joint Stock Company) [2020] SGCA 33, a trifecta of jurisprudentially significant insolvency-related appeals to confront the Singapore courts.

Her involvement in ground-breaking cases include the first “pre-packaged” scheme of arrangement and the first judicial management involving a foreign-incorporated entity.

Debby has been noted as a leading lawyer in many publications including Chambers Asia, Legal 500 and Who’s Who in Legal Restructuring & Insolvency. Debby is the Immediate Past Chairperson of the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (Singapore Network) and is also a founding member of the Law Society of Singapore’s Women in Practice Task Force. She is a fellow of INSOL International and is one of the first three Singapore-qualified lawyers to have earned this recognition.

Andrew Chan – Partner, Allen & Gledhill LLP

Andrew Chan is widely recognised as a leading restructuring and insolvency practitioner in various legal directories. He has been inducted into The Legal 500 Hall of Fame for Restructuring and Insolvency. He is a Fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is on the panels of arbitrators of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Law Society Arbitration Scheme, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the Asian International Arbitration Centre. He is also a Director of the American Arbitration Association-ICDR Ltd. Andrew has written extensively - he is the General Editor of the leading local practitioner’s book entitled Law & Practice of Corporate Insolvency. He has co-authored two works on personal insolvency: Butterworths Annotations of The Singapore Bankruptcy Act and Law And Practice of Bankruptcy In Singapore and Malaysia. Andrew is also the Consultant Editor of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore volume on Insolvency. In October 2011, Andrew was presented the “Minister for Law Outstanding Volunteer Award”, the highest volunteer award for individuals given by the Ministry of Law Singapore, for providing expertise and helping shape insolvency practice in Singapore.

Emmanuel Chua - Local Principal, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow

Emmanuel is a senior dispute resolution lawyer with expertise acting for multinational clients in complex, cross-border disputes and situations across Asia.  He has recently been recognised by Asian Legal Business as one of Asia's Super 50 Disputes Lawyers.

Emmanuel focusses his practice on contentious restructuring and insolvency matters, with a focus on cross-border situations. Some of the high profile matters in which he has recently been involved include the restructurings of the Pan Brothers group, PT Modernland, PT Royal Industries and Triyards Marine Services, and in the liquidations of the Pertamina Energy Trading Limited and Hyflux.  Emmanuel also coordinates and manages international arbitration and litigation processes across Asia, and regularly appears as lead counsel in these proceedings.

Emmanuel previously co-led the international disputes function in a US oil & gas supermajor, where he managed situations across Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa. He is presently and concurrently a facilitator for the Insolvency module of the Part B course leading to Singapore Bar qualification.

Aurelio Gurrea Martinez – Assistant Professor of Law, SMU and Head of Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, SMU

Aurelio Gurrea-Martínez is an Assistant Professor of Law and head of the Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative at Singapore Management University. He is a member of the Academic Steering Committee at INSOL International as well as co-chair of the SMU-3CL Cambridge Roundtable on Corporate Insolvency. He has taught, studied or conducted research at several institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Asia and Latin America, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, Stanford University, and the University of Oxford. He has been invited to present his academic work before various regulators, governmental agencies and international organizations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Australian Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His research interest lies in the intersection of law and finance, with particular emphasis on corporate governance, financial regulation, corporate finance, and corporate insolvency law, and how legal and institutional reforms may promote entrepreneurship, innovation, access to finance and economic growth.

Paul J. Omar – Senior Lecturer, De Montfort University (United Kingdom)

Paul is an academic lawyer working in the British HE sector and serving also as Consultant to a number of international institutions active in the insolvency sector.

Paul has worked in mainstream British academia for 20 years, principally at Sussex University and also in Wales and the East Midlands. At present, he is a Senior Lecturer in Land Law at De Montfort University Leicester. He has also had visiting appointments at the University of Pretoria, University College London and the Jersey Institute of Law, St. Helier. His research interests encompass insolvency, corporate and property law and he has published over 230 books, edited collections, chapters and articles.

Paul has served as Secretary of the INSOL Europe Academic Forum and as a member of the Steering Committee of the INSOL International Academic Group, the INSOL Europe Joint Academic-Practitioner Project on Cooperation and Communications, the Academic Advisory Group on the INSOL International Diploma Project, the Course Committee of the INSOL International Global Insolvency Practice Course and, more recently, as a member of the European Commission’s Experts Group on Restructuring and Insolvency, which helped inform the drafting of the Preventive Restructuring Directive. Paul is at present a Consultant to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development working on projects in Armenia and external adviser to the Indian Graduate Diploma in Insolvency course. He is also the Technical Research Coordinator for INSOL Europe.

Michael Veder – Professor of Insolvency Law, Radboud Business Law Institute; Vice-Dean of Research, Faculty of Law of Radboud University; Adviser, RESOR (Netherlands)

Michael Veder is professor of insolvency law at the Radboud Business Law Institute, vice-dean of research of the Faculty of Law of Radboud University and adviser at the Amsterdam based law firm RESOR. Michael is admitted to the bar in the Netherlands. He specialises in (international) insolvency law and secured transactions. He holds a doctorate in law from Radboud University. He is a member of the European Commission Group of Experts on Restructuring and Insolvency Law and was a member of the European Commission Expert Group on cross-border insolvency. He chairs the Dutch Insolvency Law Commission (Commissie Insolventierecht) that advises the Dutch government and parliament on matters relating to insolvency and restructuring. He is fellow of the Dutch Insolvency Practitioners Association (Vereniging Insolventierecht Advocaten (INSOLAD)), member and former chair of the Netherlands Association of Comparative and International Insolvency Law, member of INSOL Europe, for which he was a member of its Council and chair of its Academic Forum, and member of INSOL International, for which he is a member of its Academics’ Steering Committee. Michael regularly publishes, lectures and advises on (international and comparative aspects of) property law, secured transactions, insolvency and restructuring (and related disputes) and frequently speaks at conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. He is course leader of the Global Insolvency Practice Course for the Fellowship of INSOL International. Michael advises the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on insolvency and restructuring issues.

Wee Meng Seng – Associate Professor (Faculty of Law), National University of Singapore; Deputy Director, EW Barker Center for Law & Business; Co-Director, Asian Law Institute

Dr Wee Meng Seng is an Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Asian Law Institute and Deputy Director and Head (Corporate Law) of the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS), and an editorial member of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. He obtained his LLB from NUS, BCL (First Class) and DPhil from Oxford. He teaches and researches on corporate insolvency law and company law. He has published articles in flagship journals in the UK and Singapore such as the Law Quarterly Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Journal of Business Law and Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, and chapters in OUP and CUP books. His writings have been cited by fellow academics and the courts, including the Singapore Court of Appeal and the Australian Federal Court. He has been invited regularly to speak at local and international conferences. He was a visiting professor at the China University of Political Science and Law and the Capital University of Economics and Business, and has delivered public lectures and given seminars at various universities, including Oxford University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Jindal Global Law School. He was a member of the Insolvency Law Review Committee appointed by the Singapore government to make recommendations to reform Singapore’s personal and corporate insolvency laws, and has served as a consultant to government bodies, local and international law firms.