Derek is an operations focused team leader with over two decades of applied market entry experience across the Asia-Pacific, Greater China and US regions. As an early adopter of emerging technologies, he has built and commercialized products/services in all aspects of executional know-how including ideation, funding, operations, marketing, sales and distribution and investor exit spanning mobile payments, consumer electronics, robotics, corporate administration services, co-working and digital media. Most recently, Derek was recruited by the CEO/Founders as the first core member of the founding team that brought a patented electronic cigarette from prototype to mass production in Shenzhen, national distribution and generated nearly US$30M in sales in 24-months in the US. In the early days of the Internet Bubble, Derek worked at one of Hong Kong’s first venture capital firms to originate, execute and manage TMT investments from ideation to exit. He contributed to the fund's success in achieving a gross IRR of 149% for all realized or publicly traded investments and 115% gross IRR for all investments. Derek’s combined experience is unique in his conviction that full immersion within a company’s operations is essential to understanding the company post-investment. The journey from investor to management execution was an evolution that awarded him a strong track record in value creation and delivery, people management, fundraising, China manufacturing, sales and marketing and investor relations. Derek began his career in investment banking where he assisted small cap growth companies to go public and provided strategic advice to Fortune 500 clients as a management consultant during the Asian Financial Crisis. Derek is a start-up community leader and board member to youth education and animal welfare organizations. He has authored two books, is a TEDx speaker, tech conference speaker and university guest lecturer.

Creative person without creative talent, I had to surround myself very early with talented designers. At 23 years old, I created a furniture brand editing French designers and manufacturing in Asia. I opened 2 concept stores in Paris and was reselling across 100 stores in Europe. This is how I discovered that manufacturing was very challenging... I therefore moved to Beijing to manage the production process. But this is only when I moved to Hong Kong that I had the ⚡️ moment of the MoshiMoshi with my co-working neighbor. This was the creation of Native Union. We then sold 3 millions pieces of MoshiMoshi in less than 3 years ! But this was a (happy) incident. Our hyper-growth was unhealthy. We got defocused on our initial vision : elevate modern essentials via good design & quality products. This is why today we bring desirability and durability to products that used to be utilitarian only. I'm convinced that to build something people really care about, we need to act as a curator of their experience. Remove everything non-essential, to only focus on few details. In 2022, I have decided to reduce our collections by 50%, to be able to spend more time developing even better products, for the people who value craft, and quality.

Kiki comes from an international innovation and investment background, with abundant experience in the startup sphere in Asia and North America, having worked with a global venture capital firm, startups and a leading incubator and accelerator. Currently as the General Manager of MTR Lab, she is managing the operations of the company and leading the team to build the new I&T based growth engine through venture building and investment activities. Previously, Kiki was the Head of Incubation and Acceleration Programmes at HKSTP, where she managed one of the largest startup ecosystems in the region. Kiki is a CFA Charterholder, and holds an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management (UBC, Canada) and a Master in Finance.

Mr Leo Ng is the first Chief Digital Officer of MTR Corporation, joining in May 2022. His charter has corporate oversight on digitalisation strategies and development together with his Global Innovation and Information Technology Services teams. He has more than 30 years of experience in consulting, program management, large-scale digital transformation program and technology architecture design and implementation for a wide range of companies across different industries in Australia, UK, ASEAN, and Greater China. Prior to joining MTR, he held various roles with Accenture in Greater China including being their Digital Lead, Technology Delivery Lead and HK Office Managing Director.

Morgan is a dynamic entrepreneur and seasoned engineer, initiated into the world of engineering, learning mechanical design at the age of 12. He co-founded Sparkmate, a product development and venture builder firm active in IoT product design and industry disruption. He fully bootstrapped Sparkmate to 30 teammates and did over 60 projects in 3 years. Outside his technical pursuits, Morgan hosts his own podcast, "Behind the Product". An adventurer at heart, he's also an avid skier and extreme sports enthusiast.