2024 Judges
Meet this year’s esteemed panel of expert judges for the following nomination-based award categories!
Best Usability Award (Government & Industry)
The panel of expert judges consist of the following:
Amanda Mace
W3C Evangelist, W3C and Vice President (Australasia), GrackleDocs
Amanda is a Subject Matter Expert in Digital Accessibility with more than 10 years of experience in the industry. She manages the Australasia office for GrackleDocs while growing and promoting the brand across the region. She also manages the audit team which is responsible for manual WCAG audits for our clients. Amanda is one of only two Australian-based W3C evangelists and the W3C Australian Western Region Chapter manager.
When it comes to accessibility, she believes that innovation with accessibility built into it provides security, independence, and privacy for people with disabilities and ultimately better, more usable digital products for all. She has spent her career advocating that it is everyone's job to do their bit to remove barriers so all people can have equal access and equal opportunity to the digital world. Using her expertise in WCAG and PDF/UA to educate and help others understand digital access as well as how to go above and beyond standards, to ensuring great user experiences.
She is certified by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) as a Certified Professional. Having begun her accessibility career as a WCAG auditor/tester, she worked her way up in that small business through to management. Throughout her career, She has had many opportunities to contribute to educating others about digital accessibility including, co-authoring a book chapter for the textbook, "Web Accessibility A Foundation for Research," as well as a white paper entitled, "Digital Accessibility: Perceptions, Expectations and Reality."
Ari Widjanarko
Design Principal, Associate Partner - Experience Design, Mobile & Metaverse Practice Lead - ASEAN, IBM iX
With 25 years of experience in North America and Asia, Ari brings together the cumulative perspective from Human-centred Design, Information Architecture and Digital Experience Strategy. Ari's speciality is to articulate a compelling Digital Strategy for clients, orchestrate it through Experience and Service Design programs and improve business outcomes for clients through digital transformation. Ari’s work spans across multiple industry verticals and markets in the ASEAN region. Today, Ari is leading digital transformation projects with the Singapore government and financial service, retail and logistic clients.
Cheong Yian Ling
Product Discovery and Delivery Lead, Thoughtworks APAC
Yian Ling has accumulated over 14 years of experience in design, product, and customer experience (CX) roles. At Thoughtworks, she heads the Product Discovery and Design service offering in APAC, continuously reimagining how designers can add value to clients by creating products that are viable, desirable, feasible, usable, and responsible. She has played a significant role in shaping both agency-facing and citizen-facing products, including LifeSG, GoBusiness, and Healthy365.
One of her proudest moments came shortly after delivering her second child. While in the hospital ward, a nurse came to explain the birth registration process and recommended using an app for its exceptional ease. Yian Ling realized with pride that this app was the very product she had worked on during her pregnancy.
In 2012, she was awarded the DesignSingapore scholarship to pursue further studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Most recently, she has been honored to join the cohort of IMDA’s 2024 SG Digital Leaders.
Lillian Shieh
Head of Design Practice, GovTech
Lillian Shieh is a design researcher, product strategist and service designer. She currently leads the Design Practice at GovTech, supporting designers, promoting best practices for inclusive design, and exploring emerging technologies for developing digital services for citizens, businesses, and public officers.
Her experience includes collaborating with the World Health Organization and Pacific member states to build innovation capabilities. She also built and led Johnson & Johnson's Asia Pacific Design Lab, integrating design methodologies into business processes, and establishing design as a strategic function.
As a researcher and strategist, Lillian has led teams that created successful new product and service concepts for clients like J&J, Intel, Telefónica, and Samsung. Her approach, rooted in systems thinking, team development, and experimentation, creates trusted partnerships and products that people want to use.
Marcus Loh
Director Industry Advisor, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft
Loh is an experienced and visionary IT leader who has been working in the IT industry for over 30 years. He has served various sectors, including governments, education, and enterprises, throughout Asia. He has been instrumental in helping them achieve their digital transformation goals and leverage the latest technologies to enhance their productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.
Loh started his career at Microsoft, where he played a key role in launching and promoting some of the most popular and influential Microsoft solutions, such as the operating systems, modern workplace, messaging, and cloud computing. He also initiated and led several government programs, such as Partners-In-Learning, that aimed to improve the quality and accessibility of education through technology.
More recently, Loh has been focusing on the emerging field of artificial intelligence (AI) and data. He has been working with governments in the region to formulate and implement AI and data strategies that can help them harness the power and potential of AI for social, productivity and economic development. He has also been sharing his insights and expertise on AI and data with various stakeholders, such as policymakers, academics, industry leaders.
Most Mobile Optimised Website Award (Government & Industry)
The panel of expert judges consist of the following:
Chen Kaiwei
Director (AI and Trust Products), SNDGO
Kaiwei is an experienced product manager and serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in AI product development, fraud reduction, and SaaS solutions. Currently, as Director of Product at the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, he drives Government product strategies focusing on helping teams move faster and de-risk earlier. Prior to joining the Government, he founded a few ML ops companies from 0 to 1 and led fraud products at ByteDance. Apart from his professional achievements, he actively contributes to the tech community and supports underprivileged learners through coding initiatives.
Chong Kwek Bin
Technology Analyst, SG Enable
An adept user of assistive technology, and a former IT trainer for fellow persons with visual impairment, Kwek Bin has extensive experience in the field of digital accessibility. He served on the Steering Committees of the Enabling Masterplan 3 (2017 - 2021) and Enabling Masterplan 2030, national roadmaps guiding Singapore's disability inclusion efforts.
Throughout his career, he has also advised and coordinated feedback to various parties on digital accessibility. Kwek Bin is currently a Technology Analyst at SG Enable, Singapore’s focal agency for disability and inclusion, where he is working on assistive technology and e-accessibility initiatives.
Karta Sutanto
Business Engineer APAC Lead, Meta
Karta is a Staff Business Engineer at Meta, with eight years of experience. He has worked across Meta’s ad stacks, Family of Apps, and SDKs, contributing to the development and improvement of these platforms. Before his time at Meta, Karta gained valuable experience at local gaming startups and with indie mobile developers in Singapore.
Muhammad Rajeef M K
UX Engineering Lead, Google
Rajeef works at the intersection of design, engineering and research, bringing a prototyping first approach to product development and influencing teams to de-risk assumptions and validate hypotheses early on. Currently, he leads the UX Engineering efforts for Google Search's internationalisation efforts.
Sherizan Sheikh
Global Design Leader, ByteDance
Sherizan is a design leader and entrepreneur. He has since played a pivotal role in designing intuitive and engaging user experiences for millions of users in Southeast Asia such as GrabPay and GXS bank.
Currently at ByteDance, Sherizan leads the design of innovative payment solutions, ensuring seamless and user-friendly interfaces that cater to a global audience.
Outside of his role, Sherizan founded a successful Poke restaurant in Singapore, called Men On A Mission, blending his passion for design with his entrepreneurial spirit.
Most User-Centric Website Award (Government)
The panel of expert judges consist of the following:
Bharati Dixit
UX Research Lead, HP
Bharati has 17 years of experience across market research and design. She is a certified Design Thinker from MIT Sloan University. She holds a bachelor’s in Economics and PG in Marketing. She is data agnostic and has worked on qualitative, quantitative, analytics, digital, design and consultative projects across different markets globally. She has worked on commercial as well as public sector projects.
In her current role, she is the UX Research Lead for Global Experience Design team at HP. She has presented her work and thought pieces at several conferences including ESOMAR, MRMW, and MRSI across Europe, Middle East, and Asia.
Choong Ming Sien
Assistant Director, Transformation Office, GovTech
Ming leads GovTech’s Accessibility Enabling (A11y) Team, a dedicated team of software developers making Singapore’s digital services accessible and inclusive. She firmly believes that people of all abilities should be able to independently access and benefit from digital services. Before founding the A11y Team, she served as Chief of Staff to the Government Digital Services division, the government’s Application Development Capability Center.
Prior to her public service career, Ming worked in strategy consulting. As a Third Culture Kid, her global upbringing enables her to engage effectively with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures. She read Law at Cambridge University.
Jason Goh
EXCO Member, Design Business Chamber Singapore and Design Director, Dell Technologies
Jason Goh is a passionate homegrown Singaporean designer with more than 20 years of design experience. He graduated with an Honors Degree in Design from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 2001. Upon graduation Jason began his exciting career as an Industrial Designer working for various multi-national companies including Panasonic, Siemens VDO, Creative Technology, Hewlett-Packard and Dell Technologies. Over the years, Jason has established design recognition across multiple global design and innovation awards e.g. iF Gold, Red Dot, IDEA, SGMark, GMark Japan, Good Design Chicago Athenaeum, CES Best in Innovation etc.
Jason currently leads the Dell Experience Design Group in Singapore, responsible for crafting the end-to-end experience for Displays & Peripherals under the brand of Dell and Alienware. Apart from his day job, Jason is also actively contributing to the Singapore design community as an Executive Committee in Design Business Chamber Singapore and external examiner in various Design schools across Singapore.
Ming Tan
Founding Executive Director, Tech For Good Institute
Dr Ming Tan is founding Executive Director for the Tech for Good Institute, a non-profit seed-funded by Grab to catalyse research and collaboration on social, economic, and policy trends accelerated by the digital economy. She is concurrently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore. Her interests lie at the intersection of technology, business and society, including sustainability and innovation.
Nelson John
Head of Digital Media Solution Consulting, Adobe
With over 16 years at Adobe, Nelson John has evolved from a Principal Solution Consultant to his current role as Manager, Digital Media Solution Consulting (SEA). His extensive experience spans two decades with Adobe products, including Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects, where he has been a certified trainer and expert.
Nelson’s journey at Adobe has been marked by a commitment to leveraging Creative Cloud solutions to drive client success. He specializes in AI-powered workflows and cloud technology, focusing on maximizing ROI and optimizing creative processes for enterprise customers across Southeast Asia. His expertise in workflow digitization strategies has been instrumental in helping many organizations achieve their creative and business goals.
Outstanding Citizen Contributor (Whole-of-Government) Award
The panel of expert judges consist of the following:
Archana Vaidheeswaran
Board Director, Women in Machine Learning
Archana is a product builder and advocate. Archana has worked with companies to build products for 350,000 audiences and market developer products to get over 3x returns! She currently works as a Fractional AI Product consultant for several LLM-based product companies and a Board Director at Women in Machine Learning. She has previously been a Product Manager at Women Who Code and has 7+ years of experience working with a range of Industries like Healthcare, Pharmatech, InsuranceTech, Community-Tech, Automotive, and Logistics. Her areas of expertise are AI/ML, Generative AI, end-to-end product development, and marketing of developer products. Her work was featured in the Financial Times, and she was named one of Singapore's 100 Women in Technology 2023 by IMDA.
Dominic Soon
Co-Founder, Better.sg
Dominic Soon is a board member of Better.sg, a Singapore-based charity focused on building a tech-for-good community and the organiser of Beacon, a conference focused on celebrating tech-for-good initiatives. In his day job, Dominic works in the private equity industry and focused on global technology investments. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cambridge University, a Master of Arts in International and Development Economics from Yale University and is also a student in Tsinghua University’s Executive MBA programme.
Evelyn Lam
News Presenter, Team Lead & Editor for Technology and Data Analytics, Channel 8 News
Evelyn is a news presenter, team lead and editor for the newsroom Data Analytics team and the technology features team Click IT. In her current role, she oversees, plans and provides editorial judgment for the production of stories for the weekly segments. She also curates technology trends and content to develop full features and news stories. Through her initiative, Channel 8 now uses full augmented reality to help audiences understand data trends and complex ideas with robust visual representations.
Evelyn has produced high profile stories which have landed her multiple awards, including Best News Story at the Star Awards for three consecutive years, a nomination at the Asian TV awards, and Best News Story and Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year award at the Mediacorp News Awards.
Effectively bilingual, Evelyn has produced and reported for CNA and is also a media trainer with the Singapore Media Academy.
Eyung Lim
Senior Director, Government Digital Products, GovTech
Eyung Lim is the Director of Government Digital Products at GovTech Singapore, where he has been leading digital transformation efforts since 2018. With over 20 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, Eyung is recognised for his contributions to advancing government digital services. He continues to drive innovation in Singapore's public sector through technology-driven solutions.
Kevin Kwang
Editor, CNA
Kevin Kwang is an Editor with CNA Digital's Growth team working on interactives and audience engagement. He was formerly a technology reporter at CNA and other media outlets.