APREA #EmbraceEquity Leadership Forum

Christine is the Head of Research, APAC at Knight Frank. She has over 15 years of industry experience, curating and co-ordinating regional forecasts and market outlook for clients across the office, industrial and residential sectors as well as specialist asset classes such as student accommodation, multi-family and data centres. Her insight and in-depth knowledge of real estate market is also well sought-after by both the local and international media. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Cornell University (US) and a Master of Arts degree in Media and Communications from University of London (UK).

Sara Cheng is Senior Vice President to APAC’s Banking and Corporates, and is responsible for leading the overall business strategy and execution at SS&C Intralinks. Prior to joining SS&C Intralinks, Sara was the Managing Director to Twitter China and CEO of Fuji Xerox Singapore. Her strong sense of curiosity propelled her to live and work across Asia, the US and Europe while rising to executive positions at Xerox, IBM, Teradata, NCR and Procter & Gamble.

Sara is known for being a catalyst of change, who has transformed people and organizations throughout her career and is a strong advocate of workplace diversity and the development of next-generation Asian leaders.

Sara's Board experience includes: Chairlady of the Board - Fuji Xerox Singapore, Board Member - Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, and Advisory Board - Women's Forum for Economy and Society Asia.

An active advocate for green building and sustainability for over two decades, Esther has been instrumental in establishing CDL’s leadership in sustainability. It is ranked top real estate company on the 2021 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. It became the first real estate conglomerate in Southeast Asia to sign the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings in February 2021. Key ESG initiatives she has spearheaded include publishing the first sustainability report in Singapore in 2008; issuing the first green bond by a Singaporean company in 2017 and building an integrated sustainability reporting framework since 2015.

A forerunner in embracing the UN SDGs, Esther was conferred 2018 SDG Pioneer for Green Infrastructure and A Low Carbon Economy by the UN Global Compact. She is a signatory for the UNGC Caring for Climate network and an executive council member of the UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network. She sits on the boards or advisory platforms of several organisations, including World Green Building Council, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), GRESB Asian Real Estate Benchmark Committee and UNEP FI Real Estate Work Group. She’s a vice-chair of World Green Building Council Corporate Advisory Borad; chairperson of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association’s Sustainability and ESG Committee; co-chair of the Urban Land Institute Singapore’s Sustainability Product Council and is the vice-chairperson of the Singapore Institute of Directors’ ESG Committee.

Recognising that youth engagement and female empowerment is crucial for sustainable development, she founded the Women4Green network in 2017 and the Youth4Climate initiative in 2018.

More recently at COP26, Esther was the only speaker from the Asian real estate sector at the Built Environment Leaders Panel. She also initiated a partnership with Singapore Youth for Climate Action and launched the Keep Calm and Love Our Planet campaign with a view to promote positive thinking and collaborative climate action amongst youths in the global race to net zero.

Jeremy Chee (Singapore) joined KKR in 2021 and is a member of the Asia Real Estate team. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Chee was with Partners Group, based in Singapore, where he focused on real estate investments across the Asia Pacific region. Previously, Mr. Chee was responsible for underwriting distressed real estate and NPL transactions for Kildare Partners in London. Mr. Chee started his career at BNP Paribas Leveraged Finance Group in London. He holds a BSc in Economics and Statistics from University College London.

Shirin Tang is the Managing Partner of Morrison Foerster Singapore and serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. She has over 20 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions across Asia and the U.S., including the formation of capital raising platforms, joint ventures and club deals, portfolio restructuring and exits. Shirin is also on the Women’s Strategy Committee leading the firm’s award-winning initiatives for the development, retention and promotion of women lawyers.

Dr. Valerie Speth is the Co-Lead APAC for the Climate Infrastructure Group which invests and manages investments and portfolio companies of the Global Renewable Power Fund 3 (4.8 Billion USD) and the Climate Finance Partnership (673 Mio. USD). As a qualified mechanical engineer, she brings more than 15 years' of experience in the renewable power sector in Europe and APAC. Prior to joining BlackRock, she was the CEO of a global wind and solar developer for APAC and hold senior leadership positions in strategy, M&A and portfolio management. Valerie was placed in the "Top 40 under 40" in 2019, 2020 and 2021 by the Capital business magazine in Germany.

Valerie holds an engineering diploma from University of Stuttgart, a Master of Engineering Management as a Fulbright Scholar from Duke University, a PhD in Business from St. Gallen University, a Personal Leadership Certificate from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an International Director Certificate from INSEAD.

Christine is the Head of Research, APAC at Knight Frank. She has over 15 years of industry experience, curating and co-ordinating regional forecasts and market outlook for clients across the office, industrial and residential sectors as well as specialist asset classes such as student accommodation, multi-family and data centres. Her insight and in-depth knowledge of real estate market is also well sought-after by both the local and international media. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Cornell University (US) and a Master of Arts degree in Media and Communications from University of London (UK).