SPEAKERS

Ambassador Ong Keng Yong is Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is concurrently Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) and Head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) at RSIS. Mr Ong continues to hold the position of Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also Singapore’s Non-Resident High Commissioner to Pakistan and Non-Resident Ambassador to Iran. Mr Ong was the Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) from 2015 to 2023.

Mr Ong was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from July 2011 to October 2014.  He served as Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), based in Jakarta, Indonesia, for five years from January 2003.

He was Singapore's High Commissioner to India and concurrently Ambassador to Nepal from 1996 to 1998.  From September 1998 to December 2002, he was Press Secretary to the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Mr. Marco Toscano-Rivalta is the current Chief of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). He has a wealth of expertise spanning more than 25 years, dedicating his career to international cooperation, collaborating with the UN and various international organizations. His extensive experience extends across both headquarters and fieldwork, focusing on critical areas such as sustainable development, disaster risk management, humanitarian relief, and the protection of refugees, IDPs, and human rights. 

Mr Ling Young Ern joined the Singapore Civil Defence Force in 2001 and has served as Director Operations, Division Commander of 4th SCDF Division and 3 rd SCDF Division, Head Operations Branch of 1st SCDF Division and Officer Commanding of Jurong Island Fire Station. He has vast operational experience, having been involved in the management and mitigation of many major fire, hazmat and rescue incidents, notably the 32-hour fire at a large oil refinery on Pulau Bukom in 2011. Young Ern was seconded to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2008, to coordinate the national preparedness efforts in contingency planning and capability development for peacetime crises and terrorism incidents. In 2018, he was seconded to MHA as Senior Director, International Cooperation and Partnerships Division, taking charge of international government-to-government relations and driving capability development through partnerships with the industry and international organisations. From 2021 to 2024, as Deputy Commissioner (Future Technology & Public Safety), Young Ern led the digital transformation of SCDF, integrating advanced technology and data analytics across frontline operations, administrative and logistics workflows. He incorporated science and technology into SCDF’s training methodologies and facilities while driving research to improve SCDF’s fire safety regulations and firefighting technologies. Young Ern now leads the operations and resilience cluster of SCDF to develop new capabilities in operations and enhance the emergency preparedness of the community.

Brendan Moon AM is a highly experienced leader in the Emergency Management sector and has extensive expertise across disaster response, recovery, preparedness and risk reduction.

Brendan was appointed as the first Coordinator-General of the National Emergency Management Agency in October 2022 to establish an all-hazards, end-to-end agency to lead and coordinate Australian Government support for emergency management across Australia.

Prior to this national role, he spent 10 years with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA), starting as the General Manager, Operations in 2011 until his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in 2016. While with QRA, Brendan led recovery operations and state-wide reconstruction and recovery efforts for all significant natural disasters in Queensland since late 2015 until 2022.

Brendan is a regular contributor to national and international dialogues on disaster risk and resilience; addressing forums including the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction’s Asian Ministerial Conference, Pacific Regional Disaster Managers and the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

He is a passionate advocate for cooperation and collaboration across international, national, state and local agencies for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

Brendan is a graduate of the University of Queensland and represented Australia in rugby internationally as a member of the Australian Wallabies. Brendan’s Order of Australia recognises his contribution to public administration and Australian Rugby Union.

Ms. Hang Thi Thanh Pham, a national from Viet Nam, brings over 30 years of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development. Her work spans across the Asia-Pacific region and she is currently serving as the Senior Resilience Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific since 2016, leading the climate change and resilience module across the region. From 2010 to 2016, Ms. Pham was the Regional Programme Officer at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, where she led on the Southeast Asia desk and facilitated discussions and process on disaster risk reduction strategies throughout the region. Prior to this, she worked as the Programme Coordinator for River Basin Development Planning at the Mekong River Commission from 2007 to 2010, focusing on sustainable river basin management. Her experience further includes her tenure as the Programme Officer and Focal Point for Disaster Risk Management at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Viet Nam from 1999 to 2007, where she managed disaster risk management programmes. With these experiences, Ms. Pham brings a unique perspective of community, national, sub-regional and regional learnings on disaster risk management across our region.

Adelina Kamal has distinguished herself in the disaster management and humanitarian sector, notably as the first female Executive Director of the AHA Centre during the period of 2017 to 2021, where she led ASEAN’s response to catastrophic disasters, earning the AHA Centre with the "Asian of the Year” award from the Straits Times Singapore. Prior to that, she worked for the ASEAN Headquarters for over two decades where she played a pivotal role in developing the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, leading the first ASEAN’s humanitarian operation following 2008 Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and establishing the AHA Centre in its early years.

Adelina is currently a Senior Advisor of the Nexus Resilience Group, and a Steering Committee Member of the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators. Adelina has also been consulting for various organisations in the areas of disaster management, humanitarian assistance, crisis management, health, and public financing, and serves as a voting board member of the Melbourne-based Centre for Humanitarian Leadership Executive Committee, an Advisory Group member of the London-based Overseas Development Institute Humanitarian Policy Group, and an Early Member of the Association of Indonesian Society for Amnesty International. Adelina served as Associate Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in 2022. She is also a regular guest lecturer at the University of Indonesia’s Master’s degree programme in Disaster Management. Adelina has a Master of Management from IPMI Business School Indonesia, a Master in Business Administration from Monash University and a Bachelor of Management from Trisakti Indonesia.

Mr. Ryan Rahadjo, Head of Public Affairs for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier at Google, is an adept public affairs professional with extensive experience in both international organisations and private sector. He earned his master’s degree in International Strategy and Diplomacy from the London School of Economics in 2014.

Sanjay K Srivastava, Ph. D (Applied Physics), is presently Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). He was the Deputy Project Director of Disaster Management Support Programme at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); Scientist/Engineer at ISRO HQ Bangalore since 1991. He is the recipient of ISRO’s Team excellence award in 2008-09 for his contributions towards harnessing space technology applications for the benefits of rural poor. Sanjay has been a lead author of ESCAP’s flagship publication – Asia-Pacific Disaster Report.