Prof. T S Ng, Dean, Faculty of Engineering,The University of Hong Kong

Dr. David Cheung, Director, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development

John Borras is responsible for leading the technology vision and policy for UK Government's ambition to become a leading knowledge economy and the best place for e-government. He joined the Office of e-Envoy at the beginning 2001 from the Inland Revenue and before moving into his current post was responsible for the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) and related policies and standards. He is a Director of OASIS and currently chairs two OASIS Technical Committees, one on e-government and one on e-voting.

Jon Bosak organized and led the working group that created XML, subsequently serving for two years as chair of the XML Coordination Group of the World Wide Web Consortium. He is a long-time member of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, and he chaired the committee that developed the OASIS process for the definition of industry-specific XML markup standards. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Electronic Business XML initiative (ebXML), a joint project of OASIS and the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). He currently chairs the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee and serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Electronics Industry Data Exchange Association (EIDX).

Dr. David Brock, co-Founder and Director, MIT Auto-ID Labs

Dr. Brock is Principal Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-Founder and Director of the Auto-ID Center (now EPCglobal, Inc. and Auto-ID Laboratories). The Center developed the technologies, standards and languages to link physical objects to the Internet. Networked physical objects enable real-time inventory management and automated supply chains. The Center was an industry-funded research program headquartered at MIT with centers at the University of Cambridge England, University of St.Galan and ETH Zurich Switzerland, Fudan University Shanghai China, Keio University Tokyo Japan and University of Adelaide Australia. David is also an Assistant Research Professor of Surgery at the Tufts University Medical School and the Founder and Chief Technical Officer of endoVia Medical, Inc., a manufacturer of computer controlled surgical and interventional devices. Dr. Brock holds Bachelors degrees in Theoretical Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, as well as Masters and Ph.D. Degrees from MIT. David has worked with a number of organizations including the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, DARPA, BBN, Loral, Lockheed-Martin and Draper Laboratories.

Hisanao Sugamata has worked for IBM Japan from 1969 to 2003 with expertise in EDI and eBusiness solutions. During his professional life, he has been engaged in activities for standardization of EDI and electronic commerce. He is a key player in many committees for e-commerce standardization. These committees include AFACT Technical Assessment Group; EDIFACT Syntax Development Group, UN/EDIFACT Message Development Guideline Group; UN/CEFACT Technology and Methodology Group; UN/CEFACT Applied Technologies Group; ISO TC154; ISO/IEC JTC1 SC32 Working Group 1 & 2; ebXML Core Component Project Team. Hisanao is the current Chair of ebXML Asia Committee.

Stephen Mak is the Deputy Director of the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The ITSD is responsible for the development and implementation of the information technology (IT) programme and services to support Hong Kong's Digital 21 Strategy for IT development. These include infrastructure and security services, technology exploitation and sourcing, E-government projects development, IT industry support, community IT development and programmes aimed at narrowing the digital divide. Mr. Mak has over 33 years of experience in the IT field. He joined the Hong Kong Government in 1975 and has since held a number of IT technical, strategic planning and management positions.

Mr. Stokes has overall responsibility for all aspects of expanding the company's portfolio of electronic commerce offerings including the evaluation and design of new services.

With a First Class Honours degree in Applied Mathematics from Sydney University, Mr Stokes has more than twenty years' experience in developing and implementing leading edge computer systems in the Asia-Pacific region. This experience includes ten years with Mobil Oil in Singapore and four years with Mobil in Japan.

After moving to Hong Kong, he joined Tradelink in 1993 and has since led the technical and business development of Hong Kong's community electronic commerce network for Hong Kong'S 70,000-strong import/export trading community and the Government.

Mr. K K Suen, Head of Standards & Technologies Division, Hong Kong Article Numbering Association

K K joined the Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) in 1995 with over 18 years of experience in System Development and Consultancy.

As the Head of Standards & Technologies Division of the Hong Kong Article Numbering Association, Mr Suen's responsibilities including advising local industries on the application of international EAN/UCC standards and technologies. As part of the role, his responsibilities also include developing and instructing EDI/EC training programs and local implementation guidelines to users & service providers.

In 2001, Mr K K Suen obtained his Master of Science (Eng) in e-Commerce from the University of Hong Kong. In 2003, he is elected as Vice Chairman of the Retail Technology Industry Association, Vice Chairperson of XML Specialist Group of Hong Kong Computer Society and is invited as Advisor of XMLCG (XML Coordination Group) of HKSAR Government.

With extensive technical and industry knowledge, Mr Suen has represented at numerous local and international committees including Vice-Chairman of XML/EDI Working Group in AFACT (successor of Asia EDIFACT Board), ISO/SC31, EAN/UCC Global Business Modeling Committee, HKANA Electronic Commerce Users Committee, HKANA EDI Vendor Advisory Sub-Committee, HKANA Apparels Supply Chain Committee, etc. He is also the Chairman of HKANA EDI Messages Development Sub-Committee.

Dr. Wong is the founder and CEO of iASPEC Technologies Group, a software company established in Hong Kong since 1988.

Dr. Wong obtained his Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of California and he served as the Principal Architect in a State of California government data centre between 1975 to 1981. He received the Distinguish Services Award from the California Government in 1979. Dr. Wong returned to Mainland China in 1982 and has served as a consultant to many state-operated organizations and has held senior positions in international IT companies in the Mainland and the HKSAR Government.

Dr. Wong is committed to the development of a strong information industry in the region. He is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society and Chairman of the Hong Kong ASP Industry Consortium and council member of the Shenzhen Computer Industry Association. He serves as members in the Advisory Committees of various schools and departments of the Chinese University, the University of Science and Technology, City University and the Polytechnic University. Dr. Wong has served as members of Advisory Committee on Technologies for the Hong Kong Commissioner of Privacy and Personal Data; and member of the Information Technology Advisory Committee on Application, Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau.

Thomas Lee is the Chief Technology Officer and co-Founder of the Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID) at The University of Hong Kong. At CECID, he oversees research, development, and application of advanced e-commerce technology based on various open standards for business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B e-commerce), such as Web Services, ebXML and Universal Business Language. He is the Project Manager of two R&D projects, namely Project Phoenix and Project Pyxis, funded with over US$3M in total by the Hong Kong Government to establish a B2B e-commerce infrastructure in Hong Kong.

Thomas envisions that open standards and open-source initiatives are key drivers in global e-commerce development because they bring about software interoperability and cost-effectiveness. This vision leads him and his Center to the devotion along this direction. Last year, CECID established an open-source e-commerce initiative and Website called freebXML.org. FreebXML.org is an international collaboration to foster development and adoption of ebXML technology through software and experience sharing. Currently, freebXML.org has published open-source implementations of ebXML Registry and Message Service, and an innovative application called ebMail for small companies to adopt B2B e-commerce. Thomas is a steering committee member of freebXML.org.