International Board

CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Former US Ambassador to NATO; Former Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, Chicago, United States

To date

Ivo H. Daalder is CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013.

Prior to his appointment as ambassador to NATO by President Obama, Daalder was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, specializing in American foreign policy, European security and transatlantic relations, and national security affairs. Before joining Brookings in 1998, he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and director of research at its Center for International and Security Studies. He also served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1995-97.

Ambassador Daalder is the author and editor of 10 books, including The Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership (with James M. Lindsay). Other books include In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents they Served — From JFK to George W. Bush (with I. M. Destler) and the award-winning America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (with James M. Lindsay). Daalder is a frequent contributor to the opinion pages of the world’s leading newspapers, and a regular commentator on international affairs on television and radio.

Ambassador Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is married to Elisa D. Harris, and they have two sons.

Former Group President, GIC; Former Head of Singapore Civil Service; Senior Advisor, DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group; Member, stars International Board, Singapore

To date

Siong Guan Lim was Group President of GIC from 2007 until the end of 2016, after which he was Advisor to GIC’s Group Executive Committee until March 2019. The GIC manages the financial reserves of the Singapore Government. He was Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board from October 2006 to June 2009. The Board is the Singapore government’s lead agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre. Much of its work is attracting international corporations to set up manufacturing and services activities in Singapore as critical links in the global supply chain.

Siong Guan was Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore from 2005–2023, instructing on leadership and change management, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Civil Service College from 2006–2023.

He was the Head of the Singapore Civil Service from September 1999 to March 2005. Siong Guan was the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense (1981-1994), the Prime Minister’s Office (1994-1998), the Ministry of Education (1997-1999) and the Ministry of Finance (1999-2006). In every appointment he introduced innovative policies and practices which enhanced the drive, capacity, capability and performance of the organization. Siong Guan has chaired the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (2004-2006), the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (2004-2006) and the Central Provident Fund Board (1986-1994), and was a board member of many companies including Temasek, the other sovereign wealth fund manager of Singapore.

Advisor to the Group CEO, former Group Chief Risk Officer, AIA; Member, stars International Board, Hong Kong

To date

Jayne PLUNKETT is the former Group Chief Risk Officer and Member of the Group Executive Committee of AIA, the largest life insurance and securities group in Asia-Pacific. She joined AIA in 2019 from Swiss Re, where she was most recently Chief Executive Officer Reinsurance Asia, Regional President Asia and Member of the Group Executive Committee. During her time with Swiss Re, Jayne had held several senior positions including Head of Casualty Underwriting for Asia and Division Head Casualty Reinsurance. Prior to that, she was with GE Insurance Solutions. Jayne holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Drake University. She is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Jayne is also a Member of the stars International Board.

Filmmaker, Curator, International Advisor for Culture and Arts, Lugano/Singapore

Michael Schindhelm (1960) is a German-born Swiss author, filmmaker, curator, and cultural consultant, known for his multifaceted contributions to the arts. He has served as the director and artistic director of the Theater Basel from 1996 to 2006. He was the founding director of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority in 2008 and the general director of the Berlin Opera Foundation from 2005 to 2007. Between 2009 – 2012 he was involved in the masterplanning of the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong.

His extensive career includes accolades such as the Bavarian Theater Prize for Theater Basel in 1999 and 2001, and more recently, the Herbert Quandt Media Prize and the German Business Film Prize for his 2022 documentary ‘A Vaccine at the speed of Light’ (about the creation of the first vaccine against Covid-19).

Beyond his professional achievements, Schindhelm has a rich academic background, having studied Quantum Chemistry in the USSR, worked at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and universities in Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore and Moscow.

He contributed to literature with fiction and non-fiction books. His cinematic endeavours include documentaries ablout the social transformation in the People’s Republic of China and the art scene in Hong Kong like “Bird’s Nest”in 2008,”The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg”in 2016, and “In the Mood for Art” about the M+ Museum in Hong Kong in 2023.

More recently, he created the internationally acclaimed immersive series of art exhibitions BIDS FOR SURVIVAL about longevity and about the critical symbiosis of cultural heritage and tourism in Bali and the multimedia show AFTER THE DELUGE, a speculative future scenario about a possible global climat collapse. Currently, he develops the hybrid latform LIFE BOWL on longevity in Chinese and Western medicine in collaboration with the Hong Kong Babptist University and the University of Basel.

In 2025/26, he developed a body of research focused on education, research and work in the age of AI, and he is engaged in human resilience projects in Asia and Europe.
He serves as a member of the Heritage and Culture Committee of the Diriyah Gate Authority in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

michaelschindhelm.com

Senior Partner, The Vistria Group; Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Obama Administration, New York, United States

To date

Mona Sutphen has over 20 years’ experience advising multinational corporate, philanthropic, and institutional investors on the intersection of geopolitics, policy, and markets.

She is partner at The Vistria Group, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Previously, she was a Partner at Macro Advisory Partners (MAP), where she led the firm’s US practice advising clients on emerging risks and opportunities across a range of sectors including energy/environment, technology, trade, sanctions, national security and fiscal policy matters, and related regulation. Prior to joining MAP, Ms. Sutphen was managing director at UBS AG, where she developed new tools for political risk evaluation impacting capital markets.

From 2009–2011, she served as White House deputy chief of staff for policy for President Obama, where she advanced the policy and regulatory agenda on a range of issues, including technology, telecom, trade, small business, and housing/GSE reform.

Previously, Ms. Sutphen was managing director at Stonebridge International, and earlier led regulatory strategy for Currenex, the first Internet-based institutional foreign exchange trading platform.

From 1991–2000 Ms. Sutphen was a career diplomat, serving on the staff of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration and the U.S. Mission to the UN, among other posts. She also served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Sutphen is an Independent Director for Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) and Pattern Energy (NASDAQ: PEGI), and serves on the Boards of the International Rescue Committee and Human Rights First, as well as on the advisory board of the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Ms. Sutphen is a Trustee of Mount Holyoke College, and co-author of The Next American Century. She holds BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Editor-in-Chief, Caixin Media, Beijing, China

To date

As Editor-in-Chief of Caixin Media, China’s leading business and finance media group, Wang Shuo focuses on providing high-quality news reports through leading an independent and professional standard in China.

Under his leadership, the Caixin editorial team won the Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University for its commitment to integrity in journalism, and for its path-breaking role as a leader in establishing an independent media in China. Shuo won the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Institutional Journalism of the State Street Institutional Press Awards (Asia Pacific) in 2014.

Prior to Caixin, Shuo served as managing editor of Caijing, a business and finance magazine in China from 1998 to 2009. He has played a key role in the magazine’s editorial and management decision-making, and was behind many of the milestone articles that carried Caijing to fame.

Shuo was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2012. He was also twice named a Young Leader at the 2007 and 2008 Boao Forum for Asia, and a Leader of the Next Generation by the Tallberg Forum in Sweden. He was named Yale World Fellow in 2016 by Yale University. He also serves as a member of the stars International Board.

Shuo holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Renmin University of China, a master’s degree in philosophy from Peking University, an executive MBA from the joint program of Fordham University and the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, and a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Founding Managing Partner and CEO, Insignia Ventures Partners; Member, stars International Board, Singapore

To date

Yinglan TAN founded Insignia Ventures Partners in 2017. Insignia Ventures Partners is an early stage technology venture fund focusing on Southeast Asia. It manages more than US$350 million from sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments and renowned family offices. Insignia Ventures Partners is the recipient of two back-to-back “VC Deal of Year” awards for Payfazz (2019) and Carro (2018) from the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and its portfolio includes many other technology leaders in Southeast Asia. Yinglan also serves on the Singapore Government’s Pro Enterprise Panel and he is a Member of the Board of Hwa Chong Institution and the stars International Board.

Partner, DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group; President Emeritus EU Chamber of Commerce in China, Washington D.C., United States

Jörg Wuttke is Partner at Dentons Global Advisors-Albright Stonebridge Group. Prior to that, he was the Chief Representative of BASF China in Beijing since 1997. From 2007 to 2010, from 2014 to 2017, and from 2019 to 2023, Wuttke was President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Since 2019, Wuttke is Vice Chairman of the CPCIF International Cooperation Committee, a group representing multinational companies in China’s Chemical Association. From 2011 to 2019, he served as Chairman of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD’s China Task Force. He was a founding member of the German Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and served as Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2004. Wuttke has lived in China for more than 25 years.

International Board