Arun Abey has a passion for helping people enjoy happier lives by identifying their values and goals, and putting clear plans in place to achieve them. This led to him co-found the international lifestyle financial planning firm ipac 25 years ago.  A noted strategic thinker and writer, he is Executive Chairman of ipac and Head of Strategy for AXA.  His latest book is How Much is Enough? Money, Time and Happiness, A Guide to Making the Right Choices.    

Bernise is an avid social activist who is passionate about empowering young people to realise their potential and to bring about positive change to their communities and society. She is the Founder of Syinc, which works to connect young Singaporeans and equip them to be effective change agents. She also sits on the board of Youth Action for Change and in Nov 2007, in recognition of her efforts, Bernise was the first Singaporean to receive the YouthActionNet Award & Fellowship from the International Youth Foundation.

Bernadette Bolger arrived in Sydney from Ireland 15 years ago with $60 to her name. She has since built up a multimillion dollar pharmacy business, been a finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards and given birth to two children. Recently she began to downsize her business and turn her attention to her other great passion – people. As General Manager of A & B Publishers she wants to educate people, in particular women and children, of financial decisions affecting their future happiness and security.

Associate Professor Weining C. Chang, PhD Psychologist, is currently Head of Psychology Division of School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Nanyang Technological University. She has a deep interest in Chinese culture and psychology. She has conducted research in stress-and-coping, concept of self, achievement motivation, culturally appropriate depression screening instruments, emotions in Chinese language environments, youth at risk behaviours and more recently resilience and subjective wellbeing in the Asian context for families and individuals.

Sulynn Choong is a positive change consultant and certified professional coach working with organisations to energize their workforce for outstanding performance. With degrees in economics and psychology, Sulynn joined the pioneer class of Master of Applied Positive Psychology led by Prof  Dr Martin Seligman in 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania. Sulynn is driven by her passion for developing human potential and promoting human flourishing particularly in harnessing individual character strengths, personality and energy for organizational robustness and success. Her signature strengths are love of learning, curiosity, creativity, spirituality and zest!

Dr. Titus Foo has lectured at Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore, and Massey University, New Zealand. He has also worked closely with mentally ill clients at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Sunlove Home. Currently, he lectures at James Cook University Singapore, and is a consulting psychologist and lecturer at Positive Psychology Center, Singapore. The psychology subjects covered in his academic career include cognitive, health, workplace, disability, and neuropsychology. His current research interests include positive psychology, cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, cognitive behaviour therapy, multi-cultural counselling and therapy.

Dr Daniel Fung is married to Joyce and a full time father of five wonderful preteens and teens. In his spare time, he works as a psychiatrist with the Child Guidance Clinic and as Chief at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health. Dr Fung is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Nanyang Technological University. His books include the hugely successful, Help Your Child to Cope: Understanding Childhood Stress.

Farid started started his career as a Deputy Public Prosecutor in Singapore. He discovered his passion for nurturing personal growth whilst volunteering as a leader on an international youth expedition in South America. Farid promptly embarked upon an 18 year career in Experiential Education serving with Outward Bound Schools and as founding Director of the Singapore International Foundation’s Youth Expedition Project in 2000 involving 9,800 young people. He founded Ithaca Pte Ltd in 2007, specializing in diversity and interfaith education for youth & community leaders in Singapore.

David Matsumoto is an internationally acclaimed author and psychologist. He is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of the Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory at San Francisco State University, where he has been since 1989. He also works with the Ekman Group, world leaders in the recognition of emotions via facial expressions. He has studied culture, emotion, social interaction and communication for 20 years, and has approximately 400 works in these areas. His books include well-known titles such as Culture and Psychology: People Around the World.

Fiona O’Shaughnessy is the Principal Consultant of Emerge, a Singapore-based Learning and Development (L&D) Consultancy that specialises in Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Organisational Effectiveness. A resident of Singapore since 2001, Fiona has lived in 10 countries over the last 18 years working in L&D. Fiona offers workshops on 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life and has introduced these to Singapore government agencies and multi-national corporations who are interested in retaining and engaging their people, helping people cope with stress and finding happiness at work.

Matthieu Ricard is the best-selling author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill which explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness. He received his PhD in Cellular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur in France, before forsaking his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work setting up clinics, schools and orphanages in the Himalayan region. Since 1989 he has been French interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has a long-standing interest in science and Buddhism

Tara is a director of the Jay Gee Melwani group that represents a portfolio of International lifestyle brands including Levi’s, Adidas kids and Oshkosh B’gosh. Tara runs the M.B. Melwani family Trust which provides education for disadvantaged Sindhi refugee children from 13 slum areas in India and corresponds with prisoners in USA who are interested in Buddhism. She organized His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public talks in Bangalore (2004) and Mumbai (2007), and a three-day teaching event in Dharamsala (2007) for the people of South East Asia.

Ross G. Menzies is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney. In 1991, he was appointed founding Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, University of Sydney, a post which he continues to hold. He is the past NSW and National President of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT). He is the Chair of Australia’s bid to host the 2013 World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies and is the Editor of Australia’s national CBT scientific journal, Behavior Change.

Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage and co-Artistic Director of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Haresh Sharma has written more than 50 plays, staged in Singapore and internationally. He has a BA from the National University of Singapore and an MA in Playwriting from the University of Birmingham. His play, Off Centre, is a Literature text for GCE ‘N’ and ‘O’ levels. Ethos Books published Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, Vol. 6, which presented an extensive investigation of Haresh's work over the past 20 years.

Mary Ann Tsao is the President and Founding Director of the Tsao Foundation, a Singapore-based - but regionally oriented - non-profit operational foundation dedicated to aged care and ageing issues. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Tsao is a US trained physician specializing in primary care planning and social medicine with a special interest in community development and has extensive experience working with disadvantaged communities in the US and Singapore.  A pediatrician, she practiced medicine in New York City prior to moving back to Asia as the Founding Director of the population ageing-focused Tsao Foundation.

Lillian Too is the world’s best recognized and highest selling author of books on feng shui, having sold over ten million copies of her books. After graduating with an MBA from the Harvard Business School, USA, she had an active corporate career in banking and retail before retiring to become a full time mother. She then launched a career as a writer. She resides in Malaysia where she continues to write bestselling books, gives sellout feng shui talks and runs a highly successful feng shui consultancy.

I am a Senior Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychology, Institute of Mental Health. I provide psychological assessment and treatment to adult patients with anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and behavioural problems. As the family is the basic unit of society in Asia, I often work systemically with couples and families. In working with the mentally ill, I have been astounded by the strength and resilience I see every day. This has led me to become very interested in how to promote mental health, resilience, and happiness.

Ms. Clare Yeo is Head of the Department of Psychology, Institute of Mental Health, and is one of the principal collaborators spearheading the Institute’s Workplace Emotional Health Programme. Trained as a clinical psychologist, she provides psychological assessment and psychotherapy to adult patients with a range of emotional problems, in particular anxiety and mood-related disorders. As Head CARE Officer at the Ministry of Health Ms Yeo has firsthand experience dealing with such crises as the Asian Tsunami, air-crashes and the Nicoll Highway collapse.

A social worker and trained psychotherapist, Lynette enjoys working with
individuals and couples as well as training other practitioners. Her work passion
centres around connecting with people and over the years she has been involved
in training for effective parenting skills, improving inter-personal relationships at
home and at work, balancing the work/life equation, stress management and self
awareness.