About the Speakers

Ambassador Jesus P. Tambunting is the Chairman and CEO of Plantersbank. Plantersbank is a private development bank that was established in 1961 as a thrift bank and is now the largest Philippine bank specializing in SME lending. Mr. Tambunting has steered Planters Development Bank to phenomenal growth-from a single office in 1972 to seventy branches nationwide today. Mr. Tambunting served as the Philippines ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1993 to 1998. In 2003 Ambassador Tambunting was bestowed the prestigious award of The Management Man of the Year by the Management Association of the Philippines for attaining unquestioned distinction in the practice of management and for contributing to the country's progress.

Mr. Hasit (Tiku) Shah is the Managing Director of Sunripe Group of Companies-East & Southern Africa. He is the Chairman of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya. Previously, he was the Managing Director of Berries Kenya, Ltd. and the Director of Freight In Time Ltd., Serengeti Fresh Ltd., and Terra Fleur Ltd. He holds an M.S degree in Applied Mathematics & Finance and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Mr. S. Sivakumar is Chief Executive of ITC's US$350 million Agri-Businesses Group. ITC Limited is one of India's largest professionally managed corporate houses with diversified business interests. He spearheaded ITC's famous eChoupal initiative, a pioneering business model, which creates sustainable shareholder value through serving society. By leveraging information technology creatively, eChoupal enmeshes the needs of the corporate sector with those of the fragmented farming community in a mutually supportive and interde-pendent partnership. Servicing the production and consumption needs of 2 million farmers in some 24,000 villages (expanding by thirty each day), ITC's eChoupal is the largest Internet-based intervention in rural India by any Corporate entity. At the top of the 1983 class of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Mr. Sivakumar served a farmers' cooperative in Gujarat for six years before joining ITC in 1989. He is also on the boards of several companies besides being a member of the management committees and core groups of various industry bodies.

Mr. Yonghao Liu with three brothers, founded the New Hope Group in 1982, first emphasizing planting and poultry farming, and later focusing on the production of pig feed and fodder. In 1999, New Hope made its first overseas investment in Indonesia. The New Hope Agribusiness Company was listed in 1998 and quickly increased its capital from RMB 159 million to RMB 830 million (2000). In 1996 Mr. Liu and forty other private entrepreneurs founded the Minsheng Banking Corporate, to which he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Bank. New Hope Group is one of the largest shareholders of Minsheng. Mr. Liu is a member of the Standing Committee of the China People's Political Consultation Commission (CPPCC), and Vice-Chairman of the Association of China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC). He has a college diploma and is a senior engineer.

Mr. Daniel K. Spitzer holds a 5.1 percent shareholding in PTP Holdings and is PTP Group's Chief Executive Officer. PTP specializes in timber and plantation operations. He has wide experience in project finance and marketing. He has spearheaded the development and implementation of PTP Holding's investment in the past five years. Mr. Spitzer is an American educated at the University of California and Stanford (MBA).