Leveraging Singapore’s Resources and Ecosystem to Grow Your Philanthropy in Asia

Dino is passionate about economic development especially in Singapore & Southeast Asia. He is intrigued by the intersection between the economic and social sectors. At the Singapore Economic Development Board, he oversees the family businesses, family offices and international organisations portfolio. He spent part of his formative years in Indonesia, and was posted to EDB’s Jakarta Office from 2010 to 2014. He took a sabbatical in 2016 to pursue a MBA in the US on a EDB post-graduate scholarship. Fun fact – Dino used to be a trained military air traffic controller with the Republic of Singapore Airforce (RSAF) before joining EDB. In his personal time, Dino enjoys a good game of badminton, tennis and more recently yoga.

Raman is CEO at Octava Foundation where she stewards the foundation’s investment in Education, Technology in Education and Social Innovation. While starting her professional journey in the private sector working across UK, India, and Singapore, she has spent more than a decade in the practice of venture philanthropy, and specialising in supporting and scaling education and employability solutions. Before joining Octava, she served as Executive Director at Lorinet Foundation, a private family foundation focused on early childhood education and youth employability across South East Asia and Mongolia, where she developed Lorinet’s index Early Childhood Education programme for Mongolia. Raman holds an MBA from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK and a BA in Commerce and Accounting from Delhi University.

Sandhya Aswani is a Program Director at Ishk Tolaram Foundation. The Foundation provides access to quality education, healthcare and skills training to underserved individuals in Nigeria, Indonesia, and Singapore. Sandhya oversees Ishk’s work in Singapore, focusing on providing access to quality education and skilling interventions, as well as the Foundation’s foray into outcomes-based funding initiatives. Sandhya is also a founding member of the Inclusive Fund, an initiative dedicated to supporting transnational families in partnership with South Central Community Family Service Centre, and sits on the Family Transformation Committee at the FSC. Sandhya holds a Master of Learning Intervention from the University of Melbourne and a Diploma in Learning Disorders Management, Child Psychology and Counselling.

Jamie Choi is the Managing Director of Tara, a new and rapidly expanding regional climate foundation that supports a diverse group of actors to accelerate Asia’s energy transformation. Jamie joined Tara in 2020, after spending more than 15 years working on climate change and other environmental issues across many countries, including China and the United States. A South Korean native, Jamie holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Brown University and is now based in Singapore.

Komal leads AVPN’s engagement with family offices, HNWIs, private wealth holders, corporations and financial institutions across Asia. In this capacity, she helps these stakeholders achieve their objectives of investing within a framework of impact and sustainability. Komal brings over two decades of diverse work experience in Europe and Asia to her role, including with British Civil Service, KPMG, as well as top tier banks and insurance companies in the UK. Over the last decade, Komal has also provided support to a number of social enterprises and charities across Asia. She is an angel investor and an LP in early and late stage funds, and served as a mentor at a number of incubators and accelerators and has worked with startups. Komal is a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Accountants and Associate of the Institute of Taxation. She has an FT certification as a Non-Executive Independent Director and a BA Honors in Economics.