Co-founder of FOLO Farm

Will is currently a co-founder of FOLO Farm. After spending the first 7 years of his career as a civil engineer and family business sidekick in Malaysia's gruelling construction industry, a quarter-life crisis led him to pursue further studies in Public Policy and International Affairs. Joining Singapore's public service, he headed, and had headaches from, a dynamic all-women team managing the country's International Organizations portfolio at the Economic Development Board. After 2 years of passionate work, an unexpected third-life crisis hit him when he found himself physically overweight and emotionally unable to accept an offer to be posted overseas. With the support of his amazing ex-boss, he foolishly embarked on a year in search of meaning, somehow always ending up on the grounds of Plum Village. These days, he is thankful that he can just grow food with his loved ones for his loved ones, relieved that he will not be facing his next life crisis alone

Executive Chef, Renaissance Johor Bahru Hotel

In June 2015, Chef Mohamad Mahady joined Renaissance Johor Bahru Hotel as Executive
Chef with over 25 years of experience.

Born in Sibu, Sarawak and raised in Hull, England and later in Kuala Lumpur, Chef Mahady
first started working at the age of 15 in seafood restaurants and clubs as an apprentice and
steward, while later on studying Law part time to become a lawyer. However, being fascinated
with the culinary world, he ventured into Singapore and later joined the Cunard
lines: the operators for the QE2 cruise ship sailing all over the world. From here, his full-
fledged passion for creating good food began to grow and flourish, working in 7 different
countries.

His passion for healthy food sources began when his late son was diagnosed with Cancer at
an early age of 13 for which he then realized his responsibility as a Chef is to both educate and
serve the community with better sourced foods.

Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Shazwin Mat Taib is Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). She obtained her Bachelor degree in Economics (Corporate Management) from Shiga University Japan. After graduated, she experienced 4 years working with International Japanese manufacturing and US multinational technology industry. She decided to pursue for her PhD after realized that her passion was not in corporate working world, but more on improving the local community lifestyle. Shazwin received her Master and Ph.D degree in Development Science from Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC) Hiroshima University, Japan in 2011. Shazwin established her research work in resource recovery niche area mainly focus on co-benefits of solid waste management and sustainable consumption approach. Being attached to one of five Research University in Malaysia, she has numbers of fresh young students to groom and develop their ability as new generation leaders to handle various sort of environmental engineering issues. Working in team, she manage to start encourage students to start involve in trans-disciplinary research and putting into ‘heart-ware’ elements in ‘hard-ware’ of engineering approach. Shazwin truly believe that involvement of early career researcher in changing decision making process and communicating research findings is critical at every level. Therefore, participating in capacity building workshop, research mobility and co-researching is important to strengthen trans-boundary networking efforts.

Senior Lecturer at Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya.

Esther is attached to the Department  of Mathematics and Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She has been a teacher educator for more than two decades. Her area of expertise and background is in science education, environmental education, technology integration in the classroom and learning and cognition and has conducted numerous training workshops and seminars related to research, pedagogies and has been a Master trainer for new lecturers in institutions of Higher Learning. Her research has focused on science education, in particular environmental education. She has worked with WWF-Malaysia in conducting in-depth research and in training teachers in infusing environmental education . She has published papers in journals as well as presented at various conferences both local and International. She has written numerous training modules for the teaching and learning of the Science and for Environmental Education. More recently she has also been involved in Medical Education with a focus on the psychology of learning. Her latest book is Entitled ‘Biology Education in a Changing Planet’. In 2016, Esther received the UNESCO- HAMDAN international award for the effective training of teachers in Paris from the Director General of UNESCO on October 5th 2016, which is the day designated as World Teachers’; Day. More recently, she received the Venus International Women’s Award (VIWA) for a ‘Lifetime Achievement in Science Education (Specialisation-Biology)’.

Senior lecturer in Environmental Studies and Special Needs Education

Lee Keok Cheong is trained as a geographer. She was teaching in Kuala Terengganu for five years before being posted to teacher training institute as a lecturer preparing teachers to teach in primary schools. She has a Masters and Phd degree in curriculum development and pedagogy. Has been involved in Environmental Education with WWF since 1990, preparing teaching modules and conducting workshops for lecturers in teacher training institutes and teachers in schools all over Malaysia. Since 12 years back, she has shifted her interest to include education for special needs students, training teachers to teach these kids. She is currently the key personnel in curriculum development of school syllabus for these kids as well as at teacher training level. Besides that she is also the key trainer for inclusive education.
 

Has believed in and adopted the green lifestyle and influencing the community to make changes
towards this. Because of the involvement in environmental work and special needs, she has
spearheaded various programmes to benefit both.

Co-Founders, Secondsguru

Lara Rath and Anuja Aggarwal are the co-founders of Secondsguru, a platform that offers a practical guide to sustainable living. Based in Singapore, it seeks to make green living easy for everyone.

Both Lara and Anuja hold MBA degrees in finance and have worked in the banking industry across India, Hong Kong and Singapore. Anuja also holds a diploma in mass communications and has experience in the publishing industry in Asia. With 20 years of work experience between them, they bring an interesting perspective to the talk on sustainable fashion today.
 

Ethical fashion blog - Fashionably Kind

A seasoned business and technology journalist, Sharmila Ganapathy-Wallace is an ethical fashion blogger based in Malaysia who writes about ethical fashion issues and sustainability in the fashion world. She founded her ethical fashion blog Fashionably Kind in August 2016 and believes it is entirely possible to dress well and do good at the same time. When she's not blogging, Sharmila spends her time running her own editorial services business and practising yoga. She is contactable at fashionablykindblog@gmail.com.