I have almost 20 years of experience in environmental conservation, covering community and business mobilization, land use planning, fisheries management, government engagement alongside policy development. I spent the bulk of these years working with fishing communities and various marine and coastal governing agencies to establish good fisheries management in Malaysia. 

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I currently facilitate sustainable fisheries and responsible aquaculture activities spanning both site and national levels, alongside coordinating business and consumer engagements across shark fin, seafood, and food waste issues. I am also leading the development of a narrative on sustainable food systems for Malaysia.

​I am a disruptor-innovator, perpetually on the prowl for new ways to address old challenges. I am interested in the behavioral science that can be applied to changing producers, businesses, and consumers towards sustainability. In my work, I spend a lot of time managing relationships across public and private sectors. I have used many tools like influencing, conflict management, and negotiation to achieve our conservation goals.

Saqib Sheikh is a writer, educator, social entrepreneur, and certified coach. He is co-founder of Urban Hijau (uhijau.org), a sustainable permaculture farm in Kuala Lumpur. He coaches professionals and organizations on ways to transition towards sustainable social impact. Saqib also lectures on media and communication at Sunway University, where he is the Sunway Students Environmental Society adviser.

Jay Desan has over 15 years of experience in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) advisory and a PhD in sustainability standards. She is passionate about food and sustainability and co-founded BoomGrow because she believes clean greens should be accessible to all. BoomGrow is a fast-growing tech farming company aiming to transform farming by producing 100% clean and nutritious goodness, introducing trust and traceability back into the food system through patent-pending Machine Farms.

Clara has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She managed programs that empower low-income communities and educate youth in schools through Corporate Social Responsibility strategic partnerships at Yayasan Generasi Gemilang. She is a Star Education Fund scholar and studied Finance, Accounting, and Management at the University of Nottingham.

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She is also the first and only Malaysian Atlas Corps Fellow. In 2019, she started a social enterprise called Graze Market that focuses on bridging the gap between food waste and hunger through surplus vegetable boxes, sauces, and food-aid sponsorship programs. Through Graze Market, she hopes to provide a second chance at food and life.

Riana is an International Business Management graduate from the University of Nottingham with six years of experience managing various stakeholders in Yayasan Generasi Gemilang (GG). As Section Head for Partnerships, her role sees her working closely with corporate companies to align their CSR goals with GG's work to meet social needs. Believing that all CSR programs should be meaningful and impactful, she is constantly on the lookout for partners to collaborate with, putting the strength of a few together to maximise the impact of projects she takes on. 

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From initial meetings to churning out impact reports, she and her team of 2 manage the 20 over corporates that work with GG yearly. In addition to managing corporate partners, Riana specialises in grant seeking. Her ability to effectively apply for and receive new grants on behalf of GG ensures the teams on-ground have the resources they need to continue educating and providing basic needs for children & families from vulnerable communities. Being a dancer and an overall active person, Riana believes that a person's health and well-being are essential and isn't shy to encourage others to eat well and sweat it out.

Alvin Chen started What A Waste (WaW) with his wife, Angela Tan, in 2018 as a social enterprise. Their mission to fight food waste goes hand-in-hand with sustainably feeding the poor. All rescued food is immediately distributed to the various needy and marginalised communities. Coming from an architectural background, Alvin is adamant about bringing their daily food rescue missions to a professional level by documenting rescued food weights to derive the number of greenhouse gasses prevented from landfills. Along with WaW's impactful missions, Alvin has also architectured an initiative to empower B40 individuals through the WaW B40 Partner Cook programme.

Co-founded Langit Collective, a social enterprise that works with indigenous farmers in the rural region of Sabah and Sarawak champions regenerative agriculture and promotes their heirloom agricultural products to a broader market.

Well equipped with experience and skills in working with local communities across Sabah and Sarawak for over seven years, Lilian brings her strong networking skills into building relationships and partnerships at both community and business development levels.

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Lilian is a strong believer in enabling market access for smallholder farmers, for they play a crucial role in achieving food security and sustainable development.

Acga Cheng is a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya. She received her Ph.D. (Genetics) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2013. MOSTI fully funded her Ph.D. programme under the National Science Fellowship Programme. Upon completing her Ph.D., she spent three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Nottingham. Based mainly at the Malaysia Campus, she focused on promoting and improving several underutilized species which have recently been hailed as crops for the future.

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Her main research interests include climate-resilient agriculture, food security, and biodiversity conservation. Dr. Cheng is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and a fellow of the United States Department of Agriculture under the Borlaug Fellowship Programme (US). She has recently been appointed as a Professional Technologist by the Malaysian Board of Technologists.