[TECH PLANTER THAILAND 2023] Announcement of Judges! 

Leave a Nest is pleased to announce the TECH PLAN DEMO DAY in Thailand 2023 will be happening as following details:

Date: 22nd July 2023 (Saturday)

Time: 12:00 hrs – 18:00 hrs (in Thailand local time, +1 for SGT; +2 for JPT)

Venue: KMUTT KX Building, Floor 7, 110 1 Krung Thon Buri Road, Bang Lamphu Lang, Khlong San, Bangkok 10600, Thailand

Full schedule: 

During this event, 9  outstanding teams with different categories that stood out from 35 applicants, will be pitching and presenting their ideas and technologies physically in Bangkok, Thailand. TECH PLANTER in Thailand 2023 Demo Day will be a great chance for the Deep Tech start-ups to showcase their work and how closely knitted they are within this ecosystem together with the corporations and government sectors. This event would also provide  teams from Thailand to understand how Japanese companies would like to explore deep tech startups coming from Southeast Asia. The panel of 11 judges from Japan and Thailand would be able to bounce off ideas during the session.

We are honoured to announce the judges for the TECH PLANTER in Thailand 2023 Demo Day as below.

Judges: 

Mr. Shohei Maekawa, Director, Leave a Nest Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Mr. Maekawa is the President of Leave a Nest UK. He was born in the USA and raised in Europe. He studied Zoology for his undergraduate degree and Evolutionary Anthropology for his postgraduate degree, both at University College London. With experience aboard and passion towards advancement of science and technology, he joined Leave a Nest in 2013. Currently president of Leave a Nest United Kingdom and Director of Global Bridge Laboratory of Leave a Nest Co., Ltd. He became Director of Leave a Nest Singapore Pte. Ltd. from May 1st 2019 with the vision to interconnect various industry partners for global development.

Mr. Louis Murayama, Director, Real Tech Holdings Singapore, Pte. Ltd.

Louis is a Plant Biotechnologist by training (M.Sc. University of Freiburg, Germany) He worked as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Jagiellonian University. In 2017, he joined the Tokyo office of Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant, where he specialized on corporate strategy and finance, advising firms on M&A, PMI and TSR (total shareholder return) maximization. Louis joined Real Tech Holdings as Growth Manager where he is currently providing strategic business development advice to portfolio companies.

Mr. Norio Asahara Regional R&D Director, Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd.

Glico manufactures not only confectionery and ice cream, but also a wide range of food categories such as beverages, dairy products, processed foods and baby milk powder. Mr. ASAHARA is the director of research and development in Glico Asia Pacific. He is looking for new research partners as well as technical support, investment and opportunities for various collaborations such as buying of new ingredients. He is responsible for new business in Asia Pacific. 

Mr. Kenji Minefuji, Manager at Business Innovation Group & ME Innovation Fund, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Kenji Minefuji has led various open innovation activities with his business strategy and venture finance expertise. Since 2016, he has provided hands-on support for many startups in over 10 countries as a mentor. During his communication with startups, he developed novel collaboration schemes/concepts between startups and multinational corporations. He started his career as a research scientist of optical communication technology at the Information Technology R&D Center. In his mid-career, he planned the R & D strategy of the R&D center, and was in charge of resource allocation and project management, too. His deep understanding and experience of both cutting edge science & technology and business strategy made him launch unique open innovation activities with startups at the Center for Future Innovation. He plays a key role in running “ME Innovation Fund” established as a CVC fund in 2022.

Mr. Suebsit Sarntisart, Associate Director, Global Business Synergy Department, Bank of Ayudhya PCL.

Mr.Suebsit is an expert in Japan-ASEAN Business Development & Investment, International Business Partnership & Acquisition, including Investment in ASEAN Startup. Throughout the experience of over 10 years in the specific field, Mr.Suebsit have been supporting over 600 companies of Global Conglomerates & SMEs including public entities on its expansion. Mr.Suebsit is currently an Associate Director of Global Business Synergy at the Bank of Ayudhya Public Company Limited which is a subsidiary of MUFG Bank, the World’s 4th largest Financial Group and Japan’s largest Financial Group. He is also the host of ‘Japan-ASEAN Startup Business Matching Fair’, the largest Startup Business Matching Fair in ASEAN.

Dr. Patrachart Komolkiti, CEO, KX Knowledge Exchange

Patrachart Komolkiti received his Bachelor's degree from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, in 1997, his Master's degree from Northwestern University, USA, in 1998, and his Doctoral degree from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, in 2011, all in Electrical Engineering.

From 2003 to 2016, he was a faculty member in the department of Computer Engineering, Assumption University, where he also served as the department chairperson. From 2016 to 2017, he joined the Smart Mobility Project by the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University. From 2018 to 2022, he served as director of the Learning Innovation Center and acting director of the Office of Academic Affairs, Chulalongkorn University. He is currently the CEO of KX, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. He is also the Chair of eLearning Forum Asia.

Ms. Ratchanee Fab Teepprasan Director, R&D and Innovation, Charoen Pokphand Group

Ratchanee is Director at Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group CTO office, responsible for ecosystem partnership and strategic plan for group R&D and innovation including digital transformation. She supports TDPK (True Digital Park) to expand its mission of Tech Startup Hub for Digital to also include DeepTech and Sciences domains. She focuses on lifesciences, health & food tech and plant agritech with the mission to develop new S-Curve and transform CP into a tech company. She helps business units find right startups, research partners and facilitates crucial stage of collaboration. She works alongside CVC team to evaluate investment opportunities. She graduated bachelor degree of Computer Engineering from Chulalongkorn University and master degree of IT Engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. Ratchanee is passionate about science communication and is currently planning to do a public outreach initiative to bring researches out from labs and to connect scientists to people at large.

Ms. Pitcharee Keeratithakul, Senior Innovation Developer, Innovation for the Economy Department, National Innovation Agency (NIA).

Graduated from Stanford University with Master of Science in Environmental and Energy Engineering, Ms. Pitcharee Keeratithakul has been working as Innovation developer of National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand for 7 years. She has been undertaking a facilitating role in international collaborative innovation projects including biochemical industries, alternative energy from agricultural waste, automation in manufacturing industries in Thailand and supporting the promotion of startup business in Thailand in collaboration with international agency and organization by building of startup ecosystem and support mechanism.

Mr. Chalermpol Tuchinda, CEO Nastda Holding Co, Ltd.

“Chalermpol Tuchinda is the CEO of Nastda Holding Company Limited, a 100% subsidiary of the National Science and Technology Development Agency focused on investing in early-stage deep-tech startups. He has co-founded three companies and was instrumental in establishing Reuters Software Thailand Limited. With expertise in Digital Electronics, ICT, and Business, Chalermpol possesses extensive experience in the regional startup and technology ecosystem. He has provided valuable guidance to numerous tech startups and SMEs throughout his career.”

Mr. Narusan Dhanvarjor, Acting CEO and Head of Investment, InnoSpace Thailand Co, Ltd.

Narusan Dhanvarjor is currently an Acting CEO of InnoSpace (Thailand) and head of investment. InnoSpace (Thailand) is venture capital with 16 LPs from different sectors in SET and focuses on early-stage deep tech investment in Thailand to help develop startup ecosystem. Prior to join InnoSpace (Thailand) Narusan experienced in Banking, and retail industry then spent 7 years in Management consulting firm in Thailand took care of financial and state-owned enterprise in strategy and operation management before allocated to manage PE firm to invest in Innovation Driven Enterprise (IDE). Narusan joined innospace (Thailand) for 3 years as head of investment to design investment thesis, WOP, and invested 17 startups with 1 exit (as of June 2023).

For any inquiries about TECH PLAN DEMO DAY in Thailand, please contact:     

• Mr. Ham Kai Jie, [email protected]