The Front Row Podcast

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with James Liang. James Liang is the co-founder and executive chairman of Trip.com Group, the online travel company he helped launch in 1999 as Ctrip and built into one of the world's largest travel platforms, listed on Nasdaq and operating in more than forty countries. A gifted student who entered Fudan University at fifteen be...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Robert Wu. You can check out his awesome Substack here! https://www.baiguan.news?r=8th0v Robert Wu is the CEO of BigOne Lab, China's leading alternative data and research company, backed by S&P Global and used by institutional investors and corporations around the world to track what is actually happening on the ground...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with former Chief Editor of Straits Times- Warren Fernandez. Warren Fernandez is a journalist, editor, and public intellectual whose career spans more than three decades at the centre of Singapore's media landscape. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Straits Times — Singapore's flagship English daily — and is perhaps best k...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Hajoon Chang. Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean economist and one of the most widely read critics of neoliberal orthodoxy working today. He is currently a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He is best known for his book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, published in 2010...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Chang Sau Sheong. Sau Sheong Chang is the Chief Technology Officer of GovTech Singapore, the government agency responsible for Singapore's national technology infrastructure and digital public services. In this role, he oversees the development and maintenance of platforms that underpin daily life for millions of Singaporea...

Kishore Mahbubani is one of Asia's most prominent public intellectuals — a former diplomat, academic, and author whose career spans decades at the intersection of geopolitics, philosophy, and statecraft. He served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations on two occasions and as President of the UN Security Council, before becoming the founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Dimitra Taslim. Dimitra Taslim is seasoned tech investor and currently, serves as a Venture Partner at Granite Asia. Before Granite Asia’s spinout and rebrand from GGV Capital Asia, Dimitra was part of the investment team at GGV Capital, where he helped source and support investments across emerging Asian markets. His work at G...

Dr. Dean Ho is currently Provost’s Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering, Director of The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Director of The N.1 Institute for Health (N.1) at the National University of Singapore. His central argument is that medicine has always been built on popu...

In this episode, I sit down with Zheng Yu Huang — technology executive, White House Fellow, and author of Rethinking China — to examine what he argues are dangerously flawed assumptions driving US policy towards China, and what a more clear-eyed strategy would look like. Huang's career is unusually well-positioned for this conversation. After Stanford and Harvard Business School, he rose to Ma...

Professor Lily Kong — President of Singapore Management University — is one of Singapore’s most distinguished geographers. Trained as an academic, she built her career studying the intersections of culture, religion, and urban space, producing work that bridges rigorous scholarship and real-world policy impact. In recent years, her focus has shifted toward the future of higher education. Through p...

Professor Selina Ho is Vice Dean (Research and Development), Dean’s Chair, and Associate Professor in International Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on Chinese politics and foreign policy, with a particular interest in how China wields power and influence through infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South...

Michael O'Hanlon is one of America's foremost defence policy scholars. He holds the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defence and Strategy and serves as Director of Research in the Foreign Policy programme at the Brookings Institution, where he specialises in US defence strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. O'Hanlon completed all his degrees at Princeton U...

George Yeo is a former Singaporean Cabinet Minister whose distinguished career in public service spanned twenty-three years. Between 1988 and 2011, he held several senior portfolios in the Singapore Government, most notably serving as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2011, as well as the Minister for Trade and Industry and the Minister for Information and the Arts. After retiring from...

Wang Gungwu is an internationally renowned historian famed for his scholarship on the history of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, as well as the history and civilisation of China and Southeast Asia. In his illustrious academic career, Wang has held eminent appointments in various universities and organisations around the world. He was a history professor at the University of Malaya (1963–68...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Ho Kwon Ping. Ho Kwon Ping is one of Singapore's most iconic entrepreneurs. He currently serves as the Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, the international spa and resort group he established in 1994. Under his leadership, Banyan Tree grew from a single resort in Phuket into a global luxury brand operating in over...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Mehran Gul. Mehran Gul is an author and researcher exploring the shifting geography of technological innovation and the rise of breakthrough companies beyond traditional Western hubs. He is the author of The New Geography of Innovation, published by Simon & Schuster (U.S.) and William Collins (U.K.), which charts the emerge...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Susan Sim. This is the second of a two-part series covering Singapore's merger and separation from Malaysia. Susan Sim is the editor of The Albatross Files- Inside Separation, a landmark publication that brings to light previously classified documents detailing Singapore's merger with and separation from Malaysia in the...

Thank you for checking out my interview with Janadas Devan, Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and Deputy Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office of Singapore. Mr Devan coordinated The Albatross File: Inside Separation, the authoritative 488-page volume documenting Singapore's path to independence, co-published by Straits Times Press and the National Archives of...

Thank you for checking out my interview with Shaun Rein. Shaun Rein is the Founder and Managing Director of China Market Research Group (CMR), the world’s leading strategic market intelligence firm focused on China. He works closely with boards, billionaires, heads of state, CEOs, and senior executives of Fortune 500 and leading Chinese companies, as well as private equity firms, SMEs, and hedge f...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Professor Tommy Koh. Prof Koh is Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 1990, and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore. He is a veteran diplomat and negotiator recognised globally for his contributions to international law and diplomacy. Koh's...

Lim Siong Guan is a Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, instructing on leadership and change management. Siong Guan was the Head of the Singapore Civil Service from September 1999 to March 2005. He has been the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence (1981-1994), the Prime Minister’s Office (1994-1998), the Ministry of Education (1997-1999) and the Ministry of Finance (19...

Dr Jostein Hauge is a political economist and an Assistant Professor in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, based at the Centre of Development Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies. He is also the Director of the MPhil in Development Studies and a Fellow of Magdalene College. His research lies at the intersection of international political economy and dev...

Scott D. Anthony serves as Clinical Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, where he teaches courses including "Leading Disruptive Change," "Horizon Scanning," and "AI and Consultative Decision-Making." He is also Senior Advisor and Managing Partner Emeritus at Innosight, the growth strategy consultancy co-founded by Harvard Business School P...

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Louis Vincent GaveAfter receiving his bachelor's degree from Duke University and studying Mandarin at Nanjing University, Louis joined the French Army where he served as a second lieutenant in a mountain infantry battalion. After a couple of years, Louis left the army and joined Paribas where he worked as a financial analys...

Dr. Mato Njavro is the Dean of Zagreb School of Economics and Management. Mato is also Professor at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, the Luxembourg School of Business and a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen and at the Singapore Management University, where he teaches a course on Chinese Economy. From 2016 to 2020, Mato was based in Singapore where he was a Senior Research Fell...