Dr. Shawn is currently the Chief Business & Solutions Officer at Aerodyne Group overseeing business development and technology rollout across the 45 countries that Aerodyne operates in. He delivers tech dev and group-wide commercialization, driving Aerodyne’s position as an AI-driven digital transformation company.

He has previously led the Tech Consultancy portfolio at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS where he grew it to be one of the largest university-based consulting outfit in Malaysia in the area of deep tech and specialist engineering.

Shawn also comes from a background of technopreneurship, founding an engineering deep tech outfit specializing in digital twins of energy infrastructure. He endeavors in nation building as Energy Institute Malaysia’s Country Chair and also Malaysian Structural Steel Association.

Synopsis

Bridging Borders: Unlocking Global Growth from the Belly of Asia’s Deep Tech Frontlines

Asia is no longer just a low-cost production base; it is becoming the launchpad for globally competitive deep tech solutions in robotics, healthtech, AI, climate, and infrastructure. This sub-plenary explores how companies can turn Asia’s fragmented markets, regulatory complexity, and capital constraints into strategic advantages. Drawing on Aerodyne’s journey from Malaysian drone service startup to a AI-driven geospatial technology leader operating in more than 35–45 countries, the session unpacks practical lessons in scaling beyond Asia while retaining Asia as an innovation, operations, and talent hub. Discussion will cover partnership-driven expansion, M&A-led market entry, and how to leverage Asia’s unique scaling challenges, problem density and ecosystem support to build globally relevant, defensible deep tech businesses.