Sameen Khan

Former Regional HR Director, APAC Grey Global

Sameen is an accomplished HR leader currently serving as the Regional HR Director - APAC at Grey Global, part of the Ogilvy/WPP network. Based in Singapore, she oversees the full spectrum of HR operations and business partnering for over 20 studios across Asia Pacific with prior oversight of markets in the Middle East, and Africa.

She leads HR business partnering and operations, ensuring compliance, efficiency, and strategic alignment across the organisation. Sameen represents Grey at both APAC and global WPP forums, championing best practices and strategic HR initiatives.

With close to a decade of regional expertise, Sameen played a key role at Circles.Life (Techco), collaborating with co-founders and senior leadership to expand the full HR function, including business partnering and people operations across multiple international markets in APAC. Recognised as one of the top performers, she was instrumental in launching HR functions in multiple countries, while embedding culture, engagement, and high-performance frameworks in a hyper-growth environment. Overall, she has lead the HR function across multiple international markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey and others.

Sameen brings a rare blend of strategic foresight, operational rigour, and cultural agility to her work-traits that have enabled her to thrive in dynamic and diverse markets. Her focus is HR, Tech/AI and Business Transformation.

MAIN CONFERENCE DAY 1 – 19 October 2026, Monday

3:50 PM ‘How To’ Roundtable Discussion: How to design a talent procurement system that drives value, retention and readiness

Eight simultaneous roundtables, each dedicated to a distinct stage of the talent lifecycle, will take place in a single

40-minute discussion round. Attendees will choose one roundtable topic to join, providing an interactive forum to exchange ideas, share experiences, and discuss practical strategies with peers facing similar workforce and talent challenges.

Each discussion is intentionally framed to examine where traditional HR practices fall short within procurement contexts, and to explore how these approaches can be redesigned to better drive procurement value, capability, and long-term retention.

At the close of the session, each roundtable leader will share key takeaways from their discussions with the wider group.

Roundtable 1:
Recruiting - How to attract the right talent in a competitive market

Speaker: Annie Sachdev, Head of Talent Acquisition, APAC (Medical Segment), Cardinal Health

Roundtable 2:
Onboarding — How to set new hires up for success from day one

Speaker:

Ekaterina Naumova, Head of HR, Asia Pacific, Kaspersky

Roundtable 3:
Learning — How to build capability continuously across your team

Speaker:

Christine Josephine, Head of Culture & Engagement, Samsung Electronics Indonesia

Roundtable 4:
Career Development — How to create pathways that retain your best people

Speaker: Suman Sharma, Head of People Capability, Wealth & Retail Banking, & Co-Head of AI Learning, Standard Chartered Bank

Roundtable 5:

Opportunity Marketplace — How to match internal talent to emerging needs

Speaker: Sameen Khan, Former Regional HR Director, APAC, Grey Global

Roundtable 6:

Performance Management — How to drive accountability and growth

Speaker: Nicolas Ingels, Director Global Procurement, Packaging & Raw Materials, Asahi Global Procurement, Asahi Group

Roundtable 7:

Compensation — How to stay competitive in a shifting talent landscape

Speaker:

Roundtable 8:

Succession Planning — How to build the pipeline before you need it

Speaker: Avery Balboa-Banta, VP & Head of HRBP, Change Management & Organizational Development COE Team, Globe Telecom

MAIN CONFERENCE DAY 2 – 20 October 2026, Tuesday

4:10 PM Fireside Chat: How do you design a contingent workforce governance model that keeps pace with Asia's rapidly shifting regulatory landscape to protect your organisation from compliance risk while maintaining programme agility and speed?

• How do you build a contingent workforce governance model that keeps up with Asia's constantly evolving worker classification laws, employer of record regulations and SOW compliance requirements across multiple jurisdictions?

• How do you balance the need for regulatory compliance and risk mitigation with the speed and flexibility that your business demands from its contingent workforce programme?

• What role should procurement play in owning and driving contingent workforce governance — and how do you get buy-in from legal, HR and finance to make that happen?

• How do you future-proof your governance model so it can adapt quickly when regulations shift, without having to rebuild your programme from the ground up every time?

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Sameen.

Download The Latest Agenda