Suman Sharma

Suman Sharma

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

MAIN CONFERENCE DAY 1 – 19 October 2026, Monday

2:00 PM HR Leaders Panel: How do you align HR and procurement to build a talent strategy that attracts, develops and retains the best talent professionals to future-proof your organisation?

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

2:00 PM 'How To' Roundtable Discussion: Bridging capability gaps across mature and emerging markets

Eight simultaneous roundtables tackling distinct dimensions of capability building across markets with different maturity levels. Attendees will participate in two rounds of discussions across their two chosen topics — beginning with a 30-minute discussion at their first selected roundtable, before moving to a second chosen roundtable for another 30 minute discussion. 

 
To close, each roundtable leader will share 3-minute key takeaways from their discussions with the wider group.

Roundtable 1:  
CORE CAPABILITIES

How to establish a consistent baseline of governance, ethics and sourcing discipline across all APAC markets to build regional coherence without losing local flexibility

Roundtable 2: ADVANCED CAPABILITIES IN MATURE MARKETS

How to accelerate AI, analytics and strategic sourcing capabilities in mature markets like Japan, Singapore and Australia to maximise existing talent investments and sharpen your competitive edge 

Roundtable 3: FOUNDATIONAL CAPABILITY UPLIFT IN EMERGING MARKETS 

How to deliver a structured capability uplift programme for procurement teams in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia to close the process, digital and supplier development gaps holding these markets back

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

Roundtable 4: SCALABLE CAPABILITY MODELS

How to build a scalable capability model that works consistently across markets at different maturity levels to reduce duplication and keep every market moving forward together

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

Roundtable 5: REGIONAL HUBS AS CAPABILITY ENGINES  

How to leverage regional hubs in Singapore, India and Hong Kong as capability development engines to accelerate talent uplift in emerging markets and reduce the cost of building capability market by market

Speaker: Senior representative, KellyOCG


Roundtable 6: DIFFERENTIATED TALENT STRATEGIES BY MARKET MATURITY 

 How to design talent procurement strategies that reflect the maturity, culture and business context of each APAC market to attract, develop and retain the right people for where each market needs to be by 2030

Roundtable 7: How AI is transforming services procurement: Unlocking savings, productivity and better business outcomes

Speaker: Jonathan Winters, Director, Procurement Solutions, International Markets, Allegis Global Solutions


Roundtable 8: BUILDING THE 2030 TOTAL TALENT PIPELINE

 How to identify, develop and retain the next generation of leaders across mature and emerging APAC markets today to build the talent depth and leadership bench strength needed to compete in 2030

Speaker: Romero Torres, Category Lead, Enterprise Services, Procurement and Enterprise Services, Aurizon


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

Download The Latest Agenda