Sub Committee

Regulatory Task Force

Grace Chong

Grace Chong

Board Liaison for Regulatory Sub-committee

Grace Chong heads the Financial Regulatory practice of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher in Singapore. The practice was recently named Law Firm of the Year at the 5th Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence 2022. Grace was named Fintech and Digital Assets Lawyer of the Year at the Law.com Asia Legal Awards 2023. Grace has extensive experience advising on cross-border and complex regulatory matters, including licensing and conduct of business requirements, regulatory investigations, and regulatory change. A former in-house counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), she regularly interacts with key regulators, is closely involved in regional regulatory reform initiatives and has led discussions with regulators on behalf of the financial services industry.

Grace also brings a strategic outlook from an in-house perspective having previously been a counsel in the Global Internal Investigations Group at the Hong Kong headquarters of a large leading multinational bank.

She is a certified cybersecurity GIAC GLEG, IAPP CIPP/A/E and IAPP CIPM professional, and regularly conducts cybersecurity assessments and investigations in Asia. In addition, she is an International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Fellow of Information Privacy and is part of the IAPP Women Leading Privacy Board. She was named as a Global Data Review’s Top 40 Data Lawyers for 2021, and was awarded “Privacy and Data Protection Lawyer of the Year” by Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards 2021.

Tarik Erk

Tarik Erk

Board Liaison for Regulatory Sub-committee

Tarik is currently VP of Regulatory Compliance and Government Relations for Crypto.com, one of the most innovative companies in the cryptocurrency field. In his role, he meets with financial regulators globally, drives licensing initiates and leads the compliance group in Asia. Tarik is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, working groups and leads the VAPG group at ACCESS Singapore cryptocurrency and blockchain industry association.

Prior to Crypto.com, Tarik was with the blockchain and cryptocurrency company, Paxos and large financial institutions such as Commerzbank and JPMorgan Chase. He holds a BA from The Ohio State University and a JD from Mitchell Hamline University. Tarik is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

Collaboration and Innovation Sub-Committee

Chiew Yu Sarn

Chiew Yu Sarn

Board Liaison for Collaboration & Innovation Sub-Committee (Regional)

Chiew Yu Sarn is the Co-managing Partner of Yusarn Audrey, a specialised IP strategy and law firm which he founded in 1999. Yu Sarn’s areas of practice include corporate law, intellectual property (IP) law, and technology law, with a particular focus on financial technology. He advises on ICOs, blockchain- and crytocurrency-related matters, IP-based mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions, IP strategic planning and IP governance and policy, and helps his clients enhance their in-house IP management capabilities through training and coaching. He also advises companies on raising capital and financing using their IP.

In recognition of his experience and expertise in the field of IP licensing and commercialisation, Yu Sarn was accredited as a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP). Yu Sarn served as the President of Licensing Executives Society (LES) Singapore from 2009 to 2010, and is currently serving as the Co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Committee of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI).

Katherine Ng

Katherine Ng

Board Liaison for Collaboration & Innovation Sub-Committee (Regional)

Katherine is a Board Member of ACCESS, representing over 400 companies in the digital assets and blockchain industry in the region. She champions innovative Web3 projects in Asia, powered by a strong Asia deal network.

Previously, Katherine held key director roles in TZ APAC, Liquid (acquired by FTX Japan), Luxola Indonesia (acquired by Sephora LVMH) and GrabTaxi Indonesia (now known as Grab). She supports women empowerment in Web3 and mental health advocacy. Katherine holds degrees in commerce and law from the University of Melbourne.

Eric Alexandre Ceret

Eric Alexandre Ceret

Head of Events Sub-Committee

Eric is a Creative Director with more than 15 years of design and creative experience spanning TV, print, multimedia and web for some of the world’s leading brands. Combining innovation with practicality, creativity with marketability, and an unswerving focus on business results, Eric is a high-energy outstanding presenter with great communication and cross-cultural team management skills.

He has successfully implemented the production and campaigns of a client portfolio that includes global brands like Samsung, Panasonic, Volkswagen, Elite Models, BMW, JVC and Daikin amongst others. Having worked on the production of shows such as Elite Model Look World (as well as the China and Singapore shows), Eric has also organised concerts and beach parties for international artists the likes of Iyaz, Kevin Little, Black Eyed Peas official DJ Motiv8 and the super club. Amnesia, amongst others. In 2014 Eric discovered Bitcoin and shifted his creative agency IKON Media to cater to this innovative industry.

Since then IKON has been supporting many start-ups with their branding and creative alignments and has organised blockchain fundraising events, official receptions and after-parties in Singapore and across Asia for ACCESS Singapore, Blockshow, Consensus, Invest Asia, World Blockchain Summit, Formula-1 after parties and many more. Bringing together industry experts, investors, and cutting-edge blockchain start-ups, IKON produces bespoke networking events at signature locations.

ACCESS Digital Asset Management Subcommittee (ADAMS)

Nicholas Dimitiou

Nicholas Dimitiou

Co-Chairman of ADAMS Subcommittee

Nick is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Great South Gate Asset Management. Prior to joining GSG, Nick obtained over 11 years of private practice experience from several international top-tier law firms including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Ashurst, Hogan Lovells and, most recently, Jones Day. During this time, Nick represented cryptocurrency and blockchain related projects and enterprises, technology companies, financial institutions, retailers and energy companies and advised on mergers and acquisitions, PE transactions, joint venture arrangements and corporate restructuring projects and transactions.

Nick currently sits as co-chair of the ACCESS Digital Asset Management Sub-Committee in Singapore, is a member of the AIMA Digital Asset Regulatory Committee and has also contributed to a number of publications on the subject of digital assets, including a book published by the American Bar Association entitled 'Blockchain for Business Lawyers'.

Hagen Rooke

Hagen Rooke

Co-Chairman of ADAMS Subcommittee

Hagen has extensive experience advising on financial regulatory matters. His practice covers a broad range of areas, including financial services licensing and approvals, conduct of business and regulatory change projects. His clients include banks, payment services firms, digital asset exchanges and dealers, capital markets intermediaries, funds and fund managers, exchanges, proprietary trading houses and commodity groups. Hagen is dual qualified in England & Wales and Singapore.

With extensive experience of engaging with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and other regulators, and of practising in Asia and Europe, Hagen provides strategically valuable advice and has a unique understanding of the international issues and synergies that are relevant to clients. Leading a practice in Singapore that has a particular focus on FinTech, payment services and digital assets, Hagen has a wealth of experience in matters relating to digital asset exchanges, dealers and custodians, e-money issuance, money transfer and remittance services, merchant acquisition and payment systems.

He is a sought-after adviser, speaker and writer on matters relating to distributed ledger technology, blockchain platforms, tokenisation and DeFi (decentralised finance).