Distinguished Speakers

Distinguished Speakers

MR. POH BENG SWEE
Chairman/CEO of Zagro Asia Limited
Founder of AgroConnect.com

Mr Poh Beng Swee, 51, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Zagro Asia Limited, a Main Board-listed group of companies on the Singapore Exchange since 1996. With more than 25 years of experience in the field of Life Sciences, Mr. Poh is instrumental in the growth and business expansion of the Zagro Group where he continues to be responsible for the overall business strategies, future direction and development of the Group/

With his far-sighted vision to fully embrace the New Economy, Mr. Poh in 1996 initiated the operation transformation of Zagro Group from a traditional trading and distribution company to a leading knowledge-based manufacturing organization. The primary objective is to equip Zagro employees with IT skills and knowledge, making them relevant to the New Economy. In August 1999 when the Group's corporate headquarters in Singapore was destroyed by a fire mishap, its pool of IT-savvy employees and newly IT-enabled operations greatly contributed to Zagro's stunning recovery.

Today, the offices, customers and suppliers of Zagro Group are inter-connected via the Zagro Network. IN April 2000, the co-founder George Julien Rajesh, Mr. Poh set up a new subsidiary, AgroConnect.com Pte.Ltd., with the vision to leverage the Zagro Network to build global exchange vehicles that will cater primarily to the Corp Life Sciences Industry.

AgroConnect.com, the brainchild of Mr. Poh went online in April 2000 to become the world's first B2B Global AgroExchangePlus for the Corp Life Sciences industry. It was also envisioned that AgroConnect.com will trigger synergistic transformation of Zagro's 45-year 'brick-and-mortar'business into a global 'click-and-mortar' business model.

Prior to the founding of Zagro Asia, Mr. Poh was the Chief Executive Officer of F.E. Zuellig in charge of the Zuellig Group's business operations for vet products, agro products and industrial products in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. Mr Poh first joined F.E.Zuellig as its Marketing Manager in the agri-healthcare business for the Singapore market in 1975.

Since April 1999, Mr. Poh is a Director at Singapore's Institute of Molecular Agrobiology. Mr. Poh graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration (Homours) from the then University of Singapore in 1971 and also attended the Harvard Advanced Management Programme, Harvard Business School (1989).