PCEB CEO Elected Chair of ICCA Asia Pacific

Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) is honoured to share that our CEO Ashwin Gunasekeran has been elected as the new Chairman for the ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter Executive Committee (EXCO) for the term 2020 – 2022. He takes over the outgoing Chairman, Jason Yeh (Founder and CEO of GIS Group).

The committee was elected through an electoral process that was carried out from 6 – 31 March 2020.

Joining Ashwin in the EXCO are Deputy Chairs – Keiko Nishimoto (Research Fellow, Kyoto University Graduate School of Management Japan) and Eric Abramson (International Project Director, Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Centre China – P.R.).

Before his time with PCEB, Ashwin has been involved with ICCA for many years. He is also currently heading the ICCA Malaysia Committee.

“I would like to sincerely thank you for honouring and electing me and my executive committee to lead the ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter Committee 2020 – 2022. We are certain that together with you, we will continue to grow stronger and champion the business events fraternity of Asia Pacific,” he said in his victory message.

“The ICCA family is here for you, and we welcome your creative ideas on all possible related matters for the region,” he added.

Noor Hamid, Regional Director Asia Pacific said, “As the Secretariat, I congratulate these candidates for volunteering to take the lead in championing the Chapter. I would also like to place on record my grateful appreciation to the past EXCO, Jason Yeh, outgoing Chair and current ICCA’s first Vice President, Keiko Nishimoto and Anna Case, former Deputy Chairs who made meaningful impact and supported the growth of the Asia Pacific chapter. The new EXCO are here to continue that legacy and we look forward to working with the new leadership to serving the ICCA Asia Pacific community.

ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter consists of 289 member organisations in 16 countries and regions - Australia, China – P.R., Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong (China-P.R.), India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao (China-P.R.), Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter represents the largest membership in all the total of 11 Chapters. Penang currently has three ICCA members, namely PCEB, Setia SPICE Convention Centre and Hotel Equatorial Penang.

Ashwin is the first Malaysian to hold position in the ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter Executive Committee.