Southeast Asia's AI Moment

Lourdes Casanova is the Gail and Roberto Cañizares Director of the Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets and a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Formerly of the strategy department at INSEAD, Dr. Casanova specializes in international business with a focus on Latin America and multinationals from emerging markets.

In 2014 and 2015, Dr. Casanova was named one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals by Esglobal. She is a member of the board of directors of Boyce Thompson Institute.

Dr. Casanova is a Fulbright Scholar who holds a Ph.D. from Universidad de Barcelona and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.

Julian Galarza serves as Chief of Staff at Trackonomy, where he drives operational excellence and strategic decision making across the organization. Julian brings deep expertise in business transformation, cost optimization, and go-to-market strategy, with a proven track record of delivering measurable impact at scale.

Previously, as a Consultant at Bain & Company, Julian orchestrated global AI transformations for Fortune 500 clients across telecommunications, cybersecurity, and technology sectors, unlocking significant cost savings and operational efficiencies. Earlier in his career, he led enterprise SaaS implementations at Odoo, directing programs across North America and Latin America, and held product leadership roles at automotive companies like Daimler and General Motors, where he expanded market share and launched successful new products.

Julian holds an MBA from Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad de los Andes. Fluent in Spanish and English, he is an active mentor in the entrepreneurship community.

Johnson Cheng leads Voyager AI’s product strategy and enterprise implementation. He has deep experience investing in, teaching, and deploying AI and digital transformation solutions for business users. Prior to Voyager AI, Johnson turned around a B2B industrial goods and MRO e-commerce platform from zero to RMB 186M in annual GMV and forged a strategic partnership with JD.com. He previously served Fortune 500 clients including Merck, Deutsche Bank, J&J, and S&P as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte Consulting in New York.

Johnson is Chair of the Hong Kong Committee and a board member of Family Business Network Asia, a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and an advisor to the Cornell Emerging Markets Institute. He holds a B.S. and MBA from Cornell University.

Part of Cornell’s MBA Class of 2026, Chirag Adappa is an associate at Barclays Investment Banking and was previously a consultant at Deloitte.

Ryan Purkey leads Voyager AI’s go-to-market, positioning, and enterprise adoption strategy. He has over 20 years of digital transformation and marketing experience, with a record of helping companies across APAC improve growth, resilience, and operating efficiency.

Before Voyager AI, Ryan was Head of Digital at Tanner De Witt, a leading independent Hong Kong law firm, where he helped drive the firm’s digital transformation and growth strategy through the pandemic period. Prior to moving to Asia in 2017, he worked as Director of Digital at Cornerstone OnDemand pre and post IPO. Earlier, Ryan served Fortune 500 clients including Home Depot, Time Warner, Costco, Lowe’s, and Disney.