WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNOUNCES SINGAPORE'S ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK AS A 2008 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER

ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK joins 245 leading executives, public figures and intellectuals – all age 40 or younger – chosen from around the world

Geneva, Switzerland -- 12 March 2008 -- The World Economic Forum today announced Adrian David Cheok has been selected as a Young Global Leader 2008.  This honour is bestowed each year by the World Ecomonic Forum to recognize and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for the professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.  The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, media and society at large from 65 countries.  The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21).

“The World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers.  We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest.’’ Said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2008 were chosen by a selection committee of 31 eminent international media leaders, including Thomas H. Glocer, Chief Executive Officer, Reuters, United Kingdom; Arthur Sulzberg, Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times, USA; Robert Thomson, Publisher, Dow Jones & Company and The Wall Street Journal, USA; and Hisashi Hieda, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fuji Television Network, Japan.  The selection committee is chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The current community of Young Global Leaders represents over 60 countries and includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-Founders of Google, USA; Crown Prince Haakon of Norway; Malvinder M. Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India; Hiroshi Nakada, Mayor of Yokohama, Japan; Nicky Newton-King, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, JSE, South Africa; Carlos Danel, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Banco Compartamos, Mexico; and Jack Ma Yun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China.

“It is our belief that this community of committed individuals can actually change the status quo.  They are not only a preview of what effective, collaborative leadership in the 21st century might look like, they are actually putting it into practice today,” said David Aikman, Senior Director and Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.  “It is our privilege to work with such inspirational leaders and to bring them together in a global network that builds their insights and skills even further, providing them with a global platform to tackle the key challenges of our generation.
 
Established in 2004 by Professor Klaus Schwab, The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique, multistakeholder to community of the world’s most extraordinary young leaders, who dedicate a part of their time to jointly address global challenges and who are committed to devote some of their knowledge and energy to collectively work towards a better future.  As part of their engagement, the Young Global Leaders give their time to task forces to initiate, develop and drive innovative solutions on important, globally-oriented issues, including health, education, the environment, global governance and security, and development and poverty.

For more information and a detailed list of all Young Global Leaders, please visit www.younggloballeaders.org

Contact: Nurasyikin Binte Mansor.
Management Assistant Officer
Tel.: +65 6516 7514
Mobile: +65 9296 8502
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www.mixedrealitylab.org

Contact: Yann Zopf
Senior Media Manager
Tel.: +41 (0)22 869 1480
Fax: +41 (0)22 869 1394
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www.younggloballeaders.org


ABOUT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

The World Economic Forum is an independent organization committed to improving the state of the world.  The Forum provides a collaborative framework for the world’s leaders to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship.

Incorporated as a foundation, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interest. The Forum has NGO consultative status with the Economics and Social Council of the United Nations.

ABOUT ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK

Adrian David Cheok is Director of the Mixed Reality Lab, and Deputy Director (Research) of the Interactive and Digital Media Institute, National University of Singapore. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He has previously worked in real-time systems, soft computing, and embedded computing in Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (Osaka, Japan). He has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interaction, wearable computers and smart spaces, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics, and multi-modal recognition. He has successfully obtained funding for externally funded projects in the area of wearable computers and mixed reality from Nike, National Oilwell Varco, Defense Science Technology Agency, Ministry of Communications and Arts, National Arts Council, Singapore Science Center, Hougang Primary School. The research output has included numerous high quality academic journal papers, research prototype deliverables, numerous demonstrations including to the President and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, broadcast television worldwide broadcasts on his research (such as CNN/CNBC/Discovery/National Geographic), and international invited new media exhibits such as in Ars Electronica and Wired Nextfest.

He is currently an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore where he leads a team of over 20 researchers and students. He has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous international and local conferences and events. He is invited to exhibit for two years in the Ars Electronica Museum of the Future, launching in the Ars Electronica Festival 2003. His works "Human Pacman" and "Magic Land" were selected as one of the worlds top inventions by Wired and invited to be exhibited in Wired NextFest 2005. He was invited to show the works "Human Pacman" and "Magic Land" at Wired NextFest 2005. He was IEEE Singapore Section Chairman 2003, and is presently ACM SIGCHI Chapter President. He was awarded the Hitachi Fellowship 2003, the A-STAR Young Scientist of the Year Award 2003, and the SCS Singapore Young Professional of the Year Award 2004. In 2004 he was invited to be the Singapore representative of the United Nations body IFIP SG 16 on Entertainment Computing and the founding and present Chairman of the Singapore Computer Society Special Interest Group on Entertainment Computing. Also in 2004, he was awarded an Associate of the Arts award by the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore. He was awarded as Fellow in Education, World Technology Network in 2004.
In 2005 he was awarded a Microsoft Research Award for Gaming and Graphics.

He is Editor/Associate Editor of the following academic journals: ACM Computers in Entertainment, Advances in Human Computer Interaction, International Journal of Arts and Technology (IJART), Journal of Recent Patents on Computer Science, The Open Electrical and Electronic Engineering Journal, Advances in Human Computer Interaction, International Journal of Entertainment Technology and Management (IJEntTM), Virtual Reality (Springer-Verlag), International Journal of Virtual Reality, and The Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting.