Edward Tay is Director, School of Computing Furnace and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Information Systems and Analytics at NUS School of Computing, Asian Institute of Digital Finance and Department of Finance at NUS Business School. He received his Honours degree from the School of Engineering in 1998 and has served as former CEO of Sistema Asia Capital, a top European venture capital and senior leadership in British Telecommunication & IBM. A seasoned venture capitalist with 4 deep tech unicorns and more than 100 investments and in AI, digital economy and food tech, Prof Tay founded his first startup as a NUS undergraduate and built more than 300 applications since. Professor Tay serves as Head of CET & Executive Education at the Asian Institute of Digital Finance and lead in curating fintech courses at AIDF, an institute jointly founded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the National Research Foundation and NUS. In his teaching and executive education work in NUS & Civil Service College of Singapore, Professor Tay works with founders, board directors, financial institutions and public-sector leaders, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, fintech & agentic AI policy. He served in leadership roles including Council Member of the Singapore Accreditation Council, Member of the International Capital Market Association FinTech Advisory Committee, Independent Board Member of Digilife Technologies Limited, Chairman of Infracrowd Capital, Co-Chair of SG Tech EduTech Committee, Vice Chair of SG Tech Singapore Enterprise Chapter, Vice Chair of the Asia Blockchain Association, Chair of Scrutinizing Committee of Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry and a contributor to the Singapore Standards Council Working Group on Intangible Assets and Intellectual Property Management Skills. An advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, he served as an Associate Professor (Practice) United Nations Institute of Training & Research, Senior Fellow in the Business Fights Poverty Institute and Nanyang Business School Academy for Career Excellence, Fellow in the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise and Head of International Relations at the Oxford Blockchain Research Centre, supporting research and international alliances in agentic commerce, ESG & SDG. Professor Tay’s thought leadership is reflected with views cited in Bloomberg, Reuters, Japan Times, Business Times, Zaobao, TODAY, The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, The Edge, Jakarta Post, W.Media, China Daily, e27, TechinAsia, Asia Tech Daily and Caixin Global. His social-impact and AI-for-good work is recognised in the 2025 DATA AND AI FOR SOCIAL IMPACT REPORT for promoting data and AI for social impact around responsible use, workforce capacity, ethics & inclusion. Professor Tay is known in Hong Kong’s innovation ecosystem as an advocate in cross-border entrepreneurship. As an InnoEX mission ambassador in Hong Kong Trade Development Council, he actively connects ASEAN technology companies with opportunities in Greater Bay Area in cutting-edge technologies. Professor Tay is featured as an international judge for the Asia Smart Innovation Award 2022, a regional competition supported by Hong Kong Productivity Council, Invest HK and Hong Kong Trade Development Council that promote state-of-the-art smart mobile applications. An AI innovation leader, Professor Tay collaborated with Taiwan Stock Exchange, TAITRA, Taipei Computer Association, Taiwan Tech Connect and Startup Terrace, COMPUTEX to facilitate startup founders’ exchanges between Taiwan and ASEAN. Professor Tay is featured as an international judge for the Taiwan Presidential Hackathon 2025, organised by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Taipei Computer Association and supported by the Office of the President, R.O.C. (Taiwan). He has received recognition for his industry contribution in technology with LinkedIn Top Voice in Venture Capital in 2024, Top 30 Tech Voice by World Future Awards in 2025 and Top Venture Capital Leader by Singapore Lens in 2026.