This roundtable discussion with Dr Joseph Haldane, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR, Japan, and Michael Klemm, CEO of the Singapore Education Network, Singapore, will consider the role of professional networks in shaping careers and sustaining international collaboration. Drawing on their experiences building and working within global organisations, the panellists will reflect on how networks support individual career development while also enabling others to access opportunities, mentorship, and collaboration. The discussion takes place at a moment when internationalisation is increasingly constrained, and will invite participants to consider the continued value and responsibility of maintaining international networks in an uncertain and fragmenting global context.

Biographies

Joseph Haldane

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in 19th century French Studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history, politics, and education, as well as governance and decision-making.

In 2022, Dr Haldane was named Professor in the United Nations Peace University's European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD). From 2019 he has been also a Visiting Professor at Doshisha University, where he teaches Ethics and Governance in the Global MBA, and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance since 2017.

Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at The University of Osaka, having taught on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and has been Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre situated within the university, since 2017. He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, United States.

From 2020 to 2025, Dr Haldane was an Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL), through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. Earlier in his career, he held full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University.

Professor Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations at universities and conferences globally, including at the United Nations headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs, and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office, and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane was Treasurer of the Chubu chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, and since 2015 has been a Trustee of HOPE International Development Agency Japan. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He lives in Japan and holds a black belt in Judo.

Michael Klemm

Michael Klemm is an education professional with extensive experience in international education, employability, education technology, and entrepreneurship in Asia. In 2020, he founded and currently heads the Singapore Education Network (SEN), a regional alliance of 3,000+ education professionals & organisations in South East Asia and beyond, with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. SEN is an education community-builder as well as training provider for the education sector and also manages e-commerce platform ‘EdTech Marketplace Asia’, offering 500+ technology-enabled solutions for the education sector in Asia.

Mr Klemm is also a Venture Partner - Higher Education & EdTech for education consultancy EDT&Partners, as well as Public-Private Partnership Specialist for the ADB-funded STEP UP project in Cambodia. He mentors EdTech Startups in accelerators Singapore National Youth Council, Start2 (Germany) and Next Challenge Foundation (South Korea). He is listed among the Top 100 influencers in EdTech 2023/24 by EdTech Digest.

Previously, Mr Klemm worked for Minerva University, National University of Singapore, Training Institute NTUC LearningHub, World Vision International, and the International Labour Organization in several countries across Asia (Singapore, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia), gaining substantial expertise in the education and development sector.

About the Presenter(s)
-Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of IAFOR.
-Michael Klemm is an education professional with extensive experience in international education, employability, education technology, and entrepreneurship in Asia.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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