International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Asia Pacific Chapter elected its new Executive Committee for the term 2020 – 2022 through an electoral process that was carried out from 6 – 31 March 2020. Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau’s (PCEB) CEO Ashwin Gunasekeran has been elected as the new Chairman. He takes over from outgoing Chairman, Jason Yeh (Founder and CEO of GIS Group).

Ashwin will be supported by Keiko Nishimoto (Research Fellow, Kyoto University Graduate School of Management Japan), re-elected as Deputy Chair / Treasurer, alongside Eric Abramson (International Project Director, Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Centre China – P.R.) as co-Deputy Chair.

“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, we will continue to grow stronger and champion the business events fraternity of Asia Pacific,” Mr Ashwin said after his victory.

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 ever to hold position in the ICCA Asia Pacific Chapter Executive Committee.