Our Team
The ABLI team handles the day-to-day management of ABLI. This includes attending to all administrative and financial matters pertaining to the functioning of the Institute, as well as convening meetings of the Board of Governors and Founding Partners and reporting to those bodies on a regular basis. The team is also responsible for implementing the strategies defined by and decisions taken by the Board of Governors. In that capacity, it submits project proposals to the Board of Governors, identifies project leads and experts, attends to project management and takes all steps necessary to achieve project objectives. Where appropriate, a member of the team can also act as project lead.
Mark FISHER
Deputy Executive Director (August 2018 – )
Mark is ABLI's Deputy Executive Director. Previously, Mark practiced complex litigation in Australia for both international and domestic firms in Australia, particularly matters regarding securities litigation and matters involving private international law issues. He holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Hons) from the University of Sydney.
Catherine SHEN
Senior Manager
Catherine joined ABLI in August 2018 as its Project Manager. Previously, Catherine was with Lionbridge as a full-time in-house legal translator/editor, mainly servicing WestLaw China, Current Awareness and Asian Legal Business, all Thomson Reuters Legal intelligence products. Catherine holds a Bachelor of Laws from Shanghai International Studies University and a Master of Laws from National University of Singapore. She speaks, reads and writes Mandarin, English and Japanese.
Ankur Gupta
Research Associate
Ankur is a Research Associate with ABLI, working on digital assets projects. His experience spans working as a foreign lawyer, a legal policy-maker with the Singapore Government and a teaching-learning practitioner at a Singapore institution of higher learning. He enjoys contributing to thought leadership in a variety of areas which align with his work experience, such as intellectual property law, legal and regulatory aspects of technology as well as teaching and learning practice. Ankur is also a Lead Projects Manager with the Singapore Academy of Law for law reform projects.
Sarah ARCHER
Deputy Executive Director (April 2017 to August 2018)
Sarah was ABLI’s Deputy Executive Director from April 2017 to August 2018, on secondment from the London office of Jones Day where she is a senior associate in the Business Restructuring and Reorganisation Team. Her legal practice focuses on all aspects of corporate restructuring and insolvency. Her experience includes formal insolvency procedures, out-of-court restructurings, distressed acquisitions, and portfolio sales. She has also advised financial institutions on their options and directors of financially distressed companies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Modern History from the University of Oxford (Worcester College) and a Graduate Diploma in Law with Distinction and Legal Practice Course with Distinction from BPP Law School.
YEO Tiong Min
Chair of the Advisory Board
Professor Yeo Tiong Min, Yong Pung How Chair Professor of Law at Singapore Management University (SMU) and former Dean of the School of Law at SMU, was ABLI's Academic Director from July 2017 to the first half of 2019, during which he was responsible for providing direction and oversight of ABLI’s research projects and establishing high-level stakeholder relationships between ABLI and academic universities and research institutions. Professor Yeo remains the Chair of ABLI's Advisory Board.
Clarisse GIROT
Honorary Senior Fellow
ABLI engaged Clarisse to act as project lead on its project on the legal convergence of data privacy laws in Asia. Clarisse was previously Counsel to the President of the French data privacy regulator, Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), and prior to that Clarisse was head of CNIL’s department for European and International Affairs. She has a Masters in Intellectual Property (Hons) from Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, a Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law from Oxford (University College) and a PhD from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Clarisse commenced her role on 16 January 2017. From August 2021, Clarisse transitioned to Honorary Senior Fellow with ABLI.
