Founding Members

Brian Thom brings 30+ years of experience in business management and strategic marketing to Asia CEO Network, including more than 25 years in Asia starting and managing businesses. This experience covers the spectrum from running credit card and retail banking businesses in Japan and Korea to starting Internet banking in Hong Kong and Germany to start-up and management of a machine learning and AI marketing company. Brian has successfully managed businesses within large corporations as well as independent start-ups that required fund raising as the first activity.

Brian is currently Executive Director of Asia CEO Network, a business he co-founded. Asia CEO Network is an Asia-based primary research firm that connects global clients with leading Asia-based professional experts, ACN's Expert Network covers vertical know-how; right from grassroots up to board level, this all-encompassing range of expertise provides comprehensive and up-to-the-minute 'front-line' and 'big-picture' information.

Previously, Brian managed the start-up and on-going operations for OneAnalytix, a tech company that empowers businesses to gain broader, actionable, consumer insights from all available data by utilizing machine learning and AI to predict what products or services each individual consumer wants.

Other key positions include:

President, Citicorp Card Services, Japan. Responsible for starting and managing Citibank's credit card business in Japan. As the first staff member, Brian built a team and grew the business from zero to become one of the most influential players in the Japanese credit card market.

Senior Vice President Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations, Asia/Pacific Region for MasterCard based in Singapore. In this position he served as senior product manager for the MasterCard family of brands in the region, managing advertising, promotion, public relations, product development and the company's MasterCard University member training program.

Global Marketing Head for American Express Bank's consumer banking business based in Paris, where he served as senior brand manager for American Express' consumer banking businesses in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Consumer Banking Business Manager, Citibank Korea. Set-up and managed the retail bank branch and credit card businesses.

Chief Marketing Officer for LINA Korea where he managed all aspects of marketing and sales for the Korea brand of CIGNA, the large U.S. insurance company, including strategies and programs for its 1,000+ seat telemarketing operation.

Managing Director of DPSL Limited, a start-up and management of this owner/operator of self-service photo printing kiosks. These kiosks use Sony technology to print various sizes of photos in seconds from a variety of input media, all from equipment with a footprint smaller than an ATM. The breakthrough strategy for this business was to move photo printing outside of traditional photo shops to convenient locations that were part of consumers' daily lives.

Brian holds an MBA from New York University and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Rutgers University. Among his many professional recognitions is an American Marketing Association "Effie" award for advertising effectiveness earned for a major TV campaign at Amex that he developed and implemented.