Dr Benedict Francis is an associate professor and consultant psychiatrist at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya and was selected for the Brightsparks scholarship to pursue his Masters in Psychological Medicine at his alma mater, the University of Malaya. Subsequently, he completed a fellowship program in Aged Healthcare Services at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, in 2019. Dr Benedict is one of the research leads at the Psychological Medicine Research Unit and has been involved as principal investigator and sub-investigator for several international, multi-centre clinical trials including the ESCAPE-TRD, REMISSIO, ASPIRE, SUSTAIN-3, ROUTE 6, and CONNEX-2 trials. He has also published in several international and regional peer-reviewed journals and presented in international congresses. Dr Benedict has and continues to exhibit stellar leadership in his field. He was part of the Ministry of Health’s  National Advisory Board committee that drafted the guidelines for prescribing and dispensing Esketamine, a novel adjunct antidepressant treatment. In addition, he has been part of several steering commitees that paved new directions in mental health. For example, he was appointed to be part of the Southeast Asian steering committee to develop a patient decision aid for people living with schizophrenia. He is also part of the regional Asia Pacific steering commitee to develop a module for cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS). In 2023, he received the Excellent Service Award from the University of Malaya in recognition of his contributions. Dr Benedict is regarded as a Key Opinion Leader in the field of treatment resistant depression and schizophrenia and is a regular invited speaker at both local and regional events. He is actively involved in several associations at various levels. He is a life member of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association and a corresponding member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is also a member of the Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He was inducted as Fellow of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists.  Besides clinical medicine, Dr Benedict is keenly interested in the various facets of research ethics, particularly in the subfield of Neuroethics. He was recently awarded a scholarship under the auspices of the Fogarty International Centre of the United States National Institute of Health in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, to pursue his Master's in Health Research and Ethics at the University of Malaya.

Dr Norazlin Ab Aziz joined the Department of Finance & Banking in the Faculty of Business & Accountancy in early 2021 to share her knowledge and expertise in Islamic finance and economics. Prior to this, she was in the unit trust industry involved in legal & compliance, marketing & business development, and project management. Norazlin obtained her Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Master of Economics from the University Malaya and later completed her PhD in Accounting & Finance at the University of Glasgow. In her doctoral research, she critically examined the development of Islamic finance in Malaysia, theorising it through the trio of Political Economy Theory comprising Legitimacy, Stakeholder and Institutional theories. The underlying sentiments and the styles of Malaysian policymakers’ speeches were also assessed. Norazlin draws from a broad base in Islamic finance, the components of Islamic capital market, political economy, social theories, and linguistic analysis, to understand and critically evaluate the processes therein. This indicative of her research interest in Islamic finance from a policymaking perspective, products and services in the Islamic capital market, the future direction of the Islamic finance industry as well as the usage of computer-aided text analysis in business reporting and documents.