David Tait
David is an innovator and strategic thinker with over 25 years of experience in value creation at the highest level in Asian publishing. A ground-breaking exponent of Mandarin education technologies in language learning, he is building a global team to help millions of the world’s children learn Mandarin. A re-programmed submariner and microbiologist, he has an MBA from the University of Leicester.
Nury Vittachi
Nury Vittachi is one of Asia’s best-known writers. He is editor of Fridayeveryday, a social media news company with 70,000 followers and four million YouTube views. Vittachi is also the author of more than 50 books, from non-fiction to detective novels, many issued by major publishing houses in several languages. He rose to fame writing the “Lai See” column in the South China Morning Post, the “Travellers’ Tales” column in the Far Eastern Economic Review and was the resident humorist at Reader’s Digest for many years. The prolific author has chaired the Hong Kong Young Writers Award for many years and is past chairman of the Asia Writers’ and Translators’ Association. Born in Sri Lanka, he is married to an Englishwoman, and they have three adopted Chinese children.
Shalini Melwani
Shalini moved to Hong Kong in 1991. A wide network and insight into Hong Kong culture provided the grounds for Shoppinghongkong, a successful PR business which she built, ran and then sold 17 years later. She is now a certified teacher at Gordon Parenting where she fulfills her passion helping families form lasting healthy relationships. Shalini began working at P3 publishing company in November 2019 where she works on sales for Playtimes and Mandarin Matrix.
Anise Nasser
Anise has 16 years of experience as a school librarian, which is being put to exceptional use as the project manager of the Hong Kong Young Writer’s Awards. The point of contact for all schools, teachers, partners and sponsors, she has responsibility for planning and organizing the awards, from registration to the presentation ceremony, and has fostered her connections with international and local schools in Hong Kong, Macau and China for the last 10 years.