Jonathan Yap

Jonathan Yap is a Digital Development Specialist at the Asian Development Bank’s Digital Sector Office. He brings over 15 years of experience in telecommunications and ICT across the Asia-Pacific region, with expertise in digital connectivity and infrastructure, public policy, regulation, project management, as well as business development.

Prior to joining ADB, Jon served as Senior Technical Program Manager in Amazon Leo, where he managed cross-functional licensing schedules and regulatory dependencies to support service deployment across Asia-Pacific markets. Earlier, he held senior positions at Telenor Asia in Singapore and Axiata Group in Malaysia, where he advanced telecommunications and digital economy investments across South and Southeast Asia through policy advocacy and industry reforms in areas including telecom infrastructure, spectrum management, taxation, data privacy, and broadband development.

During his time with Axiata Group, Jon was based in Cambodia, where he led Smart Axiata’s regulatory strategy and public affairs agenda, overseeing stakeholder engagement, corporate communications, sustainability initiatives, and nation-building programs. A telecommunications engineer by training, he also held technical and commercial roles, including Head of Business Development, Rollout Manager, and RF Engineer with major telecommunications service providers in Malaysia.

Jon holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, U.K., and a B.Eng. in Telecommunications from Multimedia University, Malaysia.