Khai Asyraf
"I envision Gulf–ASEAN Exchange as a conduit where lived experience, policy, business realities, and culture meet. Not to simplify differences, but to translate them. GAE exists to help people on both sides make better decisions by grounding ambition in human insight and shared understanding.”
Khai Asyraf is a Singapore-based media practitioner with over a decade of experience across business development, journalism, and community building. His work sits at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and civic engagement, focused on creating platforms that help people navigate complexity across business, policy, and lived experience.
Khai’s professional journey spans creative communications and digital media, where he has worked as a sports producer and media leader shaping the evolution of new media and audience engagement across Southeast Asia. He previously served as Managing Director of an independent publication, overseeing commercial development, partnerships, and community-driven initiatives that extended journalism beyond content into dialogue and participation. He is also a Board Member of the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SMCCI), contributing to strategic communications, business engagement, and ecosystem development.
A strong advocate of community-led responses to systemic challenges, Khai founded The Big Pivot in response to widespread tech layoffs and retrenchments in Singapore and the region. The initiative supports professionals exploring entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway to sustain their livelihoods, through dialogues, workshops, peer learning, and shared problem-solving. The Big Pivot reflects Khai’s belief that clarity and resilience are built collectively, not in isolation.
Beyond media and professional communities, Khai is deeply committed to humanitarian work. In December 2025, he travelled to Aceh, Indonesia, following intense flooding that devastated local communities. On the ground, he focused on documenting lived realities, coordinating grassroots support, and ensuring accountability in aid distribution, guided by the principle that humanitarian response must remain human, transparent, and community-rooted.
Across his work, Khai believes journalism should do more than inform. It should convene people, surface difficult truths, and strengthen communities by offering clarity in moments of uncertainty.
