The people behind the headlines

What is OnTheRice (OTR)?

Built under pressure. Governed by evidence. Designed to remember.

OnTheRice—also written On The Rice and shortened to OTR—is a source-linked daily intelligence publication. It connects current events, market intelligence, public-source graphs and a transparent prediction record so readers can see what changed, why it matters and how earlier calls performed.

OnTheRice name guide

Are OnTheRice, On The Rice and OTR the same publication?: Yes. OnTheRice is the official name; On The Rice is its spaced form, and OTR is its short form.
Is the publication called “On the Rise”?: No. That sound-alike search phrase may lead readers here, but the canonical brand and publication name is OnTheRice.

Rais and Bryce work together in the warm OnTheRice mission atelier.

OnTheRice is led by builders, operators and mentors from emergency medicine, public service, client leadership, system security, global media, smart-city innovation and finance. AI output is not treated as truth. Every claim must survive sources, rules, real users and time.

Founder and Chief Product Architect

Faheem Aizat Kamsan

Faheem defied the odds. After a PSLE score of 147 and the Normal Technical stream, he taught himself AI through daily reading, experimentation, prompt engineering and building. He took a production product to Google Play Store, developed the early work and pitch for Super AI Genesis, applied for SLINGSHOT, and was invited to a closed Google DeepMind and Google Cloud session for 40 founders at Marina Bay Sands. Now transitioning from his paramedic career, he brings emergency-service calm, urgency and accountability to OnTheRice as its founder and chief product architect.

Faheem's work in 2026

Directed The Daily Editorial rebuild, locked daily issues, deterministic exports, Backtesting Ledger, My Radar, Proof dashboard and client learning-loop architecture.
Led product architecture across SCAVerse, including ticketing, 3D journeys, museum systems, checkpoints, Visit Passport, LearnSpace and branded immersive worlds.
Coordinated a cross-functional team of more than six people across at least 155 tracked deliverables, 109 shipped pull requests, three live domains and more than seven branded worlds.
Directed or contributed to AOM, SCAVerse-Dex, the 3D Museum, Kutai and Jambi preparations, and the proposed Garuda Digital Intelligence and Experience Layer.
Reached the preliminary rounds of SuperAI Genesis 2026 and SLINGSHOT 2026, and was invited to a closed Google DeepMind and Google Cloud session for forty founders at Marina Bay Sands.
Joined the SCAVAI board and led SCAVerse as Principal Consultant. His 2026 focus is turning complex systems into governed products that teams and institutions can operate, inspect and improve.

Co-founder, Commercial Advisor and Mentor

Daniel Tan

Daniel Tan is an accomplished Asia-Pacific marketing and growth leader whose career spans two of the world's most influential entertainment companies: Warner Bros. Discovery and The Walt Disney Company. He has led brand, subscriber-growth, customer-retention, pricing, partnerships and commercial strategy across globally recognised portfolios including HBO, Max, DC, Discovery, Cartoon Network and Disney+.

Warner Bros. Discovery leadership

As Head of Marketing for Asia-Pacific and later APAC Senior Vice-President of Marketing at Warner Bros. Discovery, Daniel worked across one of the world's largest entertainment portfolios. His remit covered subscriber growth, customer retention, brand strategy, partnerships, pricing and commercial performance for businesses and properties connected to HBO, Max, DC, Discovery and Cartoon Network.

Eight years at Disney

Before Warner Bros. Discovery, Daniel spent eight years with The Walt Disney Company. He helped lead Disney+ launches in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, contributing to the platform's rapid rise across Southeast Asia.

Global franchises and theatrical campaigns

His experience also includes major theatrical releases such as Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Aladdin, The Lion King and Frozen 2. That combination of global franchise stewardship and local-market execution gives him unusual range across audience insight, brand building, distribution and monetisation.

Leadership under change

Daniel has guided high-performing teams through more than ten reorganisations while continuing to improve revenue, user acquisition and customer lifetime value. He combines creative instinct with data rigour, global perspective with local nuance, and strategic clarity with hands-on execution.

What he brings to OTR

As Faheem's commercial mentor, Daniel makes OTR answer the questions that decide whether an ambitious product becomes a serious business: who it serves, what decision it improves, why clients should trust it, how it earns attention and how value is sustained from first contact to renewal.

Co-founder, Co-Architect, Advisor and System Security Lead

Aidil Aqmal

Aidil Aqmal brings public-service discipline, regulated-environment experience and security judgement into OnTheRice. As a Higher Superintendent and Senior Trade Officer in government, he understands accountability, operational controls and digital transformation inside high-trust environments. At OTR, he pressure-tests release controls, client spaces, evidence records and administrative access.

Public-service background

His government work brings operational discipline, public accountability and regulated-environment understanding into the team. He has also been recognised with the Good Service Medal and attended the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Digital transformation

A government digital-transformation case study shows how officers used the GatherSG platform to build and deploy their own internal digital solutions. That practical experience informs Aidil's focus on secure access, audit trails, incident handling and systems that staff can operate responsibly.

What he brings to OTR

Aidil helps separate public intelligence from private-client records and tests whether controls remain clear under pressure. His role is to question weak boundaries before they become security or governance failures.

Read: Government digital-transformation case study ↗

Advisor, Mentor and Strategic Institution Builder

Dato' Ambran Abu Bakar

Dato' Ambran Abu Bakar gives OnTheRice strategic range, institutional discipline and regional credibility. A distinguished entrepreneur, former infantry officer and technology leader across Smart City development, Audio-Visual technology and Artificial Intelligence, he mentors Faheem on leadership, partnership formation, market entry and building technology with long-term institutional value.

Military excellence

He served as an Infantry Officer. At the ASEAN Army Rifle Meet 1996, he achieved first place as a GPMG gunner and runner-up as a carbine shooter—evidence of the discipline, precision and calm execution that continue to shape his leadership.

Entrepreneurial success

He founded A2Y Consulting Sdn Bhd and led major work including the SUK Selangor Smart Office Project, helping the company cross its first RM1 million revenue milestone in 2007. He received the Consultant of the Year Award in Amsterdam at Integrated Systems Europe 2017.

Recognition

BTA Global presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in July 2025. In January 2026, he received a Dato'ship from the Kutai Maharaja in connection with the Kutai SCAVerse Kingdom.

Global leadership

Across the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, his work spans 19 countries, five smart cities and 14 smart buildings or spaces. He is known for strategic thinking, cross-regional partnerships and helping organisations adopt technology with a long-term view.

What he brings to Faheem and OTR

Dato' Ambran mentors Faheem in leadership, institution-building and regional strategy. He helps OTR form serious partnerships, enter new markets, govern complex work and keep its purpose while it scales.

Vision and impact

For OTR, his role is not decorative: he challenges the founder to think bigger, act with discipline and build a connected intelligence institution that can remain useful worldwide.

Financial Markets Specialist and Product Credibility Architect

Jasper Kwong

Jasper Kwong brings more than seven years of cross-disciplinary market experience across retail and institutional finance. Rooted in hedge-fund operations, his background spans banks, asset managers, brokerages, AI quant firms and fintech exchanges. At OnTheRice, he translates market infrastructure into scalable product workflows and keeps every offering credible, compliant and useful for both retail users and institutional players.

Market infrastructure

Jasper has worked across the full market stack: hedge-fund operations, commercial banks, institutional asset managers, traditional brokerages, AI quant firms and digital-asset exchanges. That range helps OTR understand how signals behave after they leave the page and meet real trading, custody, reconciliation and risk workflows.

Product credibility

He reviews whether an OTR feature can survive serious buyer questions: what the source proves, what the signal does not prove, how a recommendation is separated from public fact and whether the product can be trusted by both retail and institutional users.

Operational depth

His experience includes end-to-end multi-asset trade lifecycles, custody reconciliations, regulatory risk protocols and algorithmic process integrations. He pairs institutional-grade market mechanics with modern AI workflows so automation reduces friction instead of hiding weak controls.

What he brings to OTR

Jasper keeps financial-world expectations close to product decisions. He strengthens proof, accountability, compliance language, market-tested rigour and decision value without making the product too complex for everyday users.

Khalifah in a dark blazer in a modern office

AI Experience Designer, Neurodivergent Advocate and Product Builder

Khalifah Khalid

Khalifah Khalid is an AI experience designer, neurodivergent advocate, registered nurse and product builder. She combines healthcare, AI and human-centred design to make technology practical, inclusive and accessible. For OnTheRice, she strengthens client understanding, storytelling, accessibility and the bridge between intelligence outputs and real people using them.

Human-centred product building

Her healthcare experience keeps her close to real human needs. She brings care, clarity and accessibility into product decisions, helping teams build experiences that work for people with different abilities, attention patterns and ways of understanding information.

Advocacy and community

Her work is starting to receive recognition and a growing community is forming around her advocacy. She continues to build on Base44, the platform she credits with helping her turn ideas into working products and expand support for her mission.

What she brings to OTR

Khalifah challenges OTR to make intelligence practical, inclusive and emotionally understandable. She connects product capability with human needs and helps turn complex findings into experiences that clients and communities can use.

Read: The Village Hub by Khalifah Khalid ↗

Strategic Partnerships and Operations Lead

Sawfi Jasmon

Sawfi Jasmon is a business operations and strategic partnerships professional with more than a decade of experience behind multinational corporations, startups and technology ventures across Asia Pacific, including Mastercard. At OnTheRice, she connects strategy with practical commercial execution, helping partners turn market intelligence into informed decisions and sustainable growth.

Operations and partnership experience

Sawfi has led cross-functional work across business operations, commercial strategy, market research, regulatory analysis and stakeholder engagement. She is experienced in helping global and regional leadership teams improve execution across functions and markets.

Global Payments & Regional Perspective

Her experience at Mastercard, combined with broader exposure across the global payments and technology industry, brings a practical understanding of partnership ecosystems, regulated markets, customer needs and the discipline required to translate strategy into successful execution across regional markets.

What she brings to OTR

Sawfi focuses on strategic partnerships, business development and market intelligence. She helps OTR make its insight useful to organisations by pairing analytical thinking with strong relationship management, clear next steps and commercially focused outcomes.

How the team governs OTR

Clear authority. Visible boundaries.

Faheem holds final product-architecture responsibility. Daniel Tan mentors commercial clarity, customer understanding and growth discipline. Aidil advises on defensive controls. Dato' Ambran mentors leadership, institutional strategy and regional partnerships. Jasper advises on financial-market credibility and product proof. Sawfi leads strategic partnerships and operations. Khalifah leads client understanding and continuity. Advisors may challenge the work, but no advisor may silently rewrite a locked public call or its settled result.