Overview
ExpertConnect Asia (“EXPERTCONNECT ASIA”) is a network of subject matter experts, practitioners, professionals and academics in various industries that provide consulting services to ExpertConnect Asia’s clients (each, a “Client” and collectively, “Clients”). ExpertConnect Asia’s Clients are consulting firms, investment firms, banks, corporations and others who perform primary research. Based on Clients’ needs, we will contact members of ExpertConnect Asia’s Experts (each, an “Expert” and collectively, “Experts”) with relevant domain expertise to ascertain whether they are suitable and available for a consulting interview (“Interview”), such as a telephone consultation, teleconference, online survey, face to face offline meeting or discussion group.
Mission
Our mission is to unleash the value of individual expertise by connecting them to the needs of other businesses across industries. To achieve this, we are committed to the highest standards of compliance. Use of our consultation, either by phone or face-to-face meeting, should never infringe our experts’ interests nor our clients’ business. Our compliance policies are designed to help experts manage conflicts and to protect our clients’ interests.
Our Terms of Use sets important rules that must be complied upon providing consultation services. These rules protect interests of both experts and clients and are in place so that appropriate spot consultations can be provided. This Terms of Use applies to Personal Data collected from or provided by Data Subjects. This Terms of Use also applies, in relevant part, to any Personal Data that is processed in Singapore.
Conditions of Membership in ExpertConnect Asia and Participation in Consulting Projects
You may become an Expert and participate in a Project if, and only if, all of the following compliance conditions are satisfied:
- Your membership and participation would not present any conflict of interest.
- Your membership and participation would not cause you to breach any agreement with or other legal obligation to any person or entity (including but not limited to your current employer, your previous employers or any person or entity to which, or through which, you provide or have provided consulting services).
- Your membership and participation would not cause you to violate any duty or obligation or policy or code of conduct, of any kind, to tany person or entity (including but not limited to your current employer, your previous employers or any company to which, or through which, you provide or have provided consulting services).
- Your membership and participation would not result in the disclosure of any confidential or proprietary information (including trade secrets) not owned exclusively by you.
- Your membership and participation would not result in any communication or disclosure to any third party of any material non-public information concerning any public company or security.
- Your membership and participation would not violate any laws, rules or regulations.
You must decline or discontinue participation in any project that would result in a violation of any of the conditions above.
You are solely responsible for determining whether you are permitted to join ExpertConnect Asia and to participate in Projects. Before applying to join ExpertConnect Asia, you must review any and all legal agreements that could restrict your ability to participate, including without limitation employment agreements, consulting agreements, non-disclosure agreements, employee handbooks, codes of ethics and similar employment policies. You should also consider whether you should obtain consents or waivers from your current employer, clients or any other third parties (if applicable, in each instance) to ensure that you are permitted to act as an Expert. An Expert’s participation in any Project with any Client is at the Expert’s sole discretion.
Experts are never obligated to accept or continue any Project which is not aligned with the above stated policy and may decline to participate or continue to participate in any of such Project at any time.
Assignment, acceptance & scope of projects
Your participation in projects is always at your discretion. ExpertConnect Asia makes no representation regarding the frequency, quantity, or type of invitations to projects you will receive or in which you will be chosen to participate. Unless otherwise agreed in writing by ExpertConnect Asia or stated in any project invitation, your compensation is pro-rated strictly based on the time you spend interacting with Clients on Projects at the defined “successful project”, which is defined as a face to face or phone interview that lasts typically an hour, of which no compensation will be given should it be terminated at or before the first 10 minutes of interaction. You will not be compensated for preparation time, wait time, or time set aside if a Project with a Client does not occur. You may not assign Projects or Platform Activities or delegate any portion of your work to others (including without limitation to any other employees of your firm) without our prior written consent.
All interactions must be set up through ExpertConnect Asia or its systems. You are not permitted to share your contact information (either phone or email) directly with the Client without the written consent of ExpertConnect Asia. If a Client contacts you without having arranged the Project through ExpertConnect Asia, and you consult with the Client, you are not eligible for payment from ExpertConnect Asia, even if the call is a follow-up to a recent Project that was arranged through ExpertConnect Asia. Clients are not authorized to expand the scope of a Project except with ExpertConnect Asia’s written authorization.
Investment Advice
ExpertConnect Asia is not a registered investment adviser (as defined in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. § 80B-1, et seq., and the rules and interpretations promulgated thereunder) and cannot transact business as an investment adviser or give investment advice. You agree not to provide to ExpertConnect Asia or to any Client any investment advice including without limitation advice concerning the value of any security or the advisability of buying, selling or otherwise investing in any security.
Communication with Third Parties
In performing work with Clients, you are not to interact with third parties except with the written authorization of ExpertConnect Asia. If authorized to do so, you agree to advise any third party with whom you interact that you are not seeking, and do not want, any confidential information, including material non-public information, and that he/she must comply with his/her existing obligations to any third parties, including past or present employers. Further, during these interactions the following conduct is strictly prohibited:
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Presenting yourself under false pretences or pretexts;
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Describing yourself as working for or on behalf of ExpertConnect Asia;
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Identifying the Client on whose behalf you are acting (you may disclose the type of client firm without identifying such Client by name);
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Hiring or engaging such a person as an agent, subcontractor, or consultant without ExpertConnect Asia and the Client’s written consent;
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Soliciting information from the person should you believe that they are equally subject to these Terms & Conditions; and
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Offering, giving, or attempting to give anything of value to anyone without ExpertConnect Asia and the Client’s written consent.
Careful consideration should be given to the following items in particular:
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INFORMATION AND DATA PROVISION. Please be responsible for accuracy and recency for all information you provide during all sessions as overseen or hosted by ExpertConnect Asia.
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CONFIDENTIALITY OF EXPERTCONNECTASIA, CLIENT AND EXPERT INFORMATION. You must not disclose material, non-public information you possess for any reason. When you receive material, non-public information through the consultation process, please note that trading public securities based on material non-public information can be considered insider trading and is severely punished by law.
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You must comply with all confidentiality duties (including duties based on internal rules) related to the company you work for or any other third party, when accepting requests as an expert. This applies to information disclosure to our staff or other users.
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DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION. Experts and Clients will promptly notify ExpertConnect Asia of any breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data of any sort (“Data Breach”) after having become aware of such Data Breach. It is the expert’s / client’s sole responsibility to ensure it maintains accurate contact information for purposes of such notification. Engaging in acts that avoid paying commission, such as circumventing our website and directly communicating with Clients to provide consultation outside our service without our prior consent, is prohibited.
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LIABILITY. All parties agree that any data subject who has suffered damage as a result of any breach of obligations referred to in this document is entitled to receive compensation from the data exporter for damage suffered.
If the data subject is unable to claim compensation against the data exporter, arising out of breach of obligations, because the data exporter has factually disappeared or ceased to exist in law or has become insolvent, the data subject may not claim against ExpertConnect Asia as if it were the data exporter.
All parties will agree that the choice made by the data subject will not prejudice its substantive or procedural rights to seek remedies in accordance with other provisions of national or international law.
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VARIATION OF THE CONTRACT. The parties undertake not to vary or modify the Clauses. This does not preclude ExpertConnect Asia from adding clauses on business related issues where required as long as they do not contradict the Clause.
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TREATMENT OF DATA. ExpertConnect Asia will process all information in accordance with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2012. In the course of providing services, complying with its own contractual and regulatory obligations, and operating its business, ExpertConnect Asia may process personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws under PDPA, which is summed up as follows:
The PDPA will ensure a baseline standard of protection for personal data across the economy by complementing sector-specific legislative and regulatory frameworks. This means that organisations will have to comply with the PDPA as well as the common law and other relevant laws that are applied to the specific industry that they belong to, when handling personal data in their possession. The PDPA takes into account the following concepts:
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Consent – Organisations may collect, use or disclose personal data only with the individual’s knowledge and consent (with some exceptions);
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Purpose – Organisations may collect, use or disclose personal data in an appropriate manner for the circumstances, and only if they have informed the individual of purposes for the collection, use or disclosure; and
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Reasonableness – Organisations may collect, use or disclose personal data only for purposes that would be considered appropriate to a reasonable person in the given circumstances.
The PDPA covers personal data stored in electronic and non-electronic forms.
Miscellaneous
- COUNTERPARTS. Our Terms of Use may be executed in counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original and all of which together shall constitute one and the same document.
Additional Clauses
1. Termination of Use:
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- Experts may terminate their use of the service at any time by notifying ExpertConnect Asia in writing. Upon termination, the expert must cease all use of the service and any information obtained from it.
- ExpertConnect Asia reserves the right to terminate an expert’s access to the service, especially when there are changes to the T&Cs or if the expert violates any terms of the agreement.
- In the event of termination by either party, all ongoing projects must be completed or transitioned as per the agreement, unless otherwise stated.
2. Intellectual Property Rights:
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- Intellectual Property (IP) created by the consultant during the engagement will be subject to terms of IP ownership as agreed upon in the individual project contracts.
- If IP rights are assigned to the client, the agreement will specify the terms of this assignment, including any limitations or rights retained by the expert.
- ExpertConnect Asia does not claim ownership of IP created by experts unless explicitly agreed upon in writing.
3. Non-Complete Clause:
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- Consultants agree not to compete with the client’s business or work for the client’s direct competitors during the service contract and for a specified period post-contract completion.
- The agreement may include stipulations against working for the client’s competitors or customers and prohibitions on soliciting the client’s employees.
Definitions
For the purposes of the Clauses:
(a) ‘personal data’, ‘special categories of data’, ‘process/processing’, ‘controller’, ‘processor’, ‘data subject’ and ‘supervisory authority’ shall have the same meaning as in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data;
(b) ‘the data exporter’ means the controller who transfers the personal data;
(c) ‘the data importer’ means the processor who agrees to receive from the data exporter personal data intended for processing on his behalf after the transfer in accordance with his instructions and the terms of the Clauses and who is not subject to a third country’s system ensuring adequate protection within the meaning of Article 25(1) of Directive 95/46/EC;
Please contact [email protected] if you have any other questions or concerns.
For the purposes of the Clauses:
(a) ‘personal data’, ‘special categories of data’, ‘process/processing’, ‘controller’, ‘processor’, ‘data subject’ and ‘supervisory authority’ shall have the same meaning as in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data;
(b) ‘the data exporter’ means the controller who transfers the personal data;
(c) ‘the data importer’ means the processor who agrees to receive from the data exporter personal data intended for processing on his behalf after the transfer in accordance with his instructions and the terms of the Clauses and who is not subject to a third country’s system ensuring adequate protection within the meaning of Article 25(1) of Directive 95/46/EC;
Please contact [email protected] if you have any other questions or concerns.
