Speakers

 

If you want to know which speaker speaks at which panel, visit Program page.

 

 

Mr. Albert Antoine

Associate Director, Antony Consulting Pte. Ltd

 

Mr. Antoine is an international business development and management consultant who currently serves as Associate Director of Antony Consulting, overseeing its Vietnam operation. He also provides strategy and management consulting for many leading US and European MNCs entering Asia Pacific markets. He has had more than 20 years of experience in the ICT (Information - Communications - Technology) industry. He started his career as Technology Advisor on a World Bank project in Madagascar. After moving to Singapore in 1988, he founded his own consulting firm, providing consulting services in the area of Artificial Intelligence, and subsequently, joined ILOG, a global IT solution & consulting company. He previously served on the board of many portfolio companies advising them on management and marketing strategies as part of VinaCapital, a private equity investment and venture capital firm in Vietnam.

Mr. Antoine speaks fluent Vietnamese, French, and English. He holds an M.Sc. in Management of Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as well as an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the International Institute of Robotic and Artificial Intelligence of Marseille, France.

Dr. Albert C. Y. Teo, PhD

Co-Director, Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (NUS Business School)

 

Albert received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1992 and 1994, respectively, from the Walter A Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Albert is actively involved in community service. He is a volunteer programme coordinator in Patient Care Center (a social services organization that runs various support programmes for people living with HIV/AIDS), and serves as a management committee member of Catholic AIDS Response Effort (a Catholic ministry that runs a shelter for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS).

Dr. Bui Dinh Thuan, PhD

Founder & CEO, i-DNA Biotechnology Pte Ltd

 

Mr. Bui obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of London, in 1994. Dr. Bui worked as a research fellow funded by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and then the Wellcome Trust, at the University of Oxford (1994-1997), followed by the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore (1998- 2001). In 2001, Dr. Bui obtained an MBA from the University of MacQuarie, Australia. Between 2001-2, Dr. Bui worked in a Singapore government-funded start-up company, which subsequently merged to form Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd, the commercialization arm of A*STAR. Here, Dr. Bui worked as an Assistant VP of Commercialisation in the Biomedical Sciences Group until early 2004, where he left to start-up i-DNA Biotechnology Private Limited. The vision of i-DNA is to become a leading provider of life sciences research products and customised services.

Mr. Dang Tan Duc

Former President, Vietnamese Community in National University of Singapore (VNCNUS)

 

Mr. Dang graduated from National University of Singapore with a degree in Project & Facilities Management. He is particularly interested in Infrastructure Development and Public Policy as long-term career development. Mr. Dang has passionately engaged in various youth-led initiatives in education, youth empowerment and community development. He spearheaded a few projects such as Project Mam Xanh - 3-week youth expedition project in Quang Nam, "Noi ket the he" Interview Series. He spent 3 months in Ghana, West Africa with AFRICARE to work for a project on Water & Sanitation and Community Healthcare. He is also the former president of the Vietnamese community in National University of Singapore.

Mr. Le Hong Minh

Founder, Chairman & CEO, VNG Corporation (formerly VinaGame)

 

Minh is the Chairman & CEO of VNG Corporation, the leading Internet & online game company in Vietnam. Established in 2005, VNG has grown from a 5-person start-up to the #1 domestic portal in Vietnam (Zing.vn) offering entertainment news, music, social network, and online games to 15 million Vietnamese Internet users. VNG's mission is to "Make the Internet change Vietnamese lives" and the company goal is to serve 41 million customers by the year 2014. Prior to co-founding VNG at the age of 27, Minh worked as private equity Managing Director for VinaCapital, one of the top investment house in Vietnam. Minh received his Bachelor of Business Degree from Monash University, Australia.

 

He represents a generation of Vietnamese entrepreneurs who came back from overseas study to start building his career.

Ms. Jane Huong Nguyen

Assistant Director & Relationship Manager, Thailand/Vietnam Team, Bank of Singapore

 

Jane Huong Nguyen graduated from National University of Singapore in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Finance). Despite her young age, she has possessed much exposure to the corporate world. She has interned and worked for big names in the Auditing and Banking industries, namely KPMG, OCBC, UBS and Bank of Singapore (formerly known as ING Asia Private Bank).

 

Among the group of students building up VNCNUS during its early days, Huong shared the passion and desire to contribute to the future development of Vietnam. Instead of going back after graduation, Huong chose to hone her skills and nourish her capacities in Singapore with a view to directly or indirectly create some positive changes back to Vietnam. She starts her career under the Junior Key people program in UBS Wealth Management. Currently, she is working as the Relationship Manager in the Thailand/Vietnam Team in Bank of Singapore.

Mr. Le Nguyen Hong Phuong

CEO & Chairman, BIT Corporation

 

Mr. Le is an active, out-going person with strong entrepreneurial spirit. His 2015 objective for BIT is to become one of the most prestigious IT suppliers in Vietnam, whose quality service and customer trusts are the core business values. Hopefully, BIT will be listed in Top 100 Best IT and Digital companies in the world by 2030. For 5 years, he has directed BIT to grow with intensive focus of cultivating a rich business culture which strives to nurture, develop human talents and make a real impact to society.


He shared that the business environment in Vietnam is the biggest obstacle to the development of young entrepreneurs who have strong passion in technology because it does not support the Vietnamese youth’s innovation and international competition spirit. So he wants to achieve the core business values such as justice, solidarity, etc in order to create a platform for young Vietnamese generations to build up pride for our nation. He has an idea to expand his business to Singapore market.

Ms. Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu

Board Director, SEALNet

Co-Founder & VP of Business Strategy and Education, Yola Institute

 

Tu gaduated from Stanford University with a degree in Public Policy and a concentration in Education.  As the first Vietnamese student from a local public school admitted to Stanford with full scholarship and inspired by VietAbroader, she co-founded and is currently managing Yola Institute, the first U.S. college preparatory school for students in Vietnam, with a mission of helping young minds achieve their educational dreams. Her prior work experiences include IDG Ventures Vietnam, Value Partners Management Consulting, and the Southeast Asian Service Leadership Network.  Tu loves story-telling, good friends, and life.

 

During her college years, Tu has been greatly involved in various projects conducted under SEALNet, non-profit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to service leadership and working with Southeast Asian communities around the world.

Ms. Nguyen Thuy Uyen Phuong

Managing Director, IPL (Institute of Potential Leaders)

Managing Director, OneBook & SachHay.com

Founder & Former Managing Director, VN8X

 

Uyen Phuong obtained her Bachelor degree in International Business in Vietnam and subsequently received her Master in Business and Marketing Management from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles. Passionate about the community welfare, Uyen Phuong left her corporate career and has been developing herself through social initiatives. Actively and enthusiastically, she plays important roles in various meaningful projects including being Managing Director of IPL (Institute of Potential Leaders), an educational institution aiming to develop the most outstanding young Vietnamese with leadership potential, and an organizer of international and national seminars and conferences, aiming to link the world greatest minds such as Professor Philip Kotler, Professor Michael Porter and Professor Paul Krugman to Vietnam. Definitely, her continuous efforts and contributions to these happening projects promise lots of insightful experiences and stories that you should never miss.

Dr. Nguyen Nam Trung, Dr.-Ing. habil.

Associate Professor, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University

 

Dr. Nguyen received his Dr.-Ing. habil (a respected qualification in Germany for a full professorship) from Chemnitz University of Technology in 2004. Dr. Nguyen is also the First Runner Up of Inaugural ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in Sustainable Development in 2009 and the Runner Up of ASAIHL-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in 2008.

 

Currently, he is an Associate Professor with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. His research focus is microfluidics, nanofluidics, micro/nanomachining technologies, micro/nanoscale sience, and instrumentation for biomedical applications.

 

Dr. Nguyen is an internationally recognized researcher with 140 journal papers, two patents granted and author of bestseller books in his field. His current H-index is 23 and he ranks 742 out of 6678 of the top 1% most cited scientists in engineering.

Mr. Pham Anh Khoa

Co-Founder & Board Director, VietAbroader

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Yola Institute

 

Khoa Pham is the Managing Director of Yola Institute, the premier educational services provider in Vietnam. Yola Institute offers a variety of courses in TOEFL, SAT, SSAT and other academic subjects through small classes and personalized premium one-on-one tutoring. Khoa also co-founded and currently serves on the board of VietAbroader, the leading network of overseas Vietnamese students in the U.S. Previously, Khoa held professional positions at VinaCapital, Orvis and BBC World Service.

 

Khoa is a graduate of Bates College, with a double degree in economics and international relations. He was also awarded the Watson Fellowship, a program created in 1960s in honor of Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, to explore the Vietnamese youth in several countries.

Mdm. Pham Chi Lan

Former Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Vietnam

Former Vice President, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)

 

Since 1996, Mdm. Pham Chi Lan has been working with the Prime Minister's Research Commission (PMRC), which is the government's think-tank on economic reform and developmental issues. She has spent 37 years working with and for the business community of Vietnam and assisted in the formulation of various business laws and policies as well as contributed to the opening up and development of trade relations between Vietnam and foreign businesses in Asia, Europe, Oceania and America.

 

Mdm. Pham's professional interests include business development, particularly the development of private sector and SMEs, economic reform and the international integration process of Vietnam.

Mr. Pham Phu Khoi

Director - Vietnam Head, Investment Banking Group, Merrill Lynch

 

Mr. Pham is currently the Vietnam Country Head for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Khoi joined Merrill Lynch in 2007 from Standard Chartered Bank Singapore, where he worked for five years, most recently as a Director and Head of Asia Credit Trading and Head of Fixed Income Vietnam. Khoi previously worked for Barclays Capital Asia in Hong Kong and London in the fixed income trading department. He began his career at Vietnam Airlines in 1989 working in Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, Tokyo, Berlin and Hanoi, where he was general manager for northeast Asia between 1994 and 1997.

 

Khoi has a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a MS in Economics Engineering, from the Civil Aviation Institute in Riga, Latvia (with Red Diploma). He also completed the International Executive Program at the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France.

Dr. Phan Quoc Viet, PhD

Founder & President, Tam Viet Group

 

Graduated from Lomonosov University with two majors Math and Physics, Dr. Phan Quoc Viet didn’t choose the common way of doing research as his career. Instead, he embarked on different journeys in various fields: he started with the IT head position in Vietsovpetro, then co-founded FPT and worked as the Marketing director, subsequently became Chairman of Vietsovpetrov, and ended up starting up Tam Viet Group at the age of 50. Rather than anyone else, he knows well about how both public and private sectors’ mechanisms work.

 

Despite all ups-and-downs in his career, throughout his life, Dr. Phan always preserves the philosophy of talent-centric development. He has a robust concern over how Vietnam can develop and nurture our talents as well as how education can change the future of our country.

Dr. Phan Toan Thang, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (National University of Singapore)

 

Dr. Phan has 20 year experience in wound healing research. His first clinical exposure was in 1991 during his surgical training at the Department of Burns & Trauma Surgery, Military Hospital 103 of the Vietnam Armed Forces. Before taking research faculty position at NUS-Department of Surgery in 2004, Dr Phan had been received advanced research training and employment at the Oxford Wound Healing Institute, England, Department of Plastic Surgery/Burns Centre, Singapore General Hospital, and Hagey Laboratory for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University, USA.

 

Dr Phan has authored more than 60 publications, 2 book chapters and 18 granted and pending patents related to wound healing and stem cell research. He is also a inventor of Cord Lining Stem Cell technology and co-inventor of nanofiber mat for wound care that have lead to successful out-licensing contracts to local and international biotech companies, namely CordLife, ClearBridgeNanomedics, StemCyte Inc.

 

As a biotech entrepreneur, Dr Phan is a founding member of Singapore-based CellResearchCorp (2002) and Vietnam-based MekoStem and FBM Regenerative Medicine Pte Ltd (2008) that are currently focusing on stem cell banking and skin regeneration for Vietnam, IndoChina and Southern China market and have proven commercially successful. 

Mdm. Ton Nu Thi Ninh

President of the Founding Committee, Tri Viet University

Former Vice Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, Vietnam National Assembly

 

Mdm. Ton Nu Thi Ninh currently presides over the creation of Tri Viet International University in Vietnam with ambitions to be innovative in the context of the country's transition: a private entity dedicated to public service, strongly rooted in Vietnamese identity but boldly open to the world.

 

Mdm. Ton has served for more than two decades as a diplomat, specializing in multilateral institutions and global issues. She was educated in France at the Sorbonne and Ecole Normale Superieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses where she obtained her Aggregation and in the UK at Cambridge University.

 

Through her frequent interaction with the public and the media, Mdm. Ton is known as one of the public figures having the most impact on Vietnamese youth today.

Dr. Vu Minh Khuong, PhD

Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (National University of Singapore)

 

Dr. Vu Minh Khuong has joined Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as Assistant Professor since 2006. His research interest concern economic growth, productivity, competitiveness and the related issues such as the impact of ICT, e-government, and economic integration. Dr. Khuong has published his articles in a wide range of international publications, including Journal of Scandinavian Journal of Economics, German Economics Review, Energy Policy, and Journal of Policy Modeling. He has provided consulting services to IMF, World Bank, IFC, USAID, KPMG, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Infocomm Authority of Singapore.

Dr. Vu Minh Khuong is from Vietnam, where he has held positions of CEO of Songcam Chemical Company, Chief Economic Adviser to the Mayor of Haiphong City, Vice-Chairman of Dinhvu Economic Zone, and Research Fellow at the Prime Minister’s Research Commission. Dr. Khuong had served in the Vietnamese army for three years (1981-1983) before he began his professional career. He received PhD (in Public Policy) and MBA degrees from Harvard University and BA in Mathematics from Hanoi University. Dr. Khuong has previously taught at Suffolk University (Boston) and Keio University (Tokyo).

Dr. Khuong's teaching portfolio centers on public policy analysis, financial management, and economic development. He has been giving talks about the duties as well as opportunities of the new generations of Vietnamese youths in this era.