On April 4th 2024, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2024 at Park Hyatt Saigon with .
At the AGM 2024, the Chamber welcomed Ms. Annie Dubé, Consul General of Canada in Vietnam and its members both Ordinary and Associate.
The meeting covered the Chamber's accomplishments, the Financial and Budget report, and some key highlights for 2023.
On this occasion, former Executive Director - Mr. Zach Herbers formally bid farewell to the Chamber and its members marking the end of his 2-year tenure with CanCham and introduce Ms. Lan Phan as the new Executive Director of CanCham in 2024.
Members also contributed in the meeting, raising questions and discuss potential opportunities for the Chamber in the year ahead.
During our AGM 2023, members voted to adopt an amendment to the constitution to change the board term to 2 years instead of 1 year, hence, the next general Executive Board elections will occur at AGM 2025 and the Board of Directors for 2024 remain as follows:
- Mr. Mike Hebert - Country Commercial Director at Cognita Group in Vietnam
Mike Hebert has lived and worked in Vietnam since 2015.
Mike is the Country Commercial Director of Cognita Group in Vietnam, a global leader in private education with 107 schools worldwide. In this role he oversees the commercial and growth strategies of their 3 schools in Vietnam, the International School of HCMC (ISHCMC), the American Academy (AAVN), and International School of Saigon Pearl. These 3 schools are leaders in providing holistic education following the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme and the AP Diploma.
Mike is also an entrepreneur and founded MDT Training in 2015. MDT specializes in sales, client experience, and management training programs for large international and local organizations in Vietnam and Canada.
Before moving to Vietnam, Mike had a successful track record in corporate finance in Canada with HSBC, Bank of Montreal, and Desjardins.
Mike is originally from North Bay, Ontario, Canada and spent many years in Montreal, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Business from St. Francis Xavier University and an Executive MBA from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
- Mr. Ismael Pili - Head of Institutional Sales at Ho Chi Minh Securities
Ismael Pili is the Head of Institutional Sales for Ho Chi Minh Securities. Previously, he was Head of Research at VinaCapital. Prior to Vietnam, Ismael held senior positions or served as Managing Director on a country and sector basis at various global banks. This includes HSBC (Head of ASEAN and South Asia Research), Macquarie Group (Head of Financials Research – Asia, Head of Philippines Equities, Deputy Head of Research HK-China), JPMorgan (Head of Research), and Indosuez WI Carr Securities (Head of Singapore & Malaysia Research) with postings in Singapore, HK, Tokyo, and Manila. Ismael has deep leadership experience in international capital markets across the Asia-Pacific region, and holds an economics degree and MBA.
- Mr. Matthew Mohr - CFO at Sun Life Vietnam
Matthew is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Sun Life Vietnam, where he has worked since February 2019. He previously also worked in Ho Chi Minh City between 2013 and 2015 with Sun Life Vietnam, before leaving for just over 3 years to work at Sun Life Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur(2015 to 2019). He is qualified actuary (Fellow of Society of Actuaries), has held a variety of actuarial and financial roles with Sun Life Financial over the last 14 years and has worked in multiple countries, including Canada (Toronto), Hong Kong, Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). Matthew is originally from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, a small community just outside of Edmonton. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Actuarial Science, before moving to Toronto to work. He has been an active member of the Canadian Chamber of Vietnam Board of Directors since 2019.
- Ms. Sarah Galeski - Counsel at Tilleke & Gibbins
Sarah is an experienced lawyer with Tilleke & Gibbins, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sarah has over 12 years of legal experience, eight of which are in Vietnam with international law firms. Before coming to Vietnam, Sarah practiced as a litigator in Canada where her cases involved issues ranging from corporate fraud to contractual disputes to employment matters.
- Mr. David Paillé - Head of Branch at CJ Legal Services Vietnam
David is a proud Canadian, originally from Quebec City. He is currently a lawyer and Head of Branch at CJ Legal Services Vietnam, an international law firm offering services in a wide range of immigration programs. He is a Canadian lawyer, member of the Barreau du Québec since 2011. He has also held a foreign lawyer’s license from the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice since 2016. David practiced law in a number of fields in the Montreal region before moving to Asia in 2016, first working in Shanghai before establishing the CJ Legal Services office in Vietnam later the same year. He graduated from the Université Laval in Quebec City with a Bachelor of Law and a Master of International Studies, and also holds a Certification in Investment Migration. David works every day with Vietnamese applicants, most of whom are entrepreneurs looking to invest and apply their talents to new markets, on the route to achieving residency or citizenship abroad. David has been an active member of the CanCham for the past 5 years.
- Ms. Elizabeth Nguyen - General Director at St. Johns Packaging
Elizabeth is the General Director of St. Johns Packaging Vietnam. In 2016, she came to HCMC to start a Greenfield project in Binh Duong for her mother company, a world leader in the bread bag business. She expended St. Johns Packaging footprint in Vietnam via M&A in 2020. Prior coming back to HCMC, Elizabeth also helped a Canadian manufacturer to start up their operations in Central Vietnam in 2011 then moved to a Commissioning Project Management role for an iron ore regional distribution center in Malaysia for a global mining company. She holds an Engineering Degree from l’École Polytechnique de Montréal. Elizabeth is fluent in French, English and Vietnamese.
- Ms. Happy Nguyen - General Director at GeoComply
Happy Nguyen is a senior corporate development expert in the IT industry, especially for start-ups and new developments. She is the Country Head acting as General Director in Vietnam for GeoComply, a unicorn Canadian-based award-winning geolocation compliance solutions provider.
She is also the CEO of <Code> Like A Girl - Vietnam, an initiative created to support gender diversity, encourage young female talents in STEM, and empower women's leadership.
Happy has over 20 years of corporate experience working for multi-international companies and brands. She gained insights and knowledge in various industries and roles, including operation management, talent development, business development, and relations development.
- Ms. Venice Chan - Chief of Integration & Transformation at Manulife
Venice Chan is part of the Executive Management Team of Manulife Vietnam, leading the Strategy and Transformation function. In this role she is responsible for leading the delivery of the overall strategy mandate, implementation of business transformation and strategic initiatives to drive performance and growth of the business in Vietnam. She takes pride to be in insurance industry where Manulife provides financial, health and protection solutions to the customers and also supports the economic growth of Vietnam.
She also has extensive experiences in Merger and Acquisition transaction advisory including transaction structuring, strategic planning, financial and operational due diligence to global and regional financial institutions for investing in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and across Asian countries.
Venice is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and holds a bachelor’s degree of Business Administration in Accounting from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.