Sam Conroy comes from Country New South Wales in Australia; in his younger days, Sam studied for a Diploma in Outdoor Guiding whilst working in the hospitality industry; since then, he has completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management. Sam’s career commenced in logistics at a shop level in various locations around Australia, later he moved into a supervisory role with Linfox Logistics. As a valued member of the Linfox organization, Sam rose to the National Manager role managing brands such as Kmart, Target and Coles and was later transferred to Vietnam in 2009 as Linfox Logistics Operations Director, Vietnam.

Sam spent 3 years with Linfox in Vietnam as Operations Director before moving to the USA as a Consultant in private practice and later taking up a role with Schenker in Singapore. In 2014, Sam moved to Vietnam as Head of Contract Logistics for Maersk and soon after was promoted to Country Head for Myanmar and then CEA Middle East based in Dubai. After many secondments around the globe, Sam has now settled permanently in Vietnam since 2018 with short-term engagements with DHL and Toll before before starting CEA Project Logistics in 2020 as a partner of the business.

Rod was the founder and Managing Director of Carbon House and a Australian national greenhouse gas auditor for the Department of Environment. During this time he also lectured at the University of Queensland Graduate School, Executive Program and Uniquest on business sustainability. During this time, he also lectured to AusAID on ESG for its project managers internationally.

He worked a Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Business where he was the deputy director of the EcoBiz program. Here he conducted numerous programs on ESG for the University of Southern Queensland.

Rod is the current Managing Director of Response Research where he has conducted 5 national social research programs on change management, staff retention and absenteeism. This research is based on a systems leadership framework and its understanding of workplace culture.

Professor Claire Macken is the incoming Pro Vice Chancellor Vietnam, and has been in the interim role of Executive Dean (Academic and Students) (Interim) at RMIT Vietnam for the past 6 months at the Saigon South Campus. Previously Claire spent over 2 years as the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching in the College of Business and Law at RMIT University in Australia, one of the largest business schools in the Asia Pacific region, with over thirty thousand students.

She has previously held roles as a Director of Education at KPMG, and also at Apple, leading Higher Education and Industry. Claire held various senior roles in Australian Universities, including as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Innovation and Future Learning) and Director of Online and Blended Learning at La Trobe University, and as an Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the School of Law at Deakin University. Claire is a nationally-award winning teacher, with an Australian Award for Teaching Excellence, and an Australian Citation for her work in relation Student Engagement. Claire holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), a Master of Business Administration, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees with Honours and is the author of ten books and multiple book chapters and journal articles in both the areas of law and tertiary education.

Born in small valley in an army family in lovely Tuyen Quang province up North of Vietnam, was growing up in an army compound with barrier all around the small valley, Huyen really wanted to explore the world outside. Left home since she was 14 years old to stay in the school in the central of Tuyen Quang town to study high school and then moved to Hanoi to study university.
After graduated as IT engineer, instead of taking a given job from government, Huyen jumped on a train on September 2005 with her luggage and a motorbike to head to Ho Chi Minh to find the chance to develop her career.
With more than 13 years working as Chief Representative of Vietnam, for a Global leading Group in high security equipment – GUNNEBO - Huyen has significant experience in developing and introducing new products and solutions into the Vietnam market.

Left GUNNEBO and spent lots of time studying and researching about waste management and recycling in Vietnam, Huyen realized that Food waste is main reason which makes other wastes couldn’t be recycled properly due to the mixed up in one bin. And with her passion about social and environment, plus with experience, Huyen decided to form up ECO Vietnam in Jan 2021 to lead the CHANGE in creating closed loop cycle for Food Waste at source.

Leading a pioneer Startup with brand new business in local market and a young team, Huyen sees the value being a part of the executive network for her to not only learn from experience leaders to grow the business and build up her team but also share with other leaders and innovators about her passion in raising awareness in Waste Management in Vietnam.

Binh is a dedicated, experienced, and trusted advisor in Vietnam. She leads the M&A and strategy advisory practices and manages all aspects of the firm at ASART. She also serves as Vice Chair for ESG Committee, Vice Chair for Capital Market and Financial Services Committee, and leads Sustainable Finance Sub-committee of AmCham Vietnam.
For the last 14 years, Binh has been working with many prominent entrepreneurs, key stakeholders, and top executives of leading multinational and Vietnamese companies to deliver strategic projects and M&A transactions. She has a unique set of skills, track records, and combined experience and knowledge in M&A, finance, strategy, valuation, due diligence, structure, commercial performance, accounting, tax, legal, reporting, problem-solving, team managing, executive negotiation, organizational behaviors, government relations, and advocacy. Her current work is the optimal combination of these areas with an emphasis on new value creation and sustainable growth. Binh has assisted and advised 250+ companies for 720+ projects for clients who come from 75+ countries and 70+ industries with a total value of USD4.5+ billion. Noticeable disclosed deals she has participated and advised with valuation work include eve Capital Partners invested in Phuong Chau Group, SCG bought Batico, Lafarge merged with Holcim, DHG Pharma and Mega LifeSciences, Puratos invested in Grand Place Chocolate, Warburg Pincus invested in Vingroup (Vincom), Warburg Pincus acquired a real estate portfolio from VinaCapital, and the liquidation of Indochina Capital, the first and largest foreign owned PE fund in Vietnam back then.
Binh holds an MBA from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from RMIT University. Before founding and leading ASART, she worked for KPMG and Lafarge. She also worked for Purdue University as a Graduate Assistant while obtaining her MBA.

40+ years experience in retail and general
management
Previously worked at Dairy Farm, Welcome Supermarkets, Guardian, Guardian Pharmacy, Cold Storage, 7-11, Jason’s, Giant, Watsons Taiwan, Circle K Vietnam & Australia, Target, Priceline, Soul Pattinson Chemist