David is the Managing Director and founder of Spinifex International Business Services and throughout his career has acquired a rich base of skills and experience working across a diverse range of industries throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

Now semi-retired, David continues to specialise in organisational change management, developing and implementing operational / sales strategies, and mentoring SME business owners. He still enjoys the ‘hands on’ approach and has designed and implemented a wide variety of successful business strategies in many challenging environments.

Having lived and worked in Vietnam, David is passionate about growing two-way trade relationships between West Australian and Vietnamese SME’s. Over the last eighteen years David has travelled extensively around Vietnam visiting a wide range of SME businesses, business organisations and local governments.

David is also an accomplished Singer/ Songwriter and has received Australian and International recognition for his songs about WA’s Pilbara Region and Vietnam. He is also a published author.

David is currently Vice Chairman of the WA Asia Business Council

Suzanne is a governance professional and Director, leading the Board Advisory Service of the Executive Search Firm, Lester Blades in Western Australia.

Suzanne’s career includes diplomatic postings to Vienna, Austria, and Mexico City. Returning to Perth, she spent time in the corporate head office at Wesfarmers become making a career change and moved to Vietnam in the early 2000s.  She was appointed as the inaugural Director of Marketing at RMIT University’s campus in Ho Chi Minh City, which was the first fully foreign owned University in Vietnam established in 2001.  Suzanne was part of the inaugural management team which established campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.  Today the University has more than 8000 students and is a highly regarded international education institution in the region.  During her time in Vietnam, she was a member of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Chaired the Charitable Fundraising Committee.

Returning to Perth in 2007, Suzanne was appointed the WA State Manager of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). She established AICD’s international division during that time, travelling extensively in Southeast Asia and establishing AICD’s presence in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Suzanne is the independent Chair of Stanley College, a private dual sector education provider and sits on the Board of the WA Cancer Council, WA Ballet, and the WA Cricket Foundation.

Trevor is currently the Engineering Manager (WA) at Palaris, a global engineering consulting company who provide their services to the international resources sector.

Trevor has twenty five years of senior engineering management experience across a wide variety of industries that includes the Mining, Oil & Gas and Construction industries in Australia and Southeast Asia.

In recent years, Trevor has established a significant network of industry specific contacts in Vietnam with whom he has established good working relationships in order to supply quality fabricated components for some of Australia’s key regional projects.

Trevor has been the Vice President of the WAVBC for the past 4 years.

Mark has been the General Manager at Metrowest Constructions Pty Ltd for over ten years and has more than thirty years of experience working in the Construction Industry managing the design, construction, and operation of numerous buildings in Australia and the Middle East.

Having lived and worked in Dubai, Mark has access to a global network that supplies key materials and services to not only the Construction Industry but many other industries.

In recent years, Mark has focussed on identifying key suppliers of Construction products in Vietnam and continues to work closely with Vietnamese manufacturers so as to ensure their products meet Australian quality standards and are cost competitive.

Thanh is originally from the North of Vietnam, moving to Vung Tau in Ba Ria Vung Tau province as a child.

In Vung Tau, Thanh studied Accounting & Computing and worked for eight years in the Vietnam Tourism and Hospitality sector. Then, together with her husband Terry, they successfully started a company that provided Oil Gas supply services to the South East Asia Oil & Gas market for almost fifteen years via their networks in Vung Tau – Vietnam and Singapore.

They moved to Perth in 2013, and Thanh decided to enter the Beauty Care industry and gained a Diploma of Beauty Therapy (with honours) at TAFE and then set up her own business as a ‘Beauty Therapist’. Thanh is now a successful independent distributor of proactive health care and skin products.

Thanh is an active member of the local Vietnamese community in Perth, and she enjoys helping to connect WA and Vietnam small businesses whilst she also enjoys learning more about the WA economy.

Finally, Thanh is a very good golf player and won the Vietnam National Women’s Championship in 2012.

Robert is Principal Consultant at Accelerate Business Advisory. Robert specialises in helping companies who want to fabricate offshore, ensuring the finished product meets not only the relevant Australian Standards but the expectations of the customer.

Robert has lived and worked in Vietnam. As General Manager of Vung Tau based Strategic Marine, a dynamic steel and aluminium fabrication company he successfully completed the mandate to develop the non-shipbuilding division of the business from an idea into a significant revenue producing division that allowed for overall company diversification.

Hugh is currently a WA Public servant and has held Senior Project roles across the Health, Education and Community and is currently in a Senior Project role at the newly created Communities.

Hugh and his wife Van started Viet-Coffee in 2009 and Viet -Coffee is now the largest internet retailer for Vietnamese Coffee and tea in Australasia. Over the years Viet-Coffee has established partnerships with key brands that includes VietCoffee Viet Nam, Trung Nguyen, Me Trang, EMC, TNI King Coffee, Meet Moore Coffee, Hatvala, and VietNuts.

When he is not working, Hugh is a keen hobby farmer and owner of two classic cars (El Camino (1964) and a Soarer (1994).

Edmund is the Managing Director of Antry Pty Ltd which he established in Perth in 1992. He has owned and operated businesses in the Timber and Architectural Metal Industries in the United Arab Emirates, Doha and the USA and he has received international recognition for his commitment to customer service.

In Perth, Antry Pty Ltd is a quality manufacturer of furniture and specialises in commercial furniture fit outs. Over the years Antry Pty Ltd has won over thirty five WA, National and International awards for exceptional designs and workmanship. It must be noted, amongst the WA awards is a prestigious Western Australian Industry and Export Award.

Edmund has established long standing relationships with a number of businesses in Vietnam that now support his Perth business. Those relationships include suppliers of quality Steel and Aluminium Components, Furniture Manufacturers and Window and Door Manufacturers.

Peter has forty years of international experience in providing Instrumentation, Commissioning and Marine Engineering services. He has worked across a diverse number of industries that includes Heavy Industrial Construction, Mining, Marine & Offshore and Oil & Gas.

He has managed and operated calibration facilities in three countries, and established the first NATA accredited test facility in Indonesia during the early 90’s and established a calibration facility in Vietnam in 2003 accredited to VISLAS, ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) and APLAC (Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation)

Peter has been a global traveller throughout his career having lived and worked in Houston Texas, The Hague, Dubai, Singapore, Vietnam, Iran, Angola, China, New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia.

Following several business trips to Vietnam in 2002 with other Australian business owners in response to requests to provide Australian and Internationally recognised skills and competency training a joint venture was established to provide Hazardous Area training to Vietnamese based Oil and Gas operators.

In 2004, he established Aust-Indo Vietnam (AIV) in Vung Tau, Southern Vietnam who started out providing a variety of key calibration services to the local onshore and offshore industry. The business soon grew and moved to a purpose-built facility including a two story office and dedicated laboratories for Electrical, Temperature and Pressure calibration on a 3000m² site at the Dong Xuyen Industrial Zone in Vung Tau.

AIV continue to provide ongoing services to heavy industry, manufacturers and an ever-expanding list of import and export companies that require compliance support services, calibration, testing and verification of their products.

Van is a director of Viet-Coffee which they started together in 2009. Having decades of coffee experience from her time working in the family café in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam they have together driven the business to become the largest internet retailer for Vietnamese Coffee and Tea in Australasia.

In Vietnam, Van is a media personality where she has appeared in a number of TV documentaries shown on National Television across Vietnam.

Van helped establish the WA Vietnam Community Group (WAVCG) and her drive and enthusiasm has contributed to the ongoing success of the regular WAVCG Perth Cultural Events.

Ms Lien is a Senior Legal Advisor with the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VP Bank) in Hanoi and has held similar senior roles for Japanese, American and Australian institutions based in Vietnam.

Having studied in Brisbane, Ms Lien is well versed with Australian business culture and has a very good understanding of Foreign Investment legal services. Fluent in English, Ms Lien has in recent years been an active member of several Hanoi based International business networking groups that includes Vietnam Private Entrepreneurs Association, Hanoi Young Business Association and Business Network International.

Ms Lien is very familiar with Western Australia and became the WAVBC Hanoi Ambassador in May 2022 and has since provided much valuable assistance and guidance to members who have been looking to conduct business in Vietnam.

Binh has a business transformation consulting business to help SMEs world-wide deploy new technologies to enhance their competitive advantages such as website, Customer Relationship Management system and an array of technical application specilised for SMEs.

He is also a social entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Survival Skills Vietnam – a social enterprise with the mission to reduce preventable deaths and injuries in Vietnam via first aid training to international standards. Since 2014, the social enterprise has helped more than 90.000 Vietnamese people access first aid education who then save thounsands lives every year.

In 2014, he founded SiGen to commercialize the invention of anti-mosquito manholes in urban stormwater drainage systems. The solution has been gaining more and more support from local authorities, academia, and local people thanks to its effectiveness in preventing odors, fast drainage, and eliminating mosquitoes’ growth and development environment. SiGen started to successfully deploy the solution in many localities across the Vietnam since 2019.