Southeast Asia Political and Economic Update

Event Details

As governments grapple with the emergence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant whilst trying to press ahead with plans to reopen their borders and economies, join us for a morning briefing on the evolving crisis. Vriens & Partners' Country Directors will provide an update on the latest developments and provide recommendations on navigating the economic and business impact of COVID-19 during this period of social and economic uncertainty.

*For any enquires please contact the AmCham Programming and Events Team at pe@amcham.com.sg.

Speakers

Elaine Collado

Country Director, Philippines of Vriens & Partners

Jeremy Mullins

Country Director, Myanmar of Vriens & Partners

Donna Priadi

Country Director, Indonesia of Vriens & Partners

Samuel Pursch

Director, Vietnam of Vriens & Partners

Isra Sunthornvut

Country Director, Thailand of Vriens & Partners

Hans Vriens

Managing Partner, Singapore at Vriens & Partners

Joses Wong

Country Director, Singapore of Vriens & Partners

Nazhif Yusoff

Country Director, Malaysia of Vriens & Partners

Jeremy is Country Director of Vriens & Partners’ Yangon office. He leads and manages advisory services for Clients, providing insight on Myanmar political dynamics and developing government affairs strategies. He has worked in Myanmar for six years as a consultant, journalist and market researcher, including as business editor of The Myanmar Times newspaper and managing director of FMR Research. Previous focuses include the energy, real estate and finance sectors, and he has travelled through much of the country on assignment. This varied experienced in Myanmar has enabled Jeremy to build a strong understanding of local political and business dynamics, while developing a strong network of key contracts.

Donna is Country Director at Vriens & Partners’ Jakarta office, where she leads and manages the firm’s Indonesia-focused advisory work and designs Government Affairs strategies for multinational clients across various sectors.

With over 25 years of experience working in foreign, Indonesian, and stateowned companies, Donna has built an extensive network within the Indonesian government. She possesses a depth and breadth of knowledge on Indonesia’s policy and
regulatory landscape, with a focus on the energy (renewables, power generation & distribution, oil & gas), healthcare and aviation industries.

Before joining Vriens & Partners, Donna was Director of Government and Corporate Affairs at General Electric (GE) Indonesia for close to four years, where she led advocacy efforts and sought alignment between the government’s regulations and policies with GE’s business objectives.

Prior to this, Donna worked for Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), a subsidiary of the state oil and gas company PT Pertamina and earlier, BP Indonesia. In these roles she covered various positions including Corporate & Government Affairs, Communication & Public Relations, CSR, Commercial & Business
Development, and Engineering.

She currently serves on the Board of Governors for AmCham Indonesia, and has previously served as a Vice Chair of AmCham Indonesia Board of Governor (2017-2020). She has also been a company representative on US-ASEAN Business Council, USINDO, and SwissCham.

She has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Degree from University of San Francisco, USA, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture Engineering from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Samuel Pursch is a Director in Vriens & Partners’ Hanoi office where he manages accounts across sectors with a particular emphasis on tech, healthcare and industry. He also leads the Vietnam’s office public-facing activities, providing briefings on Vietnam’s regulatory and commercial context.

Prior to joining Vriens’ & Partners in 2018, Samuel was co-founder and director of Andaman Research & Advisory, a socio-economic research and political risk advisory firm based in Yangon, Myanmar. Having moved to Myanmar in early 2015, Samuel managed projects for clients including international hydropower and mobile finance investors, The World Bank Group, and a range of international NGOs. Andaman’s work included detailed stakeholder assessments, field research activities, including largescale surveys, and developing policy recommendations for international actors working to address
Myanmar’s myriad development challenges.

While in Myanmar, Samuel co-authored for several World Bank reports, including a Policy Research Paper on Myanmar’s Social Transformation. He was also a contributing author to several subscription based analysis services. Earlier, Samuel was based in London where he worked in political risk for boutique consultancies focused on West Africa and Southeast Asia.

Samuel holds a master’s degree in War Studies: Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London, and a BA in International Politics from The George Washington University. He was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford University.

Hans is the founder and Managing Partner of Vriens & Partners, the leading government affairs, public policy and political risk analysis firm around Southeast Asia. It is headquartered in Singapore and has more than 90 staff and 30 senior counselors around the region. The firm has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines, and Cambodia.

Hans has lived and worked in Asia since 1990. He is a regular commentator on regional issues.

Prior to establishing V&P, Hans was Vice Chairman, Asia at APCO Worldwide. He set up and served as Managing Director of the Indonesia practice for six years. Prior to this he worked as a political economist at the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong. Earlier he practiced law in the M&A practice at Clifford Chance and was the Asia correspondent for a leading Dutch financial and economic daily. In 1995, he was elected president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, then the largest in the world.

Hans serves on the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of UWCSEA. He was a founding member of the Europe ASEAN Business Alliance, Chairman of the Foundation Dutch Education at UWCSEA, board member of Eurocham, and founding chairman of DutchCham in SG.

Hans graduated from law school in civil and public law at Groningen University in the Netherlands. During his studies, he was a research assistant in European parliamentary history and public law. In 1982 he took a year off from his studies when he was elected Senatus Rector of the Student Union (VAP).

Hans studied at the Bologna Center of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University. He also did stints at the Universities of Grenoble in France, and Krakow in Poland.

His family lived in Batavia, Semarang and on Biak off Papua in the Dutch East Indies for several generations until the handover of Papua in 1962. He is married to Katy le Blanc. They have two sons.

Joses Wong is the Country Director for Vriens & Partners’ Singapore office. He brings with him almost a decade of experience in the Singapore Government’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), which oversees Singapore’s economic policies and promotes bilateral trade and investment relations with other countries. Joses was posted to the Singapore Mission and Embassy in Brussels as First Secretary (economic) between 2017 and 2021, running the economic section of the embassy and promoting Singapore’s trade and economic relations with the EU, as well as the Benelux region (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).

His previous roles include negotiating trade and climate change agreements at multilateral and regional platforms such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and sourcing for economic opportunities for Singapore companies in the emerging markets.

Joses has also published several papers in international business journals, and was a qualified Chartered Public Accountant (CPA) between 2012 and 2015. He graduated from the Singapore
Management University (SMU) with Summa cum Laude in Bachelors of Business Management (Finance) and Bachelors of Accountancy. He is a Deloitte Meritorious awardee and a Li & Fung scholar.

Nazhif Yusoff is Country Director at Vriens & Partners’ Kuala Lumpur office. With the team, he consults for clients from various verticals such as technology, healthcare, transportation and tourism, helping them develop their government relations strategy.

Previously, Nazhif was with the trade and investment team at Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation, an agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. At MPRC, he developed the agency’s database of export opportunities for Malaysian oil and gas services and equipment manufacturing companies. He also connected Malaysian oil and gas companies with opportunities in Southeast Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East through the organization of trade and specialized marketing missions.

Nazhif was also a fellow under the two-year Teach for Malaysia program, which places young leaders as teachers in high-need schools throughout the country. He taught English and Malaysian History at Alor Pongsu, Perak. There, he also initiated partnerships with corporate partners, constituency leaders
and NGOs to run specialized academic performance improvement programs.

Nazhif earned a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington D.C., majoring in Regional and Comparative Studies (Middle East and Asia). He was a recipient of the Malaysian Public Service Department’s Overseas Degree Program
scholarship. He also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (History) from the Northern University of Malaysia (UUM). In his spare time, he indulges in cooking and Arabic calligraphy.

AmCham Member

Employees in member company and part of the membership roster

Member PriceComplimentary

Member Company

Employees in member company but not in the membership roster

Standard PriceComplimentary

Non-Member

Attendees that are not part of a member company and/or the membership roster