ESG and Impact Investing in Vietnam – Promoting Sustainable Growth and ROI

Dominic Scriven OBE

Founder and Chairman of Dragon Capital

Dominic graduated from Exeter University in 1985 with a degree in Law and Sociology. Shortly thereafter, he went to Hong Kong, where he worked in fund management and broking with M&G, Sun Hung Kai, Citicorp and Peregrine. In 1991 he moved to Hanoi and studied Vietnamese for two years before co-founding Dragon Capital in 1994. Dominic was awarded an OBE in 2006 for his contribution to relations between the UK and Vietnam. For his work in developing the country’s capital markets, the HCMC People’s Committee gave him a Recognition Award in 2008, and the President of Vietnam bestowed a Labor Order, Third Class on him in 2014. His interests and passions range from Vietnamese art – to biodiversity and eliminating the illegal trade in wildlife.

Hong Hoang

Founder & Executive Director of CHANGE, an Environmental NGO

Hong Hoang is the Founder and Executive Director of CHANGE, a Vietnamese NGO with the mission to address the country’s most critical environmental challenges, including wildlife trade, climate change, air pollution, plastic pollution, through strategic communications, community empowerment, and cross-sector partnership.

Being a Climate Hero (recognized by climateheroes.org), Hong Hoang has been contributing to build the community-led climate movement in Vietnam, to stop coal expansion, mitigate air pollution, reduce individual impacts on the climate, provide support to the affected communities, and promote renewable energy.

Since early 2014, in strategic partnership with WildAid, Hong has been leading her wildlife team at CHANGE in implementing a multi-year program to reduce demands for illegal wildlife products in Vietnam, focusing on the most endangered species (rhino, elephant, pangolin …). In response to COVID-19, CHANGE is running an extensive campaign to encourage the government and community in Vietnam to end wildlife trade and consumption, to prevent the next pandemic.

Hong was one of the 12 rising civic leaders from 12 nations joining the first cohort of Obama Scholars Program at Columbia University in New York City during 2018-2019.

Hong was listed by Forbes Vietnam among the 50 most influential Vietnamese women in 2019. She was also voted among the Top 5 Ambassadors of Inspiration at WeChoice Awards 2019. Also in 2019 she won the Green Warrior of the Year Award at Elle Style Awards 2019.

In 2018, CHANGE was voted by the Vietnamese business magazine Nhịp Cầu Đầu Tư as the Most Excellent Environmental Organization in 2017 in Vietnam.

Beyond her work at CHANGE, Hong has been a renowned environmentalist for over 20 years, after being the first Vietnamese person ever to set foot on Antarctica in 1997, in a UN expedition to get the world leaders’ attention to the global warming issue. She became a Special Junior Envoy of the UNESCO, and received a Certificate of Merit from the Vietnamese Prime Minister for her achievements.

Hong’s past career includes 3 years as Southeast Asia Co-Coordinator at 350.org, and 7 years as Regional Communications Manager for WWF Greater Mekong.

Dr. Lyndal Hugo

Co-founder and CEO of Orlar

Dr. Lyndal Hugo is co-founder and CEO of Orlar, a company formed in 2014 in Australia to address issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation through enhanced energy, food and water security. The Orlar technology has been proven to have only net positive impacts on the environment and people.

Orlar’s mission is to provide the most nutrients to the most people, most sustainably. Recently Orlar received the first major investment in Vietnam from a global ESG-focused climate change adaptation and development bank. This investment required four months of intense environmental, social and financial analysis.

Shuyin Tang

Partner at Patamar Capital and CEO & Co-Founder at the Beacon Fund

Shuyin is a Partner at Patamar Capital, a leading impact investing firm in Southeast Asia. Shuyin is responsible for Patamar’s investing activities in the Mekong region and has led investments into education, FinTech, employee benefits and healthcare companies. She spearheads Patamar’s gender lens investing efforts, including managing one of the first gender lens investing funds in Southeast Asia, the Investing in Women Fund. She is also the co-founder and CEO of the Beacon Fund, a boundary-breaking fund for female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia’s emerging markets.
She has experience spanning strategy consulting (Bain & Company), development consulting (TechnoServe) and impact investing (Patamar Capital, LGT Venture Philanthropy), across Australia, India and Southeast Asia. She has also worked in U.S. Congress and the Australian public service, as well as at The Lowy Institute for International Policy and UNICEF.

Shuyin was named one of Australia’s “”100 Women of Influence”” by the Australian Financial Review in 2015 and an Asia 21 Young Leader by the Asia Society in 2016. She currently serves on the Southeast Asia Advisory Council of Women’s World Banking, a global NGO promoting women’s financial inclusion. She graduated summa cum laude from the Australian National University where she was also awarded the University Medal.