BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Mr.  Mark Chandler  first began working on US-Vietnam relations in 1994 and was part of the founding team that established the San Francisco-Ho Chi Minh City Sister City Friendship Agreement in April 1995. 

This was the first sister city partnership between a US City and a Vietnamese City and preceded the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between our two countries by three months.  Mark has continually worked to further San Francisco's connections with Vietnam, including support in opening Vietnam's first Consulate General in the USA in 1997 and Vietnam Airlines North American Headquarters in 2002.  

As the Director of the San Francisco City Office of Global Engagement,   Mark has hosted dozens of trade and governmental organizations visiting San Francisco and has consistently supported strong US-Vietnam partnerships and cooperation.  

Olga Buchonina founded ActionSpot Center in Silicon Valley with the vision to build an environment for entrepreneurs where they are focused on building products by integrating concepts of Data Science, Data Security, and Data Engineering, Blockchain technology helps us to bring it to the next level of innovation.    

ActionSpot promotes innovation through diversity and inclusion and measure people by what they can do to build great companies. Olga serves on boards of organizations such as Women Who Code and IEEE.to name a few. Olga's background is deeply rooted in Oil and Gas and High Tech. She spent over 20 years working at the senior level of business and engineering. roles and holds several patents.

  Kyle Freeman is a Partner at Dezan Shira & Associates, and leads the International Business Advisory team as well as the firm's North American client services desk in Asia. He advises clients on market entry strategy, corporate structuring and establishment, and related tax and legal issues concerning investment in China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining Dezan Shira & Associates, Kyle worked in government relations and China trade policy for various public and private organizations. His work included assisting in high-level, US-China bilateral trade dialogues and organizing public-private cooperation programs to promote US and foreign investment in China.

Kyle has a master's degree in economics and international trade from the University of International Business and Economics, in Beijing, and dual bachelor's degrees in economics and global affairs from George Mason University, in Washington D.C. He has also been a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford and the Beijing Language Culture University.

Aaron Magenheim is an entrepreneur who grew up in California Agriculture and has become a global industry leader working across the Agriculture and Technology nexis. 

As CEO and co-founder, his companies Growers Insight and AgTech Insight specialize in business process mapping and innovation strategy by aligning business, processes, data, people, and technology. 

As a realistic boots-on-the-ground expert, Aaron leads diverse teams advising growers, food companies, Corporates, Governments, NGO's, investors, and startups on building successful ecosystems leveraging best processes, practices, and technology throughout the Agri-Food supply chain. 

 Thuy T. Le received his Ph.D. (1990), M.S. (1987), and B.S. (1985) degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Presently he is a Professor and Department Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at San José State University. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of chip design, embedded systems, hardware accelerators, and quantum computing.

Before joining San José State University in 2001, Dr. Le has worked for Fujitsu America in the area of High-Performance Computing and for Westinghouse Savannah River Laboratory in designing of five new production nuclear reactors for the United States Department of Energy. He has also worked part-time as a Researcher in the Physics Department of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a Nuclear Reactor Operator of the Berkeley nuclear research reactor, a consultant and advisor of several private high-tech companies.

Dr. Le has also served as a General Chair, Technical Program Chair, Keynote Speaker, Editor, Advisor of many international conferences, symposiums, journals, and non-profit organizations.  His publications include more than 60 technical papers and reports in areas of integrated circuits and digital system design, hardware accelerators, high-performance computing, computational nuclear reactor physics, and engineering curriculum development.

Ross Meador is a lawyer, entrepreneur, investor, teacher, and philanthropist.

Mr. Meador graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1986, where he served as Executive Editor of the International Tax and Business Lawyer law review. 

He also practiced law with Kim & Chang in Korea, with SSEK in Indonesia, and with VILAF and Kirin in Vietnam for over 10 years.

His law practice focuses on privately held companies and entrepreneurial ventures, particularly in the areas of technology and entertainment. He has negotiated and drafted hundreds of business agreements, and advises clients on business models, financing issues, strategic relationships, and the protection and licensing of intellectual property. He applies all of these skills in service to his clients.

 Vasudha Badri-Paul is a technology marketing  professional in Silicon Valley, working with corporations such as Intel,  Microsoft, and GE. She is also involved with startups ecosystems in  Silicon Valley and India.

She  is active in growing and building bridges between communities and works  with India, Israel, USA, and now Vietnam to bring forth mutually  beneficial partnerships in technology, education, investment, and  consumer specialities.

Dr. Uyen Nguyen, Founder and CEO of the Agriculture and Automation Service (AAS) , a research development company based in the Quang Trung Software Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

AAS is currently working with agriculture companies in Vietnam to develop their own automation in growing mushroom, automatic aquaponics systems, and container plant factory

In addition, Dr. Nguyen is also a lecturer on Electrical Engineering at the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City.

Graduated from  from Catholic University in Washington DC with a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001,  Dr, Nguyen has spent 20 years working for various technology companies in the US before returning to Vietnam to work on the AgTech industry which is greatly needed in Vietnam.