Board of Directors

Mr. Runckel is the principal and founder of Runckel & Associates, a Portland, Oregon-based consulting company that assists businesses in expanding business opportunities including manufacturing, investing or opening an office/laboratory or factory in Asia. (www.business-in-asia.com).

Mr. Runckel is a graduate of the University of Oregon and Lewis and Clark Law School and practiced law in Washington State before joining the Foreign Service in 1975.

He has had a long association over his career with Asia and particularly with Vietnam. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1969-70. He worked in President Ford’s White House as Deputy General Counsel of the Presidential Clemency Board, which recommended clemency for Vietnam-era draft deserters and evaders. In 1994, Runckel became U.S. Special Negotiator for Vietnam.

He was assigned to Hanoi as the first permanently assigned U.S. diplomat since the Vietnam War. In 1995, Mr. Runckel headed up the U.S. Department of State office in Vietnam. In January 1996 after helping to negotiate all the basic agreements, Mr. Runckel became Deputy Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Hanoi. In 1997, Mr. Runckel was recognized for the breadth of his contribution to U.S.–Vietnam relations by being awarded the U.S. Distinguished Honor Award, the highest U.S. award for diplomatic service.

Mr. Runckel currently shares his time between Thailand, Vietnam, China and the US. He works with many universities in taking student groups to Asia and is a frequent writer and speaker on Asian business.

Kevin Morgan has extensive experience in cultural and educational exchange dating back to the 1970s. He has served as Chairman of The Cultural Exchange Project (formerly The GeoVisions Foundation) and of Academic Language Solutions-iTEP.

In these capacities he is active in promoting teaching, tutoring, au pair and volunteer experiences throughout the world, as well as innovative, online English Language tests for academic and career purposes.

Kevin is recognized for his expansion of educational and cultural exchanges to then-underserved parts of the world, including South America, Africa and Asia. He lives in New Hampshire (USA), and has resided and worked in Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia. He has managed Asian marketing, operations and government relations for leading organizations.

With a background in Human Resource Development in public and private sectors in Vietnam and in the US, Mr. Trung Trinh decided to return to Vietnam in 1994 to explore business opportunities where he could fully utilize his skills and experience to become a catalyst for mutual cooperation between Vietnamese and American companies.

His first project in Vietnam was to organize and operate the First American Product Showroom in July 1995 in Ho Chi Minh City in cooperation with the Foreign Trade Promotion Company, a trade promotion agency of the city government.

Through his work with Vietnam Resource Group, a consulting service firm based in Fairfax, Virginia, Mr. Trinh - a graduate of the Saigon Law School in 1972 - has been involved with many projects related to trade, investment, training, and education.

Throughout his business development activities in Vietnam and in the US, Mr. Trinh has created and maintained well-established and reliable networks and resources that will be beneficial for UVBC members.

With decades of experience in hi-tech businesses, Mr. Hoang Nguyen is responsible for UVBC operations on the West Coast. With a BS/MS in Information Systems and an MBA in Management from San Francisco University, Mr. Hoang has developed various business projects especially in IT, import/export, and logistics.

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Phillip Nguyen is the founder and chief software engineer of Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS), a leading website design company headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

DMS has been in the Information Technology business for over two decades specializing in complex websites and digital marketing.

Besides running his company, Phillip is responsible for UVBC's operations in the Midwest.

Ms. Jenna K. Nguyen has been working in business analytics and strategy consulting for more than 8 years with diverse exposure to multiple industries including IT, E-commerce, Finance, Real Estate, Energy and Infrastructure Construction.

In the U.S., she worked as a Research Associate for national labs such as Berkeley Lab and PNNL under the U.S. Department of Energy and as a Data Modeling Analyst for Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco.