Team size: 10

What are the most significant cases and transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

Leading Legal team to complete the establishment of the first ever subsidiary of UOB in Vietnam, and successfully transferring about 11,000 customers from UOB HCMC Branch to such newly set up subsidiary in a seamless and proper manner. We also are building up a number of major lending and security documents for UOB Vietnam. We are setting up foundation and maintenance of good governance practice for corporate governance documents and related matters for UOB Vietnam. A key project member to assist in the mega deal of acquisition of retail portfolio of Citibank in Vietnam together with three other Asian markets, with deal value of about UOD350m.

Which political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in the past year?

Decree 13/2023 on personal data protection of Vietnam Government (“Decree 13”) have laid profound impact on the setting up of legal foundation for data privacy and data protection in Vietnam. Since its effectiveness of 1st July 2023, the whole market in general and banking industry in particular have faced challenges in fulfilling strict requirements in terms of technical, organisation as well as documentation aspects as imposed by the Ministry of Public Security (the “MPS”) thereunder. Aside from extremely busy schedule where in-house legal team assists various business and supporting units in numeral deals and legal matters, we have placed our focus on updating such new regulatory requirements, conducting and facilitating training session for all staff, driving the gap analysis process bank-wide, reviewing the governance structure, proposing changes to related internal policies and guidelines, revising numerous contracts, templates, terms and conditions across different areas and functions. In addition, we have timely competed two substantial reports on data process and cross-border data transfer to the MPS within tight deadline and without having full regulatory guidance for such tasks. Last but not least, we recognised that the risk assessment over data privacy would also require a thorough check of all aspects in order to ensure full compliance with Decree 13, including the satisfaction of applicable technical measures to protect data during data life cycle as well as the ability to accommodate customers’ data related request within the rigid timeline of 72 hours. This urged us to undertake a so-called data privacy health check project with the assistance from an external firm to fix any gaps and apply mitigants in a well-controlled manner. This is a continuous activity of promoting and adhering to the risk culture of our Group where customers data privacy are placed at the centric and the compliance spirit is nurtured wherever UOB has its footprint.

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?

I am interested in coaching to staff where I can help them in opening their mindset, maximising their potentials and finding solutions by their own for either professional or personal matters. It is widely seen that mental illness has left significant impact on productivity and performance of the team. As a manager and a coach, I realised that people tend to cover themselves in defence mode and are afraid of facing challenges or difficulties in their lives, and that their capability is restricted or hidden because of negative thoughts, emotion, energy, bad habit and limited belief system. In other words, if human capability is the Sun, such fixed mindset and negative belief system can be seen as “clouds” which people usually do not recognise. I am, therefore, thrilled to apply various coaching sessions to staff to support them in resolving inner conflicts, invoking their power and creating motivation to unleash their strength, with the ultimate purpose of building up of a working environment full of energy, focus and cooperation, which in turns results in high productivity and result-driven manner. My passion and mission have been progressively fulfilled through this meaningful journey, and I strongly believe that the coaching technique, if used by leaders, will bring significant benefits to greater organisation and community.