People of Vietnam Venture Group, business counselors, investment advisors, real estate, resort and property developers.

The People of V V G

The people of V V G available to work with you in Thailand and Vietnam are led by a team of Principals and Senior Associates. All domestic staff are full-time employees of V V G, are university educated, and fully bilingual in their local language and English. Each has experience in the field of their work and have been specially trained for the tasks at V V G.

Additional staff are hired as they are needed for specific project work, are fully familiar with the field of work undertaken, and are carefully trained for the tasks needed. Most are university students or graduates. Some are graduates of business school. Many of our part time staff apply for full time positions or go on to work for other institutions and organizations.

There Are Many More Good People to Serve You. The numbers of men and women in Thailand and Vietnam who are available to help our foreign clients number in the thousands. If there was a list of all those we personally know, it would be too dynamic to keep current.

In order to meet the needs of one client, V V G recently mobilized more than 100 people to undertake a market research survey. Importantly, more than half were fully fluent in spoken and written English.

University Graduates. It has been reported that "only" 7 % of the men and 3% of the women of Vietnam are university graduates. While all public statistics here are more estimates than fact and no-doubt capable of being refined, at the stated level there are nearly 2.8 million men and 1.2 million women who are university graduates in Vietnam. The number is growing.

In Thailand, the number of university graduates is even larger.

There are currently (mid 2008) more than 8,750 foreign invested projects licensed in Vietnam. There are many thousands of foreign invested companies in Thailand. These companies pay salaries to local hires in multiples of what domestic companies pay. Foreign companies attract the best and brightest of a talented local pool of underemployed talent.

Those with Life Experience. In addition, many fine men and women who have never graduated university, old, middle-aged and young, are fluent in both English and computer sciences. Many have skills that transcend any university education. These fine people add to the vast reservoir of domestic talent available to help the foreign investor. We use our nation-wide network of such Thai and Vietnamese Resources to supplement our own, full-time Associates as needed.

Our managers are:

*PETER N. SHERIDAN* *V V G Founder & CEO* *Read about Peter, below* Write to Peter	*A Hans Kemp Photograph A V V G Staff photo*
Natsakorn Jira-apicharttrakul, known as "Ib" Born in Chiang Mai, working to put himself through school since he was 13, Ib has also been the household provider for all that time. Coming to us in his eleventh year directly from the Four Season's Resort where he held many jobs of increasing responsibility, Ib takes the lion's share of the in-house function.
Lam Van Luc ("Luc") Born in Quang Nam, the center of Vietnam, Luc holds a BA degree in English from Dalat University. He comes to us with many years of valuable hands-on experience at middle management and executive levels in merchandising, sales, ISO, and Environmental controls working with major foreign-invested and domestic Vietnamese manufacturers. Luc's new position is Manager - V V G Vietnam
Nguyen Minh Hoang. Born in HCM city, recently married, our HCMC Assistant Manager, Hoang, presently studies at night aiming for a 2^nd BA degree in Foreign Trade from Economic University. Working since he was 18 years old, six years later Hoang joins our staff with extraordinary skills not met by many in IT as well as with an accomplished background in both freight forwarding and sales.

An American corporate lawyer by training, in the 23 years before he returned to Vietnam in 1994, Peter's successful law career specialized in mergers and acquisitions, transactional law, and litigation. Peter served as a member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce and Chair of its Government Relations Committee, He is a leading member of both the American and international business communities in Thailand and Vietnam. Peter appeared for years in Who's Who in American Law and is now featured in Who's Who of the Asian Pacific Rim and Who's Who in Vietnam.

Peter is currently in Thailand to supervise our Regional Offices. There he has taught business law to university students, counseled the Royal Family in matters of US enterprise work, and supervises the world-wide work of V V G.

Peter suspended his long and successful law practice to form V V G in 1994 in order to merge his personal and business interests. After 35 years, Peter officially retired from the practice of law in 2004 even as he is still licensed to practice law in Georgia, New York and Washington, DC. Peter started his legal career while serving with the US Army in Vietnam in 1970. His initial duty station was in Tan An, Long An Province, as Defense Counsel for the 9th Infantry Division. After one year in Vietnam, Peter left the army to join the internationally recognized NYC Wall Street law firm of Mendes and Mount.

Three years later, his career path took him to the international giant chemical and pharmaceutical company, Ciba Geigy, now long merged into the US$ 30 billion giant Novartis. Peter quickly rose to become a key Management Board member in a US$ 600 million division of the US subsidiary. He additionally served the larger US organization's legal needs as its Assistant General Counsel.

Peter left Ciba after nearly fourteen years to form his own law firm in New York City. Two years later, in order to better meet the needs of his growing list of clients, Peter moved his practice to the large and prestigious, national law firm of Arent Fox at its headquarters in Washington, DC. Following a short stop in Atlanta, Peter returned to Vietnam in January, 1994. Peter has since then both lived and worked in Southeast Asia. The Main Office of V V G remains in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Peter's commitments to both American business and the people of Asia are more than 35 years long. Peter sponsored and brought to America several Vietnamese friends that he made during the war (1970-71) and went on to sponsor 18 families. Peter was the founder of the Concerned Committee for Indo-Chinese Refugees (NYC 1977), and Asians & Friends - Atlanta (1993).

Along with some of those former refugees, Peter bought the 400 seat Sun Tong Gung Restaurant on Pell Street, Chinatown, NYC (1986-89), Peter is no stranger to the people of Southeast Asia.

Peter is the head of his large, extended family, as well as the devoted father to his 28-year old daughter - a graduate of both Wesleyan University in Connecticut (BA) and Mills College in Oakland (MFA), and three sons he adopted from Vietnam. The two older boys are currently living in Atlanta. The younger boy is attending University in Vietnam.

A recognized leader, frequent lecturer and author, dozens of Peter’s published articles are on matters concerning cost control, innovative management techniques, and strategic planning. He is the principal author of V V G’s 250 page, hard-bound Investment Guide to Vietnam, published in 9 editions. Peter graced many editorial boards of leading legal publications. He has for decades been a much sought after guest lecturer. Peter is frequently quoted in the local and international media for key comments in the fields of his endeavors.

Peter is the founder, CEO, and General Director (President) of V V G. An accomplished and recognized master in his fields, starting in 1994 Peter assembled an equally capable group of Principals, Senior Associates, and Junior Associates in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and since the year 2000, in Thailand. This superb V V G assembly of team players is available to help international corporate and private, high-income investors from the world undertake market research, establish infrastructure projects, achieve market position, enhance product penetration, grow market share, and establish manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia.

Handicrafts trade has become a major part of Peter's work in leading V V G. The V V G Collection heads our operations where the company serves as Purchasing Agent to dealers, wholesalers, retailers, and high-net-worth individuals from around the world. The V V G Collection is now the proven low cost provider of high-end products due to Peter's insistence on not purchasing anything that he would not be proud to show in his own home.