Based in Bangkok, Rubkwan Choldumrongkul is a qualified lawyer and Barrister with more than 10 years of working experience in project financing and development, banking and financing as well as cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand (CLMVT) with a particular expertise in Lao PDR (where she has worked there for more than 10 years).

Rubkwan graduated with a LL.B. in Business Law with First class Honours from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and a LL.M. specialising in Banking and Financial Regulations (Merit) from University College London, United Kingdom.

She started her working life as the leading legal consultant in the negotiations of project documents (starting from the incorporation contract, the concession agreement, the power-purchase agreement and the financing documents) for a client in the thermal power sector in Laos With a well-established and well-acknowledged reputation in being the legal counsel in Lao PDR, she has established a full-scale law firm in Vientiane, Lao PDR providing advice on all legal matters under Lao and international law.

She is also a qualified Thai lawyer and the lead counsel in several cross-border projects in the CLMVT region including a SME project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Australia and a World Bank Group financed Business Assistance Facility (BAF2) project.

Currently, she is participating and contributing on a project related to blockchain and cryptocurrency in Thailand.

Based in Hanoi, Thoa received a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (majoring in International Economic Relationships) and a Master’s degree in International History. She has twenty years of work experience, including nearly 15 years working with international consulting firms to implement development projects in education, urban infrastructure and services, and trade facilitation sectors.

In various ADB and World Bank Group funded projects that she has been involved in, she was responsible for the smooth running of the Project Office, including routine administration, logistics arrangements, financial management, coordination of project activities, and reporting. She also supported with preparing Expressions of Interest (EOIs) and proposals, communicating with Clients and relevant agencies as well as preparing deliverables and invoices for submission to Clients.

Specifically in the area of trade facilitation, Thoa was involved in the implementation of the World Bank Group-funded Sri Lanka Trade Information Portal (https://srilankatradeportal.com/) as the TIP Content Analyst, with the main tasks in the initial stage of project implementation were to prepare training materials and delivered training to the local content analyst team regarding how to identify, format and upload contents to the Portal. She was also a pivotal member of the Vietnam Trade Portal (https://www.vietnamtradeportal.gov.vn/) project team who made a major contribution to identifying, preparing and uploading Content, with a particular focus on Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs). She has also handled the detailed communications with project stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

Now based in Malaysia, Michael has been working in economic development for more than 38 years across the Asian region.

His roles in the region include fifteen years as Regional Manager for IDA Ireland (promoting FDI), fifteen years as Regional Manager for Enterprise Ireland (promoting Irish exports and developing economic links in Asia), and three years as Asia Regional Manager for Invest Northern Ireland (promoting investment and trade). For the past five years, he has worked as an independent consultant, assisting Government Agencies and private companies to build up their business in the Asian markets. 

During his time in Asia, Michael has been based in Japan (twice), China (twice), Hong Kong (twice), Taiwan, and Malaysia – and he has worked in all the major economies in the region. While he was with Enterprise Ireland, he established and managed a network of ten offices across the region. In recent years, he has taken on projects in the Middle East, helping countries to promote exports and to encourage inward investment.