A Brief History of CanCham

The origin of CanCham dates to 1994, when Mr. Rob McDowell, the Canadian Government’s first Trade Representative in HCMC drafted the first bylaws for what he hoped would become the Canada Vietnam Business Association (CVBA). The next year, the first Canadian Consul and Trade Commissioner in HCMC, Mr. Ian Burney, called together a group of Canucks to start a formal discussion about the creation of the Association, which included Don Lam, Lorraine Chan, Susan Hutton, Phil Turner, Jacques Gaboury, Terry Prechel and others. This was the founding group.

CVBA was formalised March, 1997, under Acting President Terry Prechel. Meetings were often held in coffee shops until an informal meeting was held in Terry Prechel’s office at 103 Pasteur, which led to the first iconic Pancake ‘n’ Maple Syrup Breakfast event, which then led to luncheons with guest speakers.

In 1999, a Constitution was drawn up and signed on December 22 by eight committee members – Bonny Berger, Timothy Dang, Jacques Gaboury, Eric Laferriere, Andy Marshall, Lucia Pham, Graham Potter and Diego Tsang. Thirty Canadians, the legal minimum number, were rounded up as the first members and an application was filed for a Foreign Business Association license with the People’s Committee of HCMC with the support of the Consul General of Canada to Vietnam, Judy St. George.

On March 2, 2000, CBVA became a legal business association and Graham Potter was elected President at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM). In March 2001, Tim Dang was elected President of the officially licensed Hanoi Chapter. CVBA hired its first part-time Office Manager in early 2001. The first full-time Office Manager was appointed at the end of the year – and we’ve never looked back since then!

2003 saw changes with Michael Howard as President, who introduced the new logo and changed the name to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Vietnam (CanCham). Successive Presidents include Ms. Martha Maier in 2004, Mr. Gary Dawson from 2005 to 2007, Sam Wazir until May 2008 followed by Sami Kteily, Winnie Lam and Bao Nguyen in 2013.

Following the 2014 AGM, Mr. Antony Nezic was elected President. In 2013-2014, financial systems and formalization of Chapter establishment within the Constitution were completed. CanCham activated it’s role within the Vietnam Business Forum, including presentations on behalf of Canada to then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung during FY 2014-15; on the TPP; as well as collaboration regionally within the Canada ASEAN Business Council (CABC). CSR remained a main focus, as organizer of the annual Terry Fox Run.

CanCham continues to adapt and evolve in the changing business and cultural climate. The Chamber looks forward to offer more services, introduce new social and business opportunities for its members, and to uphold its reputation as one of Vietnam’s most active business groups with a dedicated CSR programme.