In observance of Veteran’s Day, Asia Hands Society is pleased to host a special fireside chat on the Vietnam War this week. 

Asia Hand Brian Conway, who led a combat platoon with the U.S. Army’s 25th Division, will host a discussion with fellow veterans Rick Clark and Paul Scott on their experiences near Cu Chi, Vietnam, in 1966 as young officers assigned to the First Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division in the U.S. Army.  Please join us Thursday to hear personal perspectives of what it was like as young lieutenants in the infantry, artillery, and medical service corps at the opening of the war. 

 Please join us for what is sure to be a fascinating discussion on first-hand experiences of the Vietnam War.  The event has no cost to register.  Spouses and guests welcome. 

This virtual event will be held on Zoom on  Thursday, November 14th at 5:00 p.m. EST / 2:00 p.m. PST.

Click to Register

We recognize that many of our members are veterans and would love to hear additional perspectives following the formal program.  We will leave the Zoom connection open after the discussion and Q&A for anyone who would like to share their own experiences during the Vietnam War or other conflicts.  We look forward to having you join us!

Our Panel:

Brian Conway was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from Notre Dame and was assigned to a platoon with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.  The Division moved to Vietnam in January, 1966, as part of the early buildup of American forces and was assigned to an Area of Operations near Cu Chi, about 30 miles northwest of Saigon.  He was in combat and a staff position until October when he completed his active duty obligation and returned to the States.  He worked in the private sector for 40 years before joining USAID programs in Afghanistan for 9 years.    He is married with three grown children and lives in Sammamish, Washington. 

Rick Clark graduated from the University of Wyoming and was commissioned as a second lieutenant through ROTC. He qualified as an airborne ranger and served on active duty for four years, departing the army as a captain. During his tour in Vietnam, he led an infantry platoon of approximately 42 men with the 25th Infantry Division until receiving his second Purple Heart. At that time, he was made the leader of the battalion’s 4.2 mortar platoon. He later oversaw all state funerals in the U.S., including responsibility for the funerals of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. After leaving the army, Rick went to law school and practiced law for 47 years in Scottsdale, AZ, where he lives with his wife.

Paul Scott was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps through ROTC upon graduation from the University of Virginia in 1965.  After attending the Medical Field Service School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, he was assigned as a medical officer in the Medical Platoon in the First Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.  The Division moved to Vietnam in January 1966, by troop ship and established its base camp near Cu Chi, northwest of Saigon. He ran the battalion Forward Aid Station of the Medical Platoon in combat until December 23, 1966, when he returned to the States.  He attended law school at the University of Richmond on the GI Bill.  After graduation, he practiced law in the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia for 44 years, retiring in 2014.  He is married with three adult children and lives in Stafford County, Virginia.

Join us for our annual Fall Luncheon!

The location is:
 
Darbar Grill
157 East 55th Street
(Between Third and Lexington)
(212) 751-4600
 
The featured speakers are Robert T. Grieves, Founder and Chairman, and Anne LeBourgeois, Co-Founder and Managing Director, of Hamilton Advisors.

The cost to AHS members is $49 (cash bar) and members can register for the lunch here:

Soaring Assets, Digitization and Scams – Insights into Banking in Singapore

LIVE FROM SINGAPORE!
ZOOM CALL
Thursday, November 16
New York: 7 p.m. ET
San Francisco: 4 p.m. PT
Singapore: 8 a.m. on Friday, November 17

Please join us on Zoom: Register Here

Panelists        Mathew Welch

                        Wilson Chia

                        Richard Hartung

Banking in Singapore has changed dramatically over the past half dozen years. Singapore has surpassed Hong Kong in AUM in private banking and there are now an estimated 1,500 family offices in Singapore. Commercial banks have been ranked among the best in Asia, and there is an increasing focus on green loans. The number of fintechs has expanded from less than 100 in 2016 to more than 1,000 today, covering all sectors of banking. Along with the success, scams proliferate and investigations are ongoing into potentially fraudulent activities of 10 individuals who held S$2.8 billion in assets in Singapore

Mathew, Wilson and Richard will leverage their decades of experience in banking to provide insights into the impact of these and other developments in financial services in Singapore and current state of banking in the city-state. Mathew will focus on current developments in commercial and transaction banking. Wilson will provide insights on wealth management and retail banking. Richard will discuss developments in payments and fintechs. After 10-minute presentations by each of the three panelists, we will open the floor to questions and comments from participants.

Mathew Welch

Mathew is a partner at Global Sage Executive Search in Singapore, an Independent Board director on various boards (including Seabank in Vietnam), and does advisory and investment work for various start-ups across Asia. His career has included roles as MD & Head of FI Asia/ Global Head of Banks at Standard Chartered Bank, Head of Financial Institutions Asia at ING and Managing Director, Investments, Financial Institutions at Temasek Holdings. He has an MA from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Wilson Chia

Wilson is a Consultant / Advisor to banks in the ASEAN region. In 2020, he was a strategic planner for a consortium seeking a Wholesale Digital Banking license in Singapore. His previous roles include advisor to the board of Bank Danamon in Indonesia, EVP with Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH) at Temasek Holdings and 23 years in Standard Chartered Bank, most recently as regional head of consumer and SME Banking in South East Asia. He has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the National University of Singapore.

Richard Hartung, Managing Director, Transcarta

Richard is a consultant on retail banking and payments at Transcarta and also works as a freelance writer for The Asian Banker and other media. He has worked in retail banking in California, Citibank in Japan, and MasterCard, Keppel TatLee Bank and OCBC Bank in Singapore. Richard has a BA from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford University. He serves on the boards of non-profits.

Join us for a book talk with Dr. Siegfried Hecker, who discusses “his on-the-ground experience at the North's nuclear center at Yongbyon,” unpacking the ramifications of North Korea’s technical developments in the context of fateful foreign policy decisions by Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang. Dr. Hecker describes how “successive U.S. administrations have been unable to prevent the North, with the weakest of hands, from becoming one of only three countries in the world that might target the United States with nuclear weapons.” The discussion also includes a consideration of developments to the approach addressed in the summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and the debate around the potential for South Korea to acquire an indigenous deterrent. This program is moderated by Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado.

Live Sign-Up Link

In-person Registration Link

Siegfried S. Hecker is a professor emeritus (research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering and a senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He was co-director of CISAC from 2007-2012. From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Hecker served as the fifth Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Hecker is an internationally recognized expert in plutonium science, global threat reduction, and nuclear security.

As part of its 2023 webinar series, Asia Hands Society is pleased to invite you to join a presentation by Andy Rothman, Senior Analyst at Matthews Asia Funds, on China’s current economic and geopolitical climate. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 5pm ET, 2pm PT.

Andy is no stranger to Asia Hands’ events, having graced both our in-person San Francisco lunch meetings and for the past two years our webinar series.  Andy is recognized as an expert on China and its relations with the U.S. and the rest of the world. He has lived and worked in China for 20+ years and has been an analyst and observer of China and Asia for over three decades.    
 
Andy recently returned from two weeks of business meetings in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and will be addressing today's macro-economic environment as well as information and observations gleaned from his experiences. Andy's webinar also follows Asia Hands' dialogue with Peter Wodtke which focused on China/US relations.
  
Here is a link to Andy’s biography and his most recent writings on China:

https://global.matthewsasia.com/our-people/andy-rothman/#:~:text=Andy%20Rothman%20is%20an%20Investment%20Strategist%20at%20Matthews%20Asia.&text=Prior%20to%20joining%20Matthews%20Asia,his%20insights%20to%20their%20clients.

So mark your calendars for March 21, 2023 at 5:00 pm ET, 2:00 pm PT, 5:00 am Hong Kong/Singapore (next day), and 10:00 pm London time, and register for this FREE EVENT by clicking this link:

Register for Webinar Here

The Asia Hands Society Annual Fall Lunch will take place on Thursday, October 27th  at 12 noon. The featured speaker will be Stephen Jury, a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan Private Bank and the Global Commodity Strategist.
 
The location is:
 
Darbar Grill
157 East 55th Street
(Between Third and Lexington)
(212) 751-4600
 
The cost to AHS members is $45 (cash bar) and members can register for the lunch here

Please mark your calendars and join us for this most interesting lunch gathering.
 

Asia Hands Society is pleased to relay an invitation for its members to attend the Korea Society’s March 31 hybrid program entitled “Pyonghattan: Escapees from North Korea's Capital”.  The program will be both in-person and live-streamed starting at 6 p.m. 

Sibling defectors from Pyongyang Seohyun Lee and Hyun-Seung Lee discuss their life in North Korea, their journey to escape, and their transition to life in the United States, alongside Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) President & CEO Hannah Song, in conversation with Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado. Hyunseung and Seohyun Lee are prominent North Korean activists and siblings. They're the children of Ri Jong-ho, a high ranking North Korean defector who worked for decades in “Office 39,” which generates revenue for the North Korean leadership. Hyun-Seung and Seohyun were raised in Pyongyang, educated in China, and escaped North Korea in 2014 with their family after witnessing a series of brutal purges by Kim Jong Un. They speak to their experience as millennials from Pyongyang and share the true nature of the Kim regime and the reality of life in North Korea. The event marks the anniversary of the February 2014 publication of the historic UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The cost of the in-person program is $25 for non-members, and there is no charge for the live stream. All participants must sign up in advance through this link: https://www.koreasociety.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1548. A limited number of in-person spaces are available.

The Koreas Society is located at:

350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor 
New York, NY 10017

Thursday, February 27, 2020.  6:00 cocktails; 7:00 seated buffet dinner.
Bann Restaurant & Lounge, 350 West 50th St in Mid-town Manhattan between 8th and 9th Avenues (closer to 9th).   Tel. (212) 582-4446

Price: $80.00 per person, all in.  Includes beer and wine from 6:00-8:00.  Cash bar for cocktails and subsequent drinks.

Parking: Across the street from Bann.  And four other parking facilities are less than a block away.
Subway: The C and E trains stop at 8th Ave & 50th St.

Guests: Most welcome, although please no more than one couple per Hand, in addition to your Significant Other.

Join us on Thursday October 24 at 12 noon at Darbar Grill, 157 East 55th St, (between Lex and 3rd) Tel:212-751-4600.

The cost is $25 which we ask you pay in advance either by credit card or Paypal on line at www.oldasiahands.org or mail a check.

Stephen Costello who is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Korean Studies/George Washington University will be joining us.  He will draw from his 29 year history of working on Korean policy and political issues to speak to us on emerging trends in diplomacy and economics in North Asia from the South Korea perspective.

Date: June 6, 2019

Join us at Draught 55 restaurant, 245 East 55th Street in Manhattan.

Luncheon begins at 12 noon.

The cost is $25.

At the luncheon, Jonathan Hollander, Artistic Director of Battery Dance who has been a US cultural ambassador for more than a quarter century, will share stories of his Asia tours and his relationship with India that dates back to his stint as a high-school exchange student in Bombay.

Date: May 3, 2019

John's Grill:  66 Ellis Street, San Francisco,  Tel.  (415) 986-0069

Price:  $50.00 per person, including tax and tip. Cash bar.

Lunch Start Time: 12 noon

Guests: Most welcome

Date: February 28, 2019

6:00pm cocktails; 7:00pm seated buffet dinner on Thursday February 28.  

Darbar Grill, 157 55th St. in mid-town Manhattan between Lexington and 3rd Avenues (closer to 3rd).   Tel. (212) 751-4600

Price: $85.00 per person (all in) including hors d’oeuvres, full Indian buffet, wine and beer (cash bar for cocktails).

Parking: numerous parking facilities on 55th Street and nearby
Subway: The 6 and E trains stop at Lexington Avenue running from 51st to 53rd streets
Guests: Most welcome, although please no more than one couple per Hand, in addition to your Significant Other.

Date: December 4, 2018

We are pleased to announce a Special Luncheon with Brian McCarthy who is the Chief Strategist, Managing Director, Macrolens.

Tuesday December 4 at 12 noon and the location is Draught 55 Restaurant, 245 East 55th Street in Manhattan

The cost is $25 with payment by PayPal.

Date: June 6, 2018

Luncheon begins at 12 noon

Draught 55 restaurant, 245 East 55th Street in Manhattan.

The cost is $25 which we ask you pay in advance either by credit card on line at oldasiahands.org or by check through the mail.

Melissa Chiu will talk about her advocacy for contemporary art, with a focus on Asia.  Before joining the Hirshhorn, she was Museum Director of the Asia Society in New York and is the author of numerous articles and books on Chinese/Asian art.