Eight years,
one room

By the time someone cracked open the Glenlivet 18 at UNIOS, eight presidents were represented in that room. Not all in person. But the chapter they built — the one that started with 12 founders arguing about what EO Vietnam could become — was very much present.

01What most people saw

Most attendees saw the evening half. The black tie. The scavenger hunt that Elaine designed and that immediately became the most talked-about part of the night. The awards table loaded with two Glenlivet 18-year bottles and one 15-year, courtesy of our Strategic Alliance Partner, and the way those bottles didn’t make it off the property before being put to use.

They saw members from Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia dressed up alongside our chapter — the kind of thing that sounds like a talking point until you’re actually standing in it. The global EO network is a real thing. When it physically walks into the room, when you’re shaking hands with a founder from Osaka and a board member from Manila at a chapter event in Ho Chi Minh City, you understand what the membership fee is actually buying.

They saw Dave and Elaine emceeing, a lot of stepping outside comfort zones, and an energy that felt genuinely earned.

What most people didn’t see was the eight hours before any of it.

02Before the guests arrived

While the venue was still quiet, the incoming EO Vietnam board sat down with Claw (Cheok Chin), our facilitator who flew in from Malaysia, and spent a full day doing the work that strategy days are supposed to do and rarely actually do. Eight hours. No shortcuts.

The chapter is sitting at 41 members. The FY2026-27 board left that room aligned on a target of 65 by June 2027 — nearly 60 percent growth in twelve months while holding a 92 percent retention rate. That is not a casual aspiration. That is a number the board signed up to be held accountable to.

Three strategic priorities came out of the day:

By the time the broader membership arrived for the town hall, the board had already done the hard work. The celebration was real because the alignment behind it was real.

03The handover

At some point in the evening, Nhan Huynh handed the chapter to Tuan Anh Le.

Nhan served two consecutive terms, which is not common and was not easy. His first term was built around the theme “Strong Community, Disciplined Execution.” His second: “Transformational Growth.” If you look at where this chapter was when Nhan stepped up and where it is now, those weren’t just themes. They were descriptions of what actually happened.

“FUNtastic” might sound like a departure from ambition. It isn’t. You can grow a chapter by grinding. You can also grow it by making it a place people genuinely want to be.The incoming chapter theme for FY2026-27

The scavenger hunt, the black tie, the bottles opened on the spot: that was Anh Le’s chapter announcing itself.

04Eight presidents and counting

The chapter has had eight presidents since 2018. Each brought a different mandate. What the timeline below doesn’t show is that Gabrielle Loo has already been confirmed as the chapter’s president for 2027-28. The chapter is planning two years ahead — that’s not something chapters in their early years do.

05The incoming board

Eight years of leadership, and this is the team carrying it forward:

The chapter is in good hands. It was in good hands before this, and the fact that so many people who’ve led it before are still around — still contributing, still showing up in black tie for the handover party — says something about what EO Vietnam has become.

06What’s next

FY2026-27 is going to be a big year. If you’ve been thinking about what EO Vietnam could mean for your business, this is the year to find out.