Australian Business Champion to Vietnam 2022 – Martin Bean

Australian Business Champion to Vietnam, Martin Bean joined us for an interview at the AVPI Sydney Roundtable in 2022 to discuss his role as a Business Champion, what he hopes to achieve by having these conversations, what he has learn in his time doing business in Vietnam and why the time for Vietnam is now.

Martin bring to the Business Champion role a lifetime of experience in education, technology and leadership. Martin is the CEO of The Bean Centre, and the former Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University.

In his role at RMIT he led a number of initiatives to advance digital education efforts and develop social policies to increase digital literacy at campuses both here and Vietnam, where his tenacity in providing quality digital education solidified RMIT’s reputation in Vietnam as the leading higher education provider. His appointment to Business Champion representing the key Australia Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy (AVEEES) sector of digital economy was to put it simply, a ‘no brainer’, and his excitement about these roundtables and the opportunities they could create is palpable.

Prior to RMIT University, he held the positions of Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, the UK’s largest academic institution and leader in the provision of flexible learning, and General Manager of Microsoft’s Education Products Group in Seattle, Washington, as well as numerous other positions across the education and technology sectors.

This interview forms part of the AVPI’s ‘Approaching 50 years of diplomatic relations’ series. Across 2022 we sat down with several key stakeholders at our events to discuss the upcoming milestone between Australia and Vietnam, their reflections on the relationship and what they hope we can achieve together in the future.