Speakers

Professor Jason Potts

Distinguished Professor of Economics, RMIT University

Co-founder, Blockchain Innovation Hub, RMIT University

Jason Potts is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at RMIT University and Co-director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub at RMIT. He is also a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. His work is broadly centred about the study of the creation and use of new knowledge (i.e. technological change) and its institutional context as the core explanation of long run economic transformation. His work is highly interdisciplinary, extensively collaborative, mixed methods, and draws together several distinct themes about the dynamics of, and interaction between, technological, institutional and cultural change.

Potts has developed new methods and theories to explain long-run economic transformation and pioneered several new fields of analysis. These include network-theory based approaches to evolutionary economics (for which he won the 2000 Joseph A Schumpeter Prize); Cultural Science (jointly with John Hartley); behavioural innovation economics; the theory of ‘social network markets’, theory of the ‘innovation commons’; and recently ‘institutional cryptoeconomics’.

He has written 5 books and published over 80 articles on topics including growth theory, creative industries, economics of cities, innovation commons, and recently on crypto- economics and blockchain.

Potts is an editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics, Vice President of the International Joseph A Schumpeter Society, a Board Member of Australian Digital Commerce Association, and a Fellow of the British Blockchain Association. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian government’s National Blockchain Roadmap.

Associate Professor Chris Berg

Co-Founder and Co-Director, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub

RMIT University

Associate Professor Berg is a Research Fellow with the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies, a Founding Board Member of the Worldwide Blockchain Innovation Association and the International Society for the Study of Decentralised Governance, is an Academic Fellow with the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, and is on the Academic Board of the Samuel Griffiths Society.

He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian government’s National Blockchain Roadmap, and is co-chair of the committee’s working group into blockchain for credentials.

In 2019 he was awarded the RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact (Early Career Researcher) and the RMIT College of Business Award for Research Impact. He was awarded the Australian Libertarian Society’s ‘Libertarian of the Year’ prize in 2018.

Associate Professor Berg has been a regular columnist with the Sunday Age and ABC’s The Drum. In addition, his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Australian, the Australian Financial Review, and the Sydney Morning Herald, as well as magazines such as Quadrant, Spectator Australia, Meanjin, and Overland. He is a frequent media commentator on television and radio and appears regularly throughout the electronic press.

Before joining academia, Associate Professor Berg had a background in think tanks and public policy. From 2004 and 2017 he was a policy analyst and research leader with the Institute of Public Affairs. He was a long-standing editor of the IPA Review, Australia’s oldest political magazine, published by the Institute of Public Affairs. Under his editorship, the IPA Review won the 2008 Sir Anthony Fisher Memorial Award for best magazine. Between 2017 and 2020 he maintained an honorary Adjunct Fellow position with the IPA, and was the co-host of the podcast Looking Forward.

He holds a PhD in economics from RMIT University, which was awarded in 2017. His thesis was titled Safety and Soundness: An Economic History of Prudential Bank Regulation in Australia, 1893-2008, and offered the first comprehensive history of the politics and economics of prudential bank regulation in Australia. The thesis was awarded the RMIT Prize for Research Excellence in the Enterprise category.

He also holds a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Melbourne. His undergraduate thesis was titled ‘The Biggest Giveaway in the History of the Nation’: A Legislative History of the 1962 Communications Satellite Act, and looked at the political economy of the creation of the United States Communications Satellite Corporation.

Mr Thanh Le

Founder, Coin98 Finance

Thanh Le is the visionary Founder behind Coin98 Finance, a comprehensive ecosystem of DeFi protocols, applications, and NFTs on multiple blockchains.

Prior to Coin98, Thanh established himself as a successful serial entrepreneur and an early cryptocurrency investor. In 2017, he created the Coin98 community to share knowledge, conduct research, and assist others in understanding the world of crypto. By 2019, Coin98 shifted its focus towards developing innovative products that cater to unexplored user needs and onboard millions of users into the Web3 sphere, aligning with the ultimate goal of making Web3 accessible to all.

The core offerings of Coin98 now include the widely-used Coin98 Super App, boasting over 6 million global users; Coin98 Dollar (CUSD); Dagora, an NFT marketplace; SpaceGate, a cross-chain bridge; and various other solutions.

Mr Dao Trung Thanh

Chief Information Officer, Vinschool System

Mr. Thành’s most recent endeavor as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Vinschool System, under the esteemed Vingroup umbrella, witnessed his leadership in advancing digital education for over 28,000 students across 33 campuses in the nation. He has also been an intrinsic part of companies such as the MVV Group, where he served as their Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and has had a successful tenure at Netsoft.

In the era of digital transformation, Mr. Thành has been at the forefront, co-founding the progressive think tank, DTSI. Furthermore, his commitment to imparting knowledge is evident through his 12-year tenure as an educator at esteemed institutions such as Saigon Tech and the John von Neumann Institute.

Mr. Đào Trung Thành’s expertise and insights would prove invaluable to any organization or potential collaboration. It is highly recommended to engage with him to access his extensive knowledge in Information Technology, Telecommunications, and AI-driven digital transformations.

Dr Son Nguyen

Interim Associate Program Manager, RMIT University Vietnam

Son has more than 15 years of experience in teaching law and doing legal research. Son’s teaching and research interests include international trade law, commercial law, contract law, consumer law, corporate governance, business ethics, and smart contracts.

Mr. Lam Quang Nam

Chairman of the Board, SSG Management Solutions Joint Stock Company

Member of VINASA Executive Committee

Member of the Steering Committee for Digital Transformation Guidelines for Manufacturing Enterprise

Having worked in the IT industry since 1992, after many years at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Nam transitioned to the private sector and became a member of the VINASA Executive Committee in 2007. He has experience in developing strategies and operating various types of IT businesses, as well as providing strategic consulting and building IT-based business systems for many domestic enterprises.

He is one of the main authors of the "Guidelines for Digital Transformation for Small and Medium Enterprises" and "Guidelines for Digital Transformation for Manufacturing Enterprises" sponsored by VINASA, as well s digital transformation guidelines for many economic sectors.