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Belinda’s story is relatable to many professionals arriving in Vietnam, particularly women who find themselves in a new country and want to do something new and engaging.  Belinda moved to Vietnam in 2015 with her family. After nearly fifteen years with the UN, she decided to seek new challenges. Through strategic networking, she was hired as Country Director for East Meets West/Thrive Networks. As its Country Director, Belinda works on innovative development programming with private and government sectors and designs self-sustaining social initiatives that support the attainment of sustainable development goals in WASH, health and education. 


Belinda is the Leader of EP Hanoi.


Mary Warner was born in Florida where she attended one of the state's first public art-focused high schools studying creative writing, photography and drawing. She merged her love of history with the visual arts and earned a B.A. degree in Art History from the University of Mississippi with Summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa distinctions. After school, she worked briefly in London at the National Trust, the largest conservation organization in the UK and presided over by HRH Charles, Prince of Wales.


After London, she returned to Oxford, Mississippi where her dedication to art preservation led her to oversee the digitization of the Southern Graphics Council's print archive, in addition to her role as marketing director for one of the most beloved independent booksellers in the world.


In 2007, she served as Executive producer of an arts and literature live, radio broadcast, Thacker Mountain Radio, and began work on her Master's degree in Southern Studies. During this time, her writing and illustrations were published in various media outlets including Garden & Gun, Edible, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Paste Magazine. She graduated in 2009 from the Center for the Study of Southern Culture having produced the first-ever film thesis, which resulted in a documentary featured in two film festivals in the Southeast. 


That same year she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she began her brand and design consultancy, working primarily with luxury international clients in Israel, Italy, the UK, France, and Canada. In addition to her consultancy, Mary has been steadfast in her art making, producing photographs and mixed media art, which have been privately collected. She has participated in a group show at Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina, the Newport Art Museum, in Rhode Island, and the Southeast Center for Photography in the creative art hub of Greenville, South Carolina. 


Mary's art (both writing and visual) explores identity and the idea of naming things. As an identical twin and as someone who intimately understands the world of branding where people are encouraged to "differentiate themselves", she has merged her experiences to create work that is understated, yet insightful and captivating.  Much of her current work can be found online at Coucou Home.


Mary currently lives in Shanghai where she is studying acupuncture, medical qigong, and Chinese plant medicine at Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine. 


Laura is a U.S. lawyer turned expat career strategist who stumbled upon her life’s calling whilst living in Hanoi. Having decided years ago to accompany her husband in his international career moves, Laura has lived in seven countries over the span of 15 years. Mere weeks into her time in Hanoi, Laura seized upon a new opportunity to utilize her experiences to empower the wider global community of “trailing spouses.” In the two short years that she has been in Vietnam, she successfully made a full transition into the role of a global career strategist. Laura was recently recognized by the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) as a top nominee for the 2017 “Champion of Career Enhancement for Eligible Family Members (CCE-EFM)” Award and was featured in the AAFSW’s January 2018 edition of Global Link. Today, she lives in Tokyo with her family and their amazing pug Louie.

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