Workplace

Jens Lottner, CEO of Techcombank, said that the new headquarters were now in two world-class financial buildings in prime locations in Hanoi and HCMC. The designs by Foster + Partners have created open and collaborative working environments that will encourage innovation and the sharing of ideas.

“Our employees can now be proud of the two new headquarters. Each building will help to empower our people so that they can better serve the customers while also contributing to the sustainable development of Hanoi and HCMC,” he said.

The opening of the two new buildings was celebrated by immersive digital art exhibitions designed to showcase Vietnam’s cultural heritage.

At the Techcombank Tower in Hanoi, a collection of digital artworks was displayed that represented the synergy of heritage and the future that is embodied in the building’s design.

At the Techcombank Tower Saigon, the exhibition connected architecture, nature, and people in a way that expressed the city’s “dynamic and constant movement”. The two exhibitions are the largest digital art installations to be shown in Vietnam.

Techcombank’s new headquarters offers employees an excellent working environment comparable with modern buildings found in other global financial centers.

Their design incorporates open workspaces and modern amenities that reflect the bank’s strong commitment to creating the best working conditions for its people.

In 2022 and 2023, Techcombank became the first Vietnamese bank to run overseas talent roadshows when it visited Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to recruit Vietnamese-born talents to return to the country and join the bank.

In September 2023, Techcombank also became the first and only Vietnamese bank to be named in the top 11 of the Best Workplaces in Asia 2023 by the Great Place to Work, a leading global organization that assesses workplace culture.

It is a testament to Techcombank’s relentless efforts on its 30-year journey of development to invest in its people and create a working environment and culture that empowers them to achieve their full potential.

The opening of the two new state-of-the-art office buildings not only redefines the bank’s physical presence but also sets new standards for workplace innovation.

“With modern amenities, sustainable design, and a focus on fostering creativity and collaboration, the buildings reflect our dedication to excellence. Techcombank can now offer a working environment comparable to leading global organizations, and this confirms our commitment to attracting and empowering the best talent,” said Lottner.

Logistics groups go green to add to net-zero goals, source: DHL Express

DHL Express on September 19 onboarded Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) to its GoGreen Plus service to reduce carbon emissions for its time-definite international shipments through the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

By investing in GoGreen Plus, it is estimated that ACB will be able to reduce 14 tonnes worth of total CO2 emissions within a 12-month period.

The entire process is verified annually by an independent third-party agency. In addition, a complementary carbon footprint report will be updated monthly, detailing ACB’s overall emissions with DHL Express.

Bernardo Bautista, general director and country manager for DHL Express Vietnam, said that the company believed that corporate social responsibility and business success go hand-in-hand.

“Global sustainability and environmental protection are important for all of us, including our customers. With SAF as our key lever to effectively reduce carbon emissions, DHL Express is proud to be the first global express courier to enable our customers to do so,” Bautista said.

DHL Group is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and is investing €7 billion ($7.45 billion) in carbon emissions reduction initiatives before 2030.

With approximately 90 per cent of its carbon footprint derived from the air network, viable and sustainable air transport solutions are important for creating cleaner and greener logistics operations.

Also on September 19, Frasers Property Vietnam (FPV) and GELEX Group jointly broke ground for the Industrial Centre YP2C in the northern province of Bac Ninh, which is expected to be completed in 2024.

The centre will be designed to meet LEED certification standards with strong sustainability and technology features aimed to support workplace productivity as well as the health and wellbeing of occupiers. These include the use of construction materials in the project which prioritise natural light, promoting energy efficiency, and the enhancement of building life-cycle impact reduction.

FPV takes a long-term view for its projects and has committed to green-certify its owned and asset-managed properties as part of its sustainability goals. Its Eco Logistics Centre, a ready-built warehouse development, recently obtained LEED certification, while Binh Duong Industrial Park, the company’s first industrial development in Vietnam, is also on track to receive certification.

Meanwhile, Tan Cang-Cat Lai in Ho Chi Minh City is the first port in Vietnam to be classified as green by the APEC Port Service Network Council. In order to reduce pollution and traffic congestion, 80 per cent of freight transport between the Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport complex and the surrounding area with Saigon Newport is currently carried out by barges instead of trucks.

According to a report by the Vietnam Association of Logistics Services Enterprises, the industry has seen significant growth over the past 10 years, with an average annual growth rate of 14-16 per cent. The scale of the entire industry has reached $40-42 billion per cent per year.

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LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – A criminal trial for former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler will head into its fourth day Thursday as he faces charges that he retaliated against a teacher for blowing the whistle on sexual abuse, and for cooperating with a special grand jury empaneled to investigate the school system following its coverup of a bathroom rape.

Former teacher Erin Brooks testified that a 10-year-old autistic student would grab her genitals dozens of times a day while making sexual motions with his tongue, and that when she said her workplace was becoming unsafe, administrators gave her a piece of cardboard to hold in front of her groin and offered to buy her an apron to, as Brooks said, “slow down the penetration.”

Ziegler’s attorney Erin Harrigan and Diane Mackey, the principal of Rosa Lee Carter Elementary, both appeared to blame Brooks and her teaching aide Laurie Vandermeulen for the abuse the educators described in testimony. As far as they knew, they argued in court, the student didn’t do the same to his new teacher, and the teachers failed to implement their suggestions such as the apron.

The trial, in which the school district’s disgraced former top official faces three misdemeanor charges, could be the best chance at criminal culpability for Loudoun officials after its spokesman was acquitted of felony perjury charges. Outrage over the school system’s coverup of a rape by a skirt-wearing boy, coupled with the fact that the county’s prosecutor is a leftist activist who tried to jail the rape victim’s father, led Gov. Glenn Youngkin to empower a special grand jury to investigate the school system.

The charges Ziegler is facing this week stem from allegations that the administrator punished a teacher for cooperating with that grand jury, and for talking about another incident of sexual abuse which she feared LCPS wanted to cover up.

Brooks said she was a dedicated special education teacher who withstood hitting, spitting, and biting without complaint, but that this was something much worse, and she was concerned for the student as well as herself, but that the school district’s response was “feeble.”

“In my expert opinion, these behaviors were a sign that something is going on, that they’re witnessing or experiencing it. I asked Mrs. Mackey to call [Child Protective Services], but she refused,” Brooks said.

Ziegler’s attorney repeatedly suggested that Brooks was responsible for her own sexual assault because she refused to give the autistic student an iPad, leading to his frustration. The jury heard little evidence from witnesses that this occurred, and none to explain why Brooks — a second-generation special ed teacher — would have a motive to do that.

Brooks and Vandermeulen documented how many times a day they were assaulted at work. They shared the chart by email with Principal Mackey, but she never even opened it. Vandermuelen eventually began forwarding some emails on the topic to her personal Gmail, fearing that they were headed towards another LCPS sex-abuse coverup.

Vandermeulen broke down in tears on the witness stand recounting how she suffered the same abuse — first at the hands of a special needs student, and then at the hands of the school administration when she advocated for it to stop.

She worked to get the attention of the school board but didn’t know how, so a friend introduced her to Ian Prior, a frequent speaker before the school board. Vandermeulen gave Prior only a bare accounting of the difficulty she was facing — a teacher facing sexual abuse who filed a Title IX complaint in March 2022 — and he relayed the same at a school board meeting.

After learning that Vandermeulen had the conversation, Brooks googled Prior’s contact information and messaged him warning him not to disclose any personal information about the child — which it turned out was unnecessary because he didn’t know any.

After the school board meeting — which Mackey watched — the student was immediately removed from Brooks’ and Vendermeulen’s classroom, and Brooks was summoned to the office, believing something was finally being done to help her. Instead, she learned she was being investigated by the school system, and began facing retaliation, she said.

Mackey read her performance evaluation of Brooks in court, which repeatedly seemed to blame her for her own sexual assault, and said her failure to control her classroom led to a student being moved to a different class, which the evaluation said was the major black mark against her.

“Mrs. Brooks displayed rigidity in responding to the needs of a student, resulting in the student being removed from the classroom,” it said.

Prosecutors asked Mackey to show the jury what she wanted Brooks to use the piece of cardboard for, and Mackey stood up and held it in front of her groin. “I would have expected her to be professional enough to work with this student,” she said.

The prosecutor asked “what would be the appropriate professional response to having her genitals touched,” to which Mackey responded, “I don’t know.”

Evidence at trial showed that Brooks was Special Education Teacher of the Year in 2021, and got glowing reviews in early 2022 — only to have Ziegler recommend that the school board fire her, the only teacher he did that to.

The school district began claiming that Brooks violated the student’s privacy after an education activist made a vague mention of the educators’ workplace safety issue at a school board meeting — there was no mention of the student’s name or age, or even the name of the school.

In court, Ziegler’s lawyer claimed he asked the board to fire Brooks because LCPS thought it might get sued by the parents of the assailant, despite evidence suggesting that the parents were barely responsive and that the student might even be suffering abuse at home.

Principal Mackey testified that she recommended that Brooks be fired without pressure from Ziegler — but also admitted that her testimony to the grand jury a year ago, in which she denied ever discussing it with him, was false. She remembered on the first day of the trial that she did have a phone call with him about it, she said.

Human resources had not recommended that Brooks be fired, but Ziegler aggressively pushed for her firing anyway in retaliation for filing a Title IX complaint and testifying to the grand jury, the prosecution said.

School board member John Beatty testified that Ziegler told the board that Brooks improperly disclosed private information about a child to a conservative activist (which, testimony at trial showed, was untrue) and to the special grand jury initiated by Gov. Youngkin in response to the “gender-fluid” rape coverup (to which she was subpoenaed and legally required to disclose all details). Beatty testified that Ziegler seemed happy to fire Brooks, and that he acted suspiciously when questioned about it.

Principal Mackey acknowledged that when Brooks asked for the day off to testify, she demanded to see the subpoena. Just prior to Ziegler’s indictment, the grand jury issued a report saying that a member of Ziegler’s cabinet had told school employees and board members not to speak openly with the grand jury, and that it would have indicted Mackey for witness tampering if Virginia had such a law. Mackey said she communicated closely with the cabinet member who issued the warning.

The special grand jury was convened by Gov. Youngkin to investigate LCPS, spurred by The Daily Wire’s October 2021 report . Loudoun’s local prosecutor is a far-Left activist who tried to jail the father of the rape victim. Ziegler is facing three misdemeanors — two involving Brooks, and one which will be tried separately in February for falsely stating that there had been no sexual assaults in the school bathrooms when he knew a “gender-fluid” student had done so just weeks prior.

Related: Loudoun Said Trump’s Policies Forced Them To Cover Up Rape. Its Own Lawyers Found The Opposite In Secret Report.