Marco Förster

BIO

As ASEAN Director at Dezan Shira & Associates (DSA), Marco Förster oversees the firm's regional initiatives in Southeast Asia. Primarily based in Ho Chi Minh City, his main focus involves advising corporate investors on expansion strategies within ASEAN and ensuring operational compliance.

Prior to his relocation to Vietnam, he had been with the firm’s Beijing and Shenzhen offices for several years. Before joining the firm, he gained business consulting experience at other advisory firms in Berlin, Guangzhou, Hanoi, and Munich.

Marco has lived and worked in the region since 2014. This allowed him to take on key positions in major advocacy bodies, such as chairing the SME Forum of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Besides this, Marco has been actively involved in the G20 summits in Hangzhou in 2016, and Bali in 2022. The B20 India 2023 appointed him to serve on its Trade and Investment Task Force.

Marco, who is half Vietnamese and half German, is originally from Brandenburg. He holds a master’s degree in Global Trade from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and a postgraduate diploma in Digital Business from Columbia Business School. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics. In 2022, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS). Marco speaks fluent German, English, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

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