ATA merged with the Gannon Companies in 1999 to form Gannon Vietnam Limited, a 100% foreign-owned and invested service company that provides warehousing, labeling, packaging, and logistical support for firms like B.F. Goodrich and Nestlé. Following the merger, Walter took over Gannon Vietnam Limited and Charlie moved to Thailand to run Gannon in Bangkok. As managing director of the Gannon Pacific Company and senior vice president and director of corporate finance for Gannon International, Charlie recently put together the largest real estate deal in the history of Thailand. As a result, Gannon will build, own, and operate a Ritz Carlton Hotel in the central business district of Bangkok.

Meanwhile, Walter maintains a furious pace of trade and trade development in Vietnam. His company employs 250 people in four divisions-consumer products, building materials, logistic services, and their newly formed beverage production division, through which they are now developing their own line of fruit drinks-and which helps sell major US brands like Frito Lay, Mars, and Keebler.

Walter is also Chairman of the highly vocal American Chamber of Commerce. Having served on the AmCham Board of Governors since 1997, Blocker has been instrumental in developing and implementing the US-Vietnam Bi-lateral Trade Agreement. He has also helped support Vietnam's ambitious goal of joining the World Trade Organization, a goal that he says will depend on their ability to implement the Bi-lateral Trade Agreement successfully.

WALTER BLOCKER ´90 Trade entrepreneur, Vietnam

Blocker, who briefed Secretary of State Albright, Secretary of Defense Cohen, and President Clinton during their visits to Vietnam before the signing of the BTA in 2001, says AmCham's goal is to "support to our city government officials so that the reform process can continue in the most aggressive and stable ways." He says the city government has proven itself enthusiastically receptive to making the changes to promote a favorable investment climate. While Vietnam's political leadership will be ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the Bi-lateral Trade Agreement, "corporate citizens," he says, shoulder a good deal of accountability. "There must be corporate responsibility for helping Vietnam implement all the laws that have been established," he told reporter Son Tung in a cover story for the Saigon Times Weekly.

After a period of investor malaise in the mid-1990s, improved foreign investment laws have helped turn Vietnam into a hot new business destination. And many economists point to Vietnam as an example of how direct foreign investment can benefit a developing country. In the recent Pew Global Attitudes Project, two-thirds of Vietnamese say they have seen a marked increase in trade and business ties with other countries-more than any other nation surveyed. And the overwhelming majority say that improved health care costs, a better job market, and a greater availability of food and medicine are the result of that increase. The Pew survey also notes that Vietnam's rapidly growing GDP has moved almost in lockstep with their rapidly decreasing poverty rate. And Ho Chi Minh City, long considered a hardship post by foreign embassies, is now known for the high quality of its schools, supermarkets, community resources, and restaurants.

Blocker is also the founding board member of United Way International's Vietnam Chapter. He serves on the Advisory Committee to US Ambassador to Vietnam Raymond Burghardt, and is past Board member of the Norfolk-based Operation Smile Vietnam.

Despite having firm roots in Vietnam, Blocker says he still draws on his Hampden-Sydney experiences every day. Studying Hemingway under Dr. Martin, he says, taught him "to think clearly, concisely, and distill information quickly." Dr. Joyner, while teaching him how a nuclear reactor works, showed him that "the power of estimation and grasping of concepts is more important to a leader than dissecting every little detail." He also cites former President Leutze, who "taught us to look outside our American community and see how we fit into global society and global economics." But perhaps the most important lessons center on "the honor code, the masculinity of being a gentleman, the self-dignity of being polite." Those values, he says, are important in any culture and in any profession.