The Barongs
Mr Matthew
Founder and owner, Oceanus Group · Saigon and Bali
“Why choose this or that, when I can embrace this and that?”
Matthew studied in Germany in the early 1990s and came home to Vietnam when most of his friends stayed. He wanted an interesting life, not only a stable one. Nobody at home needed a German-trained agronomist, so he became a guide for German travellers.
On one of those journeys a German architect asked whether he could help draw plans. “I do not know how to draw. But if you teach me, I will learn.” Two months of struggle later the first drawings went out, made to strict German standards. That studio became 1000 Ants.
He fell in love with Bali in 2019 and now lives between Saigon and the island. He says his strength is not fine words but execution: on time, exact, and consistent, every day. What he looks for first is people, honest and capable, placed where they can do their best work.