Justin Ho Li Vern
Malaysia Ambassador
With more than 15 years of overall experience in the hospitality industry and various qualifications, Justin has a lot of things on his plate. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the food and beverage division of the School of Hospitality at BERJAYA University College, a WSET Educator for Levels 1 and 2 at the BERJAYA Wine and Spirit Education Centre. He was the President of Sommelier Association of Malaysia (SOMLAY) in 2016 and 2017 and, before that, a food and beverage lecturer at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus.
Apart from that, he is also an entrepreneur as a co-founder of two restaurant groups. He has also worked as a sommelier and sake sommelier for restaurants and bars such as Restaurant DC, Topshelf at TTDI, Sushi Hibiki at The Four Seasons Hotel, Cheong Somm at RexKL and LUT Group. Recently, he has started to work as a consultant for restaurants and hotels, as well as speaker for wine and sake events in Malaysia.
Justin has won the Best Sommelier of Malaysia competition three times (2015, 2016, 2018), and also achieved third place in the Best Sommelier of Asia and Oceania in 2018.