Manny is an Australian-Vietnamese, having fled post-war Vietnam with his parents as boat refugees in 1984. He grew up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and attended Melbourne High School, after which he graduated from medical school at the University of Melbourne in 2005. He completed surgical training through Western Health from 2007-2012 and obtained Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in General Surgery in 2013. He also completed a Master of Business Administration in 2015 and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Manny completed his post-graduate law degree (Juris Doctor) in October 2022 as the recipient of a Deakin University Academic Excellence Scholarship. He also has a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2023 as an Australian Lawyer but is currently not practising law. He did, however, successfully pass the Victorian Bar Entrance Exam in October 2023 and expects to undertake further legal training in 2025 towards becoming a barrister. Since 2013, Manny has been a local resident of Bendigo and provides specialist surgical management for a wide range of minor and major General Surgical conditions. He has special interests in endoscopy (maintaining regular GESA recertification) and laparoscopic inguinal (groin) hernia repairs. In his spare time, Manny enjoys playing the piano, reading and spending time with his young family.