Vietnam’s 20 most influential businesswomen

1. Cao Thi Ngoc Dung

Cao Thi Ngoc Dung was born in 1957, Quang Ngai. She is the chairman and general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ). She was also voted by Forbes Asia as one of the most influential women in Asia.

PNJ’s revenue in the first 11 months of 2016 was VND7.7 trillion ($336.5 million), increasing by 9 per cent compared to the same period of 2015, of which revenue from jewellery retail increased by 28 per cent.

PNJ’s pre-tax profit was VND561 billion ($54.6 million), 132 per cent higher than in the same period of 2015.

2. Chu Thi Thanh Ha

The chairman of FPT Telecom was born in 1974. She is also the wife of Le The Hung, one of the founders of FPT.

FPT Telecom is a subsidiary of FPT. In 2016, FPT Telecom’s revenue was estimated to reach more than VND6.15 trillion ($268.4 million), growing 20.4 per cent on-year. Profit before tax was estimated to reach VND950 billion ($41.6 million), growing 9 per cent. 

3. Dinh Thi Hoa

Dinh Thi Hoa, a Politics and Journalism major from Moscow University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, was born in 1961. She used to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) before becoming the chairman of Galaxy Studio and deputy chairman of Thien Viet Securities.

Galaxy Studio was the first private company to enter the film business when the field was opened up by the Vietnamese government in 2003. The company currently operates in film production, cinema, news media, with the newspaper Nhip cau Dau tu, and produces TV content. The Galaxy Cinema chain serves over 2 million moviegoers per year.

4. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen has been general director of Garment company 10 (GARCO 10) for ten years.

Garco 10 operates 18 factories and has 12,000 employees, spanning 8 provinces and cities. In 2016, GARCO 10’s revenue was VND2.9 trillion ($127.7 million), increasing 6.42 per cent on-year.

5. Pham Thi Huan

Pham Thi Huan was born in 1954, in a poor family in Long An Province. She dropped out of school to earn a living by selling eggs at the age of 16. Huan established Ba Huan Co., Ltd. which now sells eggs at more than 1000 outlets and distributors, accounting for 50 per cent of the egg market in Ho Chi Minh City. Last September, FAO recognized her as “model farmer.”

The company currently has an 18-hectare farm housing 1 million chickens, a 20-tonne-an-hour animal feed factory in Binh Duong, a 2-hectare egg processing plant with the capacity of 185,000 eggs an hour in Ho Chi Minh City, and a 50-tonne a day food processing plant in Long An. It has recently started construction of a plant in Hanoi.

6. Thai Huong

Thai Huong was born in 1958. She is the chairman of TH Joint Stock Company and deputy the chairman and general director of Bac A Joint Stock Bank. TH Group, best known for its TH true MILK brand, currently operates in agriculture, forestry, and education. In February,

TH Group inaugurated its TH school system in Hanoi. In 2016 it also went ahead with its global expansion plan by constructing its $2.7-billion hi-tech concentrated dairy and fresh milk production project in Russia.

7. Truong My Lan

Truong My Lan was the chairman of Van Thinh Phat Group, which operates mainly in real estate, restaurants, and hotels, with a sizeable portfolio spanning across the country.

On August 3, Van Thinh Phat signed an agreement with two giant Malaysian property developers, Pavilion Group and Genting Malaysia Berhad (GENM), to develop a $6-billion urban ecological system called Saigon Peninsula Project in Ho Chi Minh City's District 7.

8. Truong Thi Le Khanh

The chairman of Vinh Hoan Corporation (VHC) was born in 1961, in An Giang Province. She established VHC in 1997, operating in the fishery industry. VHC is one of the top 500 biggest companies in Vietnam, according to Vietnam Report.

In 2016, VHC’s net revenue and profit after tax were VND7.3 trillion ($258 million) and VND555 billion ($24.3 million), respectively. VHC was voted one of the top 50 best listed companies on the Vietnamese stock market by Forbes. With her stocks, Khanh is among the top 20 richest people in the Vietnamese stock market. 

9. Mai Kieu Lien

Mai Kieu Lien was born in 1953, Can Tho Province. General director of Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), she has made historic decisions, namely refusing to turn Vinamilk into a joint venture company when invited by a foreign giant, and doing business with Iraq in the midst of war.

Vinamilk earned VND47 trillion ($2 billion) in revenue and VND9.3 trillion ($410 million) in profit in 2016. Vinamilk’s products are exported to more than 40 countries worldwide, from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to America and Europe. Vinamilk’s total export in 2015 was more than VND5.3 trillion ($245 million), the equivalent of more than 47,000 tonnes of milk. 

10. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan is the chairman and general director of AIC Group. She was honoured for highest academic achievements between 2004 and 2014 and was awarded the “Vernadski Star,” by Russia’s International Academy of Systems Studies (IASS) in 2015. She was one of the 12 businesswomen honoured by the ASEAN Women Enterpreneurs in 2015.

Her company, AIC Group, is operating in a wide range of areas, such as education, vocational training, healthcare, environment, transportation, information and technology, investment, finance, consultancy, labour export, and fire protection, with 20 subsidiaries and a staff of more than 1,000.

11. Tran Thi Le

Tran Thi Le started as assistant director of Nutifood Nutrition Joint Stock Company before becoming general director, a position she has kept until now. After the financial crisis of Nutifood in 2008, Tran Thi Le along with her husband and chairman Tran Thanh Hai restructured the company.

Nutifood cooperated with Doan Nguyen Duc, the chairman Hoang Anh Gia Lai, to recover the company. Nutifood, with products such as liquid milk, yoghurt, and formula for children, is one of the most popular household brands in Vietnam. 

12. Duong Thi Mai Hoa

Duong Thi Mai Hoa was born in 1969, Hanoi. She is the general director of Vingroup, which operates in real estate, retail, hospitality, education, healthcare, and agriculture.

In 2016, Vingroup earned a revenue of VND58.5 trillion ($2.6 billion) and a net profit of VND3.5 trillion ($153 million).

Vingroup was honoured “The Best in the World” and “The Best in Asia-Pacific” in the categories “High-rise building” and “Urban Complex” at the International Property Awards 2016. 

13. Nguyen Thi Nga

Nguyen Thi Nga, nicknamed “Madam Nga,” is the first person to establish private banks in Vietnam. She is the chairman of SeABank and BRG Group. BRG Group has developed a large number of golf courses, resorts and hotels, such as Hilton Hanoi Westlake, Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi, Kings’ Island Golf Course, and Doson Seaside Golf Resort.

It also owns almost half the shares of Hanoi Intimex, a state-owned enterprise owning a large volume of real estate, and 43 per cent of the capital of The National Oil Services Company of Vietnam Limited (OSC), which operates in gas, tourism, and real estate.

14. Nguyen Thanh Phuong

Nguyen Thanh Phuong was born in 1980. She is the chairman of Viet Capital Securities Company (VCSC), which was established in 2007 but grew fast with 25 per cent return on equity (ROE) in 2014.

In 2015, VCSC’s revenue was VND705.7 billion ($31.5 million), with a pre-tax profit of VND301 billion ($13.4 million) and earnings per shares (EPS) of VND4,744 per share ($0.2 per share).

15. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao was born in 1970, Hanoi. She earned $1 million at the age of 21 by trading fax machines and rubber in Europe. She had experience in finance, banking, and economics all over the world. Now, she is general director of Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (VJC), deputy chairman and general director of HD Bank, and founding shareholder of Sovico Holdings.

She is considered as “the person who changed the Vietnamese airline industry” thanks to her contribution to VJC. On February 28, 2017, 300 million shares of this company were listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE). In 2016, VJC’s total assets reached VND19.9 trillion ($872.4 million), its net revenue was VND27.5 trillion ($1.2 billion) and profit after tax was VND2.3 trillion ($100.3 million). 

16. Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh

Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh was born in 1952. She started her career as an engineer before becoming director of state-run Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) at the age of 33.

REE went public in 1993. Now, she is the chairman and general director of the company which earned VND3.7 trillion ($160.3 million) in revenue, with a profit after tax ofVND 1.2 trillion ($52.1 million) in 2016. 

17. Ha Thu Thanh

Ha Thu Thanh is general director of Deloitte Vietnam Company Limited. Until now, she is the only woman out of the 152 leaders of the Deloitte company all over the world. She has been loyal to her auditing career for 30 years and has held the leading position of Deloitte Vietnam for 15 years.

Deloitte Vietnam is a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the “big four” auditing companies in the world. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is present in 142 countries with more than 100,000 employees. Ha Thu Thanh is also spending her second term as the chairman of the Hanoi Women Entrepreneurs Association (2013-2018). 

18. Le Minh Trang

Le Minh Trang was born in 1965.

She is the general director of Saigon Trading Group, which is one of the 17 leading state-owned companies in Ho Chi Minh City, with 60 subsidiaries operating in production, trading, and services, with a chartered capital of VND87 trillion ($379.3 million) and more than 14,000 staff members.

19. Vu Thi Thuan

Vu Thi Thuan was born in 1956. She has been the chairman of Traphaco Joint Stock Company for 13 years. After more than 44 years of development, Traphaco is now one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Vietnam, with three subsidiaries and 20 branches selling products through 23,000 retail pharmacies.

In 2016, the company’s net profit was VND221 billion ($9.68 million), its total assets were VND1.36 trillion ($59.4 million), and revenue was almost VND2 trillion ($87.6 million).

20. Luu Thi Tuyet Mai

Luu Thi Tuyet Mai is CEO and founder of Mesa Group, with more than 1,500 employees present in more than 26 provinces.

Mesa Group started as a distribution company and built partnerships with well-known brands, such as Procter & Gamble, Milex, Nestlé, Shell Lubes, and Miliket. Now the group has expanded its operations to restaurants and real estate.