3 Vietnamese businesswomen are among the most powerful in Asia

Magazine Fortune (USA) announced the list of 100 most powerful businesswomen in the Asia-Pacific region. This year’s representatives come from 11 countries, in many fields, from finance, energy, transportation, food – beverages to restaurants – hotels.

Vietnam has 3 representatives on the list. They are VietJet Air Chairman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Vinamilk CEO Mai Kieu Lien and Sacombank CEO Nguyen Duc Thach Diem.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao founded the low-cost airline VietJet in 2011. Since its operation, this airline has always maintained a high growth rate. Last year, the airline carried 25.3 million passengers. The number of international visitors is 7.6 million, an increase of 183% compared to 2022. Ms. Thao is also the only female billionaire in Vietnam to appear on the list of Forbes for many years, currently owns assets of 2.9 billion USD.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mai Kieu Lien joined Vinamilk since the business was founded in 1976. During the first 4 years, she was a technology engineer in charge of the condensed milk factory. After completing the training course in Russia in 1984, she worked as Deputy General Director in charge of economics. Since 1992, she has been General Director of Vinamilk. Vinamilk is currently the largest food – beverage company listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), with a capitalization of 6 billion USD.

Ms. Nguyen Duc Thach Diem is Vice President and CEO of Sacombank. She joined this bank in 2002 and was appointed to the position of CEO in 2017. Ms. Diem steered Sacombank through a 7-year restructuring process to reduce bad debt. Total assets of this bank are currently about 27 billion USD.

This is the first year Fortune announced the list of Asia’s Most Powerful Businesswomen. More than half of this year’s representatives are CEOs, 26 are Presidents and 11 are Chief Financial Officers. 13 representatives are regional leaders of large multinational companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s or Nike. More than 10% of entrepreneurs are founders of the company they are leading.

Fortune evaluate the female entrepreneurs on this year’s list who have transformed companies, created breakthroughs in the industry, promoted growth, and motivated colleagues and the next generation of leaders. They are selected based on business size, strategic vision, ability to create breakthroughs, influence on the economy and social responsibility.