3 Vietnamese among Asia’s 100 most powerful businesswomen

Budget carrier VietJet Air’s chairwoman and founder Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, dairy giant Vinamilk’s CEO Mai Kieu Lien and HCMC-based private lender Sacombank’s vice chairman and CEO Nguyen Duc Thach Diem find a place in the 2024 Most Powerful Women Asia list, which ranks executives across various business sectors in the Asia-Pacific.

From left to right: Vinamilk’s CEO Mai Kieu Lien, VietJet Air’s chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Sacombank’s CEO Nguyen Duc Thach Diem. Graphics by VnExpress/Hoang Khanh

Thao, Vietnam’s only female billionaire who also featured in Forbes magazine’s rich list and has a net worth of US$2.9 billion as of Oct. 9, established VietJet Air in 2011 and took it public in 2017.

The airline has experienced consistently strong growth since its launch and carried 25.3 million passengers last year.

They included 7.6 million foreign travelers, up 183% from 2022.

Vinamilk’s Lien started at the company as an engineer in charge of the condensed milk production line when the firm launched in 1976.

She became deputy CEO in 1984 after completing her education in the Soviet Union, and became CEO in 1992.

Vinamilk is the biggest food and beverage business listed on the HCMC Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s main bourse, with a market capitalization of $6 billion.

Diem joined Sacombank, which currently has around $27 billion in assets, in 2002 and became CEO in 2017.

She is credited with leading the bank through a seven-year restructuring process to reduce bad debts.

CEOs accounted for more than half of this year’s list, which has 26 chairpersons and 11 CFOs.

The businesswomen come from 11 countries, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Australia, and more than 10% of them founded their own businesses.