Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao was born on June 7, 1970 in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is part of a respected clan in Vietnam: the Nguyen Canh family. She had a relatively peaceful childhood alongside her brother Nguyen Canh Son. Even though she grew up with a family that was able to support her, she still had to work from the bottom to make her way up. Furthermore, she tributes her success to what she learned from her family; to be hardworking, persistent, and ambitious.
From a young age, Nguyen had an extremely bright mind. As an excellent student, she was able to leave her hometown at 17 to go study at a prestigious college in Moscow, Plekhanov Russian University. She earned two bachelor degrees there, one in financial credit management, and the other in labor economics.
Nguyen’s time studying in Russia was during the Afghan-Soviet War, and the country was struggling. The failing economy made it nearly impossible to get necessities from other countries. While the circumstance was devastating, Nguyen perceived it as an opportunity. During her sophomore year, she started a business importing goods that the country lacked, which included rubber, electronics, watches, plastic, and agricultural products. Some days, she would wake up at 5 a.m. to take care of her business such as making calls and ensuring everything was running smoothly, go to school at 8 a.m., take care of more business, and stay up until 2 a.m. to study. The traits she learned while running her business taught her to take initiative and expand her vision, paving a path to her journey in becoming a billionaire.
Through these experiences, eventually, her motto became, “Don’t go small, go for the big deals.” Two years after starting her business in Russia, it grew and grew. By 21, Thao was named a millionaire. This was just the very beginning of her success.
Pursuing an even deeper education, she went on to get a PhD in economic management from D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. This is also where she met her current husband, Nguyen Thanh Huong, an electromagnetic engineer. Now, she and him share two children.
After coming back to Vietnam in 1993, she and her husband founded Sovico Holdings (now called Sovico Group). The company provided products and services in different sectors such as aviation, real estate, banking, and finance. One of their first investments was to Techcombank, the first private bank of Vietnam and now the third largest bank in Vietnam. In 1996, she became a founding investor in Vietnam’s second private bank, VIB. Then, she began investments in real estate: Dragon City skyscraper in Saigon and her three beach resorts.
In the early 2000s, Nguyen came up with an idea to start an airline. The idea sparked when she was speaking to a family member on the topic. They commented on how expensive plane tickets are, wondering if they would ever be able to buy one. At the time, traveling by plane in Vietnam was seen as a luxury because only the top 1% could afford to do so. Nguyen decided that she would create an airline that would offer cheap tickets, so traveling by air would finally be affordable for the majority in Vietnam.
She began this project by studying the business models of foreign budget airlines, and eventually, she applied for an Air Operator license, which she needed for her to be able to open her airline. In 2007, she received a license, but she couldn’t launch her airline yet because of skyrocketing oil prices. By 2008, she began negotiations to create Vietjet with AirAsia. However, in 2010, the Vietnamese government vetoed their collaboration. Not letting that stop her, she was able to recruit Vietnamese investors and launched Vietjet by herself a year later. Vietjet was the first privately-owned airline in Vietnam. To advertise, she used very unique but controversial methods such as having bikini-clad flight attendants in her commercials. However, over time, the airline caught people’s attention and proved to be successful, and the airline launched its first international flight to Singapore in February 2013. In 2015, VietJet celebrated their 25th millionth passenger, and by 2017 they went public. Their market capitalization soared to $1.2 billion, and Nguyen became a billionaire. Vietjet then debuted on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion.
Today, Vietjet continues to be a low-cost airline that provides flight for thousands of people in Vietnam. Middle-class citizens are comfortably able to afford to travel by plane, and they don’t have to pay sky-high prices for a ticket. Nguyen is still the only woman to have started and run her own major commercial airline.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao’s hard work and success as President & CEO of Vietjet Air, President of Sovico Group, and Vice President of HDBank have paved the way for future business women. She is the second Vietnamese person, and the first Southeast Asian woman, to be recognized by Forbes as a self-made billionaire with her net worth of $2.8 billion USD. She has been awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for working compassionately with the French people. Alongside, Nguyen has collected dozens of domestic and international awards such as Asia-Pacific CEO of the Year, top 100 most powerful women in the world, Best Businesswoman Award in ASEAN, invited to participate in a case study at Harvard, and more. On top of that, she is active in charity work and advocates for education. Specifically, she regularly runs charity work with her company HDBank to give back to children in her community as well as donating money to schools.
Nguyen is an inspiring example of what it means to be ambitious and hardworking, and has set the foundation for young business women after her.
Why Did I Choose to Research Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao?
The business industry has always been a male-dominated field, and on top of that, Vietnamese people are very underrepresented as well. As a Vietnamese woman, like myself, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is an example that even through adversity, becoming powerful is attainable with hard work and persistence. She displays that having the mindset to solve issues within your community is only the first step, and to continue to take big steps in order to reach success.
Works Cited
“Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao.” Forbes, www.forbes.com/profile/nguyen-thi-phuong-thao/. Accessed 9 July 2024.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Biography - Vietjet Founder - Aure’s Notes. 19 Oct. 2021, auresnotes.com/nguyen-thi-phuong-thao-billionaire/.
“France Awards Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao with Legion of Honour.” Www.sovicogroup.com , www.sovicogroup.com/news/france-awards-nguyen-thi-phuong-thao-with-legion-of-honour.html#:~:text=Nguyen%20Thi%20Phuong%20Thao%2C%20Vietjet. Accessed 9 July 2024.
“Madame Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao - Creating Emerging Markets - Harvard Business School.” Www.hbs.edu, www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/interviews/Pages/profile.aspx?profile=ntphuongthao.
to, Contributors. “Vietnamese Businesswoman.” Wikipedia.org, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 24 Mar. 2016, en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Th%E1%BB%8B_Ph%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_Th%E1%BA%A3o&diffonly=true. Accessed 9 July 2024.
VIR, Vietnam Investment Review-. “Billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Passion in Charity.” Vietnam Investment Review - VIR, 8 Mar. 2019, vir.com.vn/billionaire-nguyen-thi-phuong-thao-passion-in-charity-66237.html.
This article was published on 9/25/24