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| Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Founder and Chairwoman of Vietjet Air (Photo: VNA) |
The three entrepreneurs are Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Founder and Chairwoman of Vietjet Air; Nguyen Duc Thach Diem, CEO of the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank); and Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk.
Thao founded the low-cost airline Vietjet in 2011, with the goal of making air travel more accessible in both domestic and international markets. Since its inception, Vietjet has recorded rapid growth. Last year, the airline served 25.3 million passengers, surpassing the 24.1 million passengers of national carrier Vietnam Airlines.
With her remarkable achievements in the aviation sector, Thao is often known as the first self-made female billionaire in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Diem ranked 71st on Fortune's list. She was appointed CEO of the bank in 2017, two years after the merger between Sacombank and the Southern Commercial Joint Stock Bank under the Government's policy of handling bad debts. Since then, Sacombank has continuously surpassed its growth targets and doubled its asset size to 27 billion USD.
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| Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk (Photo: vinamilk.com.vn) |
The last representative of Vietnam on the list is Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk. She became the 'captain' and steered Vinamilk, the leading dairy company in Vietnam, from 1992.
From being a State-owned enterprise, Vinamilk under the leadership of Lien, was floated in 2003 and is now the largest food and beverage company listed on the HCM City Stock Exchange (HoSE), with a capitalisation of 6 billion USD.
This is the first year Fortune has published the list of MPW Asia. The 100 businesswomen in this year's MPW Asia ranking come from 11 countries and territories, including China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia.
Notably, 20 faces on the MPW Asia list were also honoured in the list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business of 2024 - a prestigious ranking first published by Fortune in 1998./.