Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo (born June 7, 1970) is a Vietnamese businesswoman, and the President and CEO of

VietJet Air VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Company ( vi, Công ty Cổ phần Hàng không VietJet), trading as VietJet Air (or simply Vietjet), is an international low-cost airline from Vietnam. It was the first privately owned new-age airline to be establi ...

, President of Sovico Group and Vice President of HDBank.

Biography

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo became a millionaire at age 21 while studying finance and economics in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, where she began distributing fax machines, plastic and rubber from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea in the then

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Since then she has developed a portfolio of business interests, including VietJet and Sovico Holdings, that itself holds a 90 per cent stake in

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

's Dragon City development. She holds two bachelor's degrees in financial credit management and labor economics at the

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics The Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (russian: Российский экономический университет имени Г. В. Плеханова) is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. It was fou ...

and a doctoral degree in economic management at the

D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (MUCTR) (russian: «Российский химико-технологический университет имени Д. И. Менделеева», РХТУ) — is a federal state budg ...

. She ranked 62nd in the list of Power Women 2016. She is listed in Asia's 50 Power Businesswomen 2016. After she took VietJet Air public in February 2017, she became Vietnam's first self-made woman billionaire, second billionaire overall (after

Phạm Nhật Vượng Phạm Nhật Vượng (born 5 August 1968) is a Vietnamese property developer and Vietnam's first billionaire. He is the founder and chairman of Vingroup. Personal life Vượng was born on 5 August 1968 in Hanoi; his paternal family has o ...

) and Southeast Asia's only female billionaire. In early 2021, her net worth was estimated at US$2.1 billion. She also has investments in HD Bank and real estate, including three beach resorts. In 2021 she signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Oxford's

Linacre College Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students. Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its m ...

for a donation of GBP£155million. The college intends to petition the Privy Council to change its name to Thao College. In June 2022, she was featured on the list of the Global 100 by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality.

Personal life

Phương Thảo has a daughter and a son, Tommy Nguyen. Her son has previously studied at Oxford University's economic management department and has founded an express delivery company with investment from VietJet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Thi Phuong Thao 1970 births Living people Vietnamese business executives Airline founders Vietnamese billionaires Female billionaires Women chief executives