Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao – Vietnamese Business Woman

As the chairman and co-founder of Sovico Holdings, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is also a major shareholder too. She owns the international budget airline VietJet Air and the commercial HD Bank, and runs both companies too.

Recently, HD Bank merged with Dai A Bank back in 2014, and it is now considered one of the biggest “joint-stock commercial banks in Vietnam,” with over 10,000 employees and 225 branches. The company is always growing, in 2016 it purchased Societe Generale Veit Finance a consumer-owned company.

Since VietJet Air launched back in 2011, it has grown to a fleet of 29 aircraft with the largest share of the market. In 2016, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao was named one of Asia’s 50 most powerful and influential business women by Forbes magazine.

Nguyen is the family name and is the Vietnamese version of Ruan, which is taken from the Chinese character 阮 that refers to a specific type of musical instrument, like a lute. Thi is taken from the Sino-Vietnamese character 詩 that means “poems, poetry, and verse”. While others believe the name Thi is from the Sino-Vietnamese character 氏 that means “family, clan, or maiden name”. The name Thi is a common middle name for many Vietnamese girls. The name Phuong is from the Sino-Vietnamese character 方 that means “direction or way”; or 鳳 that means “phoenix”, which refers to the Fenghuang a mythological creature. The feminine given name Thao is a Vietnamese name that means “respectful of parents”, “grass”, or “obedient”.