President and CEO of Vietjet Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao has been named by Bloomberg Businessweek as the first Vietnamese representative in the annual Bloomberg 50 (B50), honoring noteworthy global leaders.

Thao is chairwoman of Sovico Holdings, President and CEO of Vietjet, as well as standing vice chairwoman of HDBank.

Over the past two years, Thao has listed Vietjet and HDBank on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE). The market capitalisation of both companies accounts for billions of dollars, making Thao the second richest person in Viet Nam’s stock market.

This month, Thao has also been recognised as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes. Thao was ranked 44th, up 11 spots compared to last year. Viet Nam’s first self-made billionaire’s estimated net asset is about US$2.6 billion, $1.98 billion higher from last year.

In addition, the Vietjet President and CEO has become a Harvard Business School (HBS) case study this year.

The B50 highlights those who have changed the global business landscape in measurable ways in 2018. Differentiating from other traditional power lists, the B50 showcases those who changed the equation 2018 in measurable, quantifiable ways thanks to the utilisation of Bloomberg’s worldwide resources of 2,400 journalists, proprietary data and analytics.

The 2018 B50 honorees include prestigious leaders and entrepreneurs, including Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve; Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft; Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell; Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada; Leanne Caret, President and CEO of Defence, Space & Security at Boeing; and Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa. — VNS