MEKONG CAPITAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Non - Executive Director
Alastair Morrison was previously a Founder and former Global Co-head of Private Equity at Standard Chartered Bank until March 2014. He has also been a member of the Investment Committee of Mekong Enterprise Fund III since 2015 and the Investment Committee of Mekong Enterprise Fund IV since its launch in 2020.
He is currently senior adviser to Admaius Capital Partners, who manage a pan- African fund. Alastair acted as a senior adviser to The Carlyle Group's Sub-Saharan Africa Fund between 2014 and 2016. He began his private equity career with 3i Group in the UK before relocating to Singapore to start their Asian operations in 1997.
Job Titles:
- Investment Director
- CFO Emerges to Address the Company 's Cash Crisis by Rethinking KPIs
Ashley was born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam. Curiosity started to spark when she enrolled in Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, where for the first time, she was introduced to an environment that encourages self-discovery and "freedom to choose". Given the opportunity, Ashley chose to discover leadership, sustainability, and ballroom dancing. Also because of curiosity, Ashley applied to colleges in the States without much planning ahead - she just wanted to see how lives look like on the other side of the globe.
Her curiosity fosters her self-development.
Enrolled in The University of Texas at Dallas at 17, Ashley was faced with the challenge of being in a new country and a new culture. But that challenge was also an opportunity for her to discover the power of personal growth and self-development. She supported herself through college with multiple part-time jobs and internships, from serving a pho restaurant, to a tax intern for a wealth management firm, to a tax preparer. Through all of that, she grew as a person and gained a better understanding about what she wants and what she does not want in her career. Being ever more curious to see the world, Ashley enrolled herself in two study-abroad semesters, one in Nanjing, China and one in Vienna, Austria.
Graduated from college, Ashley started her full-time job at Wisniewski Wealth Management, a boutique wealth management firm in Dallas, Texas. Within 2 years, Ashley successfully achieved the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Enroll Agent (EA) certificates, and became a Financial Advisor. Her life was stable and peaceful, but deep down she knew something was missing. She did not feel that her work was creating impact where it matters.
The question of how her work impacts the community doesn't leave her mind.
In her mind, the 2014 spring semester that she spent in Nanjing, China, kept coming up. It was her first trip back to Asia after 3 years, Ashley was both impressed with how Asia has developed, and kept seeing areas where she could add value and create impact. 4 years later, in 2018, she made her second trip back to Asia, this time was her first time ever in Ho Chi Minh City. She still could not pinpoint what it was, whether it was a brand new vibrant city in her home country, the friendly and happy people, the excitement in the air, or the huge transformation that the city was resilience and is still going through, but Ashley decided to leave everything behind and move to Ho Chi Minh City in November 2019.
After more than a year of moving to Ho Chi Minh City, Ashley learned how to be an adult in her home country and spending her days building financial models for to predict stock movement on the exchanges. However, the question of how her work impacts the community around her doesn't leave her mind. Ashley wanted a career that directly makes a difference for people in her community.
Ashley is working with Mekong Capital's investee company.
Ashley wanted to spend her time making Vietnam an undeniably great place to live.
And the universe answered her. After two quick conversations with Mekong Capital, Ashley signed up to be a Vision Fulfiller in the Investment team of Mekong Capital. Every day, she came to work to fulfill her own personal purpose, to create a ripple effect that improve the living standard and the life quality of all employees, customers, and stakeholders of Mekong's investees. Ashley is at Mekong Capital to make Vietnam an undeniably great place to live.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Partner
- Author of Crab Hotpot
- How My Personal Transformation Led to the Transformation of Mekong Capital / September 27, 2018
- the Future Is Missing! How We Spent 14 Days Creating It in 2009 / October 28, 2020
- the Future of Emerging Markets Private Equity Requires Much Greater Competence Than the past / September 17, 2018
- the Origin
- the World of Ontological Private Equity / March 2, 2020
- Was a Top Performing Fund in Vietnam Due to Vision Driven Investing / March 12, 2018
- What Vietnam Has to Offer for Private Equity Investments / March 6, 2018
Chris Freund grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and subsequently attended the University of California in Santa Cruz, where he focused much of his studies on psychology and religious experience.
Since his teenage years, Chris had been interested in Buddhism and other spiritual inquiries, so in 1992 Chris embarked on a junior year abroad and enrolled in the Buddhist Studies program in Bodh Gaya, India. When the program completed, Chris backpacked around Asia for 6 months, starting for one month in Vietnam. Chris immediately fell in love with Vietnam and resolved to return to Vietnam upon graduating from his university.
From the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam until February 1994, the U.S. has imposed a trade and investment embargo on Vietnam. When the trade embargo was lifted on the 3rd of February 1994, it opened the floodgates to foreign investment, trade, and career opportunities for foreigners in Vietnam. Chris was excited about the opportunity to live and work in Vietnam, so in mid-1994 he took a leave from his university to engage in an internship project in Ho Chi Minh City, researching investment opportunities in Vietnam. Templeton had recently launched a NYSE-listed Vietnam fund, but they had no one working yet in Vietnam. Upon graduating in early 1995, Chris joined Templeton and became their first employee in Vietnam, opening Templeton's Vietnam office and scouring the market for investment opportunities.
In 1998, after having made 3 investments in joint ventures with state-owned enterprises, and in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis, Templeton closed its Vietnam office, and moved the Vietnam team to Singapore. In Singapore, Chris was a Portfolio Manager, analyzing and recommending investments in tech companies in Taiwan and Israel, while continuing to oversee some investments that Templeton had made in Vietnam. Having the opportunities to meet the founders and CEOs of many successful companies in Taiwan and Israel, Chris was inspired by the possibility of launching a business. Chris really wanted to be back in Vietnam. And he wanted to pioneer a model of investing that has much more hands-on and value-added than what he had seen investors doing until then.
Chris has been closely involved in all stages of sourcing, due diligence & implementation, post-investment value creation, and exiting for a wide range of investments in Mekong Capital's funds since 2001, both poor investments and successful investments.
Chris was Mekong Capital's Deal Leader for a wide variety of investee companies, including MobileWorld, an investment which resulted in a 57x return for Mekong Enterprise Fund II, marking it one of the most pre-eminent investments in the history of Asian Private Equity. MobileWorld was also one of the core models of success that was an inspiration for the Vision Driven Investing framework.
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Interested in a career in Private Equity? I've got bad news for you.
How we discovered one of the key reasons we hadn't been delivering strong results until 2008
The mentor who saw the leadership potential in me that I didn't yet see in myself
Ellen Van grew up in Sydney, Australia. Being an only child and brought up by a single father, Ellen had great aspirations. She wanted to create a positive impact through her work, but she did not know how. She navigated through different studies. She was feeling lost.
Then she thought studying something very broad would give her a lot of career options. So she settled on Master of Commerce and Master of Professional Accounting at the University of Sydney.
At university, Ellen founded and operated a coaching school for students.
During her time at university, with a school friend, Ellen founded and operated a coaching school for students in primary and secondary schools. This is where she first experienced a meaningful and long-lasting impact through her work. She found her mission was to unlock her student's potential, whether that is academically, creatively, or emotionally.
She set up new services for an investment firm upon her return to Vietnam.
Ellen returned to Vietnam in 2019 where she believed her experience and Vietnamese heritage would allow her to create the greatest impact. However, at this point, she was still unclear on her vision or a career path that she was truly enrolled in. For the first 9 months, she worked for an investment firm, setting up their AP and LP services for Vietnam ETFs.
She is leading the new fund which enriches the wellbeing of people and nature.
In February 2020, Ellen joined Mekong Capital. She was passionate about personal and organizational transformation while honoring the authentic human experience and our connection to the natural world. Going through her own personal transformation at Mekong Capital, Ellen genuinely felt for the first time she is clear on her vision and the pathway to achieving it.
Ellie was born to a working-class couple who strongly believes in the power of education and hard work. Her early childhood was filled with free English classes via television, daily books read by her mom, and biweekly weekend trips to bookstores with dad - in between his work shifts on offshore rigs. Page by page and vocab by vocab, Ellie's belief of a different world was formed. She was so sure there was a world out there that spoke a different language and used forks, not chopsticks for meals.
After years as a worker, Ellie's dad was promoted to engineer and traveled abroad for the first time. After each trip, he would tell her stories of the long flights, of new discoveries, and showed her photos of the different people he met. His sharing ignited in her a desire to see the world beyond borders, where people speak different languages, and people look diverse.
In 2003, on her 12th birthday, Ellie declared her dream to study abroad with her middle-class parents. They were speechless. They smiled sheepishly. Still, they assured her to keep studying hard and that her dream would come true. They offered two suggestions: a) to stay on course, get to the local university, and they would earn enough by then to afford her post-grad program, or b) to find a full-ride scholarship if she wanted to go earlier. Her parents highly recommended giving the latter option a good shot.
Feeling empowered by her parents, Ellie was determined. Ellie searched and sat for any scholarship tests she could find around Saigon. Hard work paid off. One year later, to everyone's surprise, included herself, Ellie's life took a turn with the scholarship by the Singapore Agency of Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR). Her global journey started at the age of 14, 10 years earlier than expected.
A decade of study and work in Singapore, London, Barcelona, Boston, and Chicago were surely exciting, yet, something was missing. After each trip home, it was harder for Ellie to part.
In 2016, when an offer to build an Indochina team came up, Ellie took the leap of faith. After four years, she was close to concluding that she cannot thrive in her home country, that she does not fit in locally, and that the reality is much different from her expectation. As she strategized her relocation, a dear friend shared about Mekong Capital Leadership Bootcamp. Mekong's vision, purpose, and core values spoke to her. Wounded by her past, she doubted if those words were decorators. Reading through Mekongers' stories, she felt hopeful and decided to "test it out".
A couple of days in, and she was in awe of the authenticity, kindness, and commitment of each member she met. Feeling safe, she cracked open the amour she did not realize she had on for so long, as she tried to cover up her avoidance of responsibility for unsuccessful ventures. With guidance, she let go of her urge to prove herself. She reconnected with her little self - the one who dared to believe in the unexpected future, say it out loud, and dare to do whatever it takes to realize that dream.
Feeling empowered, the same feeling she had at 12 when her parents assured her to keep studying, Ellie declared her life to be impactful. She is the force that uplifts dedicated leaders, who dare to articulate their extraordinary visions and dare to mark the journey with countless breakthroughs.
At Mekong Capital, Ellie lives her dream, being the committed partner to founders and management in achieving their visions, which in turn, enrich millions of lives. Together with her team, Ellie stands for Mekong Capital's investees to be the national pride and for Vietnam to be the country of choice for sustainable and meaningful living.
Job Titles:
- Senior Talent Acquisition Coachsultant
Growing up, Hanh embarked on her journey of chasing her American dream. She finally achieved it by becoming a student in an all women-college in the United States, Mount Holyoke College, majoring in Economics and Mathematics. So far, she had successfully led the life that she had created for herself without knowing exactly the "why" behind it. She felt lost about who she was and what her commitments would be.
Not until Hanh came back to Vietnam and joined Mekong Capital in 2017 that she started the journey to discover her own identity and her life purpose. She actively involved in all stages of the investment process from sourcing deals, post-investment value creation as well as divestments. In this way, she had learned so much about herself, about the ontological world, leadership, and transformation that one year at Mekong Capital for her was like 10 years elsewhere. She saw herself as the source of transformation and breakthrough, thus she made her commitments to transform millions of Vietnamese people's lives by transforming who they are as leaders and transforming the companies' corporate culture via being Vision Driven Investing.
Ultimately, Hanh found her purposes in life: freedom (free to be and free to choose), compassion (for yourself and other human beings), and joy.
Currently, Hanh is a vision fulfiller, a transformational leader, and a women empowerment champion, disguised as a Private Equity investor.
Trang's belief was reinforced when she spent a year studying in the U.S at Colorado State University after her graduation from Foreign Trade University (Hanoi). She had a chance to explore the world with new perspectives that she had never thought of. From a little girl who viewed the world through a limited lens, Trang now sees herself so lucky to continuously have access to new opportunities, she is therefore strongly committed to a vision where Vietnamese women are free, compassionate, and have faith in themselves to be whoever they want to be.
Trang then came back to Vietnam and her next 3-year working experience has enabled her to acknowledge how talented and capable Vietnamese people are, and to drive herself towards a future where she can contribute her part to the development of her country.
It was a natural match for Trang to begin her new journey as an Investment Analyst at Mekong Capital, the Vietnam-focused Private Equity firm which specializes in consumer-driven businesses. Through her work with her team members at Mekong Capital, she feels her personal enthusiasm in life for health, education, and sustainable development is fulfilling. She is empowered to be free and to put herself as the cause in the matter so that she can be the source of what impact she wants to have on life.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Non - Executive Director
James Jameson is the Chairman and/or major shareholder of companies in aerospace, agriculture, education, publishing, book distribution, film production, and real estate with offices in 20 countries of the world.
Jameson serves on the Advisory Board for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Chancellor's Executive Advisory Cabinet, both at the University of California in San Diego. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the Reason Foundation, a policy think tank focused on free market solutions to societal problems, as well as on the Board at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He served as Chairman of the Institute of the Americas which studies issues of the Americas, and then served in the U.S. Government under President George Walker Bush as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development in 1992-1993 where he was also on the Boards of the Export Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation as well as on the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States.
Jonah Levey is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor to web/mobile startups in SE Asia. He is also a board member of Galaxy M&E, one of Vietnam's largest media, entertainment, and education technology groups.
Jonah previously founded Navigos Group, including VietnamWorks.com, Vietnam's #1 job website, and Navigos Search, Vietnam's largest executive search firm in 2002. He was Chairman/CEO until 2015 when Navigos Group was acquired by En-Japan Inc. (TYO: 4849), one of Asia's leading recruitment companies.
Prior to moving to Vietnam Jonah was a Managing Director with the New York-based executive search firm Raines International.
Jonah has a B.A. in Economics from Vassar College.
Khanh Van - Chief Investment Officer
Ever since her first job working at an investment bank in New York City where she advised companies on their financing and M&A transactions, Thu has been fascinated by the corporate world. She often asks herself, "What makes a company truly successful?" Is the successful "secret" choosing the right market, launching the right product, hiring the right people, or a combination of several factors?
In 2017, Thu decided to join Grab Singapore, a growing start-up at the time. During her time, the company went on to acquire the regional business of its much more established rival, Uber and became the no. 1 super app in Southeast Asia. She attributed Grab's smashing success to its unwavering focus on its mission of driving SEA forward, by creating economic empowering for everyone. As an employee, Thu could feel the company's spirit alive in every conversation her and her colleagues would have. Knowing that she was working towards a larger purpose gives her enormous energy and motivation.
Between 2019 and 2020, Thu spent her time in Ho Chi Minh City working at a local late-stage start-up. She was incredibly inspired by the founders' desire to build long-lasting successful homegrown businesses. She also had a front-row seat, however, to their many challenges ranging from funding to people to culture. For the first time ever, she recognized the tremendous value for the company is having an investor that goes beyond capital disbursements. How successful would the company be if it partners up with a trusted and capable investor to navigate through the world of entrepreneurship and build towards its end goal together?
Finally, in June 2021, Thu came to Mekong Capital. She got immediately excited by the fund's approach to investing. It might as well be the place where Thu finds a conclusive answer to her long-standing question. Regardless of which product the company offers or whom they hire, as long as the founders and their employees are fully committed to the vision, Thu realized, the entire organization and its people can transform to generate unlimited possibilities and actions to fulfill their goal. She has seen it in her time at Grab, and she is seeing it again at Mekong Capital, albeit from a different angle, from an investor capacity. Her day is now organized around causing investee companies to achieve their purposes. Thu is ever more hopeful that with this Vision Driven Investing approach, Thu and her team are at the forefront of delivering some of the best homegrown businesses for her country, Vietnam, in the years to come
Job Titles:
- Digital Transformation Manager
Khanh graduated with an engineering degree in Posts and Telecommunications of Information Technology. With his major in Software Engineering, Khanh confidently and successfully led projects using web, mobile, and mapping technology in various software companies. His work experience inspired him to further his study to attain a master's degree in Business Information Systems at Vietnamese German University. He continued taking more managerial roles in a global advertising agency. However, his leadership was really put to the test when he joined Mekong Capital in 2018.
At the beginning, his role was merely about IT system management. But in 2019, the year when Mekong Capital moved to fully cloud, Khanh re-invented his role to Digital Workplace Manager. Because Khanh has always been passionate about building a seamless and secure Digital Workplace where businesses use Digital Transformation to align technology, employees, and business processes to improve operational efficiency and meet organizational goals.
Khanh is now Digital Transformation Manager, he is the owner of Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity of Mekong Capital. Aligning his commitment to creating a positive impact in the space of Digital Transformation to achieving Mekong Capital's Vision, he reliably caused the digital transformation taking place not only in the space of Mekong Digital Workplace (on the cloud) and Physical Workplace (with the new office) but also lifting cross-department's performance by the support of high-impact projects, softwares and Agile.
He believes transformation must start with himself first. He is only at the beginning of the transformation journey and is on a path of realizing his full potential with an open and growth mindset. He practices Leadership himself and empowered his team members to looking at digital transformation as the accelerator of delivering breakthroughs. While contributing to realizing the company's Vision, he is on the optimal path to a fulfilling life.
After spending almost a decade studying in the UK, Phuong Thuy chose to return back to Vietnam to start her professional career. Mekong Capital was her first love since 2013.
Previously, Thuy usually considered herself a wildflower. At Mekong Capital, Thuy found the sun, the rain, the winds, the soil, the little insects, and the giants; everything needed for that little wildflower to grow stronger and even transform. Now Thuy feels like no box could define her. Thuy can be anything that she chooses to be.
Every day, Thuy lives her passion through her work in the Asset Guardian team, where she is safeguarding the assets of investors through an end-to-end Fund operations and investor relations. Together with other Guardians, Thuy is committed to "uplift investors experiences to a new level of WOW" and for Mekong Capital to be a pioneer in unprecedented levels of transparency, consistency, and value creation for our investors.
Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Mia embarked on a journey of self-discovery at the early age of 16 by studying A-levels in the UK to expand her horizons. Later, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Media, and Culture Studies from Oxford, UK.
Upon returning to Vietnam, she had a strong desire to contribute to building a mindful culture in her home country. She yearned to share captivating narratives that had the power to inspire and transform lives. However, at the time, she didn't know how to do it, except by continuously learning and writing blogs. Over the next 7 years, she worked in the content industry for Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV), forging business partnerships to bring high-quality international content to Vietnamese television. Later, she pursued a Master of Science degree in Communication and Media Management from another UK University to broaden her knowledge. She graduated with distinction and was eager to step out of her comfort zone, seeking new adventures in her career due to a lack of fulfillment.
In the following 7 years, she worked and enhanced her leadership in various organizations, ranging from multinational corporations to listed companies and family businesses, delivering inspiring and entertaining stories in different content formats to the Vietnamese audience. She even ventured into entrepreneurship by starting her own media company, as well as opening a cocktail bar and restaurant. Along the way, she participated in several mentorship programs to mentor young students as part of her community work. She believes that giving someone in a difficult situation a fishing rod is much better than giving them fish.
However, she still felt that something was missing - a passion, a sense of fulfillment, or a vision that she couldn't quite identify.
Until one day, she received an intriguing invitation to become the storyteller for a Private Equity firm. This led her to join Mekong Capital, a unique company with an empowering culture and core values that greatly inspired her. Here, she delved deeper into the art of storytelling within the Ontological approach that Mekong Capital embraces. This has helped her to take the time to reflect on what she really wanted to achieve.
And, for the first time ever, she discovered her own personal vision: to become a master and coach of storytelling that can inspire other individuals and corporations to excel, through the magic of storytelling.
Her role as Chief of Content for Mekong Capital has inspired her to pursue a Doctorate Program, researching more deeply into the powerful art of storytelling and learning to be a coach.
Although the path ahead may twist and turn, Mia believes that she is precisely where she needs to be, firmly on course to fulfill her profound purpose and vision. As the leader of storytelling technology and corporate communication at Mekong Capital, she shapes and shares multiple impactful investment stories from the Value Creation team and investee companies, internally and publicly. These stories aim to inspire investee companies and team members of Mekong Capital, as well as share insights with investors about Mekong Capital's fund activities, or attract new talents.
Burning with a passion for words, Mia finds joy and fulfillment in her work. She knows that she adds value by every story she helps shape and share.
Phuong committed to herself a happy work that includes constant learning and improvement, bringing a positive feeling to her beloved people.
Phuong has worked for Thomson Reuters for 6 years where she empowered fixed income investors by providing powerful data set. She wanted to participate more in the investment decision-making process rather than being the observer on the market then she switched her career to the investment path. In her investment journey, there is a lot of excitement when she talked with other people, explored different industries, and found that there is a huge potential for Vietnam.
Serendipitously, she came across an opportunity at Mekong Capital. The business culture and the commitment to the Vietnam future of Mekong Capital inspired her. She also found her passion for reinventing the corporate bond market and reposition Vietnam fixed income market on the world map. She believed in the future, Vietnam will be an ideal place for people who want to expand their professional careers in bond. Thus, she embarked on the journey with Mekong Capital to transform herself and fulfill her vision to make great impacts on Vietnam.
Growing up with resource scarcity, Cuong sets his sight early on the ultimate prize in life: wealth and freedom. He started by excelling academically and following where the money was at - a career in finance industry. After nearly a decade of working as a financial advisory professional, Cuong seemed to hit a ceiling. His job was satisfactory but deep down, he felt something was missing: He craved a sense of fulfilment and the kind of impacts in the world that is long-lasting.
Cuong finally discovered his true passion in the world of business and investment, and this discovery came to him at the least expectedly.
One day in 2018, Cuong was contacted by an old friend from college. He was seeking Cuong's advice in financial matters related to his newest F&B business endeavor, which was tremendously successful with the benefit of hindsight. In the partnership with his friend, Cuong felt truly engaged and fulfilled experiencing how an entrepreneur created from the ground up a platform of impacts where the employees and customers were happy in harmony. As a voracious reader, Cuong had long been mesmerized by the success stories of great business leaders worldwide and their impact on our civilization. However, this was the first time he experienced it hands-on. "This is the kind of impact I want in life", he thought to himself.
Deeply inspired by the successes of his entrepreneurial friend - to the extent that for the first time, Cuong considered the possibility of launching a business. This road was less traveled by most people, and the failure rate was surely high, but he thought, "What can I lose?" "Maybe money, maybe time, but everything is there for me to gain."
Over the next three years, Cuong embarked on the most transformative journey of his life - setting up three different businesses back-to-back since 2019. They were in different industries including spirituality coaching, pharmaceutical wholesaling, and restaurant. However, they all have two things in common. One was Cuong's 100% commitment to their success. And second, they all failed to perform. Confused and frustrated by the consecutive failures, Cuong was determined to solve this puzzle: He already put his heart and soul into these businesses, applied all the knowledge he accumulated from professional experience and business books, and even sought advice from his accomplished entrepreneurial friend.
Nothing seemed to work, and he felt so stuck.
One day on his journey to find the answers, he tumbled upon a blog from Mekong Capital about Vision Driven Investing (VDI) and was hooked immediately. He recognized that all his businesses went under because they scored extremely low on almost all VDI perspectives, especially Vision, Optimal Pathway, Management Capabilities, KPIs, and Corporate Culture.
Excited about what he found, he was eager to explore more on Mekong Capital and its success story. Another discovery he made was the power of an ontological approach toward investing and business. Cuong read and knew a lot about other people's businesses but being on the field with his own businesses' challenges was a whole new level of transformative experience. Reflecting on these business endeavors, Cuong also realized that he added the most value as a partner for the entrepreneurs, not as a business operator himself. He is essentially an investor at heart, from the very beginning.
Joining Mekong Capital was such a natural choice for Cuong. Being in the world of VDI with an ontological mindset, he now chooses to be a trusted partner for entrepreneurs in Vietnam and be the cause of transformation for all the businesses in which he is involved. He embraces a new mission to empower entrepreneurship in his homeland, to bring about wealth and freedom for all the lives that he touched, not just his wealth and freedom anymore.
Job Titles:
- Customer Experience Manager
When Xuan graduated with a Master's degree in Economics from the UK and returned to Vietnam in 2010, she had her life mapped out to succeed in the financial sector. But as they say, "Life is a journey, not a destination" - she was caught by surprise.
After three years working in a top-ten commercial bank, Xuan moved on to work for a luxury brand as a temporary career break. Little did she know this detour would change her outlook on her career path completely and open up a new chapter she would not have imagined before.
Working for a brand that hallmarked itself as "Customer Hyper-centricity," Xuan was, at first, awed and then quickly excited at how every individual experience was elevated to perfection and beyond. Xuan learned that simply owning the "best" product in the market was not enough; what truly excited customers was having something that incapsulated their hopes, dreams, and achievements. And thus, she embarked on an exhilarating journey to help her customers bringing their visions to life.
Fast forward to 2015, Xuan moved to the bustling Ho Chi Minh City, and this time, a new adventure awaited. From here, she was introduced to the world of tech start-ups, agility, and user experience. Witnessing first-hand the journey early-stage companies took - especially the tireless effort to tap into unmet needs - inspired and enthused Xuan to constantly step out of her comfort zone. Her initial lack of technical background did not shy her away. Rather, she found that, by standing for the voice of customers with deep empathy and understanding, she had the power to create disruptive products and services that could potentially change lives.
When receiving the call from Mekong Capital in early 2021, Xuan knew in her heart this was what she would want for her next chapter. Of course, turning from a solution-creator to a coach to Mekong Capital's investee companies is definitely a learning curve. Nevertheless, Xuan is committed to transforming experience to bring world-class service to more and more customers of Vietnam.
Xuan is no longer attached to her initial life plan to be successful in finance. Even her definition of success has changed completely. She now embraces being a driving force of innovation and is eager to take on this wonderful journey as a transformer.
Job Titles:
- Digital Transformation & Marketing Manager
From the early years of the 20th century, when Information Technology was a very hot major in Vietnam, Ngoc started the career path as a Software Development engineer. After graduated, she rapidly jumped into many software development projects in an outsourcing company. However, she was exhausted after working overtime weeks over weeks to meet the due date of delivery projects. She felt something very wrong and struggled to find her right career path with IT. But thanks to that working time when she got some projects for American clients, she had an excellent opportunity to explore Search Engine Optimization - one of the digital marketing channels popular in America but very new in Vietnam. From 2005, she opened the door to step out the IT and experience the latest Digital Marketing world.
Fast forward to the next ten years, Ngoc played a significant role in SEO in a performance marketing agency that offers high-end services for the US market and big clients in Vietnam. Besides SEO, Ngoc continued to explore other marketing channels to help her excellent digital marketing skills. From then, she found happiness in her new career path with marketing.
Then in 2018, deciding to jump out of her comfort zone of Marketing, Ngoc upgraded herself with the new role as Managing Director of two ventures of a Sweden Venture Builder company. Ngoc took all chances to learn all new knowledge like financing, sales, operations, HR, recruitment…etc. to help her run a business and elevate herself. During those two years of super hard & stressful working, Ngoc had valuable experience running a ‘real' company (which was built from scratch in VN) and sharpened her digital marketing knowledge & practice.
In a short gap time, early 2021, Ngoc was invited for an open discussion about the job at Mekong Capital, and it was a natural match. She was deeply inspired by the way Mekong invests in their investee companies and how Mekong can add value to them. She was surprised that Mekong chooses to invest in the people FIRST, more than the technology, tools…etc.
Ngoc was excited to join Mekong with the big game to reinvent private equity, create new futures with Mekong, and fulfill each investee's vision. With her experience of both agency & client sides, Ngoc sees herself adding value and being a coach-sultant for the investee companies to enhance their Digital Marketing capabilities.
Job Titles:
- Senior Transaction Associate
5 years as an auditor at PwC was an impactful start to Phuong Anh's career. She considers herself lucky to have gained such great early experience to sharpen her technical skills and broaden her network. She worked for clients from various industries, from financial services to manufacturing and real estate, from FDIs to local conglomerates. She enjoyed her work. She felt valued by her team members and the leaders she worked with. It felt like her total comfort zone. But she knew that deep inside something was missing. The world of finance was so vast, yet she knew so little. She asked herself what she wanted to be in the next five years. She had no answer to that. The only thing that was clear to her was that she did not see herself working as an auditor anymore.
Packing the assets accumulated from the years working at PwC, including a technical background, endurance, and flexibility, she threw herself out of her comfort zone, jumping from company to company, and trying several finance back-office positions. She found out she missed the fast pace and the sense of satisfaction when getting jobs done. That was when she came across an opportunity to go home, back to PwC, in Deals Department. This new position introduced her to the M&A world, where tons of work happened behind the multi-million-dollar deal announcements. She had the opportunity to work with company founders, C-suites, investors, and advisors throughout different stages of the deal cycle. Nothing was the same every day, and she found the job so rewarding, yet at the same time challenging.
In September 2022, luck smiled on her again, taking her to a new home at Mekong Capital. Joining Mekong Capital has given her the opportunity to continue exploring the M&A world through a new lens. She is passionate about participating in the process of identifying companies for Mekong Capital to partner with in achieving their visions. Here at Mekong Capital, Phuong Anh is fascinated to continue the exponential learning curve in such a great place to work among talented people with a shared commitment to transformation and breakthrough results.
Job Titles:
- Senior Business Intelligence Officer
Being born as a late child from a family of police-officers who value education and hard work, Long had always felt he was not enough, and he had to try harder to catch up with the older siblings and cousins. It had deeply ingrained in him the power of self-learning and taking ownership since he was a little boy.
By the time Long was about to finish his Finance degree at York University, Toronto, and start his career in investment banking, Covid came in and all of his employment options were shut down. Not accepting this as a dead-end of his career, Long spent his last summer in Canada delivering food by day and self-studying about technology & data analytics by night.
Long enjoyed working with data, but was also interested in investment management, where he could see investment consultants being partners for founders and businesses achieving their visions. Although unsure of which career path to choose, Long found a Business Intelligence (BI) internship opening at Mekong Capital. He saw this as an opportunity to work with technology and learn how private equity really works. Long took the leap of faith to join Mekong's BI team under the Digital Transformation department.
During the first few months, Long - a fresh graduate, had so many self-doubts when he started working in a field he had little exposure to, at a PE fund with a unique culture. The question constantly hanging in his head was: "I'm not sure I can do this?". However, he loved his job because he worked with brilliant coworkers and enjoyed building numerous dashboards for the company. More importantly, Long has experienced a lot of freedom to take on new challenges and be a leader. When Long became a full-time Business Intelligence employee and managed more than 100 dashboards after his Senior left, he overcame his own fears and coordinated any projects that could enhance Mekong's data system.
Long is now living his dream at Mekong Capital. He transformed his mindset from "Can I do this?" to "What can I do to contribute?". Long truly believes that he can be a leader to help build a vision-driven culture backed by the power of data at his company.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Scientist
In 2020, the devastating arrival of Covid shattered Phat's world, infusing it with sorrow and chaos. His U.S. visa expired, his cherished residence permit in Italy reached its bitter end, and his home country's borders slammed shut. Trapped in an agonizing state of limbo, Phat became an isolated bird, drifting aimlessly without a nest to return to.
At a young age, Phat holds a Doctorate Degree in Philosophy in Accounting, Management, and Business Economics. Yet, despite his academic accomplishments, Phat felt a void within himself, a nagging feeling that something was missing. Now topped up by the shock of Covid, Phat embarked on a relentless quest for his true calling.
Phat's path eventually crossed with Mekong Capital in May 2022, and initially, he held the notion that it would be yet another fleeting stop where he couldn't truly find his place. However, little did he realize that this crucial encounter would spark the start of a profoundly transformative phase in his life. Unlike other private equity firms, Mekong Capital shone brightly by placing vision at the forefront. It created an exceptional environment where individuals could align their personal purpose with the company's vision.
Born in Vietnam, Han grew up in Brussels, Belgium. Growing up doing charity work with her parents, her heart was filled with compassion and a drive to help people through whatever she would do later in life.
Like any child with Asian parents, becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer was almost a given. As a result, Han elected to study medicine at university, thinking that it was the right choice for her life and that it would make her family happy. Han, however, struggled during her first few years at university, and she clearly didn't find fulfillment in her studies.
During one of her trips back to Vietnam, her birthplace, she witnessed a good representation of the social inequality in the country: Next to a yellow Ferrari, an old man was waiting at the red light on his flimsy bicycle that was almost falling apart. At that moment, Han realized she had been pretending that studying medicine and becoming a doctor was the only way for her to help people; when in reality, it was all about her living up to the expectations of her parents. She thought that there must be another way to fulfill her life purpose while still enjoying what she was learning and doing. This was when Han decided to stop studying medicine and discover her own path in life.
The contrasting image was stuck in her mind. It guided her to decide what she believed would allow her to contribute to alleviating poverty in Vietnam, positively impacting the environment, and improving people's lives, especially women: Han chose to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Economics at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, specializing in Emerging Countries.
Through her studies, Han discovered how human wealth depended on natural resources, and how the negative consequences of exploitation can give rise to poverty. Since then, she has chosen to pursue a career primarily through business activities that improve people's livelihoods, paving the way for a more equal and just economy worldwide.
After graduating from university, Han moved back to Vietnam. Her first graduate role was at EY-Parthenon, where she performed research and analysis to make data-driven strategic decisions and ensure the successful implementation of those strategies for various organizations. The clients' profiles varied across diversified industries and different business life cycles in Vietnam. Through her time at EY, she developed profound yet flexible analytical skills that could adapt to other businesses' needs and demands. Although she enjoyed helping companies in Vietnam grow, she felt that something was missing. There was still that void in her heart.
Finally, the universe listened as she found an opportunity at Mekong Capital as an investment analyst. Being the pipeline leader of sustainable projects, Han researches and finds the perfect companies that fit the Project's vision. During her personal transformation at Mekong Capital, Han discovers what truly matters to her. Through her work at Mekong Capital, Han felt for the first time that she had a clear vision and path to achieving her life's purposes, and her journey to make an impact had just begun…
Job Titles:
- Talent Acquisition Coachsultant Manager
After her graduation, Duong came back to Vietnam not knowing where to start and which career would be in her best suit. She spent 5 years rotating in different jobs without having any significant accomplishments. She was lost. She did not know her identity and life purpose.
Duong later made up her mind to start as an Executive Search Consultant to find the answer to her intriguing question, "Why people become successful in their career and their life". Every day she had the chance to meet with all the top-calibrated candidates in the market to listen to their stories and their pathway to success. At one moment, she found out she loved to consult everyone she met on their career choice in the medium and long term so that no one would later be lost like her. Thus, she shifted her focus to people's growth rather than transactional success.
Duong accepted the opportunity to be a Talent & Culture Coach-sultant at Mekong Capital in 2019. The new journey enabled Duong to find her purpose: to be the source that empowers people to unlock their full potential in life. And she is fulfilling it here with her involvement in building up the management team and transforming the companies' corporate culture via Vision Driven Investing. She goes to work every day with joy, freedom, and compassion for leadership transformation and culture breakthrough in organizations.
After high school, Trang went to study abroad in the United States and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Accounting major from Western Washington University. Like many other students, her dream job was working for the Big 4 Public Accounting firm at that time. After all the hard work and competitive interviewing process, she was selected and offered to work full-time as an Assurance Associate at PwC.
Sooner later she realized that all the financial audit experience was valuable for her as a fresh graduate, but that was not what she really wanted. She questioned herself and the answer was she loves to be able to see the whole picture of the business and interact more with the decision-makers. Therefore, she decided to change her job and ended up working as a Business Strategy Consultant. She really enjoyed her job and learned a lot from working with her clients, especially with the corporate C-suite levels.
Trang coincidentally knew and started to follow Mekong Capital's news in 2017. During that time, she really enjoyed reading stories of Mekong Capital and all the investee companies when she has free time. Each time seeing the new investment press release from Mekong Capital made her felt very excited and she began to see new possibilities for those companies and the future of Vietnam.
She felt more interested in the Vision Driven Investing approach of Mekong, which made the company different from any other private equity firm in Vietnam. After meeting with Minh Giang, Former Talent & Culture Partner of Mekong Capital, Trang was impressed by the energetic attitude and her authentic sharing. Trang was so clear that Mekong Capital would be her next adventure.
At Mekong Capital, Trang has been continuously transformed into her best possible self and commit to be a true partner with the investee companies to achieve their visions, and Mekong Capital's vision as well as her personal vision.