In June 2014, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) released a decision on appointing Le Ngoc Minh, president of MobiFone, as deputy CEO of VNPT. 

Minh also resigned from the post of MobiFone’s CEO some years before that.
In fact, the move of withdrawing Minh from MobiFone’s leadership aimed to help him have time for disease treatment. One year after leaving MobiFone, Minh passed away on December 31, 2015 after a period of struggling with cancer.

Minh’s departure has marked a new period of MobiFone when a lot of changes in key personnel are made.

Minh’s position in MobiFone was replaced by Mai Van Binh, who became MobiFone’s president on June 26, 2014, when MobiFone was in the transitional period and undergoing restructuring.

All the three largest mobile network operators in Vietnam, namely Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone, witnessed big changes in key staff in the last three years.

Two months later, on August 13, 2014, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) released the decision on appointing Le Nam Tra as CEO of MobiFone.

On April 21, 2015, Tra became the new president of MobiFone with the task of helping the mobile network operator obtain the growth rate of 20 percent per annum. 

However, MobiFone only hd revenue of VND36.9 trillion in 2015 and profit of VND7.395 trillion, just a bit higher than revenue of VND36.605 trillion and VND7.3 trillion in pretax profit in 2014.

Tra has been replaced by Cao Duy Hai, former director of VinaPhone.

As for VinaPhone, the changes in key personnel were made in recent years after Lam Hoang Vinh retired.

In August 2008, Vinh, who was then deputy CEO of VNPT Group, was appointed to the post of CEO of VinaPhone, which was called the ‘hot seat’.

Just within one year, Vinh created big changes for VinaPhone. The network operator became the first 3G service provider in Vietnam. It was also the pioneer in distributing genuine iPhones in Vietnam. 

After Vinh left, the post of CEO was taken by Cao Duy Hai, deputy CEO of MobiFone.

However, after one year of working for VinaPhone, Hai returned to MobiFone. Meanwhile, Ho Duc Thang, deputy CEO of VinaPhone was temporarily assigned the post of VinaPhone’s director in April 2015.

In mid-2015, VNPT-VinaPhone Corporation was established after the first phase of the restructure. Luong Manh Hoang, director of VTN, became deputy CEO of VNPT Group cum CEO of VNPT VinaPhone. 

Just seven months later, To Dung Thai, who was then VNPT Hanoi, took the office as VNPT VinaPhone’s CEO.

However, VinaPhone has lost an experienced ‘combatant’. Nguyen Van Hai, deputy CEO, highly appreciated for his business experience, left the company.

Viettel, the military telco, has changed its CEO three times in recent years. 


Nam Lich