1. Hoang Kieu was born in 1944 in Bich Khe hamlet in Trieu Phong district in Quang Tri. He emigrated to the US in 1975 and now lives in Los Angeles. Before running his own business, he worked for Abbott for five years.

Kieu was vice president of Shanghai RAAS Blood Products. In 2015, he was included on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires at the age of 70. As of the end of September 2015, Kieu had assets worth $3.8 billion.

Before IPO, RAAS was a famous enterprise, among top 200 best enterprises with a capitalization value below $1 billion in Asia in 2012.  He has been honored three times  as an outstanding US citizen. 

Kieu’s success was the result of 20 years of hard work in the US. By 2015, he was the richest overseas Vietnamese in the world.

After a very short time, just half a year, he surpassed 138 American billionaires. He had assets worth $2.8 billion thanks to the impressive growth and bright prospects of his enterprises in the vast Chinese market.

However, his name was not found on the 2019 Forbes’ list of billionaire. The last time people could find his name on the list was 2014. Nguoi Lao Dong quoted its sources as reporting that the businessman owes billions of dollars.

2.  Billionaire Chinh Chu was born in 1966 in Vietnam and went to the US when he was eight years old. He became the managing director of Blackstone Group, the world's leading alternative investment management group. He bought the entire 89th floor of Trump World Tower to use as his 1,400 sqm penthouse. His assets are estimated to be worth $1.1 billion.

Chu is the husband of Ha Phuong, a singer in a family whose members are all singers or in Vietnamese show business.

The Vietnamese business community in the US says that Chu is one of the most successful businessmen, and the US mass media has called him a formidable man of Wall Street.

Chinh Chu and his family arrived in the US in 1975. He sold books and delivered goods while studying. He graduated from the University of Buffalo majoring in finance and began working for Blackstone in 1990.

Chu is known as the architect of a series of successful deals, including the takeover of Ondeo Nalco ($4.2 billion), Celanese ($3.8 billion) and Dell. After that, he founded CC Capital.

3. Trung Dung, born in 1967, is called a technology billionaire. He studied at the University of Massachusetts and obtained two bachelor’s degrees within three years in applied mathematics and computing science.

After graduating, he worked as an engineer for Open market and developed commercial software for the internet.

In 1995, he founded On Display, focusing on researching and developing a program that helps administer businesses online. The company later sold for $1.8 billion in 2000.

In 2005, he established and became CEO of V-Home Group, gathering Vietnam-born businesspeople who want to seek investment opportunities in Vietnam.

4. Tran Dinh Truong, born in 1932, from Ky Anh, Ha Tinh province, was a famous billionaire in New York. He was known as the owner of many hotels in New York (Opera, Kenmore, Carter, Lafayette). He was recognized as one of the wealthiest Vietnamese persons in the world with assets worth more than one billion dollars.

In 1988, he bought Carter Hotel, located at the center of Times Square in New York, one of the most luxurious hotels in the US with 25 stories and 700 rooms.

Later, Truong acquired another luxury hotel – the Lafayette - in Buffalo, New York.

In 2014, Truong was given the Golden Torch Award in Washington DC, an award from the Vietnam-born community in the US. He was also a member of the board of directors of United Way of New York City. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 81.

Manh Ha