VietNamNet Bridge - The managers and the ‘souls’ of many large conglomerates are getting older. Who will be their successors?

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Truong Gia Binh, chair of FPT

At the latest shareholders’ meeting of FPT, the largest Vietnamese information technology group, a shareholder raised questions about the age of the key personnel.

With cheerful tone, the shareholder said the members of the management board are all getting old and it is necessary to prepare for the next-generation leadership.

He questioned if the current managers, aged 60, are innovative and creative enough to run the big conglomerates with tens of thousands of workers in the context of the rapid changes in the society.

Truong Gia Binh, chair of FPT’s board of directors, is 60 years old this year. And so is Bui Quang Ngoc, deputy president and CEO.

The aging of the key personnel is not only the problem of FPT.

Truong Gia Binh, chair of FPT’s board of directors, is 60 years old this year. And so is Bui Quang Ngoc, deputy president and CEO.
A new chair of the board of directors has been appointed for Vinamilk, the nation’s leading dairy producer. 

Le Thi Bang Tam, who is described as an experienced businesswoman and former Deputy Minister of Finance, is 69 years old. 

Meanwhile, Mai Kieu Lien, the former chair of Vinamilk, now CEO of the enterprise, has been working for Vinamilk for the last 40 years and is now 63 years old.

The other big names in the business circle, such as Pham Thi Viet Nga, CEO of Hau Giang Pharmacy, Nguyen Van Kha, president of Tu Liem Housing and Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh, president and CEO of the Refrigeration Engineering Enterprise (REE), are also older. 

As the leaders are well aware of the importance of the preparation for the next-generation leadership, the businessmen have put their children into important posts in the companies to train them for the future.

Thanh of REE, for example, now has two daughters holding large volume of REE’s stake. Nguyen Ngoc Thai Binh, born in 1982, now a member of the board of directors and finance director, is expected to become the successor of Thanh.

Le Thu Thuy, born in 1983, now deputy chair and deputy CEO of SeABank, is the daughter of Nguyen Thi Nga, who is president of SeABank and BRG, the group which invests in a lot of large projects in many different business fields.

Meanwhile, other businessmen do not prepare their children for important positions at their businesses.

FPT’s Truong Gia Binh, answering the shareholder’s question, said it is true that there are many older people, but the leaders of tens of thousands of workers are mostly aged between 40 and 45.

The president said FPT, learning experience from large conglomerates in the world, has been preparing the next-generation managers to run FPT.


M. Ha