Nguyen Xuan Minh

Early years

Minh was born in February 3, 1971 in Hanoi, Vietnam during the peak of the Vietnam War. In 1976 after the end of the war, Minh's parents moved the family back to their home town of Ho Chi Minh City. Minh's most notable childhood achievements include winning the Ho Chi Minh City Judo Championship and the First Prize in Physics - Ho Chi Minh City's High School Competition, both in 1986. From 1986 to 1988, Minh studied at Thanh My Tay High School (current name: Gia Dinh) in Ho Chi Minh City. During this time, he was taught by two well-known teachers: Mr. Le Quang Anh (teacher in Mathematics) and Mr. Le Quang Diem (teacher in Physics).

In 1989, Minh went to the Soviet Union under a full government scholarship to study at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan, then subsequently at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Moscow, Russia and received a Master of Science Degree in Oil & Gas - Mechanical Engineering in 1994. Soon after, Minh received another Master's Degree in Applied Finance and Investment from FINSIA in Australia. Minh speaks Vietnamese, English and Russian. Minh lives in Hanoi.

Professional career

Minh joined Franklin Templeton Investments under Dr. Mark Mobius's Global Emerging Market Group in 1997. He started as the Chief of Templeton's Vietnam representative office. Minh was relocated to Singapore one year later, where he was eventually promoted to the position of Senior Vice President. In 2005, Minh was co-managing two of Templeton's Asian equity funds, whose yearly performance ranked 2nd and 8th amongst a large peer group of managed Asian investment funds according to Micropal. Near the end of 2006, Minh left Templeton to co-found Vietnam Asset Management (VAM) to take advantage of the investment potential offered as a result of Vietnam's booming economic growth. Under Minh's leadership as CEO & CIO, VAM-managed Vietnam equity funds consistently outperformed the benchmark VN-Index and several other peers by a significant margin throughout the years. Most recently, Minh joined Techcom Securities as its Chairman. Within 2 years, Minh helped transform Techcom Securities from a relatively modest brokerage house to the second largest securities institution in Vietnam, with many awards granted by prestigious regional financial publications.

In addition, Minh received his CFA charter as a Chartered Financial Analyst in 2003. He is also a member of various professional and business associations in Vietnam and overseas. Minh is a Board Director of Vietnam Airlines, the national airline of Vietnam. Minh has held positions as a board director for several Vietnamese public and private companies. Minh is a licensed fund manager in Vietnam.

Press contributions

Minh is a regular contributor to CNBC Asia, Bloomberg, FBNC, the Saigon Times Daily, and various other local and international media outlets to discuss issues concerning Vietnam's financial markets. In the January 2009 edition of the Vietnam Economic Times, Minh offered advice to investors in Vietnam's equity markets to be wary of the lack of transparency regarding large potential non-operating losses in many Vietnamese companies and suggested the functioning of Vietnam's equity markets would benefit from better disclosure by Vietnamese companies. In October 2009, Minh was the keynote speaker in Kuala Lumpur as part of HLG Unit Trust's 'Invest in Vietnam' Campaign.