Tien Nguyen, Vietnam’s richest heiress, hit the news when she fled London with Covid-19 – but how did her family become so wealthy?
Tien Nguyen caught the coronavirus in the UK, but her high-profile family – who brought designer fashion including Chanel and Dior to Vietnam – has been in the headlines for years
Among the 332 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Vietnam, the high-profile case of Tien Nguyen – socialite, influencer and daughter and heir to one of Vietnam’s wealthiest billionaires – attracted plenty of headlines.
The 24-year-old daughter of Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, chairman of Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), was reportedly flown back to Vietnam on a private chartered plane costing around US$360,000 to receive treatment after contracting Covid-19 in the UK.
On her recovery, her father made a generous donation of 30 billion Vietnamese dong (US$1.3 million) to support the Vietnamese government’s fight against the virus, and combat environmental problems in the Mekong Delta.
Johnathan was born in 1951 in Khanh Hoa province. He migrated to the Philippines at the age of 23 and then studied aviation in Seattle in the US. He started his career at Philippine Airlines and went on to become the airline’s CEO across Indochina.
In 1985, Johnathan returned to Vietnam on a mission to establish a direct flight between the Philippines and Vietnam. The same year, he launched his first successful business venture in the country, the US$10 million three-star lodge Nha Trang Resort. Emboldened by the booming growth of the Vietnamese market, Nguyen further explored other parts of Vietnam and diversified his business empire into a wide range of industries including high-end shopping malls and duty-free stores specialising in luxury brands such as Chanel, Dior, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Armani and Rolex, as well as food franchises such as Burger King and Domino’s Pizza.
In addition to business ventures, Johnathan is also known for his relationships with prominent women. His first wife was Cristina Serrano, who comes from an elite family; Cristina is the niece of Imelda Marcos, the powerful former First Lady of the Philippines.
Louis Nguyen, their second son, became a celebrity in Vietnam following his marriage to Tang Thanh Ha, a leading actress in Vietnamese television dramas and blockbuster films. With her thriving career, graceful beauty and elegant fashion style, Tang Thanh Ha is very popular with the public and was chosen as a brand ambassador for Audi and Toshiba. Since the marriage, Tang Thanh Ha has focused on her family and her businesses in fashion and F&B, while her husband helps to run his family’s corporations.