Ms. Mai Kieu Lien honored in the Top 100 Most Powerful Women Asia

Ms. Mai Kieu Lien, Board Member and General Director of Vinamilk, is also the only Vietnamese female entrepreneur in the F&B and FMCG sectors to be honored on this list for two consecutive years (2024 and 2025). Fortune is a leading U.S. business and financial magazine, globally renowned for its prestigious rankings of enterprises and leaders.

According to Fortune, the Most Powerful Women Asia ranking highlights women who are redefining leadership by transforming companies, reshaping industries, driving growth, promoting technological innovation, improving business performance, and inspiring the next generation of leaders.

The list is compiled based on five criteria, including the scale and development of the enterprise, strategic vision, promotion of innovation and breakthrough achievements, influence on the industry and economy, and reputation and social impact.

This year's honorees include outstanding female leaders and entrepreneurs from 14 markets: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China), Macao (China), and Viet Nam, representing a wide range of industries.

Joining Vinamilk in 1976, when Viet Nam's dairy industry was not shaped and child malnutrition rates remained high, the company's leadership, together with Ms. Mai Kieu Lien, set for themselves the mission that every Vietnamese child can access the highest-quality nutrition products. Guided by this vision, and with nearly five decades of dedication, including 33 years as General Director, Ms. Mai Kieu Lien and her colleagues have built Viet Nam's largest dairy company, which is now ranked among the world’s most promising dairy brands.

Vinamilk has laid the foundation for today's Vietnamese dairy industry, dispelling the prejudice that Viet Nam cannot develop dairy cow herds. The company pioneered a "white revolution" in the 1990s to establish and expand domestic raw material areas for dairy cow farming, which is the premise for building the large-scale, modern dairy cow farming industry as it is today. From early on, Vinamilk has implemented numerous initiatives aimed at sustainable development, such as the "Viet Nam Rising Milk Fund," the "One Million Trees for Viet Nam Fund," and the "Vinamilk Pathway to Dairy Net Zero 2050" program.

Under Ms. Mai Kieu Lien's leadership, Vinamilk has deployed many long-term programs to improve the physical condition of generations of Vietnamese people, with a special attention to ensuring that children across the country have the opportunity to drink milk every day. Notably, the long-running School Milk Program has contributed to improving nutrition among preschool and primary school children, reducing malnutrition rates, and enhancing the physical development of Vietnamese children. Meanwhile, the Viet Nam Rising Milk Fund has been maintained continuously for 18 years, providing nearly 43 million cartons of milk to more than 550,000 disadvantaged children nationwide.

The "One Million Trees for Viet Nam Fund," jointly implemented by Vinamilk and the former Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), was carried out from 2012 to 2020. The program successfully planted 1,121,000 trees across 56 sites in 20 provinces and cities nationwide, standing as a typical example of efforts and actions for the environment, lives, and a sustainable future.

In 2023, Vinamilk announced its commitment and roadmap toward achieving Net Zero by 2050. The company became the first dairy enterprise in Viet Nam to have three units (two factories and one farm) certified for carbon neutrality under the international PAS 2060:2014 standard. Vinamilk is also the first Vietnamese dairy company to join the global dairy industry initiative Pathways to Dairy Net Zero.

With a network of state-of-the-art farms and factories, continuous quality enhancement, pioneering application of breakthrough technologies, and an enduring innovation direction, Vinamilk has elevated Vietnamese dairy products to world-leading standards of safety, purity, and superior taste. Today, Vinamilk not only serves the domestic market but also exports to 65 countries and territories worldwide.

Over her 33 years as General Director, Ms. Mai Kieu Lien has led Vinamilk with an innovative spirit, determination, and an outstanding leadership mindset, along with an operating philosophy encapsulated in three words: autonomy, decisiveness, and integrity, as when food goes into the human body, there is no room for mistakes. Under her leadership, Vinamilk has risen to a respectable position on the global dairy map, currently ranking among the Top 36 largest dairy businesses in the world by revenue and recognized as the No. 1 most potential dairy brand globally.

About Ms. Mai Kieu Lien

Born in 1953, Ms. Mai Kieu Lien graduated in dairy processing from Moscow University and returned to Viet Nam in 1976. She began her journey at Vinamilk with an aspiration to build a source of high-quality nutrition for the Vietnamese people. She has been Vinamilk's General Director since 1992.

As a leader, Ms. Mai Kieu Lien is a powerful businesswoman whose innovative spirit and strategic vision have propelled Vinamilk onto the global stage, contributing to building a self-sufficient, internationally recognized Vietnamese dairy industry. For her remarkable contributions to the dairy industry, the national economy, and the development of generations of Vietnamese children, she has been awarded numerous prestigious state awards, including the Third Class Independence Medal (2022), Labor Hero in the Renewal Period (2005), and the First Class Labor Order (2006) and Second Class Labor Order (2001). In 2025, she was also named among the Top 60 Outstanding Individuals in the 50-year history of Ho Chi Minh City’s construction, defense, and development.

Ms. Mai Kieu Lien is one of the key figures behind the development of Viet Nam's dairy industry and has made significant contributions to the development of generations of Vietnamese people via nutrition. She is not only a model for women in business but also a symbol of dedication, perseverance, and aspiration in life.

She has been repeatedly recognized by international publications such as Nikkei and Forbes Asia as among Asia's most influential businesswomen for her outstanding contributions to Viet Nam's and the region's economies and is the only female entrepreneur in Viet Nam to receive Forbes Viet Nam's Lifetime Achievement Award.