VNG chief exec Le Hong Minh relinquishes post as chair

Le Hong Minh, CEO of Vietnam-based VNG, stepped down as chair effective January 1, a move that was approved by the internet major’s board of directors.

He relinquished the post to comply with the country’s Law on Securities, which does not allow the chair of a public company to concurrently hold the title of CEO.

Le Hong Minh, chief executive officer of VNG / Photo credit: World Economic Forum

VNG has appointed Vo Sy Nhan as its new chair. He’s the CEO of Empire City Vietnam and co-founder of Gaw NP Capital, a joint venture between Vietnam’s NP Capital and Gaw Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based real estate private equity firm.

Le co-founded VNG in 2004, when it was still known as VinaGame. The company changed its name to VNG in 2010 to reflect the growing scope of its businesses.

In 2005, the firm spearheaded Vietnam’s game publishing industry by rolling out Swordsman Online by China’s Kingsoft.

While internet cafes at the time were flooded with pirated games, Le – an avid gamer himself – believed that Vietnamese gamers would be willing to pay for licensed games.

Since then, VNG has built a digital services empire that spans social media (Zalo), online media (Zing News), music streaming (Zing MP3), financial services (ZaloPay), and cloud services (VNG Cloud).

VNG started trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange’s Unlisted Public Company Market on January 5, but no transactions have materialized since then.