Henry Nguyen ’99 MD, ’01 MBA has taken the long road home. Born in Vietnam, he was just a baby when his family fled the country and settled in America. A chance return set in motion his path to becoming one of the country’s top VCs, bringing iconic brands such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Forbes to the young and fast-growing Asian nation. Now chairman of fintech investing firm Phoenix Holdings, Nguyen traces his journey for us.
What were your early years like?
My parents’ tragedy of being on the losing side of the war meant we had to flee Vietnam in 1975. We were fortunate that my dad was a civil engineer and because of that we had contacts at the American embassy. That’s how I grew up as a suburban kid in Virginia.
What took you back to Vietnam?
It was a series of coincidences. I wrote for the Let’s Go travel guides in college and was jockeying to go to Rome because I had studied Latin and Greek. But they pulled a bait and switch on me: They assigned me to Vietnam. I’m glad they did, because it changed the trajectory of my life. I connected with relatives there, and I realized how much I loved Vietnam
You first studied medicine at the Feinberg School, and then started taking classes at Kellogg. Why that combination?
A stroke of luck — Kellogg has a downtown campus next to the medical school. I took a health care economics class with David Dranove, a wonderful professor who opened up my eyes beyond the practice of medicine.
What did you learn in medical school that helped you in a business context?
Medicine affords you the opportunity to study and engage with the deep parts of human nature, and that’s been incredibly important.
You got involved in VC in Vietnam in 2014 when the country’s startup ecosystem was young. How has that evolved?
In those early years, our firm actually was the whole ecosystem! I’ve always been a kind of bridge, trying to translate my American experience to Vietnam.
What excites you about the coming decades?
About 65% of the country are millennials or Gen Zers. I think we’ll move toward a more open market and an innovation-driven economy. The next 20 years are going to be even more fast-paced for economic growth and change here.