The Masan Group has named board member Danny Le, 36, as the new CEO of the food production giant.
The appointment was announced Friday with immediate effect, making him the youngest CEO in the group’s history.
Le graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, U.S. Before joining Masan, he worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley from 2006-2010, during which he participated in M&A deals and transactions on the capital markets with many global clients.
Le joined Masan Group in 2010 and quickly became the group’s head of strategy and development. In this position, he played a major role in developing Masan’s growth strategy and directly organized M&A transactions to develop a strategic platform for the group.
On his new appointment, Danny Le said he expects to make Masan Group the first Vietnamese company to be internationally recognized a “consumer unicorn,” referring to the term used for startups with a value of over $1 billion.
Masan’s founder and chairman Nguyen Dang Quang, who also served as the group’s previous CEO, said Le’s young age would not be an obstacle for him in the new position.
“We often use the word ‘kids’ for them, but we were even younger than them when we started this journey many years ago,” Quang said.
Masan, a producer of sauces, beverages, instant noodles, and meat, aims to achieve a 25 percent retail market share this year with over 3,000 outlets.
Its revenues fell 2.2 percent last year to VND37.35 trillion ($1.6 billion).