The path to becoming a billionaire for Mr. Hoang Kieu

At the age of 5, Hoang Kieu moved to Saigon to live with his uncle, Hoang Thi Tho, who was then a famous artist in Vietnam. Thanks to living with his uncle, Hoang Kieu received a more complete education and excelled in his studies at university, majoring in science.

Hoang Kieu was quite handsome in his youth, when he lived with his uncle Hoang Thi.

In 1975, Hoang Kieu and his family emigrated to Los Angeles, USA, to begin a new life that was far from easy. There, Hoang Kieu confidently applied for jobs everywhere, and with his eagerness to learn, he was hired as an employee at Abbott, earning only $1.25 per hour.

Later, thanks to his contributions to the company, he was promoted to supervisor and then gradually to manager. Finally, Hoang Kieu became director in charge of testing plasma samples. At the same time, he received certification from the US Food and Drug Administration for his plasma laboratory meeting standards. This was a solid foundation for him to enter the field of hepatitis B research.

With the motto "Don't sell your knowledge for a pittance," Hoang Kieu decided to establish his own company specializing in plasma research called Rare Antibody Antigen Supply (RAAS). Later, Hoang Kieu acquired several other centers, and by 1985, he owned 11 renowned plasma centers across the United States.

With a desire to expand further globally, Hoang Kieu chose the Chinese market, a target few American businesses considered, at a very precise time. This coincided with a hepatitis B outbreak in China, affecting 300,000 people.

Seizing the opportunity, Mr. Hoang Kieu, together with the Shanghai Hematology Center, established Shanghai RAAS to supply AlbuRAAS, a drug containing the main components of plasma, along with other plasma-derived medications. Thanks to this drug, hepatitis B has been brought under control. Today, the demand for this product in China is increasing, to the point that Shanghai RAAS cannot produce enough to supply just one province in China.

That's the market in China, while in the US, Hoang Kieu continued to expand into the wine production sector. In November 2014, Hoang Kieu inaugurated the Michael Mondavi Family winery and invited Li Bingbing to be its brand ambassador.

With those successes, billionaire Hoang Kieu currently holds a massive fortune of over $3.8 billion and ranks 149th among the 400 richest billionaires in the world.

Billionaire Hoang Kieu poses for a photo with Li Bingbing. Hoang Kieu was the first businessman to harbor the dream of bringing the Miss World 2010 competition to Vietnam.

Reportedly, his wealth primarily comes from his company, Shanghai RAAS, with revenues of $214 million and a market capitalization of $17.7 billion. Furthermore, his company was selected as one of the top 200 companies in Asia with revenues under $1 billion and ranked 20th on the list of the world's most innovative companies.

Besides being known as a talented businessman, Hoang Kieu is also an active philanthropist. He once set a record by auctioning a bottle of Auction Napa Valley wine for charity, selling it for $1 million.

This Vietnamese-American billionaire still remembers his homeland, the place where he was born and raised. Hoang Kieu frequently returns to Vietnam to contribute his efforts to alleviate poverty and suffering for the people. Billionaire Hoang Kieu once collaborated with the Red Cross to build 5,000 houses for the poor.

Before becoming a billionaire thanks to the Shanghai RAAS IPO in 2014, Hoang Kieu was already well-known in Vietnam. He was the first businessman to harbor the dream of bringing the Miss World 2010 pageant to Vietnam.

Mr. Hoang Kieu invested tens of billions of dong in buying land in Tien Giang and planned to acquire shares in Tien Giang Tourism Company. However, the billionaire quickly became disillusioned with this venture and abandoned it due to problems in the construction of numerous projects and the fact that the Miss World pageant had not yet been granted permission to move from Nha Trang to Tien Giang.

Since late 2010, Hoang Kieu has been almost completely absent from discussions regarding projects in Vietnam. His main activities since then have been primarily based in Shanghai.

According to Motthegioi.vn