Don Lam

Don Lam is the co-founder and CEO of VinaCapital, one of Vietnam's largest and best-known investment management firms. Born in Vietnam and raised in Canada, he returned to Vietnam in 1994 at age 27. Before founding VinaCapital he was a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (Vietnam), where he led the corporate finance and management consulting practices across the Indochina region. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and Political Science from the University of Toronto, is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Canada, and received an honorary doctorate in business from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

In 2003 Lam co-founded VinaCapital alongside Horst Geicke, starting with a single USD 10 million fund. Under his leadership the firm has grown into a diversified group managing roughly USD 4.0 billion in assets across private equity, listed equity, venture capital, fixed income, real estate, energy and hospitality. Early milestones included launching the VinaLand real-estate fund and the DFJ VinaCapital venture fund (a joint venture with Draper Fisher Jurvetson) in 2006, and Vietnam Infrastructure Limited in 2007. VinaCapital was named "Best Fund House – Vietnam" by Asia Asset Management in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

In August 2018 Lam launched VinaCapital Ventures, a technology-investment platform (initially framed as a ~USD 100 million commitment) to back Vietnamese and regional tech startups, later expanding toward a growth-capital strategy for asset-light digital companies. Beyond investing, Lam is active in public policy and philanthropy: he founded the VinaCapital Foundation in 2006 to fund children's health and education programs in Vietnam, serves as a member of the Singapore Management University Board of Trustees, sits on the World Economic Forum community of leaders, and holds advisory roles including Deputy Chairman of a Private Sector Development Committee under Vietnam's Prime Minister's advisory structures.

• Invests behind the long-term growth of Vietnam's economy — Lam frames Vietnam as "Asia's next tiger economy" and argues that "despite global uncertainty, Vietnam is better positioned than most countries to continue growing … thanks to the government's foresight and decisive actions."
• Through VinaCapital Ventures, targets "leading, asset-light digital technology companies that are providing unique solutions for industry pain points" and "creating impact at scale across growth markets."
• Core startup sectors: logistics, fintech, and digital media/consumer — the three verticals VinaCapital Ventures highlighted at launch.
• Stage: early-stage to growth. VinaCapital Ventures backs seed/early rounds; a newer Ventures Growth Fund and the HCMC public-private venture fund (which VinaCapital co-leads) prioritize Series A and Series B rounds in "core technologies and genuine green and digital transformation solutions."
• What makes him say yes: solutions to structural Vietnamese pain points (e.g., logistics costs "among the highest in the region"), scalable digital models, and closing "the funding gap for Vietnamese startups" to accelerate the country's transition to an innovation-led economy.