Forbes Vietnam Honors WEAI Director in Ho Chi Minh City “Women’s Summit”

Weatherhead East Asian Institute Director Lien-Hang T. Nguyen was the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the 2024 Forbes Vietnam Women’s Summit, held at a convention center in Ho Chi Minh City on November 7, 2024.

Nguyen is the Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia at Columbia University. A specialist in the Vietnam War, U.S.-Southeast Asian relations, and the global Cold War, she is the author of the prize-winning Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam (2012) and the general editor of the forthcoming three-volume Cambridge History of the Vietnam War. She co-founded Columbia’s Vietnam Studies program and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Vietnam Studies.

Convened under Forbes Vietnam Chairwoman Dang Minh Phuong, the annual Women’s Summit is a public forum for highlighting issues around entrepreneurship and women’s development in the Southeast Asian nation. Under the rubric “Trailblazers & Changemakers,“ the 2024 event recognized Nguyen as a leader in education and scholarship, while her fellow honorees were saluted for accomplishments in business, manufacturing, fashion, and media.

Nguyen’s keynote addressed the Summit’s theme by citing the advances Vietnam has made in achieving gender equity, most notably in education and employment. (A UN report released earlier this year notes that Vietnam has a female workforce participation rate of 70%, one of the highest in the world.) She concluded with a call for mentorship programs across sectors that will make it possible for younger Vietnamese women to build on their predecessors’ gains.

Following her talk, Nguyen sat for a short discussion with Hoang Ngoc Minh Toan, President and CEO of World Premier Leaders, a franchisee of the management training partner Crestcom International. 

“The first word that comes to mind is 'empowering,'” Nguyen said in New York City after returning from Hanoi. “The Summit left no doubt that women leaders in Vietnam have the power to inspire.”