REE Corp. chair Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh spent 40 years navigating Vietnam’s economy. Here’s what she thinks comes next

In 1961, at just 8 years old, Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh was ordered by officials in then–South Vietnam to live in a “strategic hamlet,” an attempt to separate rural villagers from the National Liberation Front (which U.S. readers know better as the Vietcong). As much as one-third of South Vietnam’s rural population was sent to the hamlets, which ultimately became a strategic failure, increasing resentment against officials in Saigon. “It was a very painful process,” she remembers. “People who had close ties to the village suddenly have to uproot their entire existence into these hamlets. It was very heartbreaking.” When the conflict grew more intense in 1968, she joined the Communist forces as a medic at the age of 16, “concocting basic medication, saline solutions.” That experience is a far cry from her current position, as chair of REE Corp., one of Vietnam’s leading developers of renewable energy projects, particularly in wind, hydropower, and solar. She spoke with Fortune in her Ho Chi Minh City office, answering questions in a mix of English and Vietnamese, with her Western-educated daughter translating. Nguyen joined REE in 1982, when it was still a rusty state-owned enterprise with just one factory. Three years later, she became its director—and led the company through its privatization, its IPO, its pivot to renewable energy, and its backing by one of the world’s largest conglomerates. Nguyen’s long career parallels the story of Vietnam as a whole: managing the consequences of a lengthy war; riding out a rapid reopening that forced the country’s companies to improve quickly; and now aligning to the most important global growth trends of the decade, like the energy transition and supply chain resilience. Now, she is handing over REE to the next generation, stepping down from the chair role on July 10; she plans to hand over key roles to her children. But Nguyen sees plenty of opportunities in Vietnam for a renewable energy company like hers. Electricity is in incr