Chad Ovel joins Mekong Capital as a new partner

Chad Ovel has 17 years experience leading value growth in Vietnam, and speaks Vietnamese fluently.

From 1996-2000, Chad served as the development director of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indochina leading all strategic planning, project development and fundraising. 

From 2000-2006, Chad worked at ScanCom Vietnam where he served in several roles, eventually becoming the managing director, responsible for over 6,000 employees.  At ScanCom, Chad led the aggressive and innovative growth of the company from a turnover of $15 million to a turnover of $150 million, making it the largest furniture exporter in Vietnam in 2006.    

From 2006-2013, Chad worked at AA Corporation, where he was the chief executive officer from 2008 onwards. AA Corporation, a former investee company of Mekong Capital from 2003 to 2011, has been Vietnam’s domestic market leader for interior furnishing and construction since 1993.  Under Chad’s leadership, AA Corporation had several major breakthroughs including:  revenue CAGR of 51 per cent, EBITDA CAGR 60 per cent, and a 12x increase in average annual revenue per employee.  Chad also diversified AA’s revenue by increasing sales from international markets from less than 10 per cent in 2007 to more than 50 per cent in 2013.

Chad holds a BA from Carleton College and an MBA from University of Chicago. Chad is also an ambitious high-altitude mountaineer. He recently reached the summit of Broad Peak, 8,050m (Pakistan) and Ama Dablam, 6,830m (Nepal).

Chris Freund said: “We are so delighted that Chad is joining our firm. We’ve worked closely with Chad while he was at AA Corporation, and we were so impressed by his leadership and his tremendous impact on the success of the company. With his strong operating expertise and deep roots in Vietnam, we’re confident that Chad will play a major role in leading Mekong Capital to being one of the most consistently successful private equity firms in Asia.”

Mekong Capital is a Vietnam-focused private equity firm, specialising in consumer driven businesses. Mekong Capital’s funds have completed more than 25 private equity investments in Vietnam, of which 11 have been fully exited and three have been partially exited. Mekong Capital manages three funds, with a team of around 20 full-time people in our offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Singapore. It invests in fast-growing companies, with ambitious expansion plans, and a commitment to building management teams that will successfully execute on those expansion plans. These companies are typically well-established companies in consumer-driven sectors which operate in fragmented and fast growing markets which provide attractive growth opportunities.