VinaCapital chief investment officer Andy Ho dies, aged 52

Andy Ho, chief investment officer of VinaCapital, a leading investment management company in Vietnam, and CEO of VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), unexpectedly passed away at his home on Thursday.

He died at the age of 52, VinaCapital said in a statement released the same day. The cause of his death was not announced.

Brook Colin Taylor, VinaCapital’s CEO of asset management, will serve as interim head of the VOF, along with co-managers Khanh Vu and Dieu Phuong Nguyen Thi, deputy managing directors of the fund, according to the release.

Don Lam, CEO and founding partner of VinaCapital stated: “Andy has been my trusted partner since 2007, and he has been instrumental in the growth of the VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund and the company as a whole.”

Since joining VinaCapital in 2007, Andy helped the VOF’s net asset value surpass the $1 billion mark, deployed over $1 billion on privately negotiated deals, and led over $700 million in exits via strategic trade sales.

Andy was a leading authority on investing in developing markets, privatizations, and private equity deals in Vietnam.

Prior to joining VinaCapital, he was director of investment at Prudential Vietnam, where he looked after the company’s capital market portfolio and developed its bank investment strategy, which provided a return of four times over an 18-month period.

Andy also served as manager of Prudential’s mutual fund, PruBF1, and held various management positions at Dell Ventures, the investment group of Dell Computer Corp., and Ernst & Young.

He had a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

VOF is traded on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.