Dang Le Nguyen Vu

Vũ was born on 10 February 1971 in Ninh Hòa, Khánh Hoà, into a poor family. In 1979, his family moved to M'Đrăk District, central western Vietnam province of Đắk Lắk. In 1990, he went to Tây Nguyên University. During that time, he began to study and research coffee, eventually consulting with his future spouse Thảo, a post office information service worker with deep knowledge of the industry. In 1996, he and Thảo co-founded the Trung Nguyên Coffee Company in the city of Buôn Ma Thuột.

In 1998, Trung Nguyên opened its first cafe space in Phú Nhuận, Ho Chi Minh City, expanding its business operation under a franchising model that was "revolutionary at the time". Since that time, several coffee house franchises have launched nationwide. From 2003, due to the rapid development of its instant coffee brand G7, Trung Nguyên led Vietnam's coffee market for around a decade. In that year, Trung Nguyên's G7 coffee took the largest slice of the domestic market, with a "38 per cent share for 9 years", according to an AC Nielsen 2012 survey. G7 was pronounced the most preferred instant coffee product over Nestlé in a 2003 blind test, which is often cited as "an example of 'David' against 'Goliath'",

in which participants voted in high numbers for the G7 product as recorded by the press and observers. Nielsen data showed the product had become the 'top trending brand in the local 3-in-1 coffee market segment in 2003–2012 in terms of market-share, revenue, and sales volume'.

In August 2012, Forbes called Vũ as "Vietnam's Coffee King". From that time onward he was frequently referred to as the 'King of Coffee' by the press. In October 2012, he was named 'Pioneer of the Year' in a public vote by VNExpress readers. In March 2013, he was granted the title of 'Forever worthy of the descendants of Lạc Hồng' in 'The Divine Root 2014' program held by the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Education, the Club of Patriotic Businesses of Vietnam, and the Society of Historical Science of Vietnam.

Dang is widely known for his spiritual beliefs. He is the founder of his own transcendental "Doctrine of Coffee" whereby he has developed a spiritual philosophy and zen practice named 'Coffeeism' (Coffee Tao or Coffee Ceremony), including 'Coffee Zen'. It is described as an 'all-comprehensive, all-dimensional, all-global', 'holofractal' approach to healing, success, fortune, well-being and enlightenment; in which "Coffee is the 'Treasure of Earth and Heaven', Heritage of Humankind and Solution to the Future".

In late 2014, Dang and 18 fellow men went on a 49-day fasting and Zen journey.

He has been called "frank but pretty unfriendly" in some remarks concerning Starbucks coffee.

Beside his success in the coffee business, he also has a passion for cars. His car collection, the biggest in Vietnam, has now grown close to 100 cars, valued at more than 1 trillion VND (approx. 40.31 million US Dollars). He also owns the biggest collection of Ferraris in the country, with 10 cars. Notable cars in his collection include: Bugatti Veyron (only one in the country), McLaren Senna, Porsche 918 Spyder, Toyota GR Supra, Ford GT, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT Final Edition, Aston Martin DBX707 among many other names.