Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman and founder of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group and a football club, is ranked 29th out of the 30 most influential executives and officials in Southeast Asia, according to Wall Street Journal.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group chairman Doan Nguyen Duc (L) stands in front of his jet

In the “Southeast Asia Power List” issued Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal describes the 48-year-old Duc as one of the main players in Vietnam’s fast-growing economy.

Duc is heavily involved in rubber, furniture and hydropower. He also owns one of the country’s top football teams, the list said.

He was ranked the richest stock investor of Vietnam in 2008 and 2009, and the second richest last year. His total stock asset as of early this month is estimated at VND8 trillion (over $390 million), while total assets of Hoang Anh Gia Lai group is more than VND23 trillion (USD1.1 billion) as of the second quarter this year.

Duc is also the first businessman to have a private jet in Vietnam since the end of war in 1975.

Upon receiving the news, Duc told newswire VnExpress that he was surprised and “did not believe that he is one of ASEAN’s top executives.”

“I have never made any contact with Wall Street Journal nor been informed of the poll,” he was quoted by VnExpress as saying.

Billionaires from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand take most of the remaining places in the list while Aburizal Bakrie, chairman of the Indonesia’s largest coal producer Bumi Resources Group, takes the first position.