Daniel Nguyen is the founder of Sông Cái Distillery, a premium distillery and winery based in Hanoi, Vietnam, dedicated to working directly with farmers and using native Vietnamese ingredients in its products (gin, amaro, whisky, brandy, rice wine). Sông Cái Distillery distributes globally to markets including the United States of America, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom and has garnered accolades such as Bloomberg Magazine’s 1 of 16 Top Spirits Brands of 2021.

Prior to Sông Cái Distillery, Daniel worked in agroforestry and ethnobotany in Vietnam’s highlands with predominantly highland communities (Red Dao, Hmong, Ca Dong, H’re) with a focus on natural resource management and native seed preservation. He has invested in and worked with the Vietnam National University of Agriculture in research and preservation projects, specifically pertaining to the native corn species of Hmong and Nung communities in Dien Bien and Lao Cao provinces respectively. Daniel also has worked in the Gulf Coast (Louisiana, Mississippi specifically) on community-based participatory research and economic development concerning fisheries and farmers using cooperative models to build vertical supply chains. He founded VEGGI Farmers’ Cooperative, which transitioned displaced Vietnamese fisheries to land-based and aquaculture farming combined with tofu and soymilk manufacturing via a marketing cooperative vehicle to improve access to markets. In partnership with Tulane University and Washington State University, the impact and methodology of such projects have resulted in numerous articles published in peer review journals such as Journal of Environmental Management, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Nature.