He is a futurist, a cultural translator and a nerd. Toan Nguyen is one of those rare people for whom passion and profession don’t just go hand in hand – they are one and the same.

His story is not a straightforward career path. It is a journey across cultures, communities and ideas that others cannot even conceive of yet.

An office like a nerd’s museum – and that’s no coincidence

Imagine walking into an office in the heart of Hamburg. Over 400 action figures line the shelves, consoles from three decades are piled up next to Tetris-shaped sofas, and manga panels adorn the walls. Not a child’s bedroom – but the command centre of one of Germany’s most influential marketing thinkers. That’s how it’s described in a podcast.

The office belongs to Toan Nguyen. And it’s no coincidence that it looks just as his father once dismissed with a laugh: “Still like his teenage bedroom.” Because that is precisely Toan’s superpower. He has never stopped seeing the world through the eyes of a nerd – and that is exactly why he sees things that others overlook.

Toan Nguyen – From Vietnam to Hamburg: A story of translation

Toan grew up in Germany as the child of Vietnamese immigrants. A childhood straddling two cultures, two languages, two worldviews. What would be a burden for others became a school of life for him.

“I was expected to integrate as fully as possible,” he explains – because there was no going back home. Every day, he had to learn to interpret, decode and translate different cultures. This daily practice honed a skill that would later make him a sought-after voice in boardrooms: listening deeply and recognising patterns that others do not even look for.

This cultural compass, coupled with an academic background – he studied in Maastricht, Rotterdam and Singapore – shaped a strategist who does not think in a formulaic way.

The rise: From intern to youngest equity partner

Toan Nguyen began his career as an intern at Jung von Matt. What followed sounds like the plot of a business thriller: at the age of 28, he became the youngest strategy director in the firm’s history. Shortly afterwards, he was personal assistant to the agency’s two founders, Holger Jung and Jean-Remy von Matt.

But he didn’t stop there. He built, founded, took risks:

• JvM Sports (2013): He was one of the first employees – and established the social media teams as well as the first e-sports structures.
• JvM Stars (2015): Under his leadership, influencer marketing became mainstream in Germany.
• JvM NERD (2019): His masterpiece – Europe’s first dedicated marketing agency for gaming, anime, sci-fi, fantasy and fandom culture.

At the end of this journey, he achieved a title that he was the first of his generation to hold: the youngest equity partner in the history of Jung von Matt.

Gaming isn’t a hobby. Gaming is culture.

When Toan Nguyen first started talking about gaming as a serious business sector, many people laughed. That was a few years ago. Today, the industry has over three billion players worldwide and generates more than 180 billion US dollars in annual revenue. Who’s laughing now?

For Toan, it was never just a market. It was always a culture – with its own languages, rituals, heroes and communities. And he realised early on: if you want to bring brands into this world, you don’t just have to understand them. You have to respect them.

Clients such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, McDonald’s, Xbox, Nintendo, Warner Bros. and The Pokémon Company have taken this to heart – and allowed Toan and his team to guide them into the world of new pop culture.

“These days, everyone wants to become a ‘lovebrand’. But love isn’t a one-way street. If you want to be loved, you have to give love too.” – Toan Nguyen

Futurist, podcaster, investor: The next chapter

After 16 years at Jung von Matt, Toan Nguyen left the agency group at the end of 2025 – at his own request, to devote himself to new projects. The industry held its breath.

What does a man do who saw gaming become mainstream before others could even spell the word? He looks further ahead.

Today, Toan Nguyen operates at the intersection of technology, branding and people – as a board member and senior advisor to executive boards, as an investor in the longevity sector (he is one of the top 30 healthcare podcasters in the German-speaking world with his show Die Ärztin und der Nerd), and as a keynote speaker who doesn’t simply explain what trends are, but shows where they emerge.

Four times on the ‘Top 40 under 40’ lists of Capital and Horizont. Twice on the jury at Cannes Lions – one of the few Germans ever to have achieved this. Plus awards from W&V, Handelsblatt, Business Punk and RampStyle.

The labels the industry has bestowed upon him speak volumes: “Prodigy” (Handelsblatt), “Marketing Rockstar” (W&V), “Magician” (RampStyle), “Super-Nerd” (Meedia).

What really sets him apart is his ability to think faster than the market – and to do so with a clarity that makes complex ideas sound simple without oversimplifying them.

What Toan Nguyen brings to the stage

As a speaker, Toan Nguyen is not a theorist who quotes studies. He is a practitioner with vision – and he knows how to engage board members, marketing teams and executives where decisions are really made: in the mind.

His topics are not isolated specialist disciplines. They are interwoven:

• Personal Branding – Why the question “Who am I?” is now a strategic business issue. Toan Nguyen is the best example of how a personal brand opens doors that no job title ever could.

• Culture & Innovation – How true innovation doesn’t emerge from strategy documents, but from subcultures that shape tomorrow’s mainstream.

• Gaming & New Pop Culture – Why Generation Z and Alpha are reached not through target groups, but through style groups – and what that means for brands.

• Longevity & The Future of Health – A growing field of interest in which he immerses himself not only as an investor, but also as a thinker.

Toan is a thinker who doesn’t just talk about change – he lives it

Toan Nguyen’s story is one of courage. The courage to be niche when everyone else wants to be mainstream. The courage to start afresh when others would rest on their laurels. The courage to ask complex questions in such a way that simple answers are no longer enough.

He is not a keynote speaker who simply works through a PowerPoint presentation. He is a cultural translator – between generations, between worlds, between what is and what is to come.

Book Toan Nguyen as a speaker: +49 (0)30 640 777 42 or toan.nguyen@leading-minds.com

Would you like to book Toan Nguyen for your event, conference or a moderated discussion? You can book Toan Nguyen for keynote speeches and moderated panel discussions via LEADING MINDS.

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