Kien Pham, President and Co-Founder, The Vietnam Foundation.

Mr. Kien Pham is President and the Co- Founder of the Vietnam Foundation and Vice Chairman of the VietNamNet Media Group, a leading multi-channel media company in Vietnam. Before VietnamNet, he was the founding Executive Director of the Vietnam Education Foundation.

Pham has broad experiences in business, government and non-profit sectors. In the business sector, Pham has been an international executive in Fortune 500 companies such as Tenneco and Procter & Gamble, as well as an entrepreneur owner of technology, energy, and international consulting firms. In the government sector, he served in the White House under President Reagan and the Pentagon under President Bush, as well as in the U.S. Senate. He was a White House Fellow in 1985. In the non-profit sector, Pham was the founder and chairman of the Vietnam Forum Foundation, and was also a board member of the Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped. In 1996, Pham was a recipient of the “Never Fear, Never Quit” Award. Pham is publicly recognized for his leadership and management abilities.

Pham has also been active in international affairs. In 1986, he was chosen as a Young Leader by the American Council on Germany, and in 1992 was selected as the U.S.-Japan Leadership Fellow by the Japan Society. In 1993, he was elected as a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a participant in the American Assembly.

Pham grew up in Saigon, Vietnam.  In 1977, at the age of 19, he came to the United States on a boat and settled in Colorado, where Pham became a factory worker, learned English and later attended college on scholarship.  He received a B.S in marketing and international business from University of Colorado at Boulder, and won a scholarship to study in England.  His graduate degrees, earned concurrently at Stanford University, include an MBA in international and organizational management, an MA in International Economics and a special diploma in public policy management.  In 1990, Stanford University named Pham as one of the “Most Outstanding 100 Alumni” in the school’s 100-year history. Pham is a recipient of an honorary doctorate of law degree from Pfeiffer University.