Pham Duc Trung Kien

Kien Pham, Chief Executive Officer of the VietNamNet Media Group, is the founding executive director of the Vietnam Education Foundation. Pham has been an international executive in Fortune 500 companies such as Tenneco and Procter & Gamble, as well as an entrepreneur owner of high-technology, energy and international consulting firms.

Biography

Pham grew up in Saigon, Vietnam. In 1977, at the age of 19, he led his family on a high-sea escape and came to the United States. They 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 the University of Colorado at Boulder, and won a scholarship to study in England. His graduate degrees, earned concurrently at Stanford University, include an M.B.A. in international and organizational management, an M.A. in international economics and a special diploma in public policy management. In 1990, Stanford University named him 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.

In government, he has served at 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. 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 a 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 a participant in the American Assembly. 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.