Board Officers

Bryon Hung Tran - Chairperson

Shandon Phan, Esq. - Vice-Chairperson

Oanh Henry - Secretary

William J. Ridley - Treasurer

Hong Pham - Executive Director

Directors & Committee Chairs

Nguyen Dinh Thang, PhD - Director

Vinh Nguyen - Director

Loc Huu Khuong, PhD - Director

Chau Tran, Director

Anh Nguyen, Director

Bryon Hung Tran

Chairperson

Bio info here.

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Shandon Cuong Phan

Vice Chairperson

Shandon Phan is PR and Communications Manager of BPSOS, a national Vietnamese American community organization, and Founder and Principal of Publius Consulting, an IT and communications consulting firm which provides cutting-edge IT solutions, research services, and Internet marketing strategies to educational institutions, political campaigns, non-profit organizations, and small to midsize businesses. He brings to the Chamber his diverse experience in issue advocacy, organizational development, and governmental relations.

Shandon has assisted many businesses with development and communications needs, consulted for many community non-profits, and worked on several political campaigns at both national and state levels. During the 2008 election, he was elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention and served as an Asian Pacific Americans Coalition National Co-Chair for the John McCain presidential campaign. In addition to his involvement with VietAmCham, Shandon also serves on the Board of Directors of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of the Greater Washington Area and as Founding President of the Vietnamese American Republican Coalition.

Shandon graduated from Tulane University with a B.S.E. degree with honors in Computer Engineering and Mathematics and earned his J.D. specializing in litigation and international law from University of Baltimore School of Law, where he was a Litigation Fellow, an International Law Student Fellow, Captain of the Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court Team, and Oralist of the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Team. He also held various student leadership roles during law school, serving on the Law School Dean’s Student Advisory Council, as President of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, Vice-President of International Law Society, and Secretary of Moot Court Board.

Shandon has received many awards and honors, including the “Spirit of Excellence” Award from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of the Judge Advocate General, the Service Learning Scholar Award from the University of Baltimore, and the National Young Community Leader Award from NAVASA. He has completed four Marine Corps marathons and is currently writing a non-fiction book about Vietnamese American history.

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Oanh Henry

Secretary

Oanh Henry was born and raised in Saigon, South Vietnam. In 1975, Oanh and her family migrated to the United States and settled in Annandale, Virginia. Oanh finished her high school years at Annandale High School and earned her Bachelor’s degree majoring in Computer Science and minor in Business from George Mason University.

She started her computer job at a phone company after her first year in college and continued to work for them until she graduated. This entry programming analyst job gave her a boost up with her career in the IT field. She got into the management path early in her career. During her IT career of 20+ years, Oanh has served as a software engineer, a programmer, a senior analyst, a task leader, a project manager, a program manager, and a program director. Places that she worked at, either private IT companies or corporate of America or the Federal government, have given her such a vast experience in dealing with complex projects, perse people, and different levels of situations. Oanh has been in roles as a mentee, a mentor, a student, and a teacher. She believes in life-long learning and never stops searching for opportunities to be in different places and to gain more life experience.

A key characteristic about Oanh is that she is genuinely interested about people and always thrives to learn how she can better connect with anyone that she meets. Oanh’s goals are to enhance people’s lives. For example, while visiting her son in Rhode Island just for a weekend, she and her son volunteered half of their Friday morning working at a food bank. She and the crew stocked foods, separated cans from fresh produce, and distributed foods to inpiduals who came through the door of the church.

Oanh now is the proud owner of a franchise printing company called Allegra Print & Imaging of Fairfax. She is overseeing her operation at the center as the President and CEO. With this position, Oanh gains more opportunities to meet and interact with many different levels of people. She enjoys her position and is building up her network with different business owners and entrepreneurs to share and learn ways to improve each other businesses.

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William R. Ridley

Treasurer

Bill Ridley is President of BK Tours & Travel, a company that offers a full range of travel services and escorted high end tours worldwide, specializing in tours and travel to Vietnam.

Bill was born in Bethlehem, PA. In 1964, he graduated from the Valley Forge Military Academy high school, and attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1968 with a bachelor degree in Labor Management. Following college graduation, he entered the US Army and became a commissioned officer after graduating from the Infantry Officer Candidate School in 1969. From May 1970 to 1971 he served as a military advisor with South Vietnamese Army units in Kien Hoa Province in the Mekong Delta Region of South Vietnam. It was during this assignment that he developed a special respect and admiration for the Vietnamese people and their culture.

After a 31 year career in the U.S. Army, he retired as a Colonel in 1999 and started BK Tours & Travel, LLC. In addition to his membership in VietAmCham, he is a member and Ambassador with the Greater Washington DC Board of Trade; Chairman of the Washington DC Chapter of the 82^nd Airborne Division Association and Chairman of the Washington DC Regiment of the Valley Forge Military Academy Alumni.

Bill Ridley currently lives in Burke, VA.

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Hong Pham

Executive Director

Hong Pham is the Vice President and Branch Manager of the Vienna office of HSBC Bank USA, member of HSBC Holdings PLC, one of the largest financial organizations in the world.  HSBC has over 9500 offices locating in 86 countries with over 125 millions clients.  HSBC USA has more than 460 bank branches throughout the U.S., including Florida, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington State, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C. HSBC provides a full range of banking/financial products and services to inpiduals, small businesses/large corporations, institutions and governments in the US.

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Nguyen Dinh Thang, PhD

Director

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang arrived in the United States in 1979 as a refugee from Vietnam. In 1986, he graduated from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. He also holds an M.S. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. For 13 years he worked as an engineer and a control quality manager at a research lab in Bethesda, Maryland. He holds several patents and has received numerous performance awards. He joined BPSOS in 1988 as a volunteer. In 2001 he left his engineer job to become BPSOS’ full-time Executive Director.

Dr. Thang is well known for his vision and bold actions. Responding to the boat people crisis in 1989, he established Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers (LAVAS), which set up legal aid offices in the Philippines (1991) and Hong Kong (1992) to defend the refugee rights of the Vietnamese boat people. In 1995 he launched an advocacy campaign that resulted in the resettlement of over 18,000 former boat people from Vietnam to the US. In 1997 he set out to build BPSOS from a small, all-volunteer organization into a national one with 13 branch offices and a dozen service programs. He developed BPSOS’ vast network of mass media that includes print, radio and television. He established numerous service programs for refugees and immigrants.

Dr. Thang is an effective advocate of human rights and social justice. He has testified numerous times before Congress and edits Vietnam Country Report. He trains human rights advocates in different countries. He is also an effective community organizer, having mentored over 50 organizations and raised over $2M to support their good work.

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Vinh Nguyen

Director

Vinh Nguyen was born in Vietnam. He left Vietnam in 1975 at the end of the war as a refugee and has since settled in the metro Washington, DC area.

Mr. Nguyen has a Master degree in Economics from Catholic University of America. He also holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. Mr. Nguyen entered the real estate industry as a full time agent in 1987. He formed Westgate Realty Group, Inc., during the summer of 1997 and became its Principal Broker. Westgate Realty Group, Inc. currently has 180 agents, serving Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia.

Mr. Nguyen volunteers to serve in different capacities with the REALTOR organizations. He is currently the 2009 Chairman-Elect of Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (www.NVAR.com). He served on the 2008 Strategic Planning Work Group, Information Management Committee and is a member of the 2008 Leadership Academy at Virginia Association of Realtors (www.VAREALTOR.com). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of National Association of Realtors (www.REALTOR.org) and serves on its Risk Management Committee.

Mr. Nguyen is also the President of the DC Metro Chapter of Asian Real Estate Association of America (www.AREAA.org), a non-profit trade organization which advocates for the removal of all barriers to homeownership for Asian Pacific Americans.

Vinh Nguyen currently lives in Fairfax with his wife and two children.

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Loc Huu Khuong, PhD

Director

Dr. Loc Khuong is President & CEO of Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce of North Texas (VACCONT) (2008-present). He is Professor of Finance and Accounting for MBA programs at Keller Graduate School of Management. He has a Doctorate of Business Administration and a Doctorate in Accounting, and have held senior management positions (VP and Director levels) at several multinational corporations.

Dr. Loc also hosts a syndicated weekly radio talk show on Houston AM 900 and Dallas Fort Worth AM 890 radio stations on the topics of "Economics, Finance & Entrepreneurship". Since 2003, he has been nominated by Marquis as a member of Who's Who in America.

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Chau Tran

Director

Chau Tran is CEO of Asian Pest Services, LLC and Chief of Operations (COO) of Alexandria Pest Services, Inc. (APS). Ms. Tran holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from George Mason University and has over 20 years of extensive experience in accounting and finance. Prior to joining APS, Ms. Tran held various accounting and finance roles with various types of organizations including government, nonprofit organization, small business, and corporation.

Ms. Tran is responsible for enhancing the internal organization processes and infrastructure that will allow Alexandria Pest Services, Inc. to continue to grow and fulfill its mission. Ms. Tran manages financial management and oversight, business operations, and human resources.

In 2005, Ms. Tran partnered with Mr. Richard Diggs, the owner and President of Alexandria Pest Services, Inc. to form a subsidiary company known as Asian Pest Services, LLC. Asian Pest Services, LLC focuses to expand pest management to the Asian communities but also services all businesses and residential in DC, MD and VA. Asian Pest Services provides excellent pest control services by providing outstanding proactive inspections, reliable and timely response, and safe and accurate treatment method to controlling pest. Asian Pest Services was voted the top 20 pest company in year 2010 Pest Professional Magazine, and Ms. Tran is the first Asian woman to own and operate a pest control company nationwide.

Ms. Tran is an active member of Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR), Northern Virginia Apartments Association (NVAA), Minority in Pest Management (MiPM), and Asian American Chamber of Commerce.

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Anh Nguyen

Director

Running one of the most successful new State Farm agencies in the Mid-Atlantic Region, Anh Nguyen owns and operates her office in the heart of Old Town Alexandria. She opened her own location in August of 2009 after working with the company for a little over two years. In less than a year, her office has achieved many company milestones such as being the number one life insurance producing new agencies in the nation. She continues to strive to set records to help promote the advancement of young minority agents within the company.

Aside from her business, she is involved in the community through philanthropy and volunteerism. She enjoys leveraging her own business as well as her business connections to help give back to the community as much as she can. She was recently elected as the External Vice President for the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Association (uNAVSA), a national 501c(3) nonprofit organization that focuses on leadership development and connecting Vietnamese Student organizations from several different universities for eleven regions throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to that, she served as the External Vice President for the Mid-Atlantic Union of Vietnamese Student Association (MAuVSA, a 501 c(3) nonprofit organization and a region under uNAVSA which serves the different universities throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Her other interests include cooking, singing, flag football, and spending time with friends and family.

Ms. Nguyen graduated with honors and in the top 10% of her business class from George Mason University in January 2008.