Ban Nguyen came to Oklahoma in 1975 as a refugee from South Vietnam after fleeing when the South Vietnamese government collapsed. He and his family were first sent
to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, as part of “Operation New Life,” the name of the
resettlement program for Vietnamese refugees in the U.S.
In this talk, Mr. Nguyen will discuss the challenges he faced in coming to the U.S. as a refugee, the resources he found along the way, and how he successfully navigated the new cultural and educational systems to establish a new life.
Mr. Nguyen and his family were sponsored by a family in Tulsa, and in 1984, he
graduated from Oklahoma State University. Currently, he serves as co-founder and CEO of Jimmy’s Egg restaurant chain, and he is one of Oklahoma’s most respected business leaders. This is a presentation of the OSU School of Global Studies and Partnerships and the Spears School of Business
