HN: Staying close to people is one of the very important lessons I learned while building the bank. You need to mingle with people whenever you can, be it a community meeting or a wedding or a celebration. Seeing and being seen in the community makes you visible and people perceive you as a part of the community.

NHA: What does your leadership with FVAB include? What exactly do you do for the bank?

HN: People are the most important asset of the bank and, therefore, leading people is of paramount importance. My leadership focuses on making all people involved in the organization understand what our mission is and how to pursue it. There is a major difference between leadership and management. I focus on leading people while using management as a tool to effectively lead people.

NHA: Being a leader often means being a mentor for your employees, how do you enjoy mentorship? Did you have a memorable mentor growing up?

HN: I very much have acted as a mentor to many members of our organization by guiding people, enabling them to do their jobs and offering them growth opportunities. I tend to delegate authority to responsible people and let them exercise their authority to do the job. On that basis, I enjoy mentorship and have seen people growing up in their capability and efficiency, especially with people who closely work with me on a daily basis.

NHA: You’re also a professor at the University of the West in Rosemead. Do you enjoy teaching?

HN: I am an Adjunct Professor at University of the West and was Adjunct Professor of the Business School of California Politechnic University of Pomona. I also had some teaching assignments with Georgetown University in Washington D.C. I enjoy teaching very much because: a) sharing knowledge and experience with young people, b) teaching forces me to acquire new knowledge and c) testing my current knowledge. Teaching may have given me a training to become a natural public speaker.

NHA: You graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Munich, Germany. Did you have culture shock when you moved to Southern California in regards to the impressive size of the Vietnamese community here?

HN: It was very unusual for a foreign student to graduate Magna Cum Laude from a German university (Magna Cum Laude is second to the highest academic grading which is Suma Cum Laude). I graduated both with a master’s degree and doctoral degree with Magna Cum Laude. At the time I graduated with a doctoral degree in Business Administration in September 1979, I was one among the only two doctoral candidates who were awarded Magna Cum Laude. There was no one who was awarded Suma Cum Laude at that time.

After my graduation in 1979, I moved to New York to work for a commercial bank before moving to California to work for Crocker National Bank in Los Angeles in 1981. For me it was no culture shock to come to the large Vietnamese community in Southern California. On the contrary, it was a feeling of “coming home,” coming to where you came from, where you used to eat Pho, Hu Tieu and Bo Kho and say “Chao Ong Ba” each day.

NHA: Having so many different responsibilities and tasks on your plate, how do you manage your schedule? What is your typical workday like?

HN: I manage my schedule by prioritizing things to do and try to set a time limit for each task. However, I must say I often had to carry forward many items that remained unaccomplished to the next day. I am no way close to perfect in terms of managing the daily schedule.

On a daily basis, I get up at about 5:45 a.m. After 30 minutes of exercising with equipment, I go to Zen Meditation for about 45 minutes before getting to work at 8:30 a.m. Three times a week I go to the martial arts training Aikido in Westminster in the evening from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and go back to my office thereafter and stay there for an hour until 9:30 p.m. to close the day. I go to bed at 11:45 p.m.