Jimmy Pham AM

Jimmy Pham AM Biography

Founder / Executive Chairman / Social Entrepreneur

Jimmy Viet Tuan Pham emigrated with his mother and four older siblings from Vietnam in 1974, eventually settling in Australia in 1980. He studied at Hayton College (Sydney, Australia) and received his tourism management certificate in 1993. He has also undertaken coursework at the prestigious International Institute for Management Development (IMD) (Lausanne, Switzerland) in High Performance Leadership (HPL). Jimmy’s professional background in tourism and hospitality management brought him back to Vietnam operating a tour in 1996, where he witnessed the plight of at-risk youth on the streets of Hanoi.

From a sandwich stall manned by nine street youth in 1999, KOTO has grown into an internationally recognized and award-winning non-profit social enterprise providing a 24-month intensive vocational training program in life skills, English language and restaurant hospitality for at-risk and disadvantaged youth in Vietnam. This is delivered through KOTO’s national training centre and campus in Hanoi and its training restaurants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. KOTO has graduated nearly 700 trainees who form the extensive KOTO Alumni Association (KAA) and at any given time there are 150 trainees enrolled in the training program.

In 2006, Jimmy received the James Strong Outstanding Leadership Award (International Customer Service Professionals; Australia); in 2009 he was a finalist for the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year award, the same year he also participated at the World Economic Forum’s New Champions summit, the foremost global business leaders gathering in Asia. In 2011, Jimmy was again acknowledged by the World Economic Forum, this time as a Young Global Leader for his social enterprise work. KOTO has been featured in media such as BBC News, CNN News and The New York Times, as well as broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), VTV (Vietnam), Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (Switzerland), Korea Broadcasting System (KBS, MBC) and PBS Public Broadcasting Service (United States).

Since 2008, Jimmy is a member of the Board of Directors for CSIP (Centre for Social Initiatives Promotion), a Vietnamese nongovernmental organization which mentors, incubates and funds social enterprises. He has developed and led training programs with CSIP and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on civil society development for future leaders. Later in 2017, CSIP and VCCI has collaborated to organize the Blue Swallows, an ever-existing program to recognize and honour business initiatives for social changes in Vietnam. KOTO was awarded as one of the five Blue Swallows model social enterprises.

In 2013, Jimmy was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), an honour acknowledging his significant service to the community, particularly with marginalized children and youth in Vietnam. KOTO was named finalist for the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award and KOTO was awarded the inaugural UNICEF Vietnam Zero Award for Social Innovation for its work championing the rights of children and youth.

In 2016, KOTO became the first legally registered entity operating as a social enterprise in n after much-sought changes to the national law on Enterprises. Jimmy was awarded the Overseas Applied Research Fellowship with the International Specialized Skills Institute (ISSI). In conjunction with the Vocational Development Centre (VDC), KOTO is also partnering in the Vocational Education Training (VET) sector under the Victorian State Department of Education (Australia) to promote and champion VET as a pathway to Vietnam’s socioeconomic development.

In March 2017, Jimmy was the recipient of the POSCO TJ Park Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in South Korea, under the Community Development and Philanthropy category. Later in May, KOTO and OzHarvest Australia have partnered to adopt the first food rescue program in Vietnam, Vietharvest, from the innovative Australian model.

Besides being a social entrepreneur, Jimmy Pham is a desirable international guest speaker for many events, conferences, seminars, talk shows, etc. on leadership, innovation and social enterprise. He has been invited to present at the 2012 TEDx Mekong and 2017 TEDx Ba Dinh on KOTO and the impact of social enterprises in Vietnam; a panel guest speaker at Australian Chamber of Commerce (Auscham) luncheon: “Innovation in the Private Sector”; a keynote speaker at Experian Sales Conference on “Empowering Opportunities”; speaking opportunity at Australian International Education Conference – 30th Anniversary in Melbourne; or being Social Enterprise World Forum invited speaker for two years consecutively: Hong Kong 2016 and New Zealand 2017. The list goes on.

Jimmy is currently studying EMBA part-time at the RMIT University Ho Chi Minh City owing to the Auscham-RMIT scholarship awarded to him in early 2017.

KOTO   stands for  “Know One, Teach   One” and underlies  Jimmy’s philosophy. “To be    successful means giving back,” he said. “KOTO instills in the kids the idea of participatory community and asks in return that each of the KOTO trainees does the same. It really is asking ourselves do we give someone a fish or do we teach them how to fish.