The Founder and Her Vision

Tan Tao University owes its founding to a seed planted in the mind of a young girl by her father.   “Education can change your life…” Dang Thi Hoang Yen’s father told her.  “I have nothing left for you, but only to support you for education…”   

Today the Chairwoman and CEO of Tan Tao Group, the leading industrial park and infrastructure developer in Vietnam,  Mme Yen is determined to inspire today’s young people with that simple but powerful idea:  a top quality education is the most valuable thing you can have.   

In founding Tan Tao University, Mme Yen has committed her enthusiasm, her time and her wealth to the creation of a university that will open its doors to outstanding students from all parts of Vietnam, regardless of their financial circumstances.  She wants this to be a new model for education in Vietnam and Asia: a university of opportunity for young men and women willing to work and to learn, determined to follow their dreams, and committed to helping their families and their country.  She believes students at TTU must have opportunity, talent and, most important, “heart” - the passion to serve others and to help their country advance.

Mme Yen graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics. After working for the Vietnamese Government for 13 years, she then moved on to create her first company of the Tan Tao Group, in 1993.   The Group has created hundreds of thousands of jobs across Vietnam and provided a solid platform for the country’s rapid economic progress. It now has 21 subsidiaries across multiple sectors including land development, construction and media broadcasting.  ITACO – the publicly listed subsidiary of Tan Tao Group - became one of seven blue-chip stocks to be chosen part of the Global Russell Vietnam Index 10 and the Standard & Poor’s Vietnam 10 Index. TEDC, the energy subsidiary of the Group, has been developing one of the largest power plants of Vietnam, with a total investment of 3.0 billion USD, and the plant will go online in 2014.

Mme Yen believed strongly that Vietnam must have a very good system of higher education in order to advance.  “Educated minds”  would be her most important legacy.  To develop her vision of an entirely new kind of Vietnamese university, Mme Yen studied the experiences of universities in other countries.   

She visited Rice University, Oxford University and Harvard University and there she observed the libraries, residence and dining halls, the academic programs, and the close relationships between faculty and students.   She came away impressed by the breadth of university education on the liberal arts model and the importance of a campus environment – dining halls, dormitories, libraries, faculty and staff housing, playing fields and campus centers – in top quality higher education.  Examples from outstanding universities have inspired her vision for TTU’s campus.

A master plan for the development of a campus was drawn up in 2006, and the dream of a Vietnamese–American University that can be accredited on US education standards became a reality.  Looking to the future, Mme Yen expects that many students at the university will be able to spend their 3^rd year aboard and that graduates of TTU will be admitted to post-graduate programs internationally.

Mme Yen’s philanthropy is not limited to Tan Tao University.  In 2007, she founded ITA Scholarship, ITA Medical Aid, and ITA Veterans Assistance for the purpose of providing education, medical support and financial assistance to the needy in Vietnam. Annually, thousands of scholarships are awarded to outstanding students nationwide. 

Mdm. Yen Dang has been awarded with numerous significant prizes and merits such as: Humanitarian Award 2011 by San Francisco - Ho Chi Minh City Sister City Committee, Business Super Star Awards, Golden Rose Award, the Prime Minister Certificate of Merit to name a few.  Mdm. Yen is the current Chair of the Vietnam-US Business Forum, Member of ASEAN Business Advisory Council, Member of World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on South-East Asia.  Especially in 2011, she has been elected National Assembly deputy during the 13^th term Vietnamese National Assembly election.  

In July, 2011 the Board of Directors of the San Francisco – Hochiminh City Sister City Committee has voted unanimously to award Madame Dang Hoang Yen a Humanitarian Award for 2011 for outstanding support for the prevention and vaccination against hepatitis B of 18,000 children.