INTHEBLACK February 2025 - Magazine - Page 31
Mitchell Pham ONZM FCPA
is the director of Augen
Software Group in Auckland,
New Zealand, which he
co-founded in 1993.
Along with his passion for
business, Pham has co-founded
two not-for-profit organisations
to help refugees adapt to their
new country.
In 2023, Pham became
an Officer of the New Zealand
Order of Merit in recognition
of his services to the
technology sector and
New Zealand–Asia relations.
LEADERS AND INNOVATORS
True grit
Mitchell Pham ONZM FCPA fled Vietnam for a better life in New Zealand
at age 12. He put his energy into gaining a business degree and then
became a tech entrepreneur, establishing several successful companies
and continuing to help refugees along the way.
Words Megan Breen
Photography Marcus Bailey
In 1985, when he arrived in New Zealand
as a refugee at the age of 14, Mitchell Pham
ONZM FCPA had spent nine months
locked in an open-air bamboo prison camp
in his homeland Vietnam. He had also
survived a terrifying journey across the ocean
on a rickety fishing boat and spent two years
in an Indonesian refugee camp.
When he got to New Zealand, he was
alone. His parents had managed to save
just enough money to send him to safety
and a better life as Vietnam struggled in
the aftermath of a civil war. It meant that
he had to leave behind his parents and
younger siblings.
For a long time, he was driven by a burning
mission to reunite his family, a happy day
that did not come until 13 years later.
By the time he returned for a visit to
Vietnam, Pham had earned a business degree
from the University of Auckland while
holding down two part-time jobs, all so that
he could save money to send to his family.
It took 30 years for his siblings to be
able to get visas to join him in New Zealand,
and this has fundamentally shaped his
approach to life.
“It created a hole in me — family is not
just important to me, it is the centre of my
universe,” he says in a TVNZ documentary.
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