Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang is the Executive Director of Boat People SOS. Arriving in the US as a boat person in 1979, he completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and worked for 16 years at a research lab, holding many patents for his inventions. He has been active in the community for the past 25 years. In 1989 he joined Boat People SOS and launched many initiatives, including Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers (LAVAS). Under his leadership, BPSOS successfully advocated for the resettlement of almost 20,000 boat people after their repatriation to Vietnam. In 2001 he contributed to the rescue over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese victims of human trafficking in American Samoa. Since 1998 he has built BPSOS from a small organization with one half-time staff into a national organization with 14 branch offices and an annual budget of $4 million.