Thi Be Nguyen is a Canadian philanthropist, social entrepreneur, executive producer, documentarian and communication advisor. Nguyen was nominated TOP 20 personalities of diversity in Quebec in 2016 for her philanthropic work. She was also titled Ambassador of diversity at National Bank of Canada. In 2016, Concordia University wrote an article placing her amongst 5 alumni for making the world a better place and also recognized Nguyen in 2017 as Concordia Alumni WomenWednesday initiative. She also received recognition for her community engagement from the Canadian Senate and from the Canadian House of Common in 2013. Nguyen was named Chair of activities in Canada of the in 2018.
Life and career
Thi Be Nguyen is Vietnamese born in Vientiane, Laos. She fled with her parents and siblings to Canada after The Vietnam War. They stayed in two refugee camps in Thailand and was immigrated to Canada with the help of Canadian sponsors through the government refugee program called Operation Magnet II. Her family arrived during the largest refugee program and Quebec has received over 60 000 Indochinese refugees at Longue-Pointe military base - Garnison Montreal. After graduating from Concordia University in 1998, she had to take on four jobs to live, being a busgirl in a restaurant, a sales person at a flea market, an agent in a call center and a teller in a bank. She finally gets her career break in late 1999 at the headquarter of National Bank of Canada located in Montreal, Canada. For the past 17 years, she has worked in multiple Marketing and communication fields from Market and clients research, corporate events, sponsorship and philanthropy. She now occupies the position of Manager to the Office of the President and Philanthropy in Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility sector. Additionally to her daily job, she founded in 2014, UniAction, an NGO whose mission is to bring awareness of social issues and make a difference for families in needs locally and internationally. In 2016, she created UniAction Films, who produces, promotes and distributes films and documentaries related to social issues. Nguyen was the Executive producer of the documentary titled A Moonless Night: Boat people, 40 years later, which also won the Impact DOCS Awards for a feature film in 2017 and Best documentary at the Canada China International Film Festival in September 27, 2018. The documentary was projected in theaters, broadcast on Télé Québec and played on Air Canada flights. Among her achievements, she initiated a major project to highlight the 40th anniversary of the Vietnamese Community in Montreal, Canada with a two-year program that started in 2015. The exhibit on Vietnamese culture and history on August 30, 2015 at Montreal Pointe-à-Callière Museum was much covered by the media. In 2020, she co-founded with Sean St-John the , a unique international festival in Canada aiming to highlight film and art projects that creates awareness on social issues around the world. With her career and philanthropic experience, she was appointed in 2016 as a board member of Centraide du Grand Montreal and Honorary Chair of Hema Québec Foundation. She was also named President of the Circle of governors of the Regroupement des jeunes chambres de commerce du Québec. In 2018, she was named Chair of activities in Canada at the Canada-ASEAN Business Council and has co-written an article during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was published in the newspaper the Hill Times.
