Minority Business Council to Honor 5 Who Succeeded : Awards: Winning entrepreneurs were chosen for their contributions to county’s growing minority population.
When Korean immigrant Frank S. Lee started selling used cars in 1986, he didn’t know much about the auto business.
What he did know was that many of his fellow immigrants needed cars but, not being fluent in English, put off buying at dealerships where they could not understand the sales pitch. And when they did buy, they were often unhappy because their inability to communicate kept them from getting the service they wanted.
Lee, seeing a ready market, opened Union Auto Sales Inc., a used-car retailer in Garden Grove. He sold more than $3 million worth of cars in his first year, and his revenue has grown steadily since then as he has expanded his inventory to include new cars. Today, his is one of the largest auto dealerships in Southern California’s Korean community. Including revenue from a branch that opened this month in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, 1992 sales are expected to reach $25 million; 1993 sales are projected at $30 million. And Lee himself is a paragon of entrepreneurship among Korean-Americans in Orange County.
Tonight Lee and four other minority business owners will be honored by the county’s Minority Business Council, which is made up of the local black, Chinese-American, Hispanic, Korean and Vietnamese chambers of commerce. Peter V. Ueberroth, who is heading the Rebuild L.A. task force, is the keynote speaker.
The other winners are:
* Ronald C. Harding, president of Ron Harding Moving Services Inc. in Anaheim. Despite the fact that his company was operating under bankruptcy court protection, Harding pitched in earlier this year to help the black chamber send office furniture and equipment to South-Central Los Angeles as part of an effort to rebuild small businesses there after the riots.
* Dr. Co Danc Long Pham, a Little Saigon physician who has provided medical services to the county’s indigent Asian immigrants.
* Abdi Lajevardi, president of United Education Institute in Santa Ana. He is being cited by the Hispanic chamber for his work to educate and train the minority work force.
* Frank H.C. So, a Fountain Valley accountant who has helped several Chinese-American nonprofit organizations get started.
By virtue of their contributions to the county’s growing minority population, the council said, the five entrepreneurs have paved the way for others like themselves.
The recipients all say that coming up with an idea for a business was easy; getting the capital to start their enterprises was the tough part. For example, Lee said, he was in the dry-cleaning business for 10 years before getting together the money to start Union Auto.
Three of this year’s honorees have overcome personal tragedies.
Harding, who lost his legs in a traffic accident 14 years ago, used the subsequent insurance settlement to start his trucking business, which now has 50 vehicles and a 100,000-square-foot warehouse.
Pham fled his native Vietnam just days before it fell to the communists in 1975, leaving behind a thriving medical practice in Saigon. Starting over as a nursing aide in Seattle and determined to practice medicine again, he taught himself English and studied for the California medical board exam. In 1980, he became a licensed obstetrician and gynecologist. Today he operates two clinics in Westminster.
Lajevardi left his native Iran in 1975 to study electronics engineering in the United States. His hope was to become one of Iran’s best engineers, but that dream died when Muslim fundamentalists overthrew the Shah in 1979. He went on to graduate from Pacific State University in Los Angeles and to work for a Fullerton engineering company.
In 1982, he and two friends started a Santa Ana technical training school. Ten years later, Lajevardi’s United Education Institute has nine campuses in Southern California and trains about 8,000 students a year, with Latinos making up 65% of the graduates.
Like Lajevardi, So left his homeland, Hong Kong, to pursue an American education. After receiving an accounting degree at the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University, he worked as a financial analyst and auditor for some of the largest U.S. companies. Ten years ago he started his own accounting service in Orange County and now advises small and mid-size companies here.
Harding, who said he will complete his bankruptcy reorganization by year’s end, summed up the role of minority businesses this way: “This recession taught us that, no matter how good a businessman you are and no matter how hard you work, there’s always another mountain to climb. But we’ve managed to put bread on many, many tables.”
Minority Chamber of Commerce Honorees
The five chambers of commerce that make up the Orange County Minority Business Council have each chosen an entrepreneur to receive one of their Minority Business Leadership Awards. The five honorees were selected because of their business success
and contributions to the county’s growing minority population and because they have set an example and paved the way for other minorities. The 1992 winners and the chamber from which each received the award:
Black Chamber:
Ronald C. Harding
Age: 51.
Company: Ron Harding Moving Service Inc.
Location: Anaheim.
Position: President, CEO.
Founded: 1978.
Nature of business: Moves and stores office equipment and electronics; installation agent for electronics firms.
Employees: 54 full-time, 75 part-time.
Accolades and activities: White House Conference on Small Business; outstanding Black Business; Anaheim and Southern California Small Business Person of the Year.
Chinese-American Chamber:
Frank H.C. So
Age: 45.
Company: Frank So, CPA.
Location: Huntington Beach.
Position: Owner.
Founded: 1982.
Nature of business: Independent certified public accounting practice.
Employees: Two, including himself.
Accolades and activities: Board of directors Trans National Bank; Chinese-American Lions Club of Orange County; first vice president of Orange County Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce.
Hispanic Chamber:
Abdi Lajevardi
Age: 34.
Company: United Education Institute.
Location: Santa Ana; campuses in Los Angeles, Huntington
Park, Burbank, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Van Nuys, San Diego.
Position: President, CEO.
Founded: 1982.
Nature of business: Vocational training, continuing education.
Employees: 340 full-time, 170 part-time.
Accolades and activities: On the appeals panel of the accrediting commission of the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training.
Korean Chamber:
Frank S. Lee
Age: 54.
Company: Union Auto Sales Inc.
Locations: Garden Grove and Los Angeles.
Position: President.
Founded: 1986.
Nature of business: Sells new and used automobiles.
Employees: 43.
Accolades and activities: Contributes to organizations such as Korean American Assn., Korean Chamber of Commerce, Korean Youth Assn., Elderly Korean Americans Assn., Korean American Youth Scholarships and religious groups.
Vietnamese Chamber:
Co Danc Long Pham
Age: 49.
Company: Private medical practice.
Location: Offices in Westminster and Fountain Valley.
Position: Physician.
Founded: 1981.
Nature of business: Obstetrics and gynecology practice.
Employees: 23.
Accolades and activities: Board of directors, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital; president, Vietnamese Physicians Assn. of Southern California; president AMVITEX Development Co.; president AMVI Medical Group Inc.
Sources: Award recipients
