Charles Vang: Champion entrepreneur
By Heidi M. Pascual

   Charles Vang is a trailblazer in Milwaukee’s Hmong community. He was the first Hmong businessman to win the U.S.-Small
Business Champion of the Year award in 2006. He was the first Hmong businessman to travel with Wisconsin Governor James
Doyle during this year's "investment trip" to Japan and China. Community recognitions decorate his office walls. The name
"Charles Vang" always comes to mind when Milwaukee Southeast Asian business leaders are sought for just about anything.
   He has always been a trailblazer, knowing that he has nothing but his determination to make a better life for himself and
others. In his youth, he crossed the Mekong River to Thailand in search of freedom. He left his parents behind in Laos, with
the goal of "taking them out" someday. The refugee camp in Thailand was just a temporary place for him; he knew that
eventually he would go to a place where true freedom and opportunities existed. He landed in the United States a year-and-
a-half after his escape from communist-led Laos.
   "I came here as an 'orphan' in 1978 when my uncle, who was already in the U.S., found a sponsor for me," Vang recalled.
"I landed in Spokanee, Wash. where my sponsors, who I consider as my foster parents, lived. I stayed with them for about
eight months. Unfortunately, there were few jobs for us over there, so my uncle, I and other relatives decided to move to
Denver, Colo., where I stayed for five years."
Vang graduated high school and later reunited with his future wife, a young Hmong lady whom he met in a Thailand's
refugee camp. "We came to this country separately," Vang said. "She lived in Iowa, but Hmong people in Colorado and
Iowa knew one another, so we were able to communicate that way." They got married soon after they saw each other again.
   The couple moved to Wisconsin in search of better educational opportunities. "In Denver, there was not much public
assistance to really help you to pursue a higher education," Vang reflected. "We moved to Wisconsin in 1984 because of its
available public assistance at that time, and also to obtain a higher education."
Life was tough indeed, especially with two small children, but the Vangs patiently learned how to navigate the system and
adjust well. "We would leave in the morning at about 7 a.m. and I would take my two daughters to day care," Vang recalled.
"Then my wife and I would go to school, and we did that for 3 ½ years."
   The payoff? "I graduated from MATC with a double major/associate degrees in Banking & Finance and Business
Management," he said with a 'victorious' smile. "I found a job as a 'head hunter' in 1987 at the Hmong American Friendship
Association." For about three years, Vang helped Hmong refugees find jobs that paid between $4 to $12 per hour.
   When Hmong workers began to come asking for help to insure their new homes or new cars, Vang recognized a new need
in his community, and he was willing to take on the challenge.
   "I realized that it's another service and something that I can do to help them," Vang recalled the moment when he
thought of entering the insurance industry. "So I decided to become an insurance agent in 1991. It happened because I
care for our people and I want to provide this kind of service that is needed."
   Vang underwent extensive training in the field and has been at it for 16 years now. From being an insurance agent for
various companies, he is now the owner of his own business, under the American Family Insurance Company's umbrella. He
handles insurance coverage for life, home, auto, business, health and annuities in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota,
where hundreds of thousands of Hmong refugees and their families reside.
   "My business has stabilized in the last five years," Vang said. "Now I have a small staff of two to four. Annual gross for the
agency is probably $1.8 million - gross premium."
There's no stopping Charles Vang from reaching for the stars, but he never forgets where he came from. "After many years of
separation, I was able to have my parents come over to the U.S. in 1990," he reflected. "They have been with me the last 17
years." He is also very much involved in the community. "I have been a member of a number of boards — non-profits and
public. If I know something and know that nobody else wants to do it, I have to do it. If I don't do it, what I want to see happen
is not going to happen!"
   Vang admitted that it can be a lonely place being considered a leader in the Hmong community in the Milwaukee area
and a representative of the community in the mainstream. "In many occasions, there was nobody else but myself
representing the Southeast Asian community," he lamented, but reminding himself of Gandhi's words that in order to make
the change, one has to do it.  "So if nobody else goes, I should go."
   The challenges facing the Hmong community will always be there, but Vang believes that they, individually and as a
group, can surmount them. "The challenges are within oneself, within the community," Vang stressed. "So many things are
available to us, and there are so many things that many of us can do, but I think the community or the people in it either do
not want to get involved or they may want to be involved but prefer to just be more inclusive for themselves rather than to see
the bigger picture."
   "Opportunities are here and we can do many things to better ourselves and our community," Vang said. "It's just a matter
of whether we are willing or not willing to take the challenge."
   Vang said one has to do something beyond what he/she feels comfortable with. That's exactly what he has been doing;
serving as a model for other Hmong to emulate. "I really don't know what to say to inspire other people," Vang said, "other
than: work hard, believe in yourself and go get your dream."
   Charles Vang can be reached at 3616 W National Ave., Ste. 101, Milwaukee, WI 53215-1027 ; (414) 649-8331; Toll-free
(888) 649-8331; fax (414) 649-8115.
Charles Vang