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Top 40 Under 40 Award 2006

     I have known Tran Bui for five years, and as a professional, colleague, a friend, a wife, a mother and a role model, she truly never ceases to amaze me. To describe her contributions to the Memphis community seems an ambitious task. Several years ago, when I was sharing a story about Tran with business colleague, he exclaimed, “She’s a social catalyst!” As I have reflected upon my relationship with and observation of Tran, I marvel at her creativity, her ambition, her compassion and unwavering commitment to others; Tran makes Memphis a better place.  

     It is hard to believe she has only lived here for a mere five years. She has done is what few can accomplish in a lifetime. Tran and I met in 2001 through MPACT Memphis, when she served as the Community Involvement Pillar chair. Her leadership and organization were demonstrated immediately by the drive to engage peers in service.  Her energy and enthusiasm were contagious: under her direction, participation in these projects was at an all-time high, and dozens of agencies were served by Tran and her committee of eager volunteers. Members of her committee not only learned about each agency served and each issue addressed; friendships and contacts were created that still remain strong today.  

     The initiative and leadership displayed with MPACT only gives one a glimpse into the mind and soul of Tran Bui. Since graduating from college with a degree in Business Administration, Tran has worked in the world of television news. She became a reporter and anchor for ABC 24/ UPN 30 in 2001.  Tran used this platform to launch several community projects and participate in many more. She started the annual ABC 24/UPN 30 "Get Smart. Read" book drive to collect books for children in low income schools in 2001 after being assigned the station's first Education Reporter. In order to bring attention to the literacy problem and give books to children who do not have them at home, Tran organized storytelling events, recruited volunteers, sorted, counted and delivered over 20,000 books. Dozens of schools and thousands of children were served by Tran’s initiative. Tran organized the first Souper Party for Youth Villages in 2002, which still remains a critical part of the successful Soup Sunday for this agency in each subsequent year. Tran served on the Education Committee for the Memphis Multicultural & Religious Affairs Office from 2002-2004, taking an active role in putting together the first information kiosk for the Vietnamese community, helping thousands of Memphians who lack the resources and skills to locate this information on their own. On top of the countless volunteer projects she managed, she even mentored students at Sheffield High School .  

     Equally impressive are Tran’s numerous professional honors that date back to her first days as a reporter in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and naturally, started to mount as soon as she arrived in Memphis . She was named one of "50 Women Who Make a Difference" by Memphis Woman Magazine in 2006, “Best Reporter in Tennessee" by the Tennessee Associated Press in 2004, Volunteer of the month in March 2004 by the City of Memphis Multicultural & Religious Affairs Office, one of three original “MPACT Makers” by MPACT Memphis in 2003, one of "Top Guns Under Forty" by Proud Magazine in 2002 and she received a Media Award on Education Reporting from the National Stuttering Foundation in 2001. On top of that, Tran chosen to be one of just fifteen journalists from across the country to participate in the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and United Nations Foundation Fall workshop with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2005.  

     Tran’s admirable work and service to the community only grew when she left ABC 24/UPN 30 in 2005 to stay home with her first child and do freelance work as a television host and media coordinator for local non-profit organizations. She is currently the President of the Commission on Missing & Exploited Children, after serving on their Board of Directors since 2003. She has initiated the first-ever Glitter Gala fundraiser, which will take place in November 2006. She is the co-founder of TV Moms, which hosts panel discussions on various topics that appeal to families. Proceeds from the events are donated to charity. She currently serves as the Crescent Club's Women on the Move Co-chair 2006. Since 2005, she has been an active member of the first Greater Memphis Immigrant Task Force Board of Directors.  

     What one will never find on Tran’s resume is the initiative she always shows to connect others. Tran frequently hosts people in her home. She takes every opportunity to celebrate friends’ birthdays, job promotions, weddings, new babies, and completion of a marathon. She organizes monthly dinner outings for large groups of friends. She regularly helps other friends with their own charitable endeavors. Tran ALWAYS sends thank you notes. Never does a week go by when Tran isn’t bring people together, building community, and touching everyone that meets her.  I know few people that can convince twenty-two individuals to drive to Clarksdale, Mississippi to go to dinner on a random Saturday nigh or attract over 100 people to her first baby shower, where the men outnumbered the women! Tran can… and she has. 

     I am humbled to call this admirable, ambitious and passionate woman my friend, and I am proud to nominate her for the Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award. Tran Bui exhibits the best of Memphis , and is a role model to all. The business, professional, and civic communities are better due to her service, initiative and leadership, all of us who know her personally—and those who observe her from afar—are just better due to her care, loyalty and friendship.

Jenny Koltnow

Executive Director, Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation

Top 40 Under 40, Memphis Business Journal 2006

Steve Scott, WLS-AM New York, News Director/Morning Anchor

“I first met Tran when we were part of a group participating in a Radio-Television News Directors Foundation seminar at the United Nations in September of 2005. Tran quickly became the "den mother" of our group of broadcast journalists from across the country. I'm pleased to say that we have remained friends in the three years that have followed.

Tran is smart, witty, and pays tremendous attention to detail. I believe these qualities - along with her gregarious personality (you can't help but like her!) and an abundance of talent - have been the keys to her professional success.

Tran is also a devoted wife and mother, who has found a way to balance her personal and professional lives. Any one who has tried that knows it is easier said than done. She is a joy to be around, and a person who has found success in every endeavor she has undertaken. Tran is a winner!"

Steve Scott
WLS-AM New York, News Director/Morning Anchor

Top 40 Under 40 Award 2006

I am so blessed to call Tran Bui a colleague, friend and peer role model.  Tran has truly brought to reality the American Dream.  A dream once only in the minds of her parents has come to fruition and flourished thru Tran.  Today, thousands of people have been blessed by her effort and determination to make Memphis a better place to live, work and play.   She was a focused and fearless television journalist.  Now, she’s a businesswoman who is using her television roots to help raise money for non-profit organizations.

Tran has spent most of her life on a voyage to better her life and the lives of others.  In 1975, then three years old, Tran’s parents escaped Saigon, (then Ho Chi Minh City ) by boat.  They were rescued by the U-S Navy and placed into refugee camps in the Phillipines, Guam, Wake Island and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas .   Tran eventually earned a degree in Business Administration.  However, she would spend the next 12 years as a television journalist.   Tran worked hard to give people who often suffer in silence a voice in their struggles.

During her tenure as a journalist, when the lights of the camera darkened at the end of the day, Tran’s desire to help in the community beamed.  She created the ABC24/UPN30 “Get Smart. Read” book drive.  Thousands of books were collected for children in low income schools.  She also helped organize storytelling events, recruit volunteers to sort and deliver books.   Tran also organized the first “Souper Party” for Youth Villages in Memphis .  This event has been a major annual fundraiser for Youth Villages.  Tran has been an active member and board member of MPACT Memphis.  She has served as a committee chair spearheading more than 20 hands-on projects with various organizations in Memphis . 

Tran’s work has not stopped.  She ended her career in tv news in 2005.  Since then she has devoted her time and attention to the local office of COMEC, the Commission on Missing and Exploited Children.  She currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors.  She has dedicated her time and talent to raising thousands of dollars for the organization.  She has also brought awareness of the local COMEC chapter and its work to protect children. 

Tran’s latest endeavor is called “TV Moms.”  She has taken her expertise in media and community relations to form a group of former television news women who raise money and awareness of issues facing Mid-Southerners.  Through “TV Moms,” Tran has spearheaded local discussions featuring women who are running for political offices.   This gave Mid-Southerners the opportunity to talk candidly with candidates.  It’s an opportunity many people don’t get often.  She has also created workshops on financial balancing in today’s tough economy.  Participants learn how to juggle financial commitments to kids, education, household needs and themselves.   All the money raised from the various “TV Moms” workshops has been earmarked for local non-profit organizations.

Tran has been named one of the Memphis Women’s Magazine’s “50 Women Who Make a Difference.”  She has also been voted one of the top three “best reporters” by Memphis Woman Magazine readers.  She is one of only 15 journalists across the country invited to participate in the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and United Nations Foundation fall workshop with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  Her list of honors and awards is extensive. 

Amazingly, Tran does all of this and more, while balancing her role as wife to Scott Smith and mother to 16 month old Jackson.

Tran Bui deserves to be one of the 2006 Memphis Business Journals “40 Under 40.”  Most businesses can only focus on one product or a single goal.  However, Tran is a business that focuses on improving the lives of many.   Tran lived the American Dream.  Her mission is to make sure people in Memphis and the Mid-South, reap the benefits of her dream and get the resources to create their own. 

Dee Griffin

News Anchor/Reporter, ABC24/UPN30 Eyewitness News

Top 40 Under 40, Memphis Business Journal 2006

MPACT Memphis Makers Award 2003

     While numerous people are capable of giving during unique times in life such as the events of September 11^th, there are very few people who give day in and day out to their communities. People who give during significant events are wonderful but it is the person who gives on an on-going basis which makes a long lasting impact. Tran Bui is one of those people. It is because of her on-going leadership, dedication, and desire to help others that I would like to nominate her for her contributions to the community. 

     One does not simply wake up one day and decide to do good. I believe it is an intrinsic value which is both learned and innate. Tran has a double dose of both. Memphis is not the beginning of her contribution to society. While in Tallahassee, Florida, she was on the board of  a group similar to MPACT called the Tallahassee 25. While working in the media in Tallahassee , she found the time to initiate book drives for schools and to consistently spend time with children in daycares in impoverished neighborhoods.  

     Unfortunately for Tallahassee, but fortunate for Memphis , Tran took a job with ABC24 / UPN 30. While the setting was new and the community different, Tran set out to make her mark in Memphis . Early on, she wanted to take the successes she had in Tallahassee and see if she could do the same here. She was able to convince her station’s news director to make her the only “official” education reporter. Her reports which she created addressed issues around such topics as literacy and speech impediments. Not only did her stories increase awareness of specific problems in the community, but more importantly she researched outlets for those who suffered from such problems. It was from this that she was given an award from a national foundation for her education reports. 

     Tran’s job gives her the unique ability to touch individuals in the community in ways that most of us cannot. Yet, few push this opportunity in a selfless act. Most people in the media may show up to make an appearance for a function supporting a good cause but few will roll up their sleeves and take an active roll. A counterexample of this relates to her success in Tallahassee which she brought to Memphis , a book drive. It sounds simple, but it was a first for the television station. When Tran found out that there were thousands of children who did not have books in their own homes, she pushed the station to start the drive. She campaigned endlessly. She spent numerous hours sending out emails to friends, colleagues, and people she had met on news stories. She made appearances at schools, businesses, and churches to further push the cause. All of this occurring on her personal time. The drive, which was termed “Get Smart. Read.”, collected over 20,000 books of which she and other people she recruited personally sorted and counted. Tran continues to push people to support the drive.  

     In her first year in Memphis , Tran was introduced to Mpact while it was a grassroots effort. Tran’s charisma and giving nature is evident to anyone who meets her and was the driver to her being named chairperson of the community involvement pillar. Her leadership of this pillar was undeniable. It’s support and attendance were second to none. Most of this was due to the relentless pursuit of Tran to get new people actively involved in the community. This spanned anything from making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless to building wheelchair ramps in low income neighborhoods to playing bingo in retirement homes. 

     Not forgetting her heritage, Tran has also helped the third largest minority group in Memphis, the Vietnamese. Narquenta Sims, the head of Mayor Willie Herenton’s Multicultural and Religious Affairs Office, asked her to help provide public information to the Vietnamese community. Tran took an active role in putting together a kiosk at a local grocery store which would help the community answer pertinent questions. Where do I pay basic bills? How can I get money to open a small business? How do I get healthcare? The information was gathered and printed and the kiosk is up and running filling a need we all just assume is there.  

     The most amazing part surrounding Tran and her consistent giving to the community is how she does it. She has a very demanding job which is extremely unpredictable. A job which is somewhat like a doctor’s, she is always on call and emergencies always happen. Yet, she always finds ways to give to the community. I cannot think of anyone more appropriate to be recognized for such an award.

MPACT Memphis

1st MPACT Maker Newcomer Award 2003

Shali Atkinson, RISE Foundation, Director of Communications

“I have had the privilege of working directly with Tran for a number of years in Women on the Move, a club within a club at The Crescent Club. When I was looking for the right person to take over as Chair, I knew Tran was that person. She has the heart, drive and connections to make any organization thrive.

Tran knows how to promote people and organizations so that they have maximum exposure. I highly recommend her for any leadership, marketing or resource role. She is a delight to be around and someone to model after. She is a person you will want to hire.”

Shali Atkinson
RISE Foundation, Director of Communications