After Living the American Dream, I Wanted to Give Back

In many respects, I have lived the American Dream and feel very fortunate for it.  I grew up in California as the child of immigrants from Thailand.  I went to public schools, somehow managed to gain admittance to Harvard (where I was the first person from my high school to attend), and built a successful career in finance.  However, one day I woke up and realized that I wanted to re-connect with my prior passion of being involved with community and public service, which had been a focus in both high school and college.  That led me to retire from my firm and to seek an opportunity to contribute my time in a meaningful way to help others, despite concern from some professional colleagues that I was leaving way too much money on the table. 
 

Fortunately, a mutual acquaintance put me in touch with the Clinton Foundation.  Having just completed one year as a volunteer in Thailand for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, I can say that it has been an incredible life changing experience for me.  We have worked closely with the Thai government not only to obtain affordable life saving medicine for HIV patients in Thailand but also to obtain lower prices for these drugs in all developing countries around the world.  Having met a number of patients, and in particular children, in person, I cannot begin to describe the positive effect that our efforts have on the quality of life for both these people as well as their families.  I have been lucky to meet President Clinton and to witness firsthand his unwavering dedication to help ensure that universal access to HIV medicine in developing countries becomes a reality.  I am grateful for the opportunity given to me by President Clinton and the Foundation to be able to share this past year in helping others, especially in the country from which my family originates, and I hope to be able to contribute to the Foundation in the months and years ahead.