At the age of 26, a Vietnamese man has been hunted by all four of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms – the four largest professional service networks in the world – and founded North America’s largest Pan-Asian organization for business professionals.

Duong Van Linh has been described by Professor Nguyen Dinh Phu from the University of California, Irvine as a “rising star” for his remarkable achievements on foreign soil.

In 2007, Linh was forced to abruptly terminate his high school education in the U.S. to return to Vietnam following the death of his father, a decision he took without hesitation out of compassion for his mother.

“She had been a great mother who had sacrificed a lot for us,” Linh said. “I wanted to be her mental support during those difficult times.”

Two years later, Linh was admitted to Drexel University in the U.S., where he spent weekends in the library and his free time participating in activities of the Association of Vietnamese Students and Professionals in the U.S.

During his time at Drexel, Linh also founded and served as president of ‘Ascend’ – the largest non-profit Pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America, which aims to ‘enhance the presence and influence of current and future Pan-Asian business leaders and serve as a collective voice for Pan-Asian business communities.'

After graduating from Drexel, Linh was offered work at the New York City-based global investment management corporation BlackRock, which is the world's largest asset manager with US$5.1 trillion in assets under management as of 2016.

The bespectacled Vietnamese man also received job offers from the world’s ‘Big Four’ accounting firms – Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG – which are known to recruit mostly from top universities.

After having gracefully maneuvered a big merger and acquisition (M&A) project at EY, Linh was among the only two Asians promoted to become senior strategy advisors at the New York City headquarters of the multinational services firm.

At the end of 2016, Linh was invited by PwC to work as its senior strategy advisor at the firm’s U.S. headquarters, in charge of developing its M&A change management advisory division.

Apart from his jobs at the accounting firms, Linh also teaches short-term courses at Columbia University and New York University, and participates in many activities of the Vietnamese community in America.

Life-long learning

“To be frank, I had intended to pursue a career in accountancy, which was in line with what I learnt in university and the wish of my family,” Linh said. “Despite promotion opportunities and the good salary a job in the field would have offered, I was clouded with doubt, perhaps because it wasn’t what my heart desired.”

As a strategy advisor, Linh’s job is to ‘diagnose’ the conditions of his clients and offer them solutions and a vision.

“It’s part of the job description to be constantly on the move,” Linh said. “I can be in different cities or different states each week. In addition, I have to constantly update myself with new knowledge, as this position requires both profound professional insight and a proficient command of English comparable to that of a lawyer.”

Linh has been having sessions with a U.S. pronunciation expert to perfect his English, an essential part of his job.

Despite his success at such a young age, Linh said the path he took had not always been paved with roses.

“There were times when I felt down, but I told myself to focus on the long-term and viewed the immediate challenges as an inevitable part of life,” Linh said. “I told myself to get back up and learn.”

Aware of his inexperience, Linh always places himself in the position of a ‘late-comer’ who is willing to learn from his predecessors.

As for the future, Linh said he would continue to commit himself to strategy advisory and education, with a vision to bridge projects in both fields between Vietnam and the U.S.