Paul Pham named general manager at South Florida Sun Sentinel

Paul Pham, who for two decades served as a high- ranking business executive for big city newspapers in Chicago andNew York, has been named the general manager of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel.

“Paul brings decades of experience to the role, and I amconfident his appointment will keep our Florida titles on the right path,” said Terry Jimenez, CEO of Tribune Publishing, the newspapers’Chicago-based parentcompany. Pham, who will report to Jimenez, will retain his current corporate responsibilities in sales strategy, analytics, and manufacturing and distribution.

Pham said Friday that he intends to focus squarely on howthe newspapers’ South and Central Florida readers want to receive their information — whether it’s by phone, social media or in print.

“Obviously we have very good brands and we’ve got to build on it,” he said, “We have to educate peoplemore and be very community focused. We’ll meet you at the platform of your choice. That’s theway to go.”

The appointment makes the position permanent for Pham, whowasnamedinan interim role after publisher NancyMeyer departed for a leadership position at the MiamiHerald inOctober.

Pham’s newspaper career has focused on business operations, financial management and strategy. He started in 2000 when he joined the Chicago Tribune in planningandanalysis. He moved to Newsday in New Yorkin2006andreturnedto the Chicago TribuneMedia

Co. in 2011. A year later, he went to work for the rival ChicagoSun-Times, moving back to the Tribune in 2016 as a senior vice president.

Pham, 52, was born in South Vietnam in 1968. His father, a teacher, was a captain in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, trans

porting ammunition and other supplies to the front lines during the Vietnam War. When the war ended with the exit of U.S. forces in 1975, his father was sent to a reeducation camp and Pham’s family, including his mother and four siblings, were relegated to a farm.

For years, his father was nowhere to be found, reemerging in 1980. He had been assigned to clear bombs fromthe jungles, Pham said.

“We never thought he would make it out alive,” he said .“We didn’ t know where hewas forfive years.”

Once reunited, the family, subjected to years of hardships, decided to leave the Communist country. They followed thousands of other “boat people” who made treacherous escapes to nearby countries in Southeast Asia. The family ultimatelymadeit to the United States, settling in Wheaton, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where the children received their formal educations.

Pham’s siblings became engineers. At his mother’s urging, Pham tried medicine, but he opted for business instead. In the 1990s, he earned undergraduate and advanced degrees in business at the University of Illinois.

“I’d rather be in business,” he said. “I have always thought of business as a better career for me. At the risk of disappointing my Mom and my Dad, I probably put that on myself more than them. They would support me eitherway. Even now, my Momsays, ‘You would have been a great doctor.’ ”

Before entering the newspaper business, Pham worked for a software development company in the late 1990s, providing computer services to Fortune 100 companies and offshore services to other countries including Vietnam. Ironically, the government recognized Pham as a pioneer in the field.

But perhaps the most profound outcome of Pham’s journey from refugee to successful media executive is the juxtaposition between constant exposure to Communist propaganda as a child and his present-day involvement with media companies that provide free flows of information.

“In Vietnam when the Communists took over, everything was propaganda ,” Pham said. “Everything was all about the Communist Party.”

“We were so thirsty for news, and now I’m actually working for a news company,” hes aid. “For me it was a dream come true.”

Pham, who still lives in Chicago with his wife and two children, said he plans to move soon to South Florida, where his mom, sister and oneof his brothers also live.