Tommy Tang
President
info@tsunamicf.org

Born in Thailand and the eldest son of 12 children, he left home at the tender age of 11 to help support his family. After a succession of odd jobs, some of which were a floor fan cleaner, wheelbarrow maker, tennis teacher, drummer, to helping his father in his restaurant in the Grand Central, eventually he ended up working the switchboards in major hotels in Bangkok during the Vietnam War. It was there he decided to move to the US and seek his fortune. With Thai food almost virtually unknown to Americans, thru a mutual friend, Tommy was brought in to help save a Thai restaurant in Hollywood, California. The entertainment community embraced his extraordinary culinary capabilities, and the rest is history.
Whether touring the globe sharing his culinary wizardry with his "Modern Thai Cuisine" or promoting his cookbooks, products, restaurants or six seasons of his travel & cooking series for the PBS Network, he continues to make the world aware of his heritage. He has also given much of his time and resources to charity issues, the homeless in particular, especially through Comic Relief. The Tsunami 2004 hit home for him with the devastation in the south of Thailand and thus, the Tsunami Children Foundation was born

Napalai Choto
Vice President

She is currently working as a Mental Health Care Coordinator at Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. in Los Angeles. She was born and raise in Thailand and moved to Southern California in 1992. Napalai is an active member of the Thai community, serving as volunteer at various Temples and providing outreach and education regarding health issues to the Thai community. Recently, she has completed serving her two-year term as the Secretary/Vice-President of the Thai Association of Southern California. Napalai received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Cal State University Northridge and worked in the medical field since 1994. She dreams of one day opening her own Community Center to provide direct assistance to Asians who are homeless in the Los Angeles area. She will bring a wealth of knowledge to the needs of the children through the Tsunami Children Foundation.

Dr Rosalyn Patamakanthin

Secretary
Juris Doctorate
Southwestern University School of Law
rosalyn@tsunamicf.org

She was born in Vancouver, Canada but raised in Southern California. She is an attorney and owns her own practice in Los Angeles. Since high school, Rosalyn has been passionate about and dedicated to the Thai community. She was an honors student involved in the Rotary Club and academic decathlon and held leadership positions in student government. In high school, Rosalyn spent a year abroad in Thailand, attending Thewpaignarm School in Bangkok, where she studied Thai culture, dance and literary arts. In her youth, she was a regular volunteer at Wat Thai in Chino Hills and was named Miss Congeniality for Wat Chino Hills in 1999 and later Miss Congeniality for the Thai Association of Southern California. Recently, Rosalyn completed serving her two-year term as the President of the Thai Association of Southern California. Rosalyn is noted for being the youngest elected President in the associations 42 year history. She continues to remain very active in the Thai community and is currently serving her term as the President of the Thai Alliance of America.

Rosalyn studied business at the University of Southern California for two years and received her Bachelor of Science degree from California State University at Long Beach in 1998. She was secretary of USC's Thai Student Association and worked in USC's Special Events Department as a student ambassador and hostess. After college, she pursued law, receiving a scholarship from the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, and later earning her juris doctorate degree from Southwestern University in 2001. While in law school, she was a member of Moot Court and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, in which she served as public relations officer. She spent another year abroad in Bangkok at Chulalongkorn University, where she studied International Law and History of Thai Law.

After admission to the American Bar Association in 2001, Rosalyn served as a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and a member of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association. She joined the law offices of Bonne Bridges Mueller O'Keefe & Nichols, where she worked as an associate in medical malpractice and healthcare law. In 2002, she began her current career at Keith A. Fink & Associates, where she developed her practice specialty in employment law and corporate litigation. In 2004, Rosalyn decided to open her own law practice so she could have more time to dedicate to her community projects.

It is Rosalyn's family roots to Thailand that have driven her to share her legal expertise in setting up this foundation.

Professor David Hideo Maruyama,
MA, MFA
Treasurer

dhideo@tsunamicf.org
Roninmaru@aol.com

David is a Sansei (Third Generation Japanese American) born and raised in the city of Los Angeles. He went to UCLA and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. While there, he helped to start a student run Asian American literary journal called Burning Cane. After his graduation, he went to Long Beach State and earned a Master of Arts in English Literature and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Concurrently, he became involved with Aisarema, an Asian American Arts Organization, and he edited several editions of their arts journal, dISorient. He has taught classes at UCLA, Long Beach City College, East Los Angeles College, West Los Angeles College and others. Currently, he is teaching English composition and literature at Compton College. His latest arts related project was an artist/writer collaboration exhibition at Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles called City Dialogues during Spring 2004. He will help work on the educational projects of the Foundation and help manage the grants.

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Advisory Board

The following are people who bring their unique talents as well as extraordinary dedication to actually build and maintain this foundation. Without their support it could not exist.

Dr. Sunya Ratjatawan
Director TCF Thailand
sunya@tsunamicf.org
sunyarat2002@hotmail.com

With a specialization in Special Education and Psychological therapy, he is a Thai-American citizen, who was born in Bangkok, Thailand but raised, educated and employed in the US since 1972. He has earned a BA in Psychology from Loma Linda University, an MA in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University and a PHD in Psychology from the University of Southern California. A therapist by training, his specialization has been in dealing with children with special needs, adolescents with special needs, dual diagnosed patients and substance abuse issues. At the time of the disaster, he was working with children with special needs in the Los Angeles district. Due to his extensive work history, he has a myriad of experiences using various counseling methodologies. His knowledge of American therapeutic techniques developed and used in the USA is extensive. He will be returning to Thailand to personally manage the programs.

Dan C. Luengthada
dan@tsunamicf.org

He was born in Bangkok, Thailand and grew up in Los Angeles. In 1988 while attending classes for Business Management at Los Angeles City College, he also started a part time job with Tommy Tang's restaurant. He worked his way up the ranks to the top position of General Manager in 2001. In his spare time he does volunteer work through different AIDS foundations and agencies. He works diligently on the advisory board and is the glue that keeps all the correspondence going and brings the group together in order to accomplish its goal for these children.

Gerry Furth
Media 8 Media 8 Public Relations

First generation Gerry Furth retains a European sense of family; her mother was the baby of 15. Her first interest in children began doing birthday parties for her younger cousins, several of them born in war torn Europe. As a publicist with 20years of experience, Gerry introduced international cultural events to Los Angeles. She is a seasoned food writer and journalist ranging from Newsweek editorial and television broadcasting to food columnist/photographer for ethnic magazines and guidebooks. Gerry holds a dual Master's Degree in Education and American History from Antioch College in Ohio, and another graduate degree in Teaching English as a Second Language as a foreign Language from UCLA. As a member of the National Teacher Corps, she was Editor-in-Chief of the NTC national newspaper and began a field trip program for the discipline-problem children in NE Washington, D.C. which is still in operation today. Gerry currently is a research writer with LAUSD on the Culturally Relevant and Responsive Education project.

It is thru Gerry's highly successful Public Relations firm, Media 8 in West Los Angeles that we will be guided on how to make the world aware of our ongoing fund raising efforts.

Naiyanaporn Poungmanee

Daa@tsunamicf.org

She was born in Bangkok, Thailand. She attended the University Rajabhat Suan Dusit and is currently working as a lead coordinator and translator for a major international interpretation company. . She has good relationship with the local government in which TCF will be operating in. Her organizational, communication management skill will be an asset for TCF. We are very happy for her working as Assistant to the Director position where she will be responsible for day to day operations.

Robert Venezia
Robert Venezia Investment Group

Since 1983, Robert has been providing active discretionary portfolio management for select individuals and corporations, and offers prospective clients investment solutions tailored to their specific requirements.

After developing a comprehensive investment plan, where objectives, risk tolerances and investment time frames are identified with the client, individual portfolios are constructed using mutual funds or individual securities -or some combination of the two - and then actively managed to try to achieve the stated objectives.

Robert Venezia Investment Group is an independent, fee-only registered investment advisor catering to the unique needs of the discerning investor. It is one of a select number of investment advisory firms authorized to use Frank Russell Company's unique asset allocation programs, giving the firm's clients access to some of the world's top institutional money managers.

Robert's company will help this foundation in its guidance for how, when and where donations should be spent in an appropriate manner.

Robert Venezia Investment Group
16830 Ventura Blvd., Suite 224
Encino, CA 91436-1723
818/ 205 1013 or 800/ 774 1444

Steve Wysong
Net CBC, Inc.
www.netcbc.com