Odd Jobs

Chris Larsen

08.13.21

Chris Larsen isn't just a business leader; he's also a philanthropist. Listen to his take on what it meant to donate $25 million to his alma mater, SFSU - and name the building after someone else!

Summary:

Chris Larsen isn’t just a business leader; he’s also a philanthropist. Listen to his take on what it meant to donate $25 million to his alma mater, SFSU – and name the building after someone else!

Thuy

You're also an active philanthropist, you're very admired for your generosity and your social conscience around that. You were the first generation in your family to go to college and you've really given a transformative gift to your alma mater, San Francisco State University, and you donated $25 million to their college of business, you were given an opportunity to name a building, and you didn't name it after yourself though, you decided to name it after your wife, Lyna Lam and her family. Why did you decide to do that?
Chris_Larsen

Chris Larsen

Well, we were really trying to respect Lyna's dad, Quang Lam, just an amazing guy. I describe him, he's like the George Foreman of Cambodia, because they're Cambodians, right? Just the toughest guy in the world, right? And I mean, he literally carried his family of five small kids across Vietnam, across Cambodia right after the Khmer Rouge fell into refugee camp for almost three years, and then how did he know how to position himself to get to the US? Like, he had that faith to get here. There was no Internet, there was no newspaper, he was, like, determined to get his family to America, and he did, right? And he just worked so hard, and then when they got here, the kids did really well, but he was doing every odd job in the world to make them successful, he never the opportunity to go to school, so he's just a great guy and my life would be completely different, our kids obviously wouldn't be here without what he did, and it was a way to honor him. My parents had passed away already and I remember the best thing I ever did was when I could afford it, bought them a house and they were, the greatest purchase I've ever done, right? That's just a fun, fun moment.. So, everybody taking care of them and again, they're no longer with us, it just seemed like a neat thing to do, plus three of her family, the Lam family kids, also went San Francisco State, so they actually have more representation there than I did.

Thuy

Yeah, three of Lyna's siblings went to San Francisco State also?
Chris_Larsen

Chris Larsen

Yeah.

Thuy

That's a wonderful story, I really love that story.