Hoàng Đức Nhã served in the government of the RVN soon after returning from his studies in the United States in January 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was a telecommunications engineer at the Ministry of Interior, then a project engineer at the Industrial Development Bank of Vietnam. He joined President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu’s staff in October 1967 soon after the latter was inaugurated as president, first serving as policy analyst—when he developed the framework of the land-reform undertaking—and later as private secretary (chief of staff) and concurrently press secretary to the president. As private secretary Nhã was also a main advisor to President Thiệu in the Paris negotiations. After the peace agreement was signed in January 1973, Nhã joined the cabinet as minister of mass mobilization and open arms and coordinating minister for nation building. He resigned in November 1974 over policy differences with the prime minister. From 1975 to 2003, Nhã worked at three major companies, General Electric, FMC Corporation, and Monsanto Company. In mid-2004 he cofounded and served as CEO of a company specializing in big data analytics serving Fortune 100 companies and various U.S. government agencies. He retired in 2012 and now lives in Chicago.
