Man Ninh was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1960. After the Fall of Saigon, Ninh was unable to enroll in university in Vietnam. He and his family escaped Vietnam by boat in 1981. For the next three years he stayed at the Galang Camp, a refugee camp in Indonesia. Sponsored to Georgia, he completed his GED and enrolled in the Georgia Institute of Technology. Upon moving to Portland in 1986, Ninh transferred to Portland State University. After the untimely death of his first wife, he transferred to Concordia College and finished with a bachelor’s degree in Management & Business, while also working as a lab manager in an environmental lab. In 1992 Ninh opened J&M Consulting. He has continued to work in law at the Office of John G. Humphrey from 1996 until now. Ninh works with a focus on immigration law, especially as it pertains to the Vietnamese community. He became the President of VN Paralegal, Inc. in 2000. He founded the Galang Camp Foundation in 2014.

This interview begins with a summary of how Man Ninh came to live in Portland. He briefly describes his life in Saigon and the attempts his family made to leave the country by boat and then details how a sponsorship led him to resettle in Georgia. From there, Ninh explains his move to Portland and how he met his wife. Next, Ninh describes the evolution of his academic career. Ninh went from studying medicine at Portland State University to computer engineering. After the death of his wife, he ultimately decided to finish with a degree in management at Concordia University. Ninh then explains meeting his second wife and his career shift into law, which was precipitated by concerns of medical malpractice in his wife’s death. Ninh expands upon his role and philosophies as a law consultant and discusses the political perspectives of Vietnamese immigrants at length. Afterwards, Ninh explains his relationship with Galang Camp, the refugee camp in Indonesia where stayed at after leaving Vietnam. He details his role in the origins of the Galang Camp Organization which is aimed at the remembrance of the refugee experience. He also describes his vision for what the organization could be, which is more focused on archiving the refugee experience through electronic mediums. Ninh moves on to explain his role in founding the Vietnamese Community of Oregon (VNCO), touching again on the political perspectives of Vietnamese immigrants. He concludes the interview by describing generational differences and calling on younger generations take the reigns for community leadership.