Quang Pham
Rank:Â Major
Service: USMC
Years: 1986-1999
Current Company: Cadrenal Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CVKD)
Role: Chairman & CEO
Industry:Â Biotech
Why did you enter the military? Pay back my debt to our country for accepting me as a refugee child from Vietnam. My late father was a South Vietnamese pilot who served alongside the Americans there.
Enlistment age: 21, as a junior at UCLA in 1986.
Where did you serve? MCAS Tustin & El Toro from 1990-99 when El Toro closed. Was the commanding general’s aide-de-camp 1993-94.
What did you learn? How to operate under pressure in a team environment (effort) and achieve our mission (results) = ER
What could you do in the military that you couldn’t do in civilian life? Captain a CH-46 helicopter (age 27) off the USS Tarawa with a young crew and flew United Nations troops and Marines into Mogadishu, Somalia in September 1992.
What was the biggest lesson you learned about discipline? Know your stuff (flight procedures, rules of engagement, mission planning), practice and repeat. Keep in good physical and mental shape. Stay sharp!
Did you deploy overseas and what was your takeaway? Operation Desert Shield/Storm (1990-91), Persian Gulf/Somalia (1992) aboard the USS Tarawa. Takeaway: We live in the greatest country in the world!
How the military helped your business career? Decisive leadership/making decisions and taking risks without all the intelligence = helped me fundraise and run MyDrugRep.com in the early dotcom days, then with my biotech startup Cadrenal leading to an IPO in the toughest financing environment in 2023. RESILIENCE AND ADAPTABILITY.
