Steven Thai
PROFESSOR KEITH MCLAY: Now we come to our honorary award. These are awarded by the University in recognition of somebody who has made a very significant contribution in their particular field. I now have great pleasure in inviting Professor Warren Manning, Provost (Innovation and Research) to give the commendation for the conferment of an honorary Doctor of the University to Steven Thai.
Professor Manning.
PROFESSOR WARREN MANNING: Pro-Chancellor,
Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. It gives me great pleasure to be presenting Steven Thai for the award of Honorary Master of the University.
Steven Thai is the founder and unstoppable force behind the award winning Derby based Asian restaurant wholesale business, Ocean King Limited. His inspirational journey from Vietnamese refugee to award winning entrepreneur is a powerful testament to his resilience, perseverance and hard work.
Steven and his parents come from very humble beginnings. They fled persecution in Vietnam in the late 1970s when the humanitarian crisis was at its height. His parents sold everything they had for three tickets on a fishing boat carrying 600 people out of Vietnam, and Steven was just 18 months old.
The family settled in Runcorn, Cheshire, where Steven experienced hardship and discrimination, growing up in one of the poorest council estates in the area. But his parents worked hard to rebuild their lives, sacrificing family holidays and school events to provide for the family.
When Steven left school, he worked with his father. They moved to the Midlands and founded Ocean King in 1997, with just a double garage and a small frozen food truck selling seafood to restaurants and takeaways. The business is now a leader in the Asian food sector, and last year opened a 5 million pound base here in Derby.
Over the past 27 years, Ocean King has thrived under Steven's leadership. He and his father were determined to pass on to others some of the opportunities they had found in the UK. Steven embedded the vision of creating opportunities and enriching lives into their business, putting wellbeing and staff development at the very heart of the operation.
Last year, Steven won Entrepreneur of the Year at the East Midlands Chamber Derbyshire Business Awards, was crowned Business Person of the Year at the Leicestershire Live Awards, and won Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
Steven exemplifies the University's values of boldness and brilliance, serving as an inspirational role model in both business and the local community. He's an active fundraiser for charities across the region, a seasoned business coach, a mentor, a children's football coach, school governor, ambassador for the Young Enterprises programme for the East Midlands, and a keen supporter of the University's industry engagement pillar. Steven embodies the spirit of resilience, innovation and community engagement. He has made an enormous impact in the region with an irrepressible desire to enrich others lives. And he has no plans to stop just yet.
Steven is celebrating here today with his wife Alice, parents Derek and Linda, daughter Juliet and son Cassius.
Pro-Chancellor, in recognition of his outstanding entrepreneurial success and his engagement with the community, we are delighted to award Steven Thai the honorary degree of Master of the University.
STEVEN THAI: Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby, Honoured guests, Graduates of 2024, and all our guests here today. When I first Googled "Honorary Master of the University", it autocorrected and I ended up with images of He-Man holding up a sword, declaring "I have the power"! So, I'm delighted to accept this honour, but I'll try to keep the sword-wielding to a minimum.
Now, thank you for those kind words. Hearing my life story read out like that, it's a reminder of just how far this journey has taken me. Creating opportunities, enriching lives. This isn't just my company's mission statement, it's also my life's purpose. It's about seizing opportunities and created them for others.
But if someone had told me years ago, I'd be standing here speaking in front of you today, I just wouldn't have believed them.
I'm just going to recap my story briefly. After after being shot at in Vietnam, my parents sold everything they had for three tickets on a boat. Not a luxury cruise liner, but a fishing boat about the same size as this stage, with 600 people crammed on it. There were no toilets. My mother held me as an 18 month-old child for the whole duration of that trip. Many people died in that journey, but despite everything, we made it here.
Life wasn't easy growing up in the most deprived council estate in the UK. But I learned the values of hard work of my parents, who sacrificed everything for our family. It was always work, work, work. And to this day, I've still never had a family holiday with mum and dad.
Growing up, I didn't always understand that and I felt resentment at times. But now I have nothing but immense appreciation for everything they did. Not just surviving, but creating a future.
There were no more opportunities in Vietnam and certainly no enrichment of lives. Therefore, we're so grateful for the opportunities that this country has given us, it is now a question of what can we do to make you better by walking through the doors of Ocean King?
To all the graduates today, celebrate every part of your journey. Yes, the big accomplishments like today, but also the challenges, the doubts and the steps that didn't go as planned. Those are what makes your story unique and they will become your strengths.
This honour today belongs to my family, my friends, and the communities that have shaped me. They inspire me to keep giving back.
If I could offer you one piece of advice, it would be this. Make it your mission not only to create opportunities for yourself, but to enrich the lives of others along the way. Because that is where real success lies.
Thank you to the University of Derby for this incredible recognition, and congratulations to the class of 24. Go out there, wield your power, and make a difference.
Steven Thai's commendation video
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