Mighty warrior,
magician, and a mountain
of goodness.

Quan Huynh
Quan Huynh
Quan Huynh has been described as a mighty warrior, a magician, and a mountain of goodness.

He is the Executive Director for Defy Ventures in Southern California, a nonprofit whose vision is to shift mindsets to give people with criminal histories their best shot at a second chance through career readiness, personal development, and entrepreneurship training programs.

 
After spending twenty-two years in and out of correctional institutions, Quan was paroled from a life sentence in 2015, and created his first company 6 months later.

The following year, he received the Peace Fellowship Award for his work with the Alternatives to Violence Project.

Quan has been featured in Entrepreneur, PBS Newshour, Talks at Google, and numerous other publications and podcasts. He is the author of Sparrow in the Razor Wire.
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Sparrow in the Razor Wire:
Finding Freedom from Within While Serving a Life Sentence

In 1999, Quan Huynh shot and killed another man in a gang-related incident in Hollywood, California.

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