From Refugee to Combat Veteran and Global Business Leader, Nick Tran Brings a Different Kind of Leadership to The Woodlands Township Race

Paid candidate submission | Submitted by Nick Tran | The publisher reports receiving $1 from Tran for placement. Nick Tran submitted this statement; he is a candidate for The Woodlands Township Board of Directors. The views and personal accounts are his.

When Nick Tran was five years old, he and his father escaped Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon on a leaking boat with little more than the clothes they were wearing. The United States Navy rescued them at sea. America gave Tran and his family freedom, safety and a second chance.

Years later, he put on an Army uniform and fought in three wars, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq, for the country that had saved him and his father. Now, after more than 13 years of military service and a decade of leadership in a Fortune 500 global energy company, Tran is running for Position 3 on The Woodlands Township Board of Directors. For Tran, the campaign is another opportunity to serve and to bring a different kind of experience to local government.

“This country rescued my father and me and gave us a future,” Tran said. “I have spent most of my adult life trying to give something back. I served our country in uniform, served veterans and communities through my business career, and now I have an opportunity to serve the community my family calls home.”

Tran has organized his campaign around three priorities: keeping residents safe, preserving the heart and soul of The Woodlands, and serving as a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. “Protect the people. Preserve the place.

Respect the taxpayers,” Tran said. “That is what ‘Preserve What Works. Protect What Matters.’

means to me.” Public safety is Tran’s first priority. He began his military career in field artillery and later became a combat medic.

An Army evaluation supplied by Tran records over 150 missions as a driver in the Red Zone on Route Irish, between Victory Base Complex and FOB Prosperity. The evaluation also lists team medic as an area of special emphasis. That experience taught him that protecting people requires both proactive preparation and the ability to react decisively when an emergency occurs.

“Being proactive means identifying threats, closing gaps, building relationships and having a plan before something happens,” Tran said. “But no plan will prevent every crime, storm or emergency. When something does happen, the people responsible for protecting the community must be trained, properly equipped, coordinated and ready to respond immediately.”

Tran said proactive public safety includes strong relationships with law enforcement, emergency planning, clearly defined responsibilities, regular evaluation of emerging threats and ensuring resources are positioned where they can be effective. The reactive side, he said, is about speed, capability and leadership when seconds matter. “In combat, you learn quickly that decisions have real consequences,” Tran said.

“You assess the threat, understand the risk, act with the resources available and take responsibility for the outcome. You do not wait until the crisis begins to decide who is responsible or what the plan should be.” Tran believes The Woodlands must prepare for more than crime.

Severe weather, flooding, fires, major accidents and other emergencies can threaten residents and disrupt the community. “We do not live behind a wall,” he said. “Threats do not stop at the boundary of The Woodlands.

We have to do everything reasonably possible to prevent problems, but we must also have the people, planning and capability to respond when prevention is not enough.” That combination of prevention, preparedness and response is central to Tran’s approach. “Public safety cannot be treated as a talking point,” he said.

“It has to match the threat. My responsibility as a board member would be to ask whether we are prepared, whether the right resources are already in place and whether residents can count on an effective response when they need it most.” Tran’s experience extends well beyond his military service.

He joined Cameron in 2014 and continued with Schlumberger, now SLB, following its acquisition of Cameron. His decade with the company included leadership in global military and veteran affairs, community affairs, stakeholder engagement, workforce strategy, corporate social responsibility and complex business operations. Across those roles, Tran held responsibility for P&Ls, multimillion-dollar budgets, people, global programs and delivering measurable results within a large and complex organization.

For eight years, he led the company’s global military and veteran affairs program. Tran built the program across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, helping bring thousands of veterans into the company while building relationships among corporate leaders, military organizations, government agencies, nonprofits and the veteran community. According to his Rice Business biography, the company earned Military Friendly Employer recognition for eight consecutive years.

SLB ranked first in the largest-company category of the 2024 Military Friendly Employer awards. Tran says he also created a Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship program, founded the company’s Veteran Empowerment Team and served for eight years as its board sponsor for the Rice University Veterans Business Battle. The work required more than recruiting.

It required Tran to understand the needs of different stakeholders, build trust across institutions and align community initiatives with legitimate business objectives. “Stakeholder engagement is not showing up for a photograph or handing out a check,” Tran said. “It is understanding what matters to people, building relationships before you need them and creating partnerships that produce real results.”

Tran says he later served as Community Affairs Director, managing multimillion-dollar budgets, nonprofit and community partnerships and employee volunteer programs. He says his work included corporate philanthropy, workforce development, veteran initiatives and STEM education, including the Houston Texans Stats Challenge. In a January 2018 community update (https://www.houstontexans.com/news/breakfast-texanscare-by-the-numbers-20234430), the Houston Texans reported that the program, presented by Schlumberger, had reached more than 51,000 students during the preceding year.

That was a program-wide figure. Tran described his own participation in a later post about the program’s kickoff (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6977676276098621440/). His work placed him at the intersection of business, government, education, nonprofits and the communities in which the company operated.

That experience, Tran said, taught him how to balance community expectations with financial discipline and organizational priorities. “Good intentions are not results,” Tran said. “You have to understand the numbers, manage the money, bring the right people together, measure performance and answer for the outcome.

That is true in business, and it should be true in government.” Tran completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development, according to his Rice Business biography. He says his board and advisory experience includes the World Affairs Council, March of Dimes, the American Heart Association and Rice Business.

Tran’s second priority is preserving the character of The Woodlands while managing growth responsibly. “The Woodlands has a special soul,” Tran said. “You feel it in the trees, the parks, the pathways, the neighborhoods and the way this community was designed.

Those things are not decorations around the edges. They are part of what makes The Woodlands home.” Tran said growth is inevitable, but losing the character of the community is not.

“There is a fine balance between allowing The Woodlands to grow and allowing growth to change what The Woodlands is,” he said. “We should welcome investment and opportunity, but growth must strengthen our community, not slowly erase the qualities that made people want to live here.” For Tran, “Preserve What Works.

Protect What Matters.” is more than a campaign slogan. Preserving what works means respecting the planning, services, parks, public spaces and community standards that have made The Woodlands successful.

Protecting what matters means safeguarding its people, natural beauty, financial strength, property values and the voice of its residents. “We do not need to reinvent The Woodlands,” Tran said. “We need the judgment to recognize what is working, the courage to question what is not and the discipline to protect the character and soul of this community as it grows.”

Tran’s third priority is responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. His private-sector career required him to understand P&Ls, manage multimillion-dollar budgets, establish priorities and deliver measurable results. He said that experience taught him not only how money is spent, but where it comes from, how difficult it is to earn and why some of it must be saved and invested for the future.

“Every public dollar started as money earned by a resident or generated by a business,” Tran said. “Government has a responsibility to treat that money with respect.” Tran said being fiscally responsible does not mean automatically opposing every expenditure.

It means understanding the need, examining the alternatives and determining whether the investment will produce real value for residents. “In business, you have to know what problem you are solving, what the investment will cost and how you will measure the result,” he said. “You also have to prepare for the future, maintain reserves and understand that spending money today can limit your choices tomorrow.”

Tran believes every major Township contract, expenditure and investment should receive serious scrutiny. “I have managed budgets where results mattered and accountability was not optional,” he said. “I will bring that same financial discipline to the Board and work to ensure that taxpayer dollars are properly spent, wisely invested and responsibly saved.”

Tran and his wife, Valarie, are raising their two children in Creekside Park, the only village of The Woodlands located in Harris County. Although Township directors are elected at large and are responsible for serving the entire community, Tran said Creekside Park currently has no resident serving on the seven-member Board. “Every director must represent all of The Woodlands, and that is exactly what I will do,” Tran said.

“But where you live also shapes what you see and experience. Creekside Park deserves to have someone at the table who understands our side of the community firsthand.” Tran said his Creekside residency would add another perspective to the Board without limiting his responsibility to residents across every village.

“I am running to represent all of The Woodlands,” he said. “At the same time, Creekside Park is our home, and its residents should know that someone on the Board understands their concerns because he lives there too.” Tran is one of three candidates seeking Position 3, alongside Priscila Young and Lisa Gilmore.

Gilmore’s published background includes work in local, county and federal government and public policy. She is also running as part of a unified four-candidate slate with Lee Wilson, Linda Nelson and Craig Eissler. Tran is running independently.

He sees the distinction as straightforward. Gilmore offers extensive experience in government and politics. Tran offers military leadership, private-sector business experience and a record of working across corporations, government agencies, nonprofits and communities.

“I belong to political and civic organizations, but I’m not part of the local candidate slate,” Tran said. “I don’t answer to a slate or vote as part of a bloc. I’ll make my own decisions based on what’s best for Woodlands residents.”

Tran said independence does not mean creating conflict for its own sake. It means having the judgment to support good ideas, challenge weak ones and remain accountable to the people who elected him. “The Board does not need an echo chamber,” he said.

“It needs directors with different experiences who are willing to think critically, ask difficult questions and make independent decisions.” Earlier this year, Tran ran for Congress in Texas’ 8th Congressional District, finishing 273 votes and less than half of one percentage point from second place in a six-candidate Republican primary. He is now bringing that experience home.

Tran’s case to voters rests on a combination rarely found in local government: the judgment of a combat veteran, the financial discipline of a global business leader, experience building relationships across complex stakeholder groups and the independence to make decisions without answering to a political slate. “I have led when lives were at stake, led inside a complex global company and managed budgets where results mattered,” Tran said. “I’m ready to bring that experience home and put it to work for the residents of The Woodlands.”

The Township election will be held November 3, 2026. Early voting runs from October 19 through October 30. More information about Tran and his campaign is available at NickTranCampaign.com.

Professional background: Nick Tran’s LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnicktran/).