Author name: Xin Su

Andrew (Zhèngchāng) Cherng (程正昌) is one of Forbes’ Twenty-Five Notable Chinese-Americans [1] and a member of the Committee of 100 [2]. He was born in Yangzhou, China, grew up in Taiwan and Japan. In 1966, at age of 18, Andrew Cherng came to the United States to study mathematics at Baker University in Kansas. There, he met his future wife, Peggy, also an international student. In 1973 Andrew Cherng and his father, a Chinese chef, opened the Panda Inn, a sit-down Chinese restaurant in Pasadena, California. Ten years later, Andrew Cherng opened the first Panda Express, a fast-food Chinese restaurant, which has expanded more than 2,200 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and other countries, employing nearly 40,000 people while remaining family-owned and operated. As co-chair and co-CEO of the Panda Restaurant Group, Cherng has amassed a net worth valued at $3.5 billion according to Forbes. Since 1999, Panda Cares, the restaurant group’s philanthropic arm, has donated more than $140 million to provide healthcare services to uninsured children, improve college readiness in schools, deliver immediate relief to victims of the California wildfires, and more.