“A great leader doesn’t care about being the leader, but instead cares about the mission, the vision and the people they are leading.” — Scott Williams

Asia’s Hope cares deeply about its mission, vision and people and invests in leaders with the experience, character and temperament necessary to meet the complex needs of the orphans and vulnerable children they serve.

Asia's Hope is almost 100% indigenously led. Aside from Executive Director John McCollum and two other executive staff members in the United States, all of the rest of Asia's Hope's 140+ paid employees are from the country they serve. Our country directors are highly experienced, skilled and trusted. Their skillful leadership and deep knowledge of their unique cultural context allows us to operate effectively and with a high degree of integrity.

Savorn Ou

Country Director, Asia's Hope Cambodia

Savorn Ou was born in 1969 into a strong Buddhist farming family in rural Cambodia. When he was only six years old, his nation and family were plunged into hell on earth when the murderous Khmer Rouge took power. 

Brainwashed and abused by the Khmer Rouge, Savorn and nearly every member of his generation was forced to participate in the devastation of his own country. Children turned against parents as the paranoid and genocidal regime enslaved an entire nation, starving, torturing and murdering nearly a third Cambodia's population.

After the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, Savorn was forced by the government of Vietnam to become a child soldier, fighting in the jungles against hardened regime holdouts. Many of his comrades in arms were killed or maimed, but God preserved Savorn's life until he could escape from his platoon through mine fields and jungles to a refugee camp on the Thai border.

In the relative safety of the camp, a 3 square mile shantytown which housed nearly 200,000 people, Savorn flourished intellectually. He studied Thai, French and English and taught Buddhism to hundreds of people in the camp.

After being repatriated to Cambodia in 1992, God's Holy Spirit opened Savorn's heart to the message of redemption and salvation he had heard many times from Christian missionaries in the refugee camp.

Shortly after his conversion, Savorn felt God's call into full-time Christian service. Despite having almost no theological knowledge, he was accepted into Cambodia's only Christian college, the Phnom Penh Bible School, which met underground to avoid government persecution. He continued his education, and has since earned a BS in Theology as well as a Bachelors and Masters in Business Admnistration.

For more than a decade, Savorn served as a pastor, teacher and translator, working with college students and training hundreds of young Cambodian pastors who are now leading congregations and ministries all over the country.

Throughout the years, God's Spirit burdened Savorn with a desire to reach out to Cambodia's 500,000 orphans, many of whom live each day at high risk of sexual and economic exploitation. In 2006, Asia's Hope appointed Savorn director of its Cambodian operations. Today, Savorn oversees dozens of staff and hundreds of children at Asia's Hope Cambodia's 15 children's homes.

Savorn, his wife Sony and his two sons, Malvin and Billy live in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Tutu Bee

Country Director, Asia's Hope Thailand

Tutu Bee grew up in the poorest family in a destitute Skaw Karen tribal village in the remote hills of northern Thailand. She was the daughter of a man who had, from the age of 6, been exiled from his own village -- his status as an orphan marked him as cursed by his animist, superstitious neighbors. 

Despite their extreme poverty, Tutu's family stuck together. Tutu and her siblings learned about Jesus' love for them at an early age. The words of scripture encouraged her every day throughout her childhood as she faced living hand-to-mouth: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -- Philippians 4:4-7

She began studying English when a missionary opened up a school in a nearby village. After grade 9, however, there was no school for her to attend. For more than a decade, Tutu worked in the village, unable to continue her education. In 1989, she had the opportunity to move to Chiang Mai, where she finished school and attended then graduated from university.

While she was completing her studies, Tutu returned home often to minister among the hill tribe villages. Her heart was broken by the plight of the many orphaned children she met. She begged God to help her rescue these kids, many of whom were being trafficked into the drug trade or as prostitutes. 

After 9 years of fervent prayer, God provided Tutu the opportunity to work with an American family to open a home for orphaned hill tribe girls. Three years later, Tutu was hired by Asia's Hope to lead its ministries in Thailand.

Today, Tutu leads a diverse indigenous staff in caring for more than 200 orphaned hill tribe children at Asia's Hope's 10 children's homes.

Tutu is married to Dan and lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She has three adult sons, Daniel, David and Zach.

John McCollum

Executive Director, Asia's Hope International

Asia's Hope Executive Director John McCollum was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Upon graduating from the Ohio State University, John married his high school sweetheart and began a career in branding and design. 

In 1998, John opened his own branding firm, Element, which won international recognition for excellence in design and communication for corporate and non-profit clients.

Shortly after starting his company, John and his wife Kori traveled to Vietnam to adopt their first child. That trip changed their lives and set them on a path that would send John back to Southeast Asia on a short-term missions trip in 2000, where he met the man with whom he would soon co-found Asia's Hope.

In 2009, after nearly a decade of working bi-vocationally, John shut the doors on his company and became Asia's Hope's full-time Executive Director. Today John oversees Asia's Hope's 150+ staff and 700+ children in Cambodia, Thailand and India and presides over the organization's boards in the United States and Canada.

In 2010, John was ordained as a Vineyard pastor. He lives with his wife, Kori, two sons, Chien and Pak, and daughter, Xiu Dan in Columbus.