Government Affairs - Vice-Mayor Tammy Kim

Greater Irvine Chamber Government Affairs Webinar Featuring Vice-Mayor Tammy Kim 

Tammy Kim was elected to City Council in 2020, winning her seat with more than 43,700 votes, the highest vote count for any City Council candidate in the city’s history. She previously served as a Finance Commissioner for the City of Irvine.
 
Born in Korea, Vice Mayor Kim’s family immigrated to America as an infant. Raised in Flint, MI, her mother was a seamstress and her father was a day laborer who saved up to start a small business, the family eventually moved to Baltimore, MD.  As the first in her family to go to college, Vice Mayor Kim went on to a successful career as a business executive in Fortune 500 and venture-backed technology start-ups resolving highly complex business, management, and legal issues.
 
After a successful corporate career, Vice Mayor Kim invested her own resources to create the Irvine-based Korean American Center to serve the local immigrant community. As founder and managing director of the nonprofit, she led the nonprofit—now merged with Korean Community Services—to build bridges between 110,000 intergenerational Korean Americans in Orange County and the greater community. In 2018, Korean American Center was designated as “Irvine King Sejong Institute” by the South Korean government as a hub for the promotion of Korean language and culture. Vice Mayor Kim has served as chair of the Language Access Committee for the Orange County Registrar of Voters, a member of the City of Irvine Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census, and Steering Committee for the Irvine Global Village Festival.
 
Tammy has lived, worked, and raised her son in Irvine for the past two decades.