Biar Atem

Biar Atem
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Honorary Delegate (Nevada)
Resettled Refugee from South Sudan

Biar Atem is the Refugee Congress Board Treasurer and an Honorary Delegate for Nevada. He was born in South Sudan and was forced to abandon his family and village when civil war threatened his life. War in South Sudan severed a generation of Lost Boys from their birthplace and their families. At age seven, Biar became a child refugee and walked more than 1,000 miles before reaching a refugee camp in Kenya, spending the next 13 years in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya before he was resettled in Las Vegas by Catholic Charities in 2001.

Biar started out as a janitor and now owns and operates a real estate business while working at a Fortune 500 company as a contract audit manager.  He is also a co-founder of a tax and business consulting firm. 

Biar is the founder of the South Sudan Center of America, a nonprofit that helps refugees and immigrants to meet basic needs, provide scholarships, and organize cultural celebrations. He serves on the USA for UNHCR Board of Directors, the advisory board of the ECDC African Community Center, a mentor for UNLV Hotel College and a speaker for CCSD School-Community Partnership Program. He has received numerous awards, including being named to Fortune magazine’s “Heroes of the 500” for helping others who are suffering from persecution and poverty, and being named a finalist for the the Adelson Citizenship Award and Sands Cares Hero of the Year, as well as receiving the “Community Impact Award Winner – 2016 Everyday Heroes” by the American Red Cross. 

He has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an MBA from Regis University. He is a proud husband and a father of four children, and he serves on the board at his son’s elementary school. He became a U.S. citizen in 2007 and was reunited with his family in 2008 after more than 20 years away from home.

“Having seen so much cruelty and pain in my life, I have concluded that developing a heart of compassion is the meaning of life.”

In the News:

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