Asian Americans in Corporate America - Roadmap and Practical Solutions for Rising to the Top

The Asian Business League of San Francisco (ABL-SF) is proud to present the 2nd Panel Discussion of its popular and well-received Asian American Leadership Discussion Series.

In our 1st Panel Discussion, we learned about the Asian American workforce demographics in the U.S. – there are approximately 5 million Asian Americans in the workforce, representing about 4.4% of the U.S. labor force, but yet less than 1% hold a senior management ranked position. We learned about some of the reasons and possible solutions to address the under-representation.

In this 2nd Panel Discussion, we want to focus on the practical solutions and clear roadmaps that will guide us to get to the top by bringing a panel of seasoned and successful Asian American senior corporate executives with an aggregate of over 100 years of practical experience.

Please join us on September 17, 2008 for our 2nd Panel Discussion to hear from an outstanding group of speakers on how they personally and successfully rose to the senior ranks in their respective organizations and careers. Learn and hear about practical and tactical approaches, and what you could do to improve the odds of rising to the senior ranks in your career or with a given organization.

The Panel Discussion will be moderated by John Chiang, SVP & CFO, Pacific National Bank and Member of the ABL-SF Board of Directors

Panelists

• Larry Chang Vice President of Finance and Administration (retired), Hewlett-Packard Company
• Glenn Hoey Partner, Morrison & Foerster
• Catharina Min Partner, Reed Smith LLP

Fee

• Member: Free with advance registration
• Non-Members: $10 with advance registration, $15 at the door

Speaker Biographies

• Larry Chang: Retired Vice President of Finance and Administration, Hewlett-Packard Company

  After 32 years of service to HP, Larry took early retirement in June of 2007. He was responsible for financial leadership for Global Functions, which included Strategy and Technology, Global Operations and Supply Chain, Information Technology, Corporate Marketing, HP Labs, Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Real Estate, and Global Trade. Working with the Business Groups across HP, Larry and his team helped them achieve their revenue, cost, profit, and customer satisfaction goals.

  Larry was the executive sponsor for a number of Asia-American employee network organizations both inside HP and among California corporations. “We help young Asian-American professionals develop leadership skills by learning from mentors and networking with peers”, Larry points out. He recently joined the Board of Ascend, a national organization devoted to develop leaders and executives among Asian-American professionals in finance, accounting, consulting, technology, and related businesses.

  Larry joined HP in 1975. He had held a variety of challenging assignments that have included Information Technology Manager at Agilent, Field F&A Controller for the Intercontinental Region (Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada), VP of Supply Chain and Distribution for the Personal Systems Group, and VP and Group Controller for the Personal Computer Organization. Prior to the Compaq acquisition, Larry was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Computing Systems Group, with the mission of delivering hardware, software, and solutions for the always-on adaptive IT infrastructure.

  Prior to joining HP, Larry managed diagnostic equipment, medical operating chambers and statistical research at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

  Larry received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Michigan (go Blue!) and his masters of business administration from the University of California Berkeley (go Bears!).

  Larry and his wife have a son who is junior in college. He is an avid internet gamer and aspires to break the house at Las Vegas. Their daughter, a high school senior, is totally consumed with color guard, symphony band, and So You Think You Can Dance. Larry quips, "We enjoy the beaches of Santa Cruz and the waters of Monterey Bay … particularly riding a bike or paddling a kayak."

• Catharina Min: Partner, Reed Smith LLP

  Catharina Min is a partner at Reed Smith LLP, an international law firm with over 1,600 attorneys in 23 offices in the US, Asia and Europe. Catharina practices corporate and securities law with an emphasis in representing both US and international clients in mergers and acquisitions, private financings, joint ventures, strategic alliances, corporate partnering, securities offerings and other corporate transactions. She also represents emerging companies in general corporate matters and financings. Many of her clients are from Korea and Asia. She also practiced for 4 years in Seoul, Korea with one of the biggest law firms in Korea.

  In addition, Catharina is a frequent speaker at many organizations including the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs and the Korean IT Network Forum covering topics related to cross-border transactions and venture capital financings.

  She is the current Overseas President of International Association of Korean Lawyers, Director and past president of Korean-American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, and Director and past president of Korean-American Bar Association of Northern California.

  She has her J.D. and B.A. from University of Virginia.

• John Chiang: SVP & CFO, Pacific National Bank

  John Y. Chiang is a seasoned financial executive and CPA with over 25 years of financial and executive management experience. John joined Pacific National Bank as its Chief Financial Officer in January 2007 and also serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors. Pacific National Bank has 18 branches in the San Francisco Bay Area with over $1.9 billion in assets. As the CFO, John is responsible for the bank's finance, accounting, treasury and related control functions. John's career history includes accomplishments as a senior financial leader in top tier banking, insurance, and accounting firms.

  Prior to joining Pacific National Bank, John was the VP & CFO for MetLife Resources, a sales and marketing division of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company specializing in retirement planning and financial services. John was recruited to this newly created position in 1999 where his major responsibilities included management of the financial and several administrative functions for the division.

  Prior to MetLife, John was a SVP at Bank of America where he held a number of senior financial officer positions during his 12 year tenure at the bank, in the Residential Mortgage Lending, Credit Risk Management and Financial Controller's divisions. John gained expertise with the bank's mortgage related products and credit risk analysis, in addition to establishing a mortgage reinsurance captive subsidiary, generating significant revenues for the bank. While in the Financial Controller's Division, John played an active role as a member of the bank's due diligence and merger integration team that included the acquisition of 12 thrifts or banks, the largest being the Security Pacific Bank deal.

  John began his professional career at Arthur Andersen & Co. as a CPA where he worked for years in the firm's audit division specializing in the banking, financial services, and real estate industries, leaving as a Senior Audit Manager. Following Arthur Andersen, John was recruited to be the EVP & CFO of Bell Savings. John's career also includes a stint as Corporate Controller of one of the top 10 insurance brokerage companies in the U.S.

  John earned a B.S. degree from UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and he earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from UCLA.

  John has also been very active in his community, where he was elected to the Piedmont City Council in 2006, and has been on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations. John currently serves on the board and is the Treasurer for the Asian Business League of San Francisco and is on the board of the Accounting Career Awareness Program in the SF Bay Area, a high school youth program designed to encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue the fields of accounting.

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