Asian American Career Ceilings: What Can We Do Better?

On July 17, 2021, Committee of 100 presented the fifteenth Asian American Career Ceilings Initiative event that featured a unique combination of a panel followed by discussion tables on the topic of “Asian American Career Ceilings: What Can We Do Better?”

Panel
In the first hour, we had a fireside chat formatted panel made up of Gary Locke (Chairman of Committee of 100 and former Secretary of Commerce, Governor of Washington State, and Ambassador to China), Jennifer Lee (Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University and author of “The Asian American Achievement Paradox”), Anna Mok (Deloitte Partner and President of Ascend), Michael Morrison (Columbia Business School Professor and Asian American Career Ceilings researcher), and Maeley Tom (Former Chief Administrative Office of the California State Assembly). The panelists covered different avenues that can advance constructive change – government, political action, business leadership, academia, and individual and societal behaviors and practices. Peter Young moderated the panel

Dialogue Discussion Tables
The second part of the event was patterned after the Committee of 100 CEO and Leaders Forum that was held in 2019 where attendees are divided into tables of 8, with a Discussion Leader guiding each table. Each table brainstormed and shared ideas about how we can do a better job of overcoming the Career Ceiling Challenges facing Asian Americans.

At the end, the Discussion Leaders gathered on the stage and summarized the two or three best ideas that his or her table produced. These ideas were written up and distributed to all the attendees after the event. Our hope is that this will create new ideas and initiatives, facilitate the formation of new relationships among the attendees, and galvanize action focused on the new ideas.

Discussion Leaders:

• Jeff Chen, healthcare private equity professional and board member of Apex for Youth
• Kevin Feng, investor at Southpoint Capital, a long-short equities hedge fund
• Buck Gee, retired Cisco Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Business Unit; expert in tech industry and corporate executive leadership; Committee of 100 member
• Jennifer Lee, Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University
• Anthony Liu, Managing Director with Hines, global real estate developer investor
• Gary Locke, Chairman of Committee of 100; Interim President of Bellevue College; former Commerce Secretary, Ambassador, Governor
• Anna Mok, President, Ascend, Committee of 100 member
• Harrison Lung, Partner, Portfolio Value Creation, Siris Capital; former Partner of McKinsey in technology and digital
• Michael Morrison, Professor, Columbia Business School; Asian American Career Ceiling researcher
• Henry S. Tang, Managing Partner, Carnegie Towers Strategic Investment Advisory, Co-Founder and Governor of Committee of 100
• Maeley Tom, Former Chief Administrative Officer (CAO, California State Assembly); Committee of 100 member
• Tony Wu, CEO/Founder of Nomz Foods Co. and former private equity professional and management consultant
• Alice Young, Founder of Alice Young Advisory LLC, retired Partner and Chair of the Asia Pacific Practice of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, Committee of 100 member
• Peter Young, CEO of Young & Partners, Life Sciences and Chemicals investment banking firm; President of Societe de Chimie Industrielle, Committee of 100 member

The event was held via Zoom webinar on Saturday, July 17, 2021 from 1:00 pm to 3:15 pm ET/ 12:00 pm to 2:15 pm CT/ 10am to 1:15 pm PT.

Check out our other Asian American Career Ceiling events here.