New York, NY (March 21, 2024) – At Committee of 100’s forthcoming 2024 Conference & Gala, the organization will formally welcome 10 new members into Committee of 100.
Committee of 100 is a non-profit U.S. leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, healthcare, and the arts, focused on public policy, civic engagement, philanthropy, arts, and culture. For over 30 years, Committee of 100 has served as the preeminent organization committed to the dual missions of promoting the full participation of Chinese Americans in all aspects of American life and advancing constructive relations between the U.S. and Greater China.
“We are inspired by the unique perspectives and contributions that our 10 new members will bring to Committee of 100,” said Gary Locke, Committee of 100 Chair, Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Former Governor of the State of Washington. “Their collective wisdom and experience in their respective fields will undoubtedly enhance Committee of 100’s ongoing dual mission to advocate for the Chinese American community and facilitate constructive dialogue between the U.S. and Greater China.”
Committee of 100’s members are American citizens who are equally proud of their contributions to the U.S. and their Chinese heritage. Members of the organization are united by the belief in the fundamental American principles of equality and opportunity for all people, regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender, or creed. Committee of 100 and its members support the full inclusion and advancement of the more than five million Chinese Americans in the U.S. and believe that America is stronger because of its diverse citizenry.
“We are thrilled to welcome these 10 exceptional individuals to our membership, as they will bring a wealth of diverse expertise and insight to our dual missions,” stated Cindy Tsai, Interim President of Committee of 100. “We look forward to their valuable contributions to our future programming, events, and content.”
American citizens of Chinese heritage are invited to Committee of 100 membership based on their extraordinary achievements. Members include pioneers in their respective fields across the arts, science, technology, business, and finance. With this new class, Committee of 100 now has over 150 members.
Committee of 100 is honored to introduce the 10 new members for 2024:
Wendy Cai-Lee is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Piermont Bank, the first full-service FDIC-insured, tech-forward, digital commercial bank in the U.S. The bank is the engine behind many successful FinTech’s as well as entrepreneur-led businesses in many leading industry sectors. Wendy has more than 29 years of executive-level experience managing and advising Fortune 500 companies and startups and is a subject-matter expert in fintech, international finance, and banking. Prior to Piermont Bank, Wendy was an Executive Vice President at East West Bank, and managed multi-billion-dollar business units, including the bank’s Consumer and Commercial Banking Businesses. Before her commercial banking career, Wendy served as a Managing Director at Deloitte, focused on its U.S./China Cross-Border M&A business for a decade. Wendy has been an active supporter of Friends of UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) since 2007, an Emeritus member of its Board of Trustees and served as its Chairwoman of the Board for seven years. Wendy has also served as a member of Rutgers University’s Board of Overseers and the Dean’s Advisory Board at Douglass College. In 2022 and 2023, Wendy was named to the annual American Banker’s list of the “Most Powerful Women in Banking to Watch” and “Digital Banker of the Year.”
Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent with 20 years of journalism experience across Asia, the U.S. and now Europe and the Middle East. Currently based in London, he has been deployed several times to Ukraine to cover Russia’s invasion and to Israel to report on the war with Hamas. In 2019, he became CBS News’ first Asian American to serve as the network’s China correspondent based in Beijing while also covering the entire Asia-Pacific. Ramy and his team were the first international journalists to report from Wuhan as the COVID-19 global pandemic broke out in January 2020. He followed the virus’ earliest transmissions to Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan where he was stranded for half a year from international border closures. He also covered the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the suspension of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, North Korean missile launches, and volcanoes in the Philippines and New Zealand. Before CBS News, Ramy was a New York-based anchor and correspondent for Bloomberg Television appearing on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia.” He covered international market movements, in addition to then-President Trump’s visits to Asia and launched a technology innovation feature series. He also reported for Bloomberg Radio and launched two daily podcasts on U.S.-Asia Pacific economic and financial news. A champion of newsroom diversity, internationalism and volunteerism, Ramy was a U.S. Peace Corps China volunteer from 2000-2002 in Sichuan, served as national senior vice president for the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and as global co-lead of Bloomberg’s Pan-Asian Community (BPAC). A graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Ramy is the first-born American son of immigrant parents from the Philippines and Singapore. He is married to Taiwanese classical pianist Dr. Hsin-I Huang and they have two twin baby boys.
Ginger Lew is the CEO of Three Oaks Investments, a private investment firm based in Florida, with an extensive career as a public policy leader and successful business executive and entrepreneur. Under five different U.S. presidents, Ginger has served as Chief Counsel for the Department of Energy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, General Counsel for the Department of Commerce, Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer for the Small Business Administration and Senior Counselor to the White House National Economic Council. Ginger is currently the U.S. business delegate to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. Ginger has been the co-founder of three different start-ups. Most recently, Ginger was the co-founder and managing director of a renewable energy company, Cube Hydro Partners. She is a senior policy advisor to I Squared Capital, a global infrastructure fund based in Miami. She was chair and board member of a European-based investment fund. For ten years, Ginger was Co-Chair and member of the NASDAQ Listing and Hearing Review Council. Ginger has been on the boards of several private and publicly listed companies. She has also been active with numerous not for profit organizations such as the Meyer Foundation, the Yosemite National Institute, and the Smithsonian Institute, among others. She is co-founder of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers. Ginger is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in Naples, Florida.
Patrick Liang is the Executive Director for the Cyrus Tang Foundation, which supports passionate problems solvers to create a more caring society. The Foundation currently has programs in 25 Universities and over 400 Middle/High Schools throughout China and the United States. Since inception, CTF has awarded over 150,000 scholarships and supported over 100 major educational programs and research projects. Patrick is concurrently the Managing Director-China for Tang Industries Inc, a U.S. based private diversified conglomerate with activities in the metals, real estate, life sciences, investments, and other industries. In 1998, Patrick was the first employee Tang Industries sent to China and he has been with the firm for over 25 years – managing both the investment and operations for all of Tang Industries’ activities in China. In prior roles, Patrick has been General Manager, VP-Operations, VP-Finance and Director-Business Development at various portfolio companies within the Tang organization. Patrick is an Aspen Institute – First Movers Fellow in the class of 2020 and a board member of the 1990 Institute as well. Patrick has an MBA with honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University. He currently resides in Las Vegas with his wife and their two children.
Paula Williams Madison is Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC and 88 Madison Media Works Inc. In 2011, Paula retired from NBCUniversal, where she had been Executive Vice President for Diversity as well as a Vice President of the General Electric Company (GE), then the parent company of NBCU. During her 22 years with NBCU, Paula held a number of successful leadership roles, including President and General Manager of NBC4 Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional General Manager for NBCU’s Telemundo TV stations and Vice President and News Director of NBC4 New York. Named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005 and included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Power 100,” Paula has was also recognized in 2014 as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business, was honored by the East West Players and AARP with their Visionary Award and by the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles with the Historymaker Award. In 2013, Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Paula to the Los Angeles Police Commission where she served as vice president until 2015. A dual citizen of both the US and Jamaica, Madison serves on the boards of Sabio Mobile, Inc., the Black Filmmaker Foundation, the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, the Center for Asian American Media, and the Advisory Board of the Advanced Journalism Studies School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University.
Ai-jen Poo is a next-generation labor leader, award-winning organizer, author, and a leading voice in the women’s movement. She is the President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Executive Director of Caring Across Generations, Senior Advisor to Care in Action, Co-Founder of SuperMajority and Trustee of the Ford Foundation. Ai-jen is a nationally recognized expert on caregiving, and author of the book The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Ai-jen has been recognized among Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders and Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, and has been the recipient of countless awards, including a 2014 MacArthur “Genius” Award. Ai-jen has been a featured speaker at TEDWomen, Aspen Ideas Festival, Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Milken Institute Global Conference, and Skoll World Forum. In 16 short years, with the help of more than 70 local affiliate organizations and chapters and nearly 400,000 members, the National Domestic Workers Alliance has passed Domestic Worker Bills of Rights in 11 states, the cities of Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington DC, and brought over 2 million home care workers under minimum wage protections.
Katie Soo is the Chief Business Officer of DICE, the number one independent music ticketing platform in the world. An award-winning global media and technology marketer with an undeniable track record in building disruptive brands that transform traditional industries, Katie has helped build some of the most iconic and culturally significant entertainment companies such as HBO Max, Warner Bros Digital Networks, DC Universe, and Hulu. Katie’s gone from turning $5 campaigns into the unicorn story of Dollar Shave Club, to launching HBO Max, managing a $2 billion P&L to bring in globally beloved franchise empires like Wonder Woman and Game of Thrones. In addition to her DICE role, Katie holds multiple advisory and non-profit board positions. She was elected the first woman Chairman of Asia Society Southern California’s Board after serving as their Programming Committee Co-Chair, and Co-Founding AWE, Asian Women Empowered, an initiative focused on increasing AAPI women in boardrooms. Katie is also a member of Asia Society’s Global Board of Trustees, and serves on their Development Committee. She sits on the Advisory Board for California State University Entertainment Alliance and is a member of Vox Media’s Brand Council. She’s a founding member of Goldhouse’s Gold Women initiative and also serves as a Senior Advisor to Newbury Street. Katie’s work has garnered awards from AdAge, Adweek, Promax, Webbys, Clio, Digiday and the Shorty Awards in both creative storytelling and digital products. She was also named on Goldhouse’s A100 list honoring the most impactful Asians in culture. Katie is a West Coast native and resides in Los Angeles. When she isn’t working, Katie enjoys spending time with her family and supporting environmental causes.
Dr. Hansong Zhang is a scientist, entrepreneur, and investor based in Silicon Valley. He has helped build two prominent U.S. game companies. He was Chief Scientist at Niantic, maker of the blockbuster AR game Pokemon Go, where he led technology initiatives in Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was the founding Vice President of Technology at Roblox Corporation, which became the world’s largest platform for user-created games and went public on the NYSE in 2021. Hansong was a co-founder of Wearality Corp, an AR company spun off from Lockheed Martin to focus on the consumer space. His own consulting firm advised on emerging Visual Computing and AI technologies at some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft, Intel, and AMD. In his early years in the Valley, he served technical leadership roles at Silicon Graphics and nVidia. At his first startup, Hansong architected a graphics engine that, through acquisition, powered Google Earth. Beyond science and technology, Hansong is a Zen Buddhist and art collector with a strong interest in philosophy and history. He is the first Trustee, and Commissioner, from Mainland China at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. As a Guest Professor at China Academy of Art, he teaches Generative Digital Art at its International Graduate School. He is also a Ph.D. Advisor at Shanghai Academy of Fine Art. He has collaborated with artists and exhibited large scale, interactive art pieces at top venues in China (including Art Gallery of China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and Long Museum in Shanghai), Citi Field in NYC, and Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill. Dr. Hansong Zhang holds a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he researched in computer graphics, and a Master’s degree from the Institute of Computing Technology, China Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Jian Zhang has been the CEO of the Chinese Hospital System since 2017. She has previously served as the COO and Chief Outpatient & Innovation Officer before taking on the CEO role and has over 30 years of experience in business development, operation, innovation, marketing, growth, clinical practice, teaching, and research. Jian has been working tirelessly to advocate and promote health equity and access for the AAPI communities. She has been writing numerous grants to bring funding to implement innovative initiatives to improve quality of care and promote well-being of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Chinese community. To safeguard the Chinatown community, Jian planned and led the implementation of a comprehensive COVID-19 initiative consisting of bilingual community education and outreach, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, linkage of care and vaccination, in collaboration with SFDPH, elected officials, and community leaders. This successful community model was adopted by SFDPH and disseminated to other communities through grants, gaining local and national accolades from the NY Times, San Francisco Chronicle, PBS, KQED, CBS, and all Chinese media outlets. Jian was awarded the Distinguished Woman of The Year by California Legislature in 2021 and 2023, and by San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2022 for her outstanding leadership and contributions. Dr. Zhang was also selected to be on the 2023 Forbes Women 50 Over 50 Innovation List
Shau Zhang currently serves as the Partner and Leader of Americas China Overseas Investment (COIN) at Ernst & Young LLP (EY). Shau holds an impressive track record in facilitating and managing cross-border trade activities in the billions, including some of the most substantial inbound transactions in history. She is responsible for serving the dynamic needs of cross-border investors and businesses from China operating through EY’s Americas Region (North, Central, Latin, Israel). Shau has advised clients at the C-suite and Chairman level sharing her expertise across various sectors, including real estate, asset management, private equity, university endowment funds, timber funds, biotech, and manufacturing. She continues to break barriers as the only Chinese woman serving as a Global Client Service Partner on G360 accounts, ones of the top 100 largest accounts at EY US and EY global, inspiring and attracting top talents to the firm. Shau has an MS in Accountancy and an MS in Taxation from Bentley University, Massachusetts, and BS and MS degrees in Power Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts and a member of the MSCPA and AICPA. Shau currently resides in Boston with her husband and three children. Among her numerous accolades, Shau was ranking in the Top 50 Women Business Leaders of Massachusetts, Top 50 Asian American Business Leaders in the United States and the New York State Assembly designated her as an Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award Honoree.
About Committee of 100’s Conference & Gala
Committee of 100’s new members will be in attendance at Committee of 100’s Conference & Gala, which will take place April 19 in New York City, where their membership will officially commence at the annual members meeting. The Conference & Gala will convene distinguished academics, policymakers, businesses, and next-generation leaders from across the U.S. for a series of discussions, debates, keynotes, and networking sessions. Participants share a common goal of advocating for and promoting the full participation of all Chinese Americans in American society. Content will focus on diplomacy, economic interdependence, education, technology, anti-Asian hate, and more.
About Committee of 100
Committee of 100 is a non-profit U.S. leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, healthcare, and the arts focused on public policy engagement, civic engagement, and philanthropy. For more than 30 years, Committee of 100 has served as a preeminent organization committed to the dual missions of promoting the full participation of Chinese Americans in all aspects of American life and constructive relations between the United States and Greater China. Visit https://www.committee100.org/ or follow Committee of 100 on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for more information.
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