Hillary Fetes Top 50 Business People


By Heather Harlan, Jun 30, 2006

More than 600 people gathered at the New York Hilton to celebrate the achievements of the Asian American Business Development Center’s "Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business," and hear a keynote speech delivered by U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton.

The annual dinner recognizes entrepreneurship and encourages major corporations to nominate outstanding APAs within their companies.

“There is an increasing recognition of Asian Americans in the business community as entrepreneurs and corporate professionals,” says the group’s president, John Wang. “One of the objectives of the “Outstanding 50” award is to change the corporate community’s view of Asian Americans. … Asian Americans are [still] viewed more for their technical competence than managerial know how.”

This year’s honorees hailed from throughout the United States and represented a variety of APA ethnic backgrounds. And there weren’t really 50 — there were actually 53.

“There were so many good candidates, we didn’t want to box ourselves in by having to adhere to that number,” said Wang.

They included some familiar faces in the APA business community such as June Jee, director of Community Relations for Verizon.

Jee has long been involved with local Asian American organizations and manages several Verizon community philanthropic programs.

Others were up-and-coming entrepreneurs such as Patrick Wong, president of One2Fit.com, the N.Y. Chinatown-based company specializing in marketing, advertising and local magazine publishing for Chinese American communities. Wong also has a website selling health, beauty and fitness products.

The Pinnacle Award, given to people who has reached the top of their field, was awarded to John Y. Kim, president of Prudential Retirement. Kim oversees a full-service retirement plan provider serving 3 million customers and manages $130 billion in retirement assets. Kim frequently appears on radio and TV as an investment analyst, and is also involved in several philanthropic organizations in Hartford, Conn.

“Mr. Kim and our awardees are not only ideal representatives of our Asian American community, but they are great Americans who happen to be Asian,” said James Wohn, chairman of the Dinner Committee.

Clinton praised the awardees.

“I am impressed by your individual accomplishments and achievements and by the overall contributions of Asian Americans to NewYork and to America,” Clinton said. “Each and everyone of you exemplifies the American dream.”

The New York senator and former First Lady pledged to work on behalf of small businesses and added she is a strong believer in immigration.

“We are stronger because of our diversity and pluralism,” she told the pan-Asian audience.

The nonprofit group was founded in 1994 to help APA businesses better compete in the mainstream marketplace and increase recognition of the contributions they make to the overall U.S. economy.

Recently, the organization has also focused on forging links between the U.S. and Asia through activities such as hosting business delegations from China and organizing trips for U.S. businesspeople to China.

Wang’s speech pointed to media reports on the success of APA entrepreneurs and a new U.S. Department of Commerce report from the Minority Business Development Agency that said the number of Asian American-owned firms grew 24 percent between 1997 and 2002 to over 1 million.

But Wang also noted less successful statistics.

“Minorities represent 32 percent of the U.S. population but only 18 percent of all U.S. firms, generating merely 3 percent of gross receipts and employing 4 percent of all paid employees,” said Wang. “The average gross receipt for Asian firms was $311,000 compared to $985,103 for all U.S. firms.”

“Tonight we celebrate the success of Asian American entrepreneurship by honoring them with this award and tomorrow we will work together to get a fair share of business opportunities for Asian Americans,” said Wang.

 

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