New York City (June 10, 2010) – At its annual award dinner last month, the Asian American Business Development Center, Inc. named its 2010 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business award and the Pinnacle Award for accomplishments and contributions to help power the engine of the economy.
“Since the inception of this awards dinner in 2001, AABDC has dedicated its efforts to promote and strengthen the voice and role of Asian Americans in the mainstream marketplace, and to highlight their achievements and contributions to the general economy,” stated John Wang President, AABDC.
Wang said the honorees represent a microcosm of the best of Asian American entrepreneurship and professionalism, with a pool of diverse and multi- talented individuals engaged in a wide range of business interests.
“The depth and breadth of their business undertakings clearly demonstrate that Asian Americans are an integral part of the larger economy,” he added. “Asian Americans entrepreneurs have multilingual and multicultural backgrounds that make them ideally suited to helping the U.S. stay competitive in the global economy.
The 2010 Pinnacle Award was presented to Tony Hsieh, author of “Delivering Happiness” and CEO of Zappos.com.
After earning a BA in computer science from Harvard University and working as a software engineer at Oracle, Hsieh became a successful business innovator in 1999 at age 24 when he sold LinkExchange, a company he co-founded to Microsoft for $265 million. He joined Zappos.com as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, helping boost sales from near zero to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually – landing a spot on Fortune’s annual list of Best Companies to Work For.
In 2009, Zappos was acquired in Amazon.com for $1.2 billion.
Hsieh joined Zappos because he said it was among the most exciting and promising investments of his venture capital firm Venture Frogs. Other investments include Ask Jeeves, MongoMusic, MyAble, and Tellme Networks.
Zappos was recognized for its unique strategy of relying on return business and word of mouth, placing a would-be marketing and advertising budget into a customer service program of free, unlimited returns, surprise shipping upgrades, unlimited phone time and more. It places a priority with getting the company culture right and that success will follow on its own.
Rounding out the top 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business:
• Iftikhar Ahmad, a biometrics and face recognition systems developer who started ConvergeOne-ID, LLC in 2009 to provide consulting in ID, biometrics and security. He currently is working with the Pakistani government and law enforcement agencies in using advanced technologies in face recognition and forensics capabilities for its security and to fight and prevent terrorism.
• Divya Gugnani, founder and CEO of the culinary media brand Behind the Burner.
• Daniel Kim, founder, president and CEO of Red Mango restaurant system.
• William E. Min, Senior Vice President – Global Assurance and Chief Privacy Officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
• Thao Quan, Vice President and Senior Marketing Manager for HSBC Bank, responsible for developing market entry strategies for a domestic branch expansion initiative, covering more than 100 branches across 5 geographies.
• Mahmood Alam, owner of three pharmacies in New York State and has diversified into real estate and electronics.
• Nishi Gupta, Vice President for Deliver Services Processes at IBM.
• Imran Nasrullah Imran Nasrullah, CBO for Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and in this role created MassBio Innovation Services.
• Sunil Robert, head of Analyst Relations and Public Relations program for TCS Financial Solutions in the U.S., a member of the Tata Group.
• Nitin Bhargava, Senior Vice President of Aetna Medicare for Mid-America region is responsible for Aetna’s senior market business in 17 southwestern and midwestern states.
• Walter Huang, Senior Vice President for China Wind Power International Corp (TSX-V: CNW) publicly traded in Canada.
• Jay “Joo Han” Kim, founder and President of General Construction of the Buildmore II Corporation.
• Annapoorni Sankaran, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig LLP, and the first South Asian woman to be made partner of a major Boston law firm.
• Timothy Chanis, Senior Vice President and Manager of the New York Branch of Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd.
• Chinhua Huang, co-founder of PLAN, a privately owned architectural design firm which focuses of business and entrepreneurial ventures.
• Kelly M. King, Senior Vice President for National Retail.
• Stephen Oh, Vice President and Branch Manager of Chubb Cleveland office.
• Jong Shin, Director of Product Management at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.
• Joyce Chang, Managing Director and Global Head of Emerging Markets Strategy and Credit Research at JPMorgan.
• Peter Woong-Seong Hwang, Senior Vice President-Investments, and managing advisor for the Peter Hwang Group at Merrill Lynch-Bank of America Global Wealth Management and serves as the Group’s chief investment strategist.
• John Paul Lee, CEO of Tavalon Tea.
• Kevan Parekh, Vice President of Finance for Thompson Reuters.
• Ravi Singh, CEO and founder of ElectionMall Technologies, Inc., a non-partisan technology solutions firm providing citizens, candidates, and political parties with the necessary online tools, services, and products to help them win elections via the Internet.
• Kris Ishibashi, Director of Purchasing at ConEdison.
• Isabella Leung, Manager of Human Resources for Crystal Window & Door Systems.
• Hiten Patel, Founder and Chairman of Collabera, Inc.
• Shaokao Cheng, owner of BoConcept New York, a purveyor of affordable, modern Danish designed furniture.
• Raj Vaidyamath, Vice-President of INSZoom.
• Jalak Jobanputra, Senior Vice President at the New York City Investment Fund where she oversees technology and digital media venture investments.
• Catherine Li, Vice President, Technology Manager at Wells Fargo & Co.
• Lily Li, Chairwoman and CEO of Dragon Treasure Antique Ltd.
• Dennis Poon, Managing Principal at Thornton Tomasetti, Inc.
• Dr. Charlotte Yeh, Chief Medical Officer for AARP Services, Inc.
• Sang Cho, President and CEO, Prestige Hospitality Services and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
• Shallin Joshi, General Manager, Global Business Services, supporting one of IBM’s largest IT clients.
• Jimmy Lieu, owner of Forest Kitchen and Bath.
• Imran Qidwai, technology specialist and entrepreneur in clean tech, mobile entertainment and data services, and ICT in emerging economies.
• Dr. Yun Po Zhang, Director, Clinical Dental Research Department at Colgate-Palmolive Company.
• Shang Dai, founder of Dai & Associates, P.C.
• Dr. Mansoor Khan, CEO, DiagnosisONE.
• Munir Mashooqullah, founder and president, Synergies Worldwide a global supply chain management company operating in over 15 countries.
• Shang Dai, founder of Dai & Associates, P.C., representing and counseling Chinese companies in China-U.S. transactions and assisting them in business establishment and development.
• Karen Gao, founder and Vice President of Administration at OnGuard Fence System responsible for customer service, human resources, finance and accounting operations, shipping and logistics, purchasing and technology functions.
• Johnson Chen, CEO of Kang Long Group Corporation.
• John Hyon Kim, Chairman and CEO of Nicka K. Cosmetics.
• Lily Li, Chairwoman and CEO of Dragon Treasure Antique Ltd.
• Steve Tri Nguyen, founder, President & CEO, of several Vietnamese software development and IT products, including Viet Tech, Virtualosity Solutions, LLC, and Viet Power Corporation.
• Chaudhary Ramzan, President and Founder, Chad Labs Corporation.
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