2022 AAPI Leadership Summit
September 29, 2022

Fatima Angeles is the executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation, which advances pioneering social change in the areas of HIV/AIDS, worker rights and well-being, and social justice in communities touched by Levi Strauss & Co.’s business. Before joining LSF, Fatima was vice president of programs at The California Wellness Foundation where she provided executive leadership and strategic vision for the foundation’s programs in grantmaking and program-related investments. Fatima held other positions at Cal Wellness including director of evaluation and learning, program director and program officer. Before joining Cal Wellness, she was a program associate at the Hasbro Children’s Foundation in New York City. Fatima’s other philanthropic experience includes work with The Commonwealth Fund and the corporate philanthropy program of Pfizer Inc. Fatima has experience working with youth in San Francisco, where she served as director of the South of Market Teen Center and project coordinator for Asian American Communities Against AIDS. 

Fatima currently serves on the boards of directors for John Muir Health, CARESTAR Foundation, Confluence Philanthropy and the Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation. Previously, Fatima served on the boards of Grantmakers In Health and Northern California Grantmakers. Fatima served as chair of the board of the Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum and as a board member of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and of Funders Concerned About AIDS. Fatima earned her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree in integrative biology, with a minor in Asian American Studies, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Norman Chen is the Chief Executive Officer of TAAF. Norman brings a thirty-year career in entrepreneurship, healthcare, community leadership, and philanthropy spanning the United States and Asia. Norman is passionate about building organizations in both the nonprofit and private sectors that positively impact society.

Prior to his appointment at TAAF, Norman co-founded and led the nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH) and created a landmark study of American attitudes towards Asian Americans in the Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S. (STAATUS) Index.  

As a healthcare entrepreneur and investor, Norman was the founder and CEO of Asia Renal Care and built a leading network of specialty medical centers. He is also the co-founder of DeltaHealth Hospital, a world-class cardiovascular hospital in partnership with Columbia Heartsource and physician leaders from Columbia University. Norman has led successful life sciences investments at Fidelity Asia Ventures (now Eight Roads) and 6 Dimensions Capital.

Born in Minnesota, Norman grew up on the East Coast and now lives with his family in California. He is a board or advisory council member at The Nature Conservancy (CA), Children’s Medical Foundation, Marine Science Institute, and Positive Coaching Alliance. He holds a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

‍

Frank Chi is a filmmaker, artist and storyteller at the intersection of culture and politics.
His work helps lead narratives around justice and inclusion in American life. Frank’s most recent project - “38 at the Garden” - about Jeremy Lin’s 2012 “Linsanity” run, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and will air this October on HBO.
Frank’s other short films designed for social platforms have gained over 50 million views online. His shorts for the Smithsonian celebrating America’s immigrants remain the institution’s most popular videos on social media and were called “a heartbreaking resonance of past and present” by ABC News. Frank was also a member of the team that created the popular “Notorious RBG” campaign honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and was featured in The New York Times best-selling book “Notorious RBG” and the Oscar-nominated film “RBG.”
For over a decade, Frank worked in political communications and collaborated with partners like Senator Elizabeth Warren and MoveOn to create some of the most impactful political content on social media. He began his career working on the Obama Media Team in 2008. Frank has been profiled in Communication Arts and NBC News, and has written for the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.

‍

David L. Eng is Richard L. Fisher Professor of English and Faculty Director of the Program in Asian American Studies. He is also Professor in the Program in Comparative Literature & Literary Theory and the Program in Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies. After receiving his B.A. in English from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley, he taught at Columbia and Rutgers before joining Penn in 2007. Eng has held visiting professorships at the University of Bergen (Norway), King's College London, Harvard University, and the University of Hong Kong. He is the recipient of research fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, and the Mellon Foundation, among others. In 2016, Eng was elected an honorary member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York City. In 2021, he was awarded the Kessler Prize from the Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS), which is given to a scholar and/or activist who has produced a body of work that has had a significant influence on the field of LGBTQ Studies. His areas of specialization include American studies, Asian American studies, Asian diaspora, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, queer studies, gender studies, and visual culture.

Eng is author of Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans (co-authored with Shinhee Han, Duke, 2019, winner of the Boyer Book Prize and Association for Asian American Studies Book Award Honorable Mention), The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy (Duke, 2010), and Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America (Duke, 2001). He is co-editor with David Kazanjian of Loss: The Politics of Mourning (California, 2003) and with Alice Y. Hom of Q & A: Queer in Asian America (Temple, 1998, winner of a Lambda Literary Award and Association of Asian American Studies Book Award). In addition, he is co-editor of three special issues of the journal Social Text: with Jasbir Puar, "Left of Queer" (2020), with Teemu Ruskola and Shuang Shen, "China and the Human" (2011/2012), and with Jack Halberstam and José Esteban Muñoz, "What's Queer about Queer Studies Now?" (2005). His current book project, "Reparations and the Human," investigates the relationship between political and psychic genealogies of reparation in Cold War Asia. 

At Penn, Eng is a founding convenor of the Faculty Working Group on Race and Empire Studies as well as a member of the Executive Board of Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies and the Alice Paul Center. In 2013-14, he helped to organize a Mellon Sawyer Seminar on "Race, Across Time and Space" sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. Eng is on the Board of Trustees of the Development Fund for the American Studies Association as well as a member of the editorial boards of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Queeries: A Journal of Queer Studies, Social Text, and Studies in Gender and Sexuality: Psychoanalysis, Cultural Studies, Treatment, Research. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and a former Chair of the Board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in New York City.

‍

Brandon Gagante is a Filipino American poet born and raised in San Jose, who uses he/him pronouns. At the University of San Francisco (USF) he is the host of Lyricist Lounge, the monthly open-mic, and is the co-founder of Spaces In Between, an official poetry student organization on campus. Brandon is a Street Teams member with Youth Speaks.

Arun Ganti is a partner in our Agile, Consumer Products and Digital practices, based in Atlanta.

Arun specializes in digital strategy, particularly for customer experience, marketing and enterprise solutions. He is also an expert on Agile Enterprise, operating model and business process re-engineering within supply chain, innovation, R&D and core business functions (finance, procurement, HR, etc). His recent work has spanned the general merchandise, mass retail, food and beverage, and computers and peripherals sectors.

Before joining our firm, Arun co-founded Tumor Troopers, a nonprofit designed to assist the families of children with brain and spinal cord tumors. He also worked as a consultant for another top firm and as an engineer for Honeywell.

He holds an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

‍

Jenkins spent four years serving as President Obama’s Associate Director in The White House Office of Public Engagement. From The White House, Jenkins brought together creative executives, thought leaders, and some of the world’s biggest stars to advance the President’s agenda—culminating in the Emmy-award winning “Between Two Ferns” interview on the Affordable Care Act. Jenkins then joined Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die as Managing Director and Executive Producer running their branded social impact content business known as Funny Or Die D.C.

‍
Since then, Jenkins has produced over 70 social impact campaigns, documentaries, specials, and events with organizations, companies, and foundations with a particular focus on the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Jenkins’s company, Enfranchisement has helped lead campaigns for AAPI organizations such as The Asian American Foundation, AAPI Victory Fund, RUN AAPI, Indian American IMPACT Fund, We Are Sikhs, Rise, Period, Phenomenal, the 2021 AAPI Inaugural Ball, New American Leaders, Asian American Advocacy Fund, and more.

‍
Jenkins served as Executive Producer of Hulu’s AAPI Heritage Heroes special by TAAF and upcoming film, “Four Letters” directed by Bao Nguyen and Executive Produced by Common. Other campaigns have included Common’s Imagine Justice, Barack Obama and Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Family Equality Council, Born Perfect, and more. For his production work, Brad was featured on CNN’s “History of Comedy,” MSNBC’s “Story Of Cool” and he has won numerous awards including a Grand Clio, Anthem Award, Shorty Award For Diversity, Streamy Award for Social Impact, Webby Award for Diversity/Inclusion, Halo Award for CSR, the Humanitarian of The Year from the Venice Family Clinic, and the Spirit of Innovation Award from the Asian American Victory Fund.

‍
Jenkins is Co-Founder and Board Member of RUN AAPI, Board Member of The Second City with Stephen Colbert, Business Forward, and Voters Of Tomorrow.

‍

Manjusha P. Kulkarni (Manju) is Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity), which serves and represents the 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County. In March 2020, Manju co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, the nation’s leading aggregator of COVID-19-related hate incidents against AAPIs. In 2021, Manju was recognized by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential individuals and by Bloomberg/Business Week as one of the 50 individuals “with the ability to move markets or shape ideas and policies” with the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, Cynthia Choi and Russell Jeung. Cynthia, Russell and Manju also were awarded the 2021 Webby Social Movement of the Year.
‍
Manju’s work has been featured in the New York Times, and on CBS News and CNN, as well as in numerous ethnic media outlets. Manju is a member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and was recently appointed to the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board by CA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.

In 2014, she received the White House Champions of Change award from President Barack Obama for her dedication to improving health care access for Asians American communities. In March 2021, she testified before Congress at the House Judiciary Committee on the issue of anti-Asian hate.

Manju holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law. Manju lives in Los Angeles with her daughters Vaishali and Meghana and her husband Shai Halbe.

‍

Daniel Dae Kim has captivated global audiences with compelling performances across film, television and theater, as an actor, director and producer.

Kim can currently be seen in Stowaway on Netflix and in Raya and The Last Dragon on Disney +.

Upcoming projects for Kim include AMC’s Pantheon, an animated drama inspired by Ken Liu’s short stories, and Nat Geo’s The Hot Zone: Anthrax, based on the domestic terror attacks
following 9/11.

Kim is a longtime champion of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood and is an important voice during the horrific surge of violence against the AAPI community.

In 2015, Kim launched his production company 3AD with the goal of featuring those traditionally underrepresented in front of and behind the camera. 3AD, which has a deal with Amazon,
produces the ABC hit The Good Doctor and has several projects in development, including the recently announced Shoot the Moon, with Ken Jeong.

Kim starred on the hit series Hawaii Five-0 and Lost, as well as on stage in Lincoln Center's Tony Award-winning production of The King and I. Born in South Korea, raised in Pennsylvania, Kim began his career on stage after graduating from Haverford College and earning an MFA from NYU.

‍

Eric J. Kim is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital, a multi-billion dollar venture firm and the world’s largest consumer tech-focused investing platform. Eric has led investments into leading consumer internet companies such as Kakao (IPO – KOSDAQ:035720), Musical.ly (acquired by Bytedance / Tik Tok), Coupang (CPNG), Xendit, Viva Republica (Toss), Danggeun Market (Karrot), MoMo, and EverlyWell.

Prior to co-founding Goodwater, Eric was a Managing Director at Maverick Capital where he helped to build Maverick’s private investments and venture capital business. Eric was also a startup member of two technology companies spun out of Stanford University. Eric began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Eric first learned to code as an undergrad at Yale University where he majored in Cognitive Science (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude) and was a member of the Grammy-nominated Yale Cellos. Eric also received an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Eric serves on the advisory board of the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology and on the boards of the Asian Pacific Fund, College Track, and the St. Thomas More Chapel at Yale University.

‍

Dan Lin is the founder and CEO of Rideback, the entertainment company known for producing tentpole live-action and animated content for global audiences. Since forming his company in 2008, Lin has produced films that have grossed over $5 billion in worldwide box office. 

‍
Lin’s expertise is in creating cultural events such as the “LEGO Movie” franchise, Stephen King’s “It” horror films and the mystery thriller “Sherlock Holmes” film franchise. Lin most recently produced “Easter Sunday” for Amblin Partners, starring comedy star Jo Koy, and the upcoming “Haunted Mansion” for Disney. Lin also produced the live-action remake “Aladdin” for Disney, which earned more than $1 billion in worldwide box office, and the awards contender “The Two Popes” for Netflix, which earned three Oscar and four Golden Globe nominations.

‍
In television, Lin is currently in production on season three of the CW’s #1 series “Walker,” starring Jared Padalecki, for CBS Studios, and its prequel “Walker: Independence,” set to debut Fall 2022. Lin is also in production on the live-action remake of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” for Netflix, and in pre-production on “Interior Chinatown” for Hulu, based on the acclaimed Charles Yu novel of the same name. Lin also produced the acclaimed NatGeo documentary “Lost and Found” for the Nobel Institute.

‍
As part of a new generation of producers seeking more inclusion in the entertainment industry, Lin launched Rideback Rise, a new 501c3 non-profit content accelerator to support BIPOC writers, filmmakers and creative entrepreneurs in creating mainstream entertainment to foster greater racial equity. Rise is supported by leading philanthropic organizations, including the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation For Islamic Art, the Zelnick Belzberg Charitable Trust and the UTA Foundation. Lin also launched Rideback TV Incubator, in partnership with MRC, which financially and creatively supports TV writers from diverse backgrounds who seek to create their own series for cable or streaming, the Rideback/Thinking Hat Campfire, a writer program in partnership with CBS Studios that introduces experienced creative voices to broadcast television.
‍

Lin additionally founded Rideback Ranch, a creative campus located in LA’s Historic Filipinotown district. The Ranch serves as a community in service of creativity, connecting world-class writers and creators and providing space, networking, programming and other forms of support. In addition to housing Rideback, the Ranch is home to industry leading companies such as David Ayer’s Cedar Park Entertainment, Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment, Janelle Monae’s Wondaland, Korean production company Bound, Warner Animation Group and animation studio Animal Logic.
 
Prior to founding Rideback, Lin served as Senior Vice President of Production for Warner Bros. Pictures. During his eight-year tenure at the studio from 1999 to 2007, he oversaw the development and production of major motion pictures such as Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning drama “The Departed.”

Lin serves on the Board of Directors for several non-profit organizations, including the Evolve Entertainment Fund, the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children, and the I Dream of Fish Foundation. He also serves on the (PGA) Producers Guild of America’s National Board of Directors. In 2022, Lin received the inaugural Vance Van Petten Entrepreneurial Spirit Award from the PGA.

‍

Manny Maceda is the worldwide managing partner of Bain & Company. He is responsible for all aspects of the firm's strategy, team and operations across Bain's global network of 60+ offices. Manny leads the firm in its mission to deliver the best client results in the management consulting industry.

Additionally, Manny is a member of the Board of Directors of Bain & Company and formally led Bain's Global Full Potential Transformation Group. He originally joined Bain in 1988.

Manny's past roles include Chairman of the Asia-Pacific region and Global leader of Bain's Performance Improvement practice, Reengineering practice and global recruiting team. He has served on the firm's Management Committee, Nominating Committee and Global Operating Committee.

Manny specializes in working with large corporate transformations involving strategy, growth, cost reduction, performance improvement and organizational effectiveness. He has worked with clients in financial services, industrial products, consumer products, retail, telecommunications, energy, technology and transportation. He has most recently been the lead Bain partner in support of transformation client relationships at a global computing company, a global e-commerce player, an Asia-Pacific communications company, a global hotel chain and a global sports apparel company.

Manny holds an MS in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BS in Chemical Engineering (magna cum laude) from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Bain, he worked with E.I. Du Pont de Nemours in the Engineering Plastics Group and with Unocal Corporation in Refinery Process Engineering.

Manny is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Bridgespan Group and a member of the Advisory Board of the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Tavae Samuelu is the daughter of a pastor from Leulumoega and a nurse from Saleimoa in Sāmoa. As the former Executive Director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), she advocated passionately for Pacific Islanders and continues to be committed to liberation for all. Tavae was born and raised on Tongva Territory, and credits her time on unceded Ohlone land for her political consciousness. She recently joined the CA 100 as a commissioner focused on health and wellness. Tavae is currently working with the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund to establish a Pacific Islander fund. During the pandemic she has learned that her most important title is Aunty Vae.

‍

Pam Yee is a partner based in Bain & Company's Washington, D.C. office. She is a leader in the firm's Performance Improvement practice and the Head of the Higher Education practice in the Americas. While she works across industries, she is a core member of the firm’s Financial Services, Retail and Education practices.

Pam has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience. She has also worked in the firm's San Francisco, Hong Kong and Atlanta offices.

Pam works with clients leading major cost and strategic transformations, not only developing strategy, but also aligning and optimizing organizations and back-office operations to the strategic vision and driving change management. Her specific areas of expertise include corporate support function optimization and automation, rapid cost reduction, organization and operating model transformation and Results Delivery®.

In North America, Pam is the leader of Womxn at Bain. She is also active in the firm’s Social Impact practice, with a focus on education and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Outside of Bain, Pam sits on the Board of KIPP DC, the largest charter management organization in DC. She also previously worked in corporate strategy at Capital One and as the head of marketing and business development for an early-stage entrepreneurial venture.

Pam earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Betty Yu is a reporter for KPIX 5 CBS San Francisco. She has also extensively covered San Francisco crime and violence against Asian Americans in the Bay Area. She reports on a variety of pressing Bay Area issues, trends in tech and real estate, and pandemic-related developments. 

She spent two years at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami, as a reporter before moving to San Francisco.

Prior to that, she was an anchor and reporter for News 12 The Bronx and Brooklyn, a 24-hour cable news station, for four years. 

A Bay Area native, Betty graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with degrees in political science and rhetoric. She also has a Master of Science degree in journalism from Columbia University.

‍

Phil Yu is a Peabody Award-winning writer, speaker and host best known as the creator of Angry Asian Man, one of the most widely read and longest-running independent websites covering news, culture and perspectives from the Asian American community. He is co-author of the New York Times Best Seller book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now (with Jeff Yang and Philip Wang).

The Washington Post calls Angry Asian Man "a daily must-read for the media-savvy, socially conscious, pop-cultured Asian American." Mixing humor with criticism, Phil's commentary has been featured and quoted in the New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly and more.

Phil is co-host of the podcast They Call Us Bruce, "an unfilitered conversation on what's happening in Asian America"; host/producer of All The Asians On Star Trek, the podcast in which he interviews all the Asians on Star Trek; and founding host/executive producer of the Korean Drama Podcast, "the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas."

Phil was honored with the Peabody Trailblazer Award in Digital and Interactive Storytelling. He was previously named to the A100, an annual list honoring the most influential AAPIs in culture, and The FD200, a list of 200 people who best embody the spirit and work of Frederick Douglass. He was also a recipient of the 2017 Digital Pioneer Award from the San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2017 "Rock the Boat" Award from the Korean American Coalition, 2016 Voice Award from the V3 Digital Media Conference, 2016 Justice in Action Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2012 Salute to Champions Award from the Japanese American Citizens League, 2011 Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Award for Excellence in New Media from the California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, 2011 Public Image Award from Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and 2011 Excellence in Media Award from OCA-Greater Los Angeles.

Phil appears in the documentaries White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, The Claudia Kishi Club and Linsanity, and is executive producer of the action-comedy feature Awesome Asian Bad Guys. He worked previously at the Center for Asian American Media in San Francisco, as a Content Producer for Yahoo! Movies, and currently serves on the board of Visual Communications, which presents the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Phil graduated with a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University, and earned his M.A. in Critical Studies as a Provost Fellow from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is based in Los Angeles.

‍

Helen Zia is an activist, author, and former journalist.

After twelve years in the making, Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution is out! Helen’s latest book traces the lives of migrants and refugees from another cataclysmic time in history that has striking parallels to the difficulties facing migrants today. She interviewed more than 100 survivors of that exodus and countless others. Helen’s essay in the New York Times reveals her mother’s secret that inspired her to write this book.

In 2000, her first book was published: Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a finalist for the prestigious Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. She also authored the story of Wen Ho Lee in My Country Versus Me, about the Los Alamos scientist who was falsely accused of being a spy for China in the “worst case since the Rosenbergs.” She was Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine and a founding board co-chair of the Women’s Media Center. She has been active in many non-profit organizations, including Equality Now, AAJA, and KQED. Her ground-breaking articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in many publications, books, and anthologies, receiving numerous awards.

The daughter of immigrants from China, Helen has been outspoken on issues ranging from human rights and peace to women’s rights and countering hate violence and homophobia. She is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin? and was profiled in Bill Moyers’ PBS series, Becoming American: The Chinese Experience. In 2008 Helen was a Torchbearer in San Francisco for the Beijing Olympics amid great controversy; in 2010, she was a witness in the federal marriage equality case decided by the US Supreme Court.

Helen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of San Francisco and an honorary Doctor of Laws from the City University of New York Law School for bringing important matters of law and civil rights into public view. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Princeton University’s first coeducational class. She attended medical school but quit after completing two years, then went to work as a construction laborer, an autoworker, and a community organizer, after which she discovered her life’s work as a writer.