About (NEW)

Dave Lu is a veteran in the technology industry, having worked for over two decades at big tech companies including Yahoo!, Apple, Cisco and eBay and founding two startups. In 2011, Dave created a community called Asian American Founders Circle which has grown to over 400 founders including Tony Xu (DoorDash), Steve Chen (YouTube), Kevin Lin (Twitch) and many others. AAFC inspired the launch of Hyphen Capital, a syndicate focused on investing in Asian American founders that has invested over $25 million in over 80 startups. Dave along with SwAA co-founders most recently started a movement by writing a letter condemning hate crimes against Asians which was signed by over 8,000 prominent business leaders and influencers including the CEOs of Google, LinkedIn, DoorDash, President George W. Bush and Andre Iguodala & J.J. Abrams. The letter was published as a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal and has led to the launch of Stand with Asian Americans, a non-profit organization committed to fighting discrimination against Asian Americans. He recently produced a documentary short called “38 at the Garden” on Jeremy Lin that was acquired by HBO. Dave sits on the board of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center with a mission to build an APA museum on the National Mall. Dave received his bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Wendy is a marketing executive with decades of experience working in mission-driven growth stage startups (Counsyl, Clover, Propeller). She joined SwAA’s founding team days after the shootings in Atlanta to develop the campaign behind the Enough Open Letter, line editing each sentence, designing the creative and publishing the letter to give voice to a generation of Asian Americans who can no longer remain silent as anti-Asian violence and discrimination continues to rise unabated.

She’s a passionate believer in civic engagement and in 2020 founded a nonprofit focused on voting access in important election states. At SwAA, she works closely with SwAA’s grantees to increase voter participation among the AAPI community.

Wendy currently lives in San Francisco but grew up in the large Vietnamese American community of San Jose. The experience taught her the power and generosity of community. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley.

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 College Track and the St. Thomas More Chapel at Yale University.

Joon is an accomplished marketing executive with a wealth of experience in the dynamic world of technology and consumer brands. Joon most recently worked at Pinterest, where he played a key role in the launch of the company’s B2B campaigns. Also at Pinterest, he served as a lead the Company’s ERG for staff of Asian heritage. Prior to his time at Pinterest, Joon worked on projects for a number of high-caliber companies such as Meta, Google, Tumi, L’Oréal and Nike. Joon earned his bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the London School of Economics, and his master’s at the Annenberg School at USC. Joon currently resides in New York City, which has been his home since 2014.

Diana is an award-winning Executive Producer and Visuals Director at Bloomberg Businessweek. She currently works on tv & film development and special projects and produces Hello World, an Emmy-nominated tech travel show. Since the pandemic, Diana has also become passionate about writing and championing AAPI issues for the magazine.

Diana began her career in media at TIME where she worked on photography features including Person of the Year, the TIME 100 and the coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. At Businessweek, she has been a part of the creative team that developed the relaunched publication’s distinctive visual style. Her work has received distinctions from The News and Documentary Emmy Awards, the Webby Awards, World Press Photo, American Photography, Creative Review and Pictures of the Year International, among others.

Diana graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Specialist grant. In addition to working with SwAA, she currently serves on the board of KEEN New York.

Don Vu is a technology expert, change agent and high EQ executive leader with 20+ years driving transformation and innovation across multiple trillion dollar industries and highly complex situations (Media & Entertainment at Major League Baseball Advanced Media/ BAMTech/Disney Streaming Services, Real Estate at WeWork, Insurance & Wealth Management at Northwestern Mutual).

Don is currently the Chief Data Officer at Northwestern Mutual, the #1 life insurance carrier in the U.S., a top 5 independent broker/dealer and a Fortune 100 company. Through a central data team of 400+ and partnerships throughout the enterprise, Don drives organizational transformation and enterprise data strategy across the company’s $34B revenue and $500B+ Total AUM business (Insurance, Wealth Management, Field Distribution, Managed Investments, etc). As a transformation catalyst he has helped lead the digital transformation of NM’s underwriting business ($1.5B+ new business in 2021) using AI and automation.

Don has a unique perspective on industry transformation having worked at both incumbents disrupting an industry from within as well as high growth, digital native challengers. As the top data leader at MLB, WeWork, and Northwestern Mutual, Don has led data-driven business strategies that have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenue. He has driven corporate innovation through both venture efforts and academic partnerships throughout his career.

Don is a D&I champion who has helped guide enterprise resource groups at both MLB and Northwestern Mutual. He is also a founding member of Stand with Asian Americans, a national organization of business leaders that was formed in 2021 and raised over $1.7M in 7 months for non-profits.

Joy Fan is a 2x founder, operator, and urbanist — democratizing access to affordable real estate through her company http://retell.co — building the future of neighborhood retail. She is known for popularizing “popups” globally as the founding member of Storefront (the largest marketplace of short-term retail), is an active committee advisor for Women in Proptech and a part of Mayor Eric Adam’s NYC Small Business Advisory Commission.

Eugena Oh serves as the Regional Director, Greater NYC Area, at The Asian American Foundation, the national organization fundamentally transforming the future for AAPIs across all sectors. TAAF is dedicated to building a safer, more inclusive future for AAPIs. Through TAAF’s core pillars of anti-hate, education, narrative change and unlocking resources, we are mobilizing against hate, cultivating empathy, and reclaiming our narratives.

Eugena comes to TAAF after serving as President & CEO of the “I Have A Dream” Foundation, a national nonprofit empowering youth to achieve their dreams through education and mentorship. She believes deeply in racial justice and equity and has devoted her career to extending opportunity to historically marginalized communities, by building coalitions to build power. Over eleven years at “I Have A Dream,” Eugena focused on unifying its federated affiliates around a shared vision and goal for “multiple pathways to success” for its youth (‘Dreamers’). Prior to “I Have A Dream”, Eugena practiced law, and served in fundraising and program roles within several non-profit organizations, including Teach For America.

Eugena’s honors include receiving the Trailblazer award from both the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (2019) and the IvyG Conference (2018), being named to New York Non-Profit Media’s inaugural class of 40 Under 40 Rising Stars (2015) and receiving the University of Pennsylvania’s Asian Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alumna Award (2008). She serves as a volunteer leader with Stand with Asian American (NYC Chapter), on the University of Pennsylvania’s Alumni Board of Directors, Penn’s Pan-Asian American Community House Board of Advisors, Rise First’s Board of Advisors, as well as the “I Have A Dream” Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Eugena is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, and Columbia Business School’s Senior Leaders in Nonprofit Executive program. She is a proud New Yorker and second generation Korean American currently raising two children with her partner on Long Island. Eugena loves to dance to 90s hip-hop, sing power ballads during karaoke, and read just about anything.

Jack S. Song has been a brand and communications executive for over two decades. He has designed and executed integrated marketing campaigns for over 150 commercial and independent feature films.

He specializes in startup business operations and brand strategy– scaling companies and go-to-market campaigns. For the past decade, he has designed and built a global brand and communications function for several VC-backed international startups, taking Lime, Grabango, Visby Medical, and Hashdex to market.

Jack was previously the deputy political director for the California Democratic Party and was later appointed as press secretary for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, where he led the public relations strategy for several high-profile legal cases, including the fight for marriage equality.

Jack holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, with an emphasis in brand management. He currently resides in District 5 with his husband, Gregory Flores, longtime assistant district attorney for the City & County of San Francisco.

Kimberly Xie is the Manager of Map Operations at Woven by Toyota, she leads a dedicated team in planning and creating maps for self-driving cars, contributing to the advancement of the autonomous vehicle industry. With over a decade of experience in the tech industry, Kimberly led teams at both startups and Google alike.

Born and raised in Rosemead, California, Kimberly embraces her cultural heritage as a first-generation Chinese American. Her multicultural upbringing has shaped her global mindset and fostered her ability to collaborate effectively with diverse teams. Currently residing in San Francisco, Kimberly is an active participant in the Asian American community.

Delbert Tran is a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, where he serves in the California Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Enforcement Section. He is one of the lead attorneys defending against legal challenges to SB 826 and AB 979—California’s laws requiring its publicly held corporations to include underrepresented minorities on their boards of directors, including Asian Americans. He is also a co-author of California’s report on reparations, a first-in-the-nation statewide effort to study and propose reparations for slavery.

Delbert graduated from Yale Law School, where he served as a student co-director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic and on the Yale chapter board of the International Refugee Assistance Project. He received his bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Government from Georgetown University, where he wrote his undergraduate thesis about Asian American time travel narratives. Delbert is the son of Vietnamese refugees and was born and raised in San Jose, California. He currently lives in San Francisco.