Nonprofit Leadership
As the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, I led the largest international business organization in Taiwan, with 1,000 members from more than 500 companies. The three main activities were sharing information, creating networking opportunities and helping multinationals resolve their regulatory challenges.
Career Transition
AmCham reached out to me in 2017 and asked me to return to Taiwan to fill the role of President. I was a member when I worked in Taiwan in the early 2000s and had a deep affinity for the organization and its community – one of the best in Asia. I was recruited by a visionary, big-thinking Board that was serious about taking the organization to the next level. My family also enjoyed living in Taiwan and had always hoped to return one day.
Challenge
Taiwan is a mature market with few multinationals entering and many scaling back as they shift to China and localize their C-suite leadership. Several leading tech companies were not AmCham members, and few young professionals were engaged with the group. The organization was the only major AmCham in Asia that did not use the name of its host country in its brand. This diminished the organization and didn’t accurately reflect its mission or membership composition.
I served as one of the main spokespersons for AmCham.
Achievements
New Buzz
Created a new buzz around AmCham with a social media campaign, robust events program and strategic outreach to the media.
Updated Mission
Led a sweeping brand review that updated the mission statement and crafted new messaging. AmCham recast its relationship with the government as a partner working to create a more open, innovative and prosperous business environment in Taiwan.
Growing Membership
Repositioned the organization as a driver of innovation and recruited many leading American tech companies, including Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Salesforce, Intel and Netflix.
Strategic Comms Plan
Developed and executed the organization’s first comprehensive strategic communications plan. Protected the brand and reputation from various crisis situations.
Strong Balance Sheet
Created new revenue sources and improved business efficiency, strengthening the balance sheet and enabling the organization to end 2018 , 2019 and 2020 firmly in the black.
Covid-19
Drastically minimized the impact of the virus on AmCham by anticipating the pandemic and moving the IT operations to the cloud, enabling the team to work remotely without disruption.
Rebrand: AmCham Taiwan
I developed and launched an initiative to rebrand and upgrade the organization to AmCham Taiwan, effective in 2021.
The name more accurately reflects the group’s advocacy mission, focused on the central government. It also better represents the composition of members, who come from across the nation.
The former name, AmCham Taipei, diminished Taiwan’s status and caused confusion in Washington, where many thought we only represented a municipality.
The rebranding process was arduous, with much red tape, legal work and getting buy-in from the Board and membership. But I pushed hard for it because it was vital to my strategic objective of elevating the organization.
Record-setting White Paper
Perhaps the most important part of AmCham’s mission is solving regulatory issues for member companies. The organization tracks these issues in its annual White Paper.
During two of the three years I led AmCham, we solved a record number of White Paper issues.
The success was largely due to two things:
Repositioning the organization with new messaging that framed AmCham as a partner with the government with member companies that are deeply invested in the country’s success.
Revitalizing the 25 industry committees that write the White Paper. I recruited more than 20 co-chairs who brought new energy, fresh thinking and strong leadership to the process. Two new committees were created: Digital Economy and Defense.
Rebranding the Washington Trip
Every summer, AmCham leads a group of members to Washington for a weeklong advocacy trip to discuss our regulatory issues with Congress members, the Executive branch and think tanks.
The visit was called the “Washington Doorknock.” I rebranded it as the “CEO Mission to Washington” and made a special effort to recruit senior corporate leaders to join the delegation.
The new name emphasized that it was a high-level visit with strategic objectives.
Creating a Program for Young Professionals
Challenge: Young professionals were not active in AmCham, and the organization’s survival depended on cultivating the next generation of leaders.
Solution: I developed and executed a yearlong program for high-potential young professionals. It involved monthly events for a cohort of 30+ individuals recruited from member companies.
The events included “Meet the CEO” talks, workshops and field trips. The first year was oversubscribed and the second year attracted an even bigger group.
The program built a new community, centered on AmCham, for the young professionals. It also became a major new source of revenue that helped AmCham earn a surplus during the COVID-19 crisis year.
AmCham Taipei - Media Campaign
AmCham had a reputation for being inaccessible to media. Journalists complained that it took too long for the organization to respond to queries. I addressed the issue by becoming accessible and actively cultivating relations with reporters using Twitter and LinkedIn. I also began doing live interviews with the leading financial TV news networks in Asia – part of an initiative to raise AmCham’s visibility and boost its reputation in the region.
