Network, network, network. That was the key message from the keynote speaker and guest panelist at the most recent Asian Pacific Islander American Corporate Leadership Network, Inc. (ACLN) Business Speaker Series. Hosted by JPMorganChase at their 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza location, over 70 people were in attendance on October 27, 2005. The Asian Pacific Islander American Corporate Leadership Network, Inc. (ACLN) Business Speaker Series is an event sponsored by the Career Advancement subcommittee of ACLN. These events typically feature a guest speaker followed by a panel of speakers who share the exciting changes that are being implemented to improve the experience of Asian Pacific Islander American working professionals.

The evening began with opening remarks from Pramod Chivate, a representative of the Career Advancement sub-committee of ACLN. He spoke about the unique aspect of ACLN's mentoring program and how they connect mentees with mentors from across different companies and industries. Chivate then introduced the keynote speaker, Christine Chen, former national director of Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA).

Christine Chen, who had been the national director of OCA since 2001, set the stage for the evening by discussing her observations on the emergence of Asian Pacific Islander American affinity groups in corporate America. She relayed how the recent OCA national convention was attended by representatives of a surprisingly large number of corporate APIA affinity groups from Northern California, Chicago, and the East Coast region. Chen also highlighted the wide range of groups across the organizational maturity spectrum and encouraged the audience members to reach out and leverage the experience of the more mature groups.

Chen's address was followed by a panel discussion consisting of leaders of their respective corporate APIA affinity groups, moderated by ACLN's vice-president, Natalie Chin. Panelists included Sunita Chaudhuri from JPMorganChase, Shirley Dong from Avon, Hans Hwang from Accenture, June Jee from Verizon, and Edwin Wong from Citigroup. Each panelist provided a brief background of their groups and their main challenges and successes. Some of the advice that emerged included: the need for a "Bob" (Bob Conti, Avon's CFO who sponsored Avon's group), being patient in implementing your plans and not getting discouraged by setbacks, working within the "system" (particularly as they relate to labor or regulated activities), and encouraging a sense of ownership among members.

One of the key challenges echoed by most of the panelists was the difficulty in soliciting greater participation of the members. Everyone acknowledged the impact of the increase in "job hopping and mergers and acquisitions" as a challenge in fostering ongoing commitment. An interesting approach explained by June Jee was how the Verizon APIA affinity group started to collect a nominal membership fee to better instill a sense of ownership and commitment amongst the members.

There was time for a brief Q&A where one of the audience member's questions asked about tying the APIA affinity groups to actual business results. The responses from the panelist varied widely - from certain APIA affinity groups explicitly targeting the APIA community as potential new clients, to corporate sponsors who do not want their community service to be used as a marketing platform. But the group consensus was to find ways to remain visible and relevant to the members and the corporation.

After some closing remarks by Christine Chen, the attendees had a chance to put some of those networking skills to use.

The Asian Pacific Islander American Corporate Leadership Network, Inc. (ACLN) is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization for the purpose of building an action-oriented network among Asian Pacific Islander American Corporate employee organizations to increase awareness of and to influence change towards diversity in corporate America. As an organization formed by member companies and other non-profit organizations, ACLN seeks to harness the power of the corporation to advance the interests of its constituent Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) employees as well as APIA employees of corporations in general. Please refer to our website at www.acln.org for more information on membership and future events.