Asian American Talent Goes Untapped
The San Jose Mercury News published an op-ed on January 2 by Buck Gee and Vish Mishra on the thwarted ambitions of Asian American executives in Silicon Valley. Gee, a retired Cisco executive and ASNC board member, and Mishra, venture director of Clearstone Venture Partners and president of TiE Silicon Valley, point out that although Asian Americans make up 50 percent of Silicon Valley's high-tech workforce, only 12 percent of executives and 8 percent of board members of Silicon Valley's 25 largest companies are Asian American.
"It is not because Asian Americans do not aspire to executive roles," Gee and Mishra argue in the op-ed. "On the contrary, Asian Americans are more ambitious than their peers in seeking leadership roles." They warn that the obstacles for Asian Americans to leadership positions may drive the most skilled and talented workers away from America, undercutting its ability to innovate and grow.
Click here to read the op-ed and see what Gee and Mishra propose to address this issue.
Gee established the Advanced Leadership Program for Emerging Asian American Executives at Stanford University, which provides global business leadership development for Asian Americans with executive-level ambitions at U.S. companies. The program is the result of a partnership between Asia Society, ASCEND, and Stanford's Graduate School of Business.