On April 11, 2025, Asia Society Northern California hosted the 2025 Asia Game Changer West Awards Gala honoring individuals, organizations, and movements that have demonstrated true leadership and made a significant impact in the fields of policy and business, technology and innovation, arts and culture, and education.

This year, we honored the following 2025 ASIA GAME CHANGER WEST AWARDEES for their outstanding contributions to their fields!

• Phyllis Kao, Vice President & Auctioneer, Sotheby's New York
• Daniel Dae Kim, Actor, Director, Producer, and Social Advocate widely known for his work in ABC’s “Lost,” CBS’s “Hawaii Five-O,” Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, and Disney’s “Raya And The Last Dragon”  
• Andrew Ng, Founder, DeepLearning. AI; Managing General Partner, AI Fund; Executive Chairman, LandingAI; Chairman and Co-Founder, Coursera; Adjunct Professor, Stanford University

We were also joined by extraordinary speakers David Henry Hwang, Tony Award-winning Playwright; Librettist; Screenwriter; Theater Professor; Erica Yew, Judge, Santa Clara County Superior Court; Robert Handa, Reporter, NBC Bay Area News; and more.

View additional photos from the evening here. 

Video Recap

In inspiring opening remarks, Judge Erica Yew shared about her family background and role as the first Asian woman to serve on the Santa Clara County court. She spoke about initiatives to create a pipeline for training and hiring more diverse judges, to serve an increasingly diverse state population. Some wins for California, which Judge Yew shared, include a 15% increase in woman-identifying judges, the doubling of numbers of Black and Asian judges, the hiring of the first Asian woman Chief Justice, and increases in numbers of AAPI bench officers from 4% to 21% in Santa Clara County. She clarifies that diversity is important because the court “belongs to the people” and needs to reflect the people that they serve with public trust and confidence. Judge Yew’s final message is that we’re stronger when we’re together.

Tom Robertson, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Microsoft Corporation, presented the 2025 Asia Game Changer West Award to Andrew Ng. Andrew Ng is the Founder of DeepLearning.AI; Managing General Partner of AI Fund; Executive Chairman of LandingAI; Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera; and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. Ng was awarded for his outstanding contributions to the fields of technology and education. In his acceptance speech, inspired by the community in the room, Ng reminded us that community matters. In the face of adversity, he says, it’s important to come together and support one another. Ng also shared positivity about the potential for artificial intelligence to help us create new things that weren’t possible before. Lastly, Ng acknowledged Carmen Chang, General Partner & Head of Asia at NEA, whom he says embodies the idea of community and Asians helping other Asians. We’re better together, Ng reflected.

Stay tuned for more video and recap of our honorees' acceptance speeches. 

THANK YOU TO OUR GALA SUPPORTERS 

SIGNATURE SPONSORS 

Chong-Moon Lee

Gary & Yucca Rieschel 

Jack & Susy Wadsworth 

Ruth & Kenneth P. Wilcox 

PATRON SPONSORS 

Simon Ma 

Scott Sandell

SUPPORTING SPONSORS 

Pang and Yum 2002 Trust 

Covington & Burling LLP

Tencent

The Naren & Vinita Gupta Foundation 

The Wang Family Foundation  

SPONSORS 

Carmen Chang

Buck Gee & Mary Hackenbracht 

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 

Jean & Hing Wong

SUPPORTERS 

Danny Yu & Chun Mei Zhao