Inaugural Asia Game Changers West Symposium
Honoring Exceptional Leaders
On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Asia Society Northern California hosted its inaugural Asia Game Changers West Symposium. This program featured a unique opportunity for members of the public to hear Asia Game Changers West Honorees speak in a panel discussion format and ask them questions. Moderating the discussion was Tom Nagorski, Executive Vice President of Asia Society from the headquarters in New York. Three of the Honorees spoke at the Symposium: Dr. Samuel So, Director of Stanford's Asian Liver Center and a worldwide leader in combating Hepatitis B; Marita Cheng, founder of Robogals, a champion for women and girls in STEM, and CEO of Aubot; and Roya Mahboob, Afghanistan's first female tech CEO and founder of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team.
Executive Director Margaret Conley of Asia Society Northern California welcomed everyone to the program. The panelists discussed the challenges they had faced in starting their professional careers, and how they had come to realize their incredible accomplishments. Dr. So discussed transitioning from working on liver transplants in children to trying to eradicate Hepatitis B (one of the chief causes of liver cancer and subsequent transplants), while Ms. Cheng talked about increasing representation of women in STEM fields through nonprofits like Robogals. Finally Ms. Mahboob described the hurdles and eventual triumph of Afghanistan's first all-female robotics team, interspersing anecdotes about her own path to success as a tech CEO. The event ended with a lively audience Q&A.
Asia Society Northern California would like to thank all its speakers for the tremendous distances they traveled to join us, and the Asia Society as a whole for helping promote Asia Game Changers West.
Watch video of the complete discussion (1 hr., 4 mins.)