The Asian community in America has long been the unfortunate victim of its own segregation and lack of cohesion. The cliquishness, the near void of social and political activism, the aversion to be categorized and associated along monolithic racial lines, along with the individual’s respective notions of where exactly the bounds of their community lie have arguably hurt us more than anything as a group. It could be stated that unlike Hispanic and black Americans who have benefited greatly and in many respects lapped us Asian Americans in terms of political representation and social justice, we Asians have suffered greatly from our lack of organization, our apathy, and a collective disagreement on a clear and centralized body of leaders.

In this new year--and as part of our first issue of 2008--we here at ADI thought it might be the right time and befitting the spirit of our magazine and the occasion to try to facilitate greater connectedness between all Asian Americans by trying something fun and unprecedented. In other words, we want to know what you, the reader, thinks! Yes! Who do you think is the most powerful Asian man* in America at the moment?

We are hoping to receive your nominations and take a vote in a following issue to try to get to the bottom of this question that must have (in varying degrees) crossed your mind at some point in your Asian American life.

We would like this survey to become a perennial fixture in our magazine, however, the viability and the prospect of a Second Annual Most Powerful Asian Man in America depends on none other than our readers—that means you! Since this project is somewhat in its infancy, we are hoping to one day create sub-categories according to industry (i.e. media, IT, financial, healthcare, etc.), but, for now, we want to know who you think is in general the most powerful Asian man in America.

To get you started, our ADI staff amassed a brief, preliminary listing of names; it is not meant, by any means, to be a complete list, as it is meant to simply get the ball rolling. Please, bear in mind, once more, the sustainability of this venture will hinge, if not largely, then completely upon the participation of our 50,000 plus readership. So, please, submit anyone in the public eye whom you feel is deserving of this honor.


Ban Ki-Moon: Mr. Ban is the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. Born June 13, 1944, he is of South Korean origin. He was a career diplomat in South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also the UN. His most notable post was that of the Foreign Minster of South Korea before being elected Secretary-General to the UN on October 13, 2006, succeeding Kofi Annan. Since taking office, Mr. Ban has passed several major reforms in the area of peacekeeping and UN employment practices.

Mr. Ban holds many strong views as it relates to global warming and Darfur, in which he was able to secure the authorization of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to allow peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan.

On a sidenote, we realize that Mr. Ban is neither American nor does he work in America (the UN is technically not on American soil), but the title reads: the most powerful Asian man in America, hence his inclusion. Furthermore, though Mr. Ban’s place of business in not in the U.S., we can say with reasonable certainty that he does not reside at the UN...at least we hope not.


Steve Chen: It has been argued by one of our staffers that in this digital age of Internet, TV, and gaming, the one who commands the most power is the one who commands the most of our time (including those hours you spend at work), therefore Steve Chen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of the popular video sharing website, YouTube, is another candidate.

Chen grew up in Taipei until his family immigrated to the US when he was eight. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was an early employee of PayPal, which he left to create YouTube in 2005 with his two fellow co-founders, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. In June 2006, Chen was given the honor by Business 2.0 as being one of “The 50 People Who Matter Now” in business.

On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion.


Mike Honda: Mr. Honda is a Japanese American Democratic congressman from California’s 15th congressional district (which includes the Silicon Valley region).

Congressman Honda was born in 1941 in Walnut Grove, California and spent the early part of his childhood at the Granada War Relocation Center, an internment camp in Colorado for Japanese Americans during WWII.

After graduating from San Jose State University in 1968 with a degree in biological sciences and Spanish and later a master’s in 1974, his career path has taken him from such positions as the Peace Corps to school principal to local-level government positions.

Honda eventually was elected to the U.S. House in December 2000. In such a role, he has served in many capacities as a member of the Science Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and was later appointed to the influential Appropriations Committee by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Some of Mr. Honda’s most notable contributions as a congressman have been the introduction of US House of Representatives Resolution 121 to call upon Japan to formally acknowledge and apologize for its practice of institutionalized sex slavery during WWII. Furthermore, Honda has also been a champion of the civil rights of Muslim Americans, which he undertook soon after the September 11th attacks.


Jerry Yang: Is the Co-Founder and CEO of Yahoo! Inc. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan on November 6, 1968 and immigrated to San Jose, California at the age of ten, with his mother and brother (Yang’s father passed away when he was two). Yang went on to receive his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Alibaba, the Asian Pacific Fund, Cisco, and Yahoo! Japan, and also the Stanford University Board of Trustees, to which he and his wife pledged $75 million in February 2007.

As of 2007 his net worth is estimated to be $2.2 billion.


Vikram Pandit: The newly appointed CEO of Citigroup, the 50 year-old Pandit was born in India and immigrated to the US at the age of 16. He attended Columbia University, from where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and later a Ph.D in Finance.

Before moving to Citigroup, Pandit worked at Morgan Stanley for two decades in various roles, ranging from managing director to president and chief operating officer.

Pandit sits on the boards of Columbia University, Columbia Business School, the Indian School of Business, and The Trinity School. He is also a former board member of NASDAQ.

On Decemer 11, 2007, Pandit was named the new CEO of Citigroup, replacing Chuck Prince, who resigned in November 2007, due to an unexpectedly poorly performing 3rd quarter.


Please, send all your nominations to editor@aDiversity.com. Thank you, in advance, for your feedback!

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* For all the Asian women wondering if we just intentionally left you hanging, your turn will come in our next issue’s feature story, Who Will Be the Most Powerful Asian Woman in America?. You didn’t actually think the notable contributions of both Asian men and women in America could be contained in just a single issue, did you?