Bob is currently the CEO and co-founder of Teleport, one of the first companies built on Uber's API. He is also a Venture Partner with Social Starts, a venture capital fund that invests in early stage technology companies. He has written for Fortune Magazine and NextShark on entrepreneurship and leadership. Bob is the co-founder and former President of Taiwanese American Professionals - New York (TAP-NY) and also the former President of Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL). He is the founder of Asian American Tech Entrepreneurs (AATE), which brings together the top Asian American entrepreneurs and investors in NY. In his free time he teaches financial literacy to high school students through Junior Achievement (JA). He holds a BA in International Relations (Global Business) from the University of Southern California and is a 2nd degree black belt in kendo.
CALVIN D. SUN
FOUNDER & CEO @
MONSOON DIARIES
BOB WU
TAIWANESE AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS – NY
RUSSEL HSIAO
DIRECTOR @
GLOBAL TAIWAN INSTITUTE
Born and raised in NYC, Calvin received his B.A. from Columbia University in 2008 and his M.D. from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in 2014. Calvin also was the founder of the Columbia University National Undergraduate Film Festival (CUNUFF) and served as the President of the Columbia University Asian American Alliance (AAA). In 2010 Calvin founded The Monsoon Diaries, and international travel company and service that has taken hundreds of people who have little time or money to over 140 countries around the world including North Korea, Iran, Antarctica, Pakistan, Venezuela, and Cuba. Calvin served on the Board of Directors for nearly a decade on ECAASU (The East Coast Asian American Student Union). He now serves as the Director of Resident Wellness in his last year of residency as a full-time Emergency Medicine doctor in NYC, manages businesses in healthcare and real estate, and is the President Emeritus of the Columbia College Young Alumni (CCYA).
FELICIA LIN
WRITER
Samuel Wang is the founder of Akufuncture, clothing brand dedicated to fusing urban style together with Chinese culture and The Goods LA, a lifestyle brand that focuses on Made in USA leather goods and home goods. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Wang discovered a passion for fashion after graduating from UCSD with an engineering degree. As a Taiwanese living in the United States, he developed a
clothing line that speaks true to his lifestyle. Akufuncture is about finding a new way to embrace your Taiwanese-American culture and background.
With Akufuncture under his belt, Wang created The Goods LA brand in 2015 to focus on another side of his design passion – Product design and branding. With The Goods, he is able to use his engineering background to design products that are both functional and stylish. Wang currently lives in Los Angeles, and on his off days, he likes to play basketball, tennis, playvideo games, shop, eat, and travel.
Felicia Lin is a Taiwanese American writer. Her eclectic career has spanned the fields of finance and banking, human resources, education, and not-for-profit development. The diaspora of her parents’ generation and Taiwan’s international isolation, have fueled her interest in Taiwan. While she was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, she helped found ITASA. In 2001, she left New York to live in Taiwan, where she had a creative breakthrough that led her to pursue a career as a writer. Currently she is working on the memoir of Su Beng, a Taiwanese revolutionary, activist and historian. She is also the host of the Talking Taiwan podcast. To learn more about her visit: www.felicialin.com
SAMUEL WANG
FOUNDER @
AKUFUNCTURE
Russell Hsiao is the Executive Director of GTI. He previously served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Project 2049 Institute and National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Prior to those positions he was the Editor of China Brief at The Jamestown Foundation from October 2007 to July 2011 and a Special Associate in the International Cooperation Department at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. While in law school, he clerked within the Office of the Chairman at the Federal Communications Commission and the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Mr. Hsiao received his J.D. and certificate from the Law and Technology Institute at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology. He received a B.A. in International Studies from the American University’s School of International Service and the University Honors Program. Mr. Hsiao is also proficient in Mandarin Chinese.
ERIC TSAI
FOUNDER @
OUTREACH FOR TAIWAN
Eric is currently a product manager at Wayfair. Since graduating, he has been professionally bridging the gap between business and technology. Apart from work, he is the founder of Outreach for Taiwan, an initiative to help Taiwanese Americans learn more about Taiwan; Taiwan, after all, is more than just bubble tea and night-markets.
AT Outreach for Taiwan, I have given workshops at schools in collaboration with their TASAs. Such schools include Rutgers University, Columbia University, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania and many more.
Speakers
Introducing the inspiring speakers at this year's ITASA Conference