2018 Leaders Forum in Washington DC – Oct 1st

Dear Leaders Forum Consortium,

With this briefing note, I would like to thank all the Board members and our “Solutions for America” team who traveled to DC to represent LF this week. Special Thanks to Sabrina Moyle, Allison Chan and Linda Phan for their work pulling the deck over the finish line! All attendees who gave their public service of time, dedication and commitment to our mission of more AAPI faces & voices at the tables of power are outstanding!

Day One – we strategized in advance of our senate meeting and broke into two dinner groups. We presented to Senators Mazie Hirono & Catherine Cortez Masto & staff of Senator Cantwellour “Investing in American Families” deck which focuses on the intersection between Paid Family Leave and the Gig economy. As a guest of our friends at the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) with our dual member Zheng “Z” Huang – we were also privileged to hear from 5 Supreme Court Justices (Chief Justice Roberts, Ginsberg, Breyer, Kagan & Gorsuch). This, on the very week the nation grapples with the outcome of the next SC nominee amidst a firestorm of controversy. The timing could not have been more important or relevant for these discussions.

We also arranged for Senator Ron Wyden to speak at the YPO event & heard from Senator Ed Markey, General John Allen (President of the Brookings Institute & retired four star General) Jane Harman,(CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center and former head of the House Intelligence Committee) Mike Leiter (Head of Counterterrorism under Presidents Bush & Obama) Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell, NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent /Commentator and Kate Adams, General Counsel at Apple.

Evening one, we had an intimate salon conversation about public service with a talented dedicated & accomplished AAPI, Thiru Vignarajah, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Breyer. We were also joined by YPO members investment executive Ben Hom from Los Angeles & Kim Polese from Silicon Valley who serves as Chairwoman of CrowdSmart Inc., a technology-based seed stage investment company. Polese is also Chairwoman of ClearStreet Inc. An advocate of public policy to increase America’s innovation capacity, Polese was named to President Obama’s Innovation Advisory Board in 2011. (The Board guided the Commerce Department’s study of US economic competitiveness, delivering a report with recommendations to Congress in January 2012.)

SF LF member Tejal Shah and I ended the trip by representing LF at the YPO dinner at the British Embassy with current ambassador to the US, His Excellency Sir Kim Darroch & former Ambassador to Great Britain, Philip Lader.

Finally, I would like to give a special thanks to Joe Zhu (pictured below with Congressman Brian Mast & Speaker of the House Paul Ryan) for establishing high – level relationships on the R- side. He was invited to attend the WH Economic briefing last week and saw other leaders in his own private capacity this week. We appreciate his furthering these relationships as we need to have channels open on both sides of the aisle to be truly effective for our community no matter which party is in the WH in the future.

Each time we return to Washington D.C. to talk with leaders and other executive like those in YPO, I am glad to report they continue to re-affirm both the quality of our mission to make America stronger for all Americans through our unique & diverse perspectives and skills.

Perhaps more important are the relationships we continued to build with one another. (As you can see below, board member Joe Zhu continues to up the anti on our morning work-outs!) As one LF member said on the trip, “The thing about this organization is the people are ALL just so awesome in their accomplishments and as people.” It is my hope we will be long time supporters and public service colleagues of one another in the years to come.

Please contact me ([email protected]) or Michelle Graves ([email protected]) if you have any questions or comments.

The time to Lead is now!

Best Regards,

Lorna Randlett
Founder & CEO, Leaders Forum