A new president, at a Lunar New Year party
At its board election in late 2018 the US China Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley chose Diana Ding (丁维平), founder and president of the Silicon Valley innovation channel DingDingTV, to succeed Yang Jianzheng (杨建政) as president. She took office at the start of 2019, at a Lunar New Year celebration the chamber held jointly with the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce in DingDingTV's studio.
Founded in 2016
The chamber was founded in 2016 by Huang Yizhuang (黄仪庄), a community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area and a granddaughter of the Xinhai Revolution figure Huang Xing. It brought together Chinese American, Israeli and European technology and business leaders around a single purpose: to stand in Silicon Valley, support US-China commerce, and build a working bridge for Chinese American entrepreneurs here.
In its first two years the chamber co-hosted the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Festival, business exhibitions, US-China technology exchanges and project roadshows at venues including the 太库 (TechCode) incubator, DingDingTV, the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and the international convention center.
The incoming president
Diana Ding is the first Chinese American director in the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce's sixty-year history and chairs its Economic Development Committee. She is the founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Festival and a recipient of the Asian American Hero Award. DingDingTV, which she built over ten years in Silicon Valley, gave the chamber a studio, an audience and a network to work with.
Her stated priorities for the year were narrow on purpose: focus on arrangements that pay both sides, grow the membership and actually deliver the member benefits, and form a small number of practical business partnerships rather than many loose ones — sorting what matters from what does not, and working carefully toward something that lasts instead of spending time and resources on activity for its own sake.
"Three nots and three priorities"
The chamber is not a social club. Its members are operators — people with practical experience who are currently active on the front line of Silicon Valley business, drawn from high technology, finance and tax, media and consulting, real estate and law, education and training, investment and incubation, and healthcare.
They work to the principle set by founding president Huang Yizhuang: no grandstanding, no pointless networking, no unlicensed brokering; reputation first, results first, both sides winning.
Who runs it
The chamber's advisors include IDG Capital partner Hugo Shong (熊晓鸽), former Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Yuan Nansheng (袁南生), and Dr. Li Lingyao (李玲瑶), a chair professor at Tsinghua and Peking universities. Alongside the president sit four vice presidents and more than twenty directors and a secretary-general.
Huang Yizhuang (黄仪庄) — founding president; community leader and founding president of the American Hunan Association
Diana Ding (丁维平) — president; founder and president of DingDingTV, CEO of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Festival, Cupertino Rotarian, chair of the Santa Clara Chamber's Economic Development Committee
Tang Liang (唐亮) — vice president; PhD in optoelectronics, Stanford; general manager of 太库 (TechCode) US
Lily Li (李丽) — vice president; vice president of Creative Design Engineering; vice chair of the 树华 Education Foundation
Dr. Wei Zhao (赵威) — vice president; partner at EDG Consulting
Gong Guduan (龚谷端) — vice president; chairman of Jinwan Technology
Yang Jianzheng (杨建政) — director and immediate past president; director of public infrastructure project investment, development and management for Santa Clara County; registered civil and structural engineer
Marian Chaney — secretary-general; Silicon Valley commercial and residential real estate advisor and broker; master's degrees in psychology and human resources
George Tong — director; senior director, Beyondsoft Consulting (US)
The board also includes Du Yaoqiong (杜垚琼), a UC Berkeley PhD in intelligent transportation and a Tesla autonomous-driving engineer; Ma Yudong (马宇栋), a UC Berkeley PhD in control engineering and founder of UStar Technology; Joan Bei, a senior R&D manager at Abbott; Jiang Shan (蒋珊), founder of a US-China intellectual property agency; Nancy Liu, marketing director at a family rehabilitation center; Meime Fu, financial advisor; Flora Lo, membership director; Frank Chen, an independent Bay Area investor; Xing Yue (邢悦), Beijing general manager of Beyondsoft Zhiji; and Gideon Marks, a Google Launchpad mentor with seven startups and three Nasdaq listings behind him.
Two agreements signed on the day
The chamber signed a partnership with the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and DingDingTV to co-host the Silicon Valley Business Forum — a platform the Santa Clara Chamber's Economic Development Committee and DingDingTV created in 2018 to pool the contacts, resources and market information needed to start a business here. The chamber's role is to bring in what Chinese entrepreneurs need and connect it to American resources.
It also authorized Dr. Chen Baijia (陈百加), chair of an entrepreneur-training group with more than twenty years in the field, to establish a Guangdong branch in Guangzhou for an initial two years — extending the chamber's reach in China, connecting American members traveling there, and admitting reputable Chinese companies with at least three years of operation as new members.
Who came
Three past presidents of the Cupertino Rotary Club attended. Its then-president Helene Davis said: "I have worked with Diana at Rotary for nine years. She is a genuine contributor to the community, and she affects everyone around her with her enthusiasm and energy. We will fully support her as president of the US China Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley."
Jan Nordmo, chairman of the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce, said: "Diana has served on the Santa Clara Chamber board for years and has shown outstanding leadership. We hope that through her and the US China Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley we can connect Chinese entrepreneurs and together grow Silicon Valley's economy."
Guests also included Nick Kaspar, president and CEO of the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce; Ravi Lal, chair of its Economic Development Committee and president of UPS Santa Clara; Padma Chari, the Cupertino Rotary Club's incoming president; Hung Wei (魏虹), president of the Cupertino Union School District board; ArLyne Diamond, chair of the Santa Clara Chamber's service committee; Hyoung Chon, senior vice president at CBRE; Sashi Nand of the Santa Clara Chamber board; George Koo, founder of International Strategic Alliances; and Vandana and Vijay, founders of Indian Currents.
What membership is for
The chamber offers members four things: access to and partnership opportunities with people working on the front line of US-China business, Silicon Valley technology founders in particular; business-to-business promotion across the chamber's website and channels; participation, sponsorship and discounted exhibition space at the events and training the chamber hosts, co-hosts or sponsors; and, for a few, nomination to the board after review, with a role in running the chamber and serving the community.
Its stated purpose is to serve businesses in Silicon Valley and in China, protect their legitimate interests, maintain a commercial platform, and act as a link that supports US-China trade and exchange between companies — connecting members to governments, chambers and firms on both sides, passing on the policy and regulatory information they need, and giving entrepreneurs in both countries somewhere to show what they have built.
This account is drawn from the chamber's own records and from the original report published by 丁丁电视 (DingDingTV).
First published by 丁丁电视.