His passion for community partnerships has helped create the Asian Chamber’s Scholarship Fund, assisting first-generation Colorado students and spotlighting mental health challenges among the local Asian American Pacific Islander community.
Clarence believes in the multiplicative power of partnerships, particularly reaching across various Asian ethic groups to strengthen alliances. In this Q&A with Colors of Influence, he talks about the important work of creating opportunities for advocacy, networking, education and outreach to bring together the economic and civic influence of diverse Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.
What is your primary charge as President and CEO of the Asian Chamber of Commerce?
The primary mandate of the Asian Chamber of Commerce is to drive business and economic development opportunities for our members: nonprofits, small businesses, and large corporations that serve constituents within the state.
The Asian Chamber of Commerce has been around for 34 years: it was started in 1982. I am the third person to serve as President and CEO. The Chamber has a great track history of engaging fellow Asians and ethnic minorities within our state.
Asian Americans represent about 3.5 percent of the Denver metro area’s population, or about 220,000. We represent the diversity of Asian groups in our state, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Hmong, Cambodian, Nepalese, Indonesians, and many others. We work together across common goals and advocacy objectives.
The Chamber was started to bring unity to Asian business and ethnic groups that were underserved and underrepresented, not only within the business community, but also in state and local contracting opportunities. We also nurture relationships with our federal and international diplomatic organizations, such as the Consulate General of Japan based in Denver.
What is your overall vision for the Chamber?
I’ve been very proud to see the Chamber’s growth over the last four years. We’ve received very positive comments from community leaders within the AAPI community. We’re continuing to engage the corporate and nonprofit communities.
Moving the Chamber forward, I envision strengthening the Chamber Scholarship Fund that we started two years ago. The program is designed primarily for first- or second-generation students of color from immigrant or refugee backgrounds. We provide financial aid for our scholars to pursue their academic dreams.
Through another chamber program, we’re taking a student to Washington D.C. to meet with executives in federal agencies, industrial organizations and to visit the Smithsonian museums.
We’re also continuing to build bridges with businesses that believe in workforce diversity and inclusion to expand their reach into minority communities.
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| Clarence Low with the 2013 Colorado Youth Corporation award winners |
What are your priorities for organizations that are part of the Chamber?
We have many types of members of our Chamber family: from technology companies, architecture firms to academic institutions. The key priorities that we assist them with cover the whole spectrum.
For example, one of our member organizations is a bank that is interested in increasing workforce diversity, particularly staff who can speak Asian languages. They are looking for native speakers who can serve as frontline staff, managers to back-office IT support.
The demographics of the Denver metro area reflects national trends, which are changing rapidly. The AAPI population in the area is growing at a rate of 8 to 10 percent annually; while nationally, the community is growing by approximately 40 percent year over.
The complexion of our country is going to look very different in the next 15 to 20 years. Some of our member companies understand these trends, in terms of their own corporate sustainability. They are making adjustments in order to engage a diverse workforce, while also serving a changing demographic.
Some of our members are interested in possibly partnering with Asian investors who may be looking at investment opportunities in Colorado. There is also great interest among our members about possible contracting opportunities in some of the larger infrastructure projects, such as I-70 corridor, the National Western Complex, the Denver Airport, and more. We offer our members a chance to be at the table, to be part of the overall economic development picture for the region.
Even though we’re a relatively small minority chamber, we have a lot of involvement and engagement within our local governments. We are part of important conversations, and we continue to develop and build relationships.
What do you enjoy most about leading the Asian Chamber of Commerce?
I thoroughly enjoy the connections, building bridges, and opportunities to provide introductions between our members. By association, I am able to help our members with opportunities to help advance their goals: contracting opportunities, lead development or workforce diversity. Making those introductions helps the Chamber increase its own value to the community.
What are the primary offerings of the Chamber?
We hold a minimum of a monthly Business After Hours: a networking event that we hold for our members across the Denver metro area. We hold the event at different locations and corporate offices. It’s an opportunity to showcase our members.
We also host workshops and seminars focused on trade and business topics. We hosted Commissioner Clement Leung of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, who spoke about economic opportunities in Hong Kong for Colorado’s craft beer industry. We learned that Hong Kong is eager for Colorado to export our world-class craft beers to the Asian market.
Here in Colorado, we have a strong and cyclical oil and gas development industry in the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. Another luncheon event focused on safety practices shared by the American Petroleum Institute and the Colorado Petroleum Council.
We’re also partnering with the University of Denver to host a talk by China’s Consul-General Hong Lei to talk about U.S.-China relations and economic opportunities between the two countries.
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| An audience with Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation |
What significant accomplishments are you most proud of?
There are a number of accomplishments that the Chamber has been able to execute with the cooperation and engagement of our board and membership. We are grateful for the work of volunteers who help with our various events.
Scholarships for AAPI college students within the Denver-metro area are fairly scarce, and we want to increase opportunities for financial support for our students. I am proud and honored to grow our Chamber Scholarship Fund through the University of Colorado Foundation. Our scholarship fund is seeking to raise $25,000 to establish an endowed fund.
Both of our annual events – the golf tournament and annual gala – serve as partial fund-raisers for our scholarship fund and operating budget. Each year, we have great attendance at our signature events. We have representation from local and state government, as well as diplomats from across the country. We proudly welcome our past and current scholarship recipients.
This year, we created and implemented a presentation about the history of the AAPI community in Colorado. We tackle the model minority myth, perceptions and misconceptions about our cultures. We wanted to highlight that part of the challenge is the visibility of our communities in the Rocky Mountain region. We presented this information to the VA Hospital and staff at the Federal Center in Lakewood. We intend to continue to share these learnings with corporate and nonprofit organizations.
One of the biggest myth-busters is that English is a natural language for AAPIs. As a second-generation Chinese-American born in San Francisco, English is my first language. I’m also very proud of my heritage and my language: I can speak Cantonese. There are first-generation immigrant and refugee students in our communities for whom English is a second language. Yet, their grasp of the language is remarkable.
According to the model minority myth, AAPIs are very high achievers. Financially, we have family support, and we don’t need financial help. But many of our families do need help. Educational levels and socioeconomic situations vary widely in our communities. The Chamber takes this issue seriously. We are proud to partner with organizations like the Asian Pacific Development Center that provides direct social services to the AAPI immigrant and refugee community.
What do you find most challenging about leading the Chamber?
One of the challenges that our relatively small Chamber faces is capacity. We have a strategic vision of embracing and engaging our community in so many different ways. Frankly, finding resources, time and funding to do all the things we want to do within our five-year plan is one of our largest challenges.
There are many other things that we can – and should – do to unify our AAPI businesses and communities. Language and outreach both continue to be a challenge within our own community. As you know, our AAPI community includes many ethnic groups: each with their own language and culture. Even the Chinese community, we have countless dialects. For example, a Mandarin speaker may not be able to communicate effectively with a Cantonese or Taiwanese speaker. We are happy to continue to increase our engagement of AAPI communities, despite our differences.
How does your cultural background impact your work?
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| Meeting the Obamas at a White House reception |
Growing up in San Francisco Chinatown, I observed and experienced a number of things that I had no answers to, until I was a young adult. For example, in Chinatown, there were so many of my parents’ friends who were older Asian males. They had no spouses, no family – they lived in one-bedroom apartments that had no kitchens.
I never understood why our elders lived this way, until I became older. I learned about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, where Congress enacted the first immigrant exclusion act targeting a group of people, a particular race. This was law from 1882 to about 1943.
I heard the stories of immigrants who went through Angel Island – the West Coast version of Ellis Island. At the gateway to the United States where many Chinese arrived, some were detained indefinitely, many others were deported. Others successfully immigrated on to the mainland. My own parents and their families went through that immigration process. I think of the opportunities that my parents had – and did not have – as first-generation immigrants.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that unjustly and unconstitutionally detained Americans of Japanese descent into concentration camps that were euphemistically called relocation camps. Those imprisoned American citizens lost their property and businesses, some died in the camps. They were relocated from their homes and farms because of the United States’ engagement with Japan during World War II.
My father-in-law was part of that internment experience in southeast Colorado. Then-Colorado Governor Ralph Carr stood up against Executive Order 9066, citing its unconstitutionality. He was the only Governor at the time to welcome Americans of Japanese descent during and after the war. As a Chamber, we continue to honor Gov. Carr every Memorial Day for the personal and political sacrifices he made to take a courageous stance for our Asian community.
Today, we hear about the immigration challenges that are being experienced by the Muslim community and others. Immigration bans represent a chapter in history that is repeating itself. We need to stand together and united within the AAPI community to protect the rights that our ancestors fought so hard for.
Why is engaging in economic policy and advocacy work important for the Chamber?
I’ve been going to Washington, D.C. as a representative of our community for the last four to five years. Each time, I come back extremely optimistic that our country is still the greatest country on earth, despite our challenges.
It’s important for the Chamber share our business community’s concerns with policy decision-makers. The Asian Chamber of Commerce is non-partisan. We take an advocacy and education-focused approach to inform our members about proposed legislation and ballot initiatives that could potentially impact their business operations.
I’ve had the honor and privilege representing the Asian Chamber of Commerce to partner with other regional Asian chambers of commerce in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, and Seattle to unify our voice in representing the AAPI demographic in Washington, D.C.
Together, we’ve attended a White House press briefing, where we met President Obama and Vice President Biden. We’ve had the pleasure of a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in his court, where we shared some of our concerns and learned about more of his position on the bench.
We’ve had opportunities to sit with Congressional members and staffers, Senators and aides on both sides of the aisle to share the challenges of the AAPI diaspora in this country, particularly around workforce development, healthcare access, and immigration policy. I believe that we need to update and improve our immigration laws. The United States has always been a land of immigrants, and our economic success and power as a country is weaved into the immigrant story.
It’s important to develop our Scholars Program, which allows an AAPI student hosted by the Asian Chamber to be at the table when we take our concerns to Washington, D.C. It’s a tremendous opportunity for a young person to see how government works, and perhaps be inspired to serve in any capacity, whether through appointed office or elected positions in local, state or federal governments.