Pink Magazine announced America’s 50 Top Women Business Owners of 2007 this month. Five Asian American women business owners were included on the list. In order to be selected, women business owners must have majority ownership of their firms, which may be public or private.
Here is the list ranked by revenue from 2006 along with some information I found about their community work and giving history.
#4 – Christine Liang, President and Founder, ASI Corp, $1.26 billion in revenue. Christine has been recognized for her participation in the American Red Cross, Operation Lookout for Missing Children and National Network for Minorities. She was named one of "The 500 Most Influential Asian Americans" by Avenue Magazine and one of the "Leading Woman Entrepreneurs of The World 1997" by the National Foundation for Woman Business Owners.
#5 – Julie Nguyen Brown, Plastech Engineered Products, Inc., $1.04 billion in revenue. Julie was born in Vietnam and worked as an engineer at Ford Motor Co. She founded Pastech, a plastic injection molding company in 1988. Julie was recently elected to serve as Trustee of Brown University.
#6 – Peggy Cherng, Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., $917 million. Cherng is active in a variety of professional organizations including the Na
tional Restaurant Association, the Executive Committee and the American Compensation Association. She serves as a member of the board of visitors for the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and is a member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles United Way chapter and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
She developed Panda Cares, a community program that donates food and volunteer services for underpriviledged children. Panda Cares has donated nearly $3 million to nonprofit organizations.
#12 – Cheung Yan, America Chung Nam Inc., $700 million. Cheung is China's richest woman who is now living in the US. She burst onto the scene last year when the paper-recycling company she started more than a decade ago went public. It's now worth $13 billion. Cheung is a former accountant who lost her job but then capitalized on China's export boom by importing scrap paper from the U.S. and Europe and turning it into cardboard boxes that are exported packed with Chinese-manufactured products. She is called the "dragon queen of wastepaper'. You can say she is the wealthiest recycler.
#35 – Sue Ling Gin, Flying Food Group Inc., $208 million. Besides Flying Food Group, Sue is also Founder and President of New Management, Ltd., a real estate sales, leasing, management and development firm. She is also owner of the Midway Business Center. Sue serves on the boards of Centerplate and Exelon Corporation.
Sue is on the board of the Chicago Community Trust, the Chicago Network, Field Museum, and Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center. She is also a trustee of DePaul University and an advisory board member for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. In addition, she is President and Director of the William G. McGovern Charitable Fund, Inc.
