Glenn Lau-Kee was elected chairman of the US-Asia Institute in 2017. He had previously served as president before stepping up to the chairmanship. He is a former president of the 74,000 member New York State Bar Association. As the 117th president of NYSBA during 2014-2015, he was the first Asian-American to serve as president. Glenn is a partner in Lau-Kee Law Firm, PLLC, located in Manhattan, New York. Mr. Lau-Kee began his law practice in 1975 in the international law firm of Coudert Brothers as an associate in the Hong Kong and New York offices, concentrating on banking and project financing matters. He joined the firm of Kee & Lau-Kee as a partner in 1977. He concentrates his practice in real estate and business law. He was a member of the Commission on Statewide Attorney Discipline formed by New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. He also served as the American Bar Association Observer to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in Geneva.He was a commissioner on the Commission on Human Rights of the City of New York from 1984-1990, serving as vice-chair of the Commission. He served on the New York State Judicial Screening Committee, First Department, from 2007-2010. He has served as vice-chair of the Board of the YMCA of Greater New York, and as a board member of the New York County Bar Association, the Fund for Modern Courts, the New York Bar Foundation, Legal Services for New York City, and the Queens Legal Services Corporation. He served as the president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York from 1997-1999, and was appointed by then Chief Judge Judith Kaye to serve on the Commission to Examine Solo and Small Firm Practice, and the Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System.Mr. Lau-Kee is a David Rockefeller Fellow of the New York City Partnership. He has been awarded the Dean’s Medal from Albany Law School, the Jane M. Bolin Leaders in Law Award from the Judicial Friends Association, and the Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award from the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of NYSBA. He is also the recipient of the Order of the Red Triangle from the YMCA of Greater New York, its highest honor.

He is a 1971 graduate of Yale University and a 1974 graduate of the Boston University School of Law.

Ben Wu has held the vice-chairmanship at the US-Asia Institute since January 2011. With an internationally recognized technology policy expertise, he has extensive public and private sector experience leading organizational transformation and innovative initiatives at the highest ranks of presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional service on the national, state, and local levels. Mr. Wu has served as the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy in the administration of President George W. Bush. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Wu held senior staff positions in the U.S. Congress for 13 years with both Congresswoman Constance A. Morella of Maryland and the House Science Committee’s subcommittee with jurisdiction over the nation’s technology and competitiveness policy, which she chaired. He has also served with the State of Maryland as the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Commerce leading the state’s economic turnaround, as well as Special Advisor to Governor Larry Hogan. He is the past President and CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) and led the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Maryland’s largest jurisdiction with a GDP larger than 13 states. Mr. Wu serves on several corporate, academic, nonprofit, and community boards. He received his B.A. in Politics and Metropolitan Studies from New York University and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh.

Javade Chaudhri is a partner at Jones Day and has worldwide experience in helping private and public sector companies transact business and undertake projects in a range of industry sectors and geographies.Mr. Chaudhri advises companies on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances. He also assists companies with corporate governance, compliance, and internal investigations. He has handled complex international litigation and arbitrations before ICSID and under various major arbitral rules. Javade is head of the Firm’s Africa Practice.

Prior to Jones Day, Mr. Chaudhri served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Sempra Energy, a Fortune 250 company. He was also General Counsel of Gateway, a $10 billion worldwide computer and technology company, where he also managed government relations, contract administration, and compliance.

He has structured and negotiated infrastructure, technology, and other transactions in numerous countries. He has handled arbitrations under ICSID, ICC, AAA, and UNCITRAL Rules. He also has conducted international investigations relating to anti-bribery laws and other regulatory matters. Mr. Chaudhri serves on a number of nonprofit boards and has been a faculty member at universities and institutions in the United States and around the world.

He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and received his bachelors and a masters degree from Yale University.

Tami Overby is a Senior Advisor in the East Asia & Pacific practice at ASG, where she draws on more than three decades of experience working in Asia to advise clients on investment and trade issues in Korea and across the region.

Ms. Overby most recently served as Senior Director at McLarty Associates. Previously, she was Senior Vice President for Asia and President of the U.S.-Korea Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where she represented U.S. businesses during negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), directed the Chamber’s work with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and helped companies navigate market access and investment issues throughout the region. Earlier in her career, Ms. Overby spent 14 years as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, where she helped grow the bilateral trade relationship and supported the completion and ratification of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Ms. Overby sits on the boards of the Korea Society and the U.S.-Asia Institute and is on the Advisory Council of the Korea Economic Institute.

She received her B.S. in Business Administration and Management from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

She is based in Washington, D.C.

David Lew is a Managing Director, Private Wealth Advisor, International Client Advisor, and Alternative Investments Director for the MDM Group at Morgan Stanley. David focuses on developing complex investment solutions across asset classes to address the specific needs and goals of his clients.

David graduated with a bachelor’s degree biology, with minors in mathematics and economics, from New York University and went on to earn an MBA in finance from Fordham University. He started his banking career in 1985 at Citibank, where he worked for 14 years across several investment product groups including precious metals trading, FX trading, and OTC derivatives structuring and sales. While at Citibank’s Private Bank, he became a senior investment counselor for clients from Mexico, Brazil, EMEA, Canada and Asia/Pacific. After Citibank, David transitioned to Barclays Bank, where he focused on the needs of sophisticated individual investors based in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. He was instrumental in the development of the private bank’s FX, derivatives, and structured notes. David joined Morgan Stanley in 2002, where he has since provided highly customized investment advice to ultra-high net worth clients and their single & multi-family offices across firm business verticals, as well as a select group of small financial institutions. His primary geographic coverage is in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. He speaks conversational Cantonese.

A native New Yorker, David is a member of the firm’s Chairman’s Club, as well as the Economics Club of New York. Additionally, he serves as trustee and treasurer for the U.S. Asia Institute.

Mary Sue Bissell is President of the US-Asia Institute (USAI), a position she has held since September 2018. She came to USAI at its founding, working with co-founders Esther G. Kee and Joji Konoshima as Director of Programs and Publications and Director of Administration from 1979-84. Ms. Bissell returned to USAI in 1987, serving as Executive Director until 1990. She returned for a 3 rd time in December 2001 as Trustee, Vice President & Executive Director. While at USAI, Ms. Bissell has sought to build understanding and strengthen relations between the United States and Asia through organizing high-level conferences and policy dialogues, managing people-to-people exchange programs including Congressional Member and staff delegations to various Asian countries, and connecting political, business, government, academic and emerging leaders. She also served as USAI’s Secretariat administrator for the US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) for 2.5 years. Ms. Bissell has over 40 years of experience. In addition to her work at USAI, she has managed the nation’s largest in-school educational touring program, directed marketing for a top 10 aquarium, led public relations efforts for US Army assets across Hawaii, and managed the administrative and logistical facets of a major Pacific Rim telecommunications membership organization, where she organized the programmatic aspects of the first ever three-node teleconference connecting Washington DC – Honolulu – Hong Kong. She has received numerous local, state and national awards and recognition for writing, public speaking and community service.

Ms. Bissell is a graduate of the University of South Dakota. She is married with two daughters.

Mr. Chris Fenton served for seventeen years as president of DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group and GM of DMG North America, internationally orchestrating the creative and business activities of DMG—a multi-billion dollar global media company headquartered in Beijing. As an author, Fenton chronicled much of that work in FEEDING THE DRAGON: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business. At present, he speaks regularly as a China expert and serves as CEO of Media Capital Technologies, having concluded a successful term as Senior Advisor to IDW Media Holdings. He is a Trustee of the US-Asia Institute and serves on several company boards. Fenton, holds a BS in Engineering from Cornell University.

Julie Chon is a Senior Advisor to Moore Capital Management. Prior to joining Moore, she served as Managing Director and Global Head of Public Investment Strategy at Perry Capital. Before moving to the private sector, Ms. Chon crafted landmark US policy responses to stabilize the financial crisis as senior advisor to US Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd from 2007-2011. She played a central role in the enactment of several laws that re-defined the powers of the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, housing agencies, and regulators to intervene in the economy. These included the Housing and Economic Stabilization Act, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, Dodd-Frank Act, Foreign Investment and National Security Act, and International Monetary Fund authorization. She was also appointed to the Treasury Department team for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project and served on the Senate Democratic Policy Committee staff. Ms. Chon began her career at Chase Securities in New York and Salomon Brothers in London, advising government bond issuers on international capital markets access. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow in Global Business and Economics at the Atlantic Council, where she provides economic commentary for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Bloomberg. Ms. Chon graduated from Cornell University.

Tom K. Ara focuses his practice on entertainment and media industry transactions, both domestic and international. He represents banks, private equity groups, hedge funds, investors and borrowers in financing and strategic industry transactions. In addition, he advises feature film studios, television networks, production companies, Internet and mobile-based content producers and distributors in corporate transactions as well as in the development, production and distribution of feature films, television programs and digital content. Tom's clients also include entertainment, media and technology companies employing new methods and technologies to produce and distribute content and content experiences, including through augmented and virtual reality platforms, as well as financiers and investors active in these areas.

Tom has been involved in a multitude of transactions throughout the world in both traditional media and emerging technologies, representing media companies, financiers and industry participants of all types in financing and strategic industry transactions. Tom has successfully counseled his clients in connection with billions of dollars of complex financing, corporate and M&A transactions involving some of the most successful feature film and television franchises, as well as iconic comic book properties. As one of the early legal pioneers from the West to serve the Asian media and entertainment market, Tom offers valuable insights to his clients, both as a lawyer and as a trustee of the prestigious Washington, DC-based US-Asia Institute. He has also been involved in numerous complex industry transactions involving Europe and the Middle East.

Chris McCannell brings more than 20 years of Washington experience and insight to the clients of GrayRobinson. His clients include Angel Capital Association, Prudential Plc., Center for American Entrepreneurship, National Association of Truck Stop Operators, Manufactured Housing Institute, 98Point6, US Travel, Etihad Airlines, and Broadmark Capital. Chris is known for his high-level engagement with House Democratic leadership on behalf of his clients.

Prior to joining Eris Group, GrayRobinson’s predecessor, Chris led APCO Worldwide’s Washington financial services and government relations practice. He previously served as vice president of government affairs at Ameriprise Financial and as a director at Quinn Gillespie and Associates, a bipartisan government relations firm in Washington, D.C.

Before joining Ameriprise Financial, Chris was chief of staff to Rep. Michael E. McMahon. Earlier in his career, he served as chief of staff and floor assistant to Rep. Joseph Crowley, a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and chair of the Democratic caucus. Chris was also press secretary to Rep. Steny H. Hoyer. He began his career as a press assistant in the office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg and the office of the Democratic Policy Committee.

Nien Su is chief executive officer of Artemis ESG, a minority-owned business specializing in corporate public affairs and customized risk solutions for global supply chain management and logistics. Prior to Artemis, Nien served as an innovation director at Walmart where he led the company’s effort to build a $25 million Food Safety Collaboration Center in Beijing, China. Earlier in his career, Nien was business development director for Asia-Pacific at a leading public affairs consultancy. Nien is a recognized foreign policy expert on China and the Asia-Pacific region. His public service record includes appointed positions in the Bush Administration and on Capitol Hill. In Congress, Nien served as Chief Economic Advisor on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Nien was twice awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work promoting U.S. priorities in East Asia and once with a Meritorious Honor Award for combating human trafficking.

Nien earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Walton School of Business (University of Arkansas), a Masters of Arts from the Graduate School of Political Management (George Washington University), and a Bachelor of Arts from the Elliott School of International Affairs (George Washington University).

Nien is a member of the Board of Trustees of the U.S.-Asia Institute. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

Lisabeth A. Sugahara is co-owner of Fairfield-Maxwell Ltd (FML), an international shipping and oil services company based in New York. The company has offices in Japan and Vietnam and does significant trade in East and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining FML, she was a communications consultant at insurance brokerage firm Marsh working with Fortune 100 clients. Ms. Sugahara has a long interest in Asian economies. Her MBA studies at the Thunderbird School of Global Management focused on Asian business environments and global development. She is also a student of Mandarin Chinese. Ms. Sugahara graduated from Smith College. The Sugahara family has been associated with the US-Asia Institute almost since its inception.

Wally Hsueh is Vice President of International Affairs for FedEx Corporation where he is responsible for maintaining and growing US-Asia relations for the company, specifically in government and regulatory affairs.

Wally previously spent over 25 years on Capitol Hill in multiple leadership positions and has a broad array of policy and executive expertise in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

He was most recently Deputy Chief of Staff to United States Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and led the Senator’s China and Asia policy engagement, as well as spearheaded multiple Congressional delegations for Senators and Congressmen throughout China and Asia. Wally also hosted dozens of foreign delegations from China and the Asia region in Washington, DC and Montana for legislative exchanges with key policy makers and business leaders.

Additionally, Wally advised Senator Daines on his key committee issues including the Finance Committee, Appropriations Committee, Commerce Committee, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Homeland Security Committee. He spearheaded the Senator’s work on the Congressional Executive Commission on China and the Senator’s co-chairmanship of the Senate US-China Working Group. In this role, Wally regularly advised Fortune 100 companies on navigating China’s regulatory regime and negotiated the release of Americans and foreigners from Chinese prisons.

Wally’s previous congressional committee leadership posts include: Republican Staff Director for the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee under Senator Snowe (R-ME), and Deputy Staff Director for Jim Risch (R-ID); Staff Director for the Senate Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism, and Economic Development under Senator Stevens (R-AK), and Professional Staff on the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. He also served as a policy advisor for Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and on the staff of Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR).

Wally holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA in Political Communications from California State University, Long Beach. He is currently a Senior Fellow for the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership. Wally previously served as Congressional Fellow for the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and on the Foreign Policy Study Group for the Council on Foreign Relations.

A Chinese-American born and raised in Southern California, Wally’s family origins include China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Liza M. Walsh is a highly sought-after litigator with experience representing some of the country’s largest and most prestigious companies. She focuses her practice on federal and complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on intellectual property, antitrust and class action defense matters. In her more than 30 years of experience, Liza has defended major pharmaceutical companies in significant patent litigation and acted as liaison counsel to groups of defendants in multi-party litigation. She has more than 150 published decisions and represents clients from a diverse range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, health and title insurance, financial services, life sciences, technology, and other service and product industries. She has also served as an arbitrator in major commercial proceedings, amid a growing demand for more female representation in the field. Liza is also counsel to Senator Torricelli in his capacity as the Special Master in the enforcement of the largest court-ordered environmental cleanup in the country, involving CERCLA, RCRA, and other state and federal regulations and addressing soil, groundwater, and sediment contamination.

Liza has been ranked in Chambers USA 2020 Guide as a Leading Lawyer in the Litigation: General Commercial (New Jersey) category. She was presented with the 2019 James J. McLaughlin Award by the Civil Trial Bar Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association for civility, competence, and professionalism in civil trial law. She has also been named in “Best Lawyers in America“ for Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Patent Litigation and ERISA Litigation in 2020, following similar recognition for thirteen prior consecutive years. She was a New Jersey Trial Attorney Honoree for 2016 and named in New Jersey Law Journal’s “Top Women in Law.” In 2016, she was honored by the Executive Women of New Jersey as one of the “Women of Achievement.” NJBIZ also selected Ms. Walsh as “Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs of New Jersey“ and “New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business.” Other honors and credits include “New Jersey Super Lawyers” for ten years, “New York’s Best Lawyers” and “New York’s Women Leaders in the Law” by New York Magazine. A graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law, she received the school’s Distinguished Graduate Award in 2012. (Awards referenced are not approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Selection methodology is available.)

Before founding Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga LLP, Liza led the litigation practice that was named “Intellectual Property Litigation Group of the Year” by the New Jersey Law Journal in 2014. At the start of her legal career, she served clerkships for the Hon. Clarkson S. Fisher, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, from 1985 to 1986, and for Hon. Charles Harrington, J.S.C. of the New Jersey Superior Court, from 1984 to 1985. An active community advocate, Liza is a member of the Board of the US-Asia Institute, the New Jersey Ballet Board of Directors, and Seton Hall Law School Board of Visitors and serves on the Finance Committee for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Association.