VOICES A call for civic engagement
The leader of Houston’s Asian Chamber of Commerce reaches out to the next generation.
Milton Young, who became president of Houston’s Asian Chamber of Commerce in October, wants to guide the next generation of Asian entrepreneurs and boost Asian civic engagement in the U.S. The chamber, with 300 members including professional service firms and Fortune 500 companies, connects local Asian businesses with the greater Houston and international Asian markets. Young recently spoke with the Chronicle.
Q: What are the objectives for the chamber?
A: We serve as a bridge between the various Asian communities, the greater Houston community and the local business community. We also serve as a bridge between companies from Asia looking to invest in Houston and Texas, as well as companies in Houston, Texas and the U.S. looking to invest in Asia. This year, we’d like to increase our participation in trade-related events. Also, we’d like to work on our initiatives to increase civic participation among young people, as well as support entrepreneurship and innovation. We have a long history of supporting entrepreneurship. But what we’d like to do is expand that, to also work on supporting innovation in the different Asian communities as well.
Q: How in particular would the chamber like to get involved in trade-related events and discussions?
A: A couple of the events that we’ve co-promoted this year are the Japan-Texas Economic Summit, with the U.S. Japan council, and the America-China Real Estate Summit with the Asian Real Estate Association of America. We’re also working with the different trade directors with the consulates. They sponsor trade fairs in their home countries, and they would like us to help them find companies that would like to invest in those countries or do more trade.
Looking at investments in the U.S., different companies have come to us to ask about possibilities for investing or for locating their facilities here. We get them in touch with local real estate brokers or with the local chambers of commerce.
Q: Has the chamber gotten involved with city officials or consulate officials over the uncertainty in international trade?
A: We’ve talked to city officials. We’ve talked to the Greater Houston Partnership. I was just in Washington, D.C., last week meeting with different congressional offices to talk about not only trade but their support for minority business development in the U.S. And the questions always came around to, “so how does the Asian community feel about what’s going on?” And the Asian business community sees trade tariffs as a no-win situation for everybody. They feel that anything that curtails trade hurts jobs, hurts taxes, hurts people’s ability to conduct business. We made sure that the different congressional staffers, as well as congressmen that we visited, understood that that was the position of the Asian business community here.
Q: What are some of the efforts we can expect to see from the chamber this year to help local businesses better connect to the broader Houston business community?
A: We’re supporting some more events coming up that will help connect not only the Asian-American community but the business community to their global and national counterparts. The Asian American Journalists Association is having their annual meeting here in August, so we’re going to support that. Nielsen is coming in October to do a series of focus studies with their employees in support of their Asian-American consumer survey. And we anticipate doing some more events like our business conference that will connect local businesses to the broader business community but also help them access Small Business Administration resources as well as Minority Business Development agency resources.
Q: What experiences do you bring to this leadership role at the chamber, and where would you like to see the chamber go?
A: My background is supply-chain operations, product development and finance. Prior to coming to the chamber, I previously worked for General Motors, Exxon Mobil and FMC. So I bring more of a business background and business orientation to the chamber’s activities. That has actually helped me connect with the chamber members very well because I can talk their language and understand the operational issues they face as well as the market issues they face. I won’t say I’m uniquely positioned to bring that perspective, but it’s a good perspective to bring. Plus, I’ve also worked with startups over the past few years, so I bring that perspective as well. Not only the startup environment, but also the company environment, and with my supplychain background, I also had supplier diversity. That’s big for the Asian-American community as well as the other minority communities. My experience actually dovetails nicely with what the chamber’s trying to achieve. What I’d like to see us do in the future is start developing the next generation of Asian-American business leaders. That’s taking existing leaders and opening their minds to the possibilities of how they can participate in not only the business life of Houston but the civic life of Houston. I also want us to address how we get the Asian-American youth more involved in entrepreneurship and innovation as well as impress upon them the importance of civic engagement. Historically, civic engagement in the Asian-American community has not been very high, and for us to have a voice in what goes on, we need to participate.