The WLD Show

Today we have Victor Hwang with us. Victor is the founder and CEO of Right to Start, a campaign fighting to expand entrepreneurial opportunity for all. Right to Start drives civic change through: grassroots organizing and mobilizing, policy advocacy and engagement, and lifting the voices of entrepreneurs through media and storytelling. Recently, Victor was the Senior Advisor for the Office of the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Victor is also the founder and CEO of Victor & Company, an economic growth consultancy. His economic development clients have included the World Bank, Ford Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has also worked with corporate clients seeking to grow entrepreneurial innovation, including Accenture, IBM, and Microsoft.

Previously, he was the Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropy supporting entrepreneurs with an endowment of $2 billion.

Learn more about Victor and how to get involved:

• Right to Start: https://www.righttostart.org
• Victor & Company economic growth consultancy: https://www.victorh.co
• Book: The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley

Christi Powell is a visualization strategist in the mindfulness sector of mental performance. She empowers World and Olympic athletes and leaders by enhancing their focus and adaptability through visualization. By collaborating with coaches, support staff and sports psychologists, she designs personalized visualizations and holistic growth plans—utilizing visualization tools, meditation, and mindset strategies—to optimize performance, focus and skill development.

With an 11-year background in visualization and meditation and over 15 years working for global brands in advertising, she understands the key to unlocking your true potential lies in mastering the mental game. In this episode, Christi explains exactly what she does and how she does it!

Download the visualization mentioned in the episode: christipowell.com/wldshow

To learn more about Christi and what she does: https://christipowell.com

Jeremy Sng is the General Manager of Corporate Finance & Strategy and Head of Centre of Excellence at M-DAQ Global. Prior to M-DAQ, Jeremy was the Head of Investment Banking of South East Asia at CLSA.

In this episode, Jeremy shares how he grew up in Singapore with a silver spoon and lost it all when his parents went bankrupt. He reveals how he rebuilt his life, excelled in investment banking across top firms, and eventually transitioned into a fintech startup. Jeremy discusses personal challenges, including a painful divorce, and how he practices gratitude to maintain resilience. Additionally, Jeremy talks about his relationship with Sonia Chew, a well-known TV and radio host, and the lessons he's learned.

In this episode, Will gives an update shares what he's been up to over the past 6 months. He shares his approach to building large group community events, how to lead a men's group, and how he's started coaching Asian American men.

Giles is a Senior Program Officer for Arts & Creativity at the Barr Foundation. With assets of almost $2.5B, Barr is among the largest private foundations in New England and has contributed more than $1 billion to charitable causes since 1999. Prior to Barr, Giles spent fourteen years with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Hired as BCNC’s first arts program coordinator in 2006, Giles was named CEO in 2013. Under his leadership, BCNC developed and opened the Pao Arts Center in 2017, Boston Chinatown’s first arts and cultural center. Giles is a published poet, spoken-word performance artist, and former cultural organizer.

Giles Li - Lin. Sanity.

Jay Shek is the VP Consumer Product of Hone Health. Hone is the premier men’s optimization clinic that helps men get their spark back and be their best self. Prior to Hone Health, Jay was the Director of Product Management at Noom, a product that helped people live healthier lives by changing their long-term habits. Jay also worked at Facebook, Snapfish, and founded his own startup Locality. Jay has a passion for mastering new life skills like health, fitness, cooking, and fashion. In this episode, he shares his learnings with us.

Dana Leong is a two-time Grammy award-winning musician, composer & producer. He is considered by many as the world’s top electric cellist, as well as one of the world’s top trombone players.  Dana began competing internationally at the age of 8 and taught Jazz at Stanford University at the age 16, and completed the public policy program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  

Dana has won two Grammys in Latin Jazz & classical music for collaborations with Paquito D’rivera. And has worked with top Hip-Hop artists such as Kanye West, and tops iTunes Charts with DJ A- Trak & DJ Qbert in EDM. He has also been a guest musical director on Broadway.

As an internationally renowned musician composer, Dana cooperates with global brands to create immersive music experiences. Recently he has created themes for top names including Hermès, Prada, Hugo Boss, Virgin Galactic, ESPN, Porsche, Infiniti, New York & Shanghai Fashion Week, Hong Kong Fintech Week, Singapore Fintech Festival, Mont Blanc and the Annual $1,000,000 Global Teacher Prize in Dubai.

A leading innovator at the intersection of music, technology & wellness, Dana is continuously experimenting. He is one of the first artists in the world pairing human talent with artificial intelligence powered music composer engines creating electronic symphony “iDragon” with DeepMusic.Ai & Dell Technologies; pioneers live music + VR powered 3D art concerts. Dana founded the music social impact platform TEKTONIKmusic.org and created corporate & public music wellness programs at Google, YouTube, WeWork, HTC and the World Economic Forum’s flagship Davos Congress. Dana works with Yamaha to consult on the design of the “Silent (electric) Cello”, serves as a U.S. Musical Ambassador and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Learn more about Dana:

• Dana's Website
• #UpgradeMe Podcast

Jason Shafton is the founder of Winston Francois, a growth consulting firm. Winston Francois helps helps founders, executives, and investors with growth, product, and marketing. 

Prior to Winston Francois, Jason was the VP at Vively Health, VP of Marketing at Headspace, and Chief Marketing Officer at Soothe. Jason was also the co-founder of Heal, providing access to primary care doctors through a simple app. 

In this episode, we talk about Jason's career and gave him the perfect experience to build a growth consulting firm for founders.

Michael Hsieh is the Founder and President of Fung Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies. Fung Capital is the investment arm of the Fung family in Hong Kong which separately controls the Fung Group that sources, distributes, and retails consumer products globally. The Fung Group of companies include Li & Fung, Global Brands Group, and Fung Retailing, with over $22B in total revenues and 45,000 employees in over 40 countries. Fung Capital invests in B2B technology companies that enable omni-channel retailing and improve supply chain efficiency.

For decades, he has been heavily involved in numerous civic engagement initiatives, spanning from serving on non-profit boards such as Center for Asian American Media, Head Royce School, and Center for the Pacific Rim at USF, to co-founding Roses in Concrete, a public charter school serving primarily students of color in East Oakland. He and his wife Tonia started Karma Pictures, a media company developing feature films telling Asian American stories. Michael has a B.A degree in economics from Harvard College and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Mark Young is one of the co-founders of the nonprofit group Stand with Asians. An organization with a mission to strengthen the AAPI community by bringing more awareness to the challenges and opportunities within the AAPI community. And by funding and helping promising AAPI community leaders, grassroots groups, and non-profit organizations. Mark has been involved in numerous AAPI initiatives and projects, including getting Chinese New Year as a state holiday in California, an inaugural CNY celebration for the NFL, and a new Bruce Lee statue in SF and more. Mark is a 5th generation San Francisco native and UC Berkeley graduate. He’s had a career in finance and real estate development.