Ascend Executive Network (AEN) to Unify and Continue Building Pan-Asian Executive Community

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New York, NY — Ascend, a career lifecycle organization for Pan-Asian business professionals and executives, expands its focus to build a broader, aligned executive community through the Ascend Executive Network (AEN) in the U.S. and Canada while addressing regional requirements in the marketplace. Currently, Asians (including Asian Americans and all Asians) occupy less than 4 percent of the nearly 5,700 Fortune 500 board director seats. Asians are also the least likely to be promoted to managerial or executive positions, despite being the largest minority group of professionals and the most likely to be hired.

The vision of the Ascend Executive Network is to connect, inspire, and prepare Pan-Asian executives for executive leadership and board positions while advocating for the Pan-Asian community. Through this unified Network, Ascend continues its expansion to focus on Pan-Asians in broader diversity (women, diverse groups) and multicultural organizations at the executive level and reinforces its commitment to advance the role and contributions of current and future Pan-Asian executives. As part of the AEN, an increasing series of national and regional programs and events including the Corporate Executive Initiative (CEI) events and workshops are currently offered throughout the year in New York, Washington, D.C. and the Bay Area. The AEN is by invitation for senior executives and C-Suite executives.

The first Ascend Executive Network Symposium will be held on August 26th at the Ascend National Convention and Career Fair in Washington, DC. Regional events and roundtables will be held in select cities throughout the year. Pfizer will sponsor the inaugural Ascend Asian Employee Resource Group (ERG) Leadership Council and will focus on innovative diversity and inclusion initiatives for leaders to engage and learn from the broader network, leading to actionable efforts.

“It’s a fact that Pan-Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions. This disparity accelerated our efforts to advocate for the advancement and increase the pipeline of Pan-Asian senior executives while also providing a network for leaders deeply committed to giving back to the community,” said Anna W. Mok, President-Elect, Ascend; Co-Founder, Ascend Pinnacle and Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP.

“Pfizer is a long-standing partner of Ascend and a supporter of its efforts to promote diversity and inclusion broadly. Within the Ascend Executive Network, we are establishing a leadership council of Asian ERG sponsors and are excited to partner with corporate leaders from various industries to share best practices for building a robust pipeline of future Pan-Asian talent,” said Michael Ku, Vice President, Global Clinical Supply, Pfizer.

Ascend has established various local executive groups in our largest cities. The Ascend Executive Network expands these executive groups and increases the focus and engagement of Pan-Asian executives at U.S. and Canadian public companies while ensuring programs maintain and address regional market place needs.

About Ascend

Ascend is the largest, non-profit Pan-Asian membership organization for business professionals and executives in North America. Established in 2005, Ascend, a career lifecycle organization, reaches 60,000+ senior executives, professionals, and MBA/undergraduate students involved in its 50+ chapters in the United States and Canada. Visit http://www.ascendleadership.org for more information.