Bamboo Speaker Bios | October 23 2009 | Washington, DC

Sue Ann Hong is Property & Casualty claims manager in the Ballston Spa Operations Center, responsible for Auto Claim Central, Centralized Total Loss Units, and Estimatics for New York and New England.

She began her State Farm career in 1989 as a data processing trainee in the former Michigan Region.  By 1995, Sue Ann had progressed to data processing manager and later directed that region’s Technology Task Force. In 1997, she became an Auto claim representative in what is now the Great Lakes Zone, moving to Auto Claim Central team manager in 1999, then section manager in 2001.

Sue Ann served as Great Lakes’ director of Diversity and Inclusion between April 2003 and October 2004. She then took a developmental opportunity in Corporate, as director of Project Prioritization in the Business & Technology Integration Office, until January 2006 before joining the Northeast Zone.

Sue Ann earned a master’s degree in finance from Western Michigan University.  She is a board member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute, and active in Easter Seals. In her spare time, Sue Ann loves to spend time with family and friends, travel and read.

Deepa Iyer is the Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). Deepa is an immigrant who moved to the United States from India when she was twelve years old.  An attorney by training, she has worked as a Staff Attorney at the Asian American Justice Center and as Legal Director at the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center.  Deepa has also served as Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice where she worked closely on initiatives to address post 9/11 backlash discrimination.  Through her work over the past ten years, Deepa has advocated for effective policies and practices around language access, civil rights, immigration reform and voting rights.

Deepa has also taught classes at Columbia University, Hunter College and the University of Maryland about Asian and South Asian American communities, and has published articles about the impact of post 9/11 policies on South Asians in the United States.  Deepa is the Executive Producer of a documentary about hate crimes in the post 9/11 environment, and was recently featured in Beyond the Big Law Firm.  She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Sandi Karrman is currently the Chief People Officer for Yum! Restaurants International based in Dallas, Texas and is responsible for building and leading the Human Resources function.  Prior to YRI, Sandi was the Chief People Officer for Pizza Hut US, also based in Dallas, Texas.  Before re-joining Yum!, Sandi served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, for Meritage Homes Corporation based in Plano, Texas.  In that role, she was responsible for building and leading a newly-established Human Resources function for Meritage.  Prior to Meritage, Sandi spent nearly 13 years with PepsiCo.  Most recently, she was Vice President, Human Resources – Sales, where she led the Sales HR Team and supported both Field Sales and National Accounts, representing over 20,000 employees nationwide.  She joined the Frito-Lay North America Division of PepsiCo in compensation and held positions of increasing responsibility in headquarters and the field with both Frito-Lay and Taco Bell.  Prior to Frito-Lay, Sandi worked for Heller Financial and R. H. Macy & Company.

Sandi received her BA in Psychology and Communication from the University of Michigan and her MBA in Finance from the University of Southern California.  She is an Executive Board Member of Camp John Marc, a camp for chronically ill/disabled children and Chairman on the School Board of Prince of Peace Christian School.  Sandi, her husband Steve, and their three children reside in Lewisville, Texas.

Lisa Lee is the publisher of Hyphen magazine and started volunteering with the publication at the beginning of 2007. An avid supporter of various Asian American art communities, Lisa started her nonprofit career working for Great Leap, Inc. and Ford Amphitheater/Ford Theatre Foundation in Los Angeles.

During the day, Lisa works for a technology company in the Silicone Valley. She hopes to take Hyphen to the next level by fundraising and raising awareness through different means so that it can continue to be a platform for Asian American writers, artists, and leaders in the years to come. Hyphen is a community project and a labor of love. To learn more about how to get involved, please visit www.hyphenmagazine.com.

Richard Lui is a news anchor for HLN, serving as an anchor for the network’s late morning programming and as a news correspondent for Morning Express with Robin Meade.  Based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta, Lui joined CNN in 2005 as an anchor for CNN.com. Since joining CNN, Lui has anchored live coverage of major breaking stories including the Virginia Tech shooting, the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, the Mumbai train terrorist bombings and the Enron guilty verdicts. Lui’s reporting has also taken him to Singapore to research container scanning technology at the world’s busiest port and to Indonesia to examine underage sex slavery and the economic effects of the 2002 Bali bombings.  His recent field reporting focused on the implications of terrorist activity and strategic efforts to counter the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Lui also leads HLN’s morning “Election Connection” coverage throughout the 2008 election season.

Prior to CNN, Lui worked at Channel NewsAsia, an English-only news network reaching 21 Asian countries and territories. Based in Asia, Lui anchored major breaking news stories including the 2004 tsunami in Banda Aceh and the 2003 SARS outbreak in Hong Kong. He also anchored live election results for Taiwan’s 2004 presidential election and “America Decides 2004,” the network’s U.S. presidential election coverage. Lui received his bachelor degree in rhetoric from the University of California-Berkeley and holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Cathy Tang is the Chief Legal Officer of KFC Corporation based in Louisville, Kentucky.  Prior to taking on the general counsel role with KFC, Cathy served in a number of legal leadership roles within YUM, including Managing Director, YUM Global Trademarks/IP and Senior Counsel with Pizza Hut, Inc. in Dallas, Texas, advising her clients on a broad range of legal issues, including marketing and advertising, regulatory, information technology and franchising matters.  Prior to rejoining YUM Brands in 2002, Cathy was a senior attorney with Dell, Inc. in Round Rock, Texas, where she served as senior counsel for Dell's Consumer and Global business segments, focusing on new business development, e-commerce, sales/outsourcing deals and marketing initiatives.   She started her in-house counsel career with PepsiCo, Inc. as counsel with KFC in Louisville, and quickly moved into positions of increasing responsibility and influence with assignments in London and Dallas. 

Cathy received her B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and her J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.  She is committed to community service and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Family Place, a non-profit organization that serves thousands of victims of family violence each year with award-winning programs that keep women and children safe.  She also previously served as the 2008 Chair of the Women’s Foodservice Forum Conference Committee, managing a committee of 70+ volunteers in the planning and execution of the 2008 WFF Annual Leadership Conference.  Cathy enjoys cooking, traveling, golf and is an avid Dallas Cowboys fan.  Most of all, Cathy enjoys spending time with her husband and 18 month old son.

Wong Fu Productions first began in 2003 on the campus of UC San Diego. Over the years Wong Fu has evolved from a group of college dormmates and friends to a few boys driven to succeed.

Wong Fu Productions is now a growing independent production company with thousands of hits to this website from all over the world each day. With a fanbase of millions across the US and globe, we work fulltime creating online content, designing for our tshirt brand, and producing with other companies and artists. As emerging artists and filmmakers, we hope to continue to improve our craft, grow as a company, and reach people with our work. First meeting in 2004, the three of us started to work on small projects together. It's hard to find other individuals who share the same visual and creative tastes and goals, and even harder for them to be compatible as friends...but luckily we found it.

Wong Fu was created on a saying that "If at the end of the day there's someone out there who has a better day because of us, then we've succeeded." To this day, that motto still stands. We believe we can have a positive influence in this industry, and on our audience...and if we can do this, then we know we're doing something right.

George C. Wu joined OCA as the Assistant Director in March 2008 and was named Executive Director in January 2009. Prior to coming to OCA, George was a staff attorney in the Immigration & Immigrant Rights Program of the Asian American Justice Center. While there, he helped lead efforts to preserve America's commitment to family-based immigration within the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Debate. George was the recipient of the 2006 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Partners Community Law Fellowship.

George is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he received the Justice Thurgood Marshall Civil Liberties Award for outstanding performance in the field of civil rights and civil liberties. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund and has served on the Board of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center in Washington, D.C. and Equal Justice Works, which funds more than 100 legal fellowships each year.  George serves as the Secretary of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and co-chairs its Civil Rights Committee.