PABLITO ALARCON Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2005 Athens, Greece

Past President of the Philippine Association of Metropolitan Washington Engineers (PAMWE) . As past Chairman of the PAMWE Scholarship Committee, he initiated and implemented the Endowment Fund for all PAMWE scholars. He is a member of the 2004-2005 Board of Directors of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Washington DC. With his wife Teresita R. Calderon, he founded the FEED THE HUNGRY,(FtH) Inc. in 1993.

ELAINE L. CHAO Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2002 Washington DC

Elaine L. Chao was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 29, 2001 as the nation's 24th Secretary of Labor. She is the first Asian American woman appointed to a President's cabinet in U.S. history. When President George W. Bush nominated Secretary Chao, he described her as an individual with "strong executive talent, compassion, and commitment to helping people build better lives." A dedicated champion of the nation's contemporary workforce, Secretary Chao is focused on carrying out the Department of Labor's mission of inspiring and protecting America's workforce. She has also focused the Labor Department on preparing the workforce to maintain our nation's competitiveness in the 21st Century. Secretary Chao's commitment to helping others stems from her background as an immigrant. She arrived at the age of eight from Asia speaking no English. Her experience transitioning to a new country — supported by family, friends and neighbors — inspired her to dedicate most of her professional life to ensuring that people have the opportunity to pursue lives of dignity and financial independence. Since assuming office, Secretary Chao has moved swiftly to implement President George W. Bush's agenda to empower workers. Under her leadership, the Labor Department set new worker protection records through targeted enforcement efforts. The Department also championed comprehensive reform of the Nation's publicly funded job training programs, so it can better help dislocated workers. The Labor Department updated the white collar exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which provided millions of low-wage vulnerable workers with strengthened overtime protections. For the first time in 40 years, the Department is enforcing the law requiring unions to file annual financial disclosure forms. This gives rank and file members better information about how their hard earned dues are spent. These accomplishments build on Secretary Chao's record of public, private, and non-profit sector leadership. She was President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of America. In that position, she restored public trust and confidence in the nation's largest institution of private charitable giving, which was tarnished by mismanagement and financial abuse. As Director of the Peace Corps, Secretary Chao established the first Peace Corps programs in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Prior to being Director of the Peace Corps, Secretary Chao had been Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, Deputy Maritime Administrator in the U.S. Department of Transportation and a White House Fellow. Her private sector experience includes serving as Vice President of Syndications at BankAmerica Capital Markets Group and as a banker with Citicorp. Prior to her nomination as Secretary, she was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Secretary Chao received her M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and her undergraduate degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College. She also studied at M.I.T., Dartmouth College, and Columbia University. Secretary Chao has received numerous awards for her professional accomplishments and community service. She is the recipient of 26 honorary doctoral degrees from colleges and universities around the world.

FRANCESCA MONTOYA - CLOSE Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2005 Athens, Greece

Ms. Close is a principal of The Orbis Group LLC responsible for the development of strategic global alliances and partnerships. She has held management positions on the president’s staff of two Fortune 500 companies in the areas of marketing and business development. As founder and chairman of the Alliance of Business Women International (ABWI) she works with elected officials, local government and grassroots participants to address sustainable economic development programs and equitable educational initiatives to help strengthen small business sectors and create a strong workforce throughout global communities.

Within the United States she has received support and recognition from the White House, Small Business Administration, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, and state and local government, and the Commission on the Status of Women. In Washington D.C. she was one of the four leaders of the E-Commerce Summit hosted by SBA, Department of Commerce and Department of Agriculture which addressed the needs of the public non-tech market, high tech companies and government agencies to create more user friendly technology driven programs. She is often asked to represent the U.S. as a delegate and speaker where she interfaces with the United Nations, USAid, UIA, World Bank and the Women’s World Bank in addressing programs that reflect the changing needs of the global economy.

ANTONIO DAVID Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2005 Athens, Greece

Antonio David is currently based in Istanbul, Turkey as Manager for Portfolio and Credit-General Manufacturing for Southern Europe and Central Asia of the International Finance Corporation, the private sector affiliate of the World Bank. He is responsible for a portfolio of over US$ 1.0 billion in 15 countries.

DING LEE, M.D.  Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2005 Athens, Greece

Dr. Lee has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He has been recognized for his pioneering research and dynamic leadership in the field of applied mathematics and related areas of applied numerical methods, computational ocean acoustics, and supercomputing. In addition to his scientific research and mentoring, Dr. Lee has unselfishly contributed to the acoustic community through his diligent efforts in organizing international conferences. These conferences have provided a forum for active researchers, scholars, and practitioners from around the world to discuss and disseminate state-of-the-art developments and results in various areas of theoretical and computational acoustics.

NORMAN Y. MINETA  Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2002 Washington, DC

Norman Y. Mineta is the longest serving Secretary in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation, becoming the 14th Secretary of Transportation on January 25, 2001.

As Secretary of Transportation, Mineta oversees an agency with almost 60,000 employees and a $61.6 billion budget. Created in 1967, the U.S. Department of Transportation brought under one umbrella air, maritime and surface transportation missions.

At the U.S. Department of Transportation, Secretary Mineta has delivered on the President's historic commitment to safety. During his first four years as Secretary, America achieved the lowest vehicle fatality rate ever recorded, the highest safety belt usage rate ever recorded, and the lowest rail fatality level ever recorded. The Secretary has overseen the safest three-year period in aviation history. In addition, Secretary Mineta was instrumental in persuading every state in the country to set a blood alcohol rate at .08 percent, an alcohol level that has proved to be effective in preventing automobile crashes and improving safety.

Secretary Mineta also oversaw the Coast Guard's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, including developing the Sea Marshal Program, Maritime Safety and Security Teams, and expanding the number and mission of Coast Guard Port Security Units.

Prior to joining President Bush's administration as Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Mineta served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton. He was vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation prior to joining the Commerce Department.

From 1975 to 1995, he served as a member of U.S. House of Representatives, representing the heart of California's Silicon Valley. As a member of Congress, then Representative Mineta was known for his dedication to the people of his district, for consensus building among his colleagues and for forging public-private partnerships. Mineta's legislative and policy agenda was wide and varied, including major projects in the areas of economic development, science and technology policy, trade, transportation, the environment, intelligence, the budget and civil rights. He co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as its first chair.

After leaving Congress, he chaired the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which in 1997 issued recommendations on reducing traffic congestion and reducing the aviation accident rate. Many of the commission's recommendations were adopted by the Clinton administration, including reform of the FAA to enable it to perform more like a business.

Secretary Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced from their homes and into internment camps during World War II. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Secretary Mineta joined the Army in 1953 and served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea. He joined his father in the Mineta Insurance Agency before entering politics in San Jose, serving as a member of its City Council from 1967 to 1971 and mayor from 1971 to 1974, becoming the first Asian Pacific American mayor of a major U.S. city. As mayor, he favored greater control of transportation decisions by local government, a position he later championed in ISTEA.

While in Congress, Mineta was the driving force behind passage of H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which officially apologized for and redressed the injustices endured by Japanese Americans during the war. In 1995, George Washington University awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Medal to Mineta for his contributions to the field of civil rights. In 2003, Secretary Mineta received the Panetta Institute's Jefferson-Lincoln Award for his bipartisan leadership in addressing the nation’s challenges and was selected by the Council of Excellence in Government to receive the Elliot L. Richardson Prize for Excellence and Integrity in Public Service.

JOSIE LIM OLYMPIA, M.D.  Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2005 Athens, Greece

YUSUF HAMIED, M.D. Asian Academy Hall of Fame 2003 Egypt

He is known as the thorn in the side of multinational drug companies. Ever since he announced that his company would sell a triple-therapy of AIDS anti-retrovirals to Africa at a barely break-even cost of $350 per patient per year, Yusuf Hamied, chairman of the Indian generic drug company Cipla, has been on the front lines of what's known as the "Patients vs. Patents" battle.

The company supplies one drug - to stop mother-to-child transmission - free of charge. Cipla has also offered free technology to make anti-AIDS drugs "to state-owned companies in all Third World countries", says Dr Hamied.

Hamied traces his concern for India back to his father, Khwaja Abdul Hamied, an organic chemist who, bitterly opposed to British colonialism, dreamed of creating a great Indian company. After studying chemistry in Berlin in the 1920s, K.A. Hamied returned to India and founded Cipla in a rented bungalow in 1935. When he died in 1972, Yusuf—who has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cambridge University—became its CEO.

TCipla's turnover is $220 million a year, and Hamied's personal fortune stands at $550 million. The company manufactures 400 medications and exports its products to 125 countries. In Hamied's view, this abundance creates a moral imperative to address the AIDS pandemic—even if it brings the wrath of Big Pharma and the World Trade Organization down on his head. "I've nothing against the multinationals," he recently told United Press International. "Let them do what they want to do. I'm doing my little bit."