Kevin Ha

Board Chair
Kevin is the Founder, Board Chair, and Executive Director of the Asian American Dream. He works closely with internal and external stakeholders to advance AAD’s mission. Kevin is a recent graduate of Skidmore College, where he double-majored in Management and Business and Spanish. Kevin grew up in Carpinteria, California before pursuing his academic, athletic, and career aspirations on the east coast. He is currently based in New York City. 

​Contact Kevin at [email protected]

James Liao

Board Secretary and Treasurer 
James S. J. Liao is president of Salem Consultants Inc., a management consulting firm performing financial and business advisory services. In Taiwan, he is a teacher at Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, teaching conversational English to staff and students. He was an adjunct lecturer at Skidmore College, lecturing on international business, investments, and finance and banking.

He serves as a Director, former Board President and former Treasurer of Flushing Town Hall (www.flushingtownhall.org), Board Secretary and Co-Chair of the Finance Committee for Villa Maria Academy (www.vma-ny.org), and former Director of Asian CineVision (www.asiancinevision.org).

He was a co-founder of a comedy club in Flushing, Queens, NY – Laff Lab (www.laff-lab.com). Previously, he was V.P. and general manager of Crossings TV (www.crossingstv.com) for its stations in NYC and Chicago. Crossings TV nationwide fulfills the entertainment and information needs of Asian American communities providing programming in Chinese, South Asian, Filipino, and Russian.

He served as a senior executive at two non-profit organizations - The Municipal Art Society of New York (www.mas.org) and The Jockey Club (www.jockeyclub.com) and, was President of Christiansen Capital Advisors LLC. He also served as a Director of Fiduciary and Financial Auditing at Siemens Corp., manager of financial and litigation services at Touche Ross (now Deloitte Consulting), and vice president of Asia-Pacific and Europe for Manufacturers Hanover Leasing Corp. (now JP Morgan).

Liao earned his M.B.A. in finance from NYU and his bachelor’s degree in finance (Magna Cum Laude) from Fordham University.

Douglas York

Board Member
​Douglas York is the Manager of the Group Functions IT – Corporate Services US at National Grid. His team is responsible for business partner relationships with many different parts of the business (Legal, SHER, Chief Risk Office, Transformation Office, etc).

Douglas graduated from Baruch College of the CUNY in 1985 with a BBA in Statistical Analysis degree. Douglas has been with National Grid for over 36+ years covering multiple areas within the company. Departments range from Regulatory, Financial Planning, Marketing, Gas Operations and Performance, Finance and now IT.

Douglas is currently the Chairperson for the Asian Leadership Association (ALA) at National Grid and has been a board member for 13 out of 15 years since its existence.

Douglas has been involved with Junior Achievement since 1999.  He started as a classroom volunteer and within 3 years volunteered to do as many as 7 classes in one school year. He has completed over 100 classes over the past 20+ years.  He has co-led the annual bowl-a-thon since 2009 and is one of the main recruiters for volunteers for JA initiatives. 
​
Douglas has been married to Judy for 28+ years and has 3 beautiful daughters, Melissa, Taylor and Samantha.

Jena Deng

Board Member
Jena Deng is a Partner at the Boston Consulting Group where she advises clients in the consumer industry. She has been actively involved in BCG’s Asian Diversity Network since its founding and currently leads its New York City chapter.

Prior to joining BCG, Jena worked in finance focused on the energy sector. She was an investor at EIG Partners and the DB Masdar Clean Tech Fund and an analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Project Finance Group.

​Jena earned her MBA from Columbia Business School, a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School. She is currently based in New York City.

James Cheng

Board Member
James Cheng is the Global Senior Director and Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of Zimmer Biomet. He is responsible for the strategy, development, and growth of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Zimmer Biomet and to drive positive impact for the 20,000+ team members in 25+ countries that services 100+ countries across the globe.

​Prior to Zimmer Biomet, was the Global Director of Inclusion & Diversity and Talent Acquisition at Gilead Sciences Inc. and formally HR Director of Global Inclusion & Diversity COE Business Resource Groups and Business Development at Cargill Inc.

​He serves on the Board of Directors for The Asian American Dream and NAAAP New York. He also serves as an advisor to the Board of Directors for NAAAP Minnesota. The recipient of the Top Healthcare Diversity Officers in 2022 and Top 100 Diversity Officers in 2021 by the National Diversity Council, Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awardee by the Asian American Business Development Center in 2018.