Jason C. Wong - Founder & President
Jason founded Asian Corporate and Entrepreneur Leaders in 2006, because he saw a need for a support system to develop leadership and professional growth in the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Mentoring is a key component of ACEL. These higher level mentoring relationships close the generation gap and strengthen the AAPI community as a whole.
As the founder and President, Jason is leading ACEL to become the premier professional organization for AAPI. His goals include encouraging more active participation from members and promoting more collaborative projects and activities with other national AAPI community organizations. He aims to create stronger brand recognition for ACEL through opportunities for increased leadership & professional development, cultural awareness, mentorship and community participation.
National and local organizations have recognized Jason’s commitment to leadership and community, awarding him the National Asian/Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship’s Business Leader Award, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Leadership Award, DLA’s Diversity & Inclusion Leader Award and the University of Arizona Alumni Association Chapter President Award.
Jason has served on multiple national and local boards and committees. He currently serves as Trustee for the Vitalyst Health Foundation and member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Council for Maricopa Community Colleges.
Born and raised in Hong Kong. Jason moved to the United States when he was 13. He attended the University of Arizona and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. While a student at the U of A, Jason founded the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs.
Faye Ferguson - Chairwoman of the Board
Faye Martha Ferguson is a Vice president and a Reginal Banking Manager for Wells Fargo Bank with extensive experience and management skills. In this role, Faye manages a team providing customer experience and balancing risk in all aspects of banking. With over 15 years of experience in the financial industry. She also serves as a finance chair in AZ Middle East Employee Resource Group and an HR Liasson in Arizona Asian Connection for the bank as she champions diversity and inclusion. Faye is also part of the leadership academy for Southern Arizona and takes championship roles to lead her district.
Faye Ferguson was born and raised in Dumaguete City, Philippines and migrated to the United States in 2007. She graduated from Negros Oriental State University with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. At an early age, Faye demonstrated her leadership skills through class officer positions including president/chair positions of various organizations from elementary, high school and college.
She is also active in the community and a member of the chamber of commerce in Gilbert and Mesa. Faye’s passion to make a difference in the community leads to her interest in ACEL. Believing in the organization’s mission and uplifting the Asian American in the corporate world, she chaired the dynamics of leadership conference from 2018-2021. Faye is looking forward to share her leadership skills not only as a Mentor within the Mentorship Program but as a board member to accelerate the growth of ACEL.
Faye is also a twin mother of Arianna and Brianna whom she enjoys dressing up and live with husband in Gilbert, Arizona. She enjoys planning parties and hosting for her friends and family.
Kim Ho - Director of Community Outreach
There’s no one more passionate about and adept at building community than Kim Ho. A servant leader committed to change, Ms. Ho has built a career rooted in leveraging experience and expertise to make a large-scale, needle-moving impact.
As evolvedMD’s Director of Sales, Ms. Ho helms business development, sales, and outreach to a national portfolio of current and prospective customers while also overseeing program implementation, efficacy, and commercial excellence.
With over 15 years of B2B consultative experience including over nine years in medical sales, Ms. Ho’s considerable expertise draws from roles as a Corporate Development Officer for Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation, Enterprise Development Manager for WebPT, Regional Medical Sales Executive for TeleVox Software, and Western Regional Sales Manager for TP Orthodontics.
Born and raised in Phoenix, Ms. Ho attended University of Arizona and graduated with a degree in Business Marketing. Passionate about serving the community that shaped her, she is a Board Member for the Phoenix Public Library and ACEL (Asian Corporate & Entrepreneur Leaders).
Accomplishments and accolades aplenty, Ms. Ho has been honored and recognized as one of Phoenix Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Business and Community Leaders, featured in 2019 Phoenix 100+Women to KNOW Book + Tribe, as well as ACEL’s (Asian Corporate & Entrepreneur Leaders), and is Member of the Year and a Class 37 Graduate of Valley Leadership Institute.
An ardent lover of fashion, food, craft cocktails and coffee, you would be hard pressed to find someone more enthusiastic about self-care and supporting local businesses than her.
Matt Hum - Director of Finance & Technology
Matthew Mihaylo Hum was born and raised in the Gilbert/Chandler area. He obtained his Finance degree from ASU and later went on to U of A for law school. He started his own law firm in 2011 and grew the firm to 10 attorneys before exiting the law field. While practicing law he focused on complex commercial litigation and corporate transactional law. Matt exited the law field in order to pursue other passions involving technology and other business-related activities. As a result, he partnered with a longtime friend to form Shot Ventures. Shot Ventures is a VC firm focused on raising capital for startups of all sectors as well as providing advisement to founders so they can reach their aspirations without giving up all their leverage.
Outside of helping other founders and startups, Matt himself is a focused serial entrepreneur that takes golfing breaks. His current entrepreneurial pursuit is his data/cloud infrastructure startup. His entrepreneurial goal is to close the financial gap between community members and the businesses that exist exploiting the community members. He is driven to bring collective capitalism back into the technology world.
When he is not building his business, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. They enjoy going to the beach, camping, and any other water related activity.
Matt joined ACEL in 2019. Since joining, he has immersed himself as much as possible in helping ACEL put on events and hopes to continue to help ACEL’s evolution into the future. Seeing ACEL growing in Phoenix and nationwide reminds him of how exciting it is to see Phoenix itself growing into a technological hub and receiving nationwide recognition as such.
Rodney Hu - Director
Rodney Hu is a 2nd generation Arizona native that graduated from Marcos de Niza High School, in Tempe, before going on to earn his Bachelor’s from Arizona State University in Finance. Rodney spent 8 years on Wall Street as an investment analyst in sales & trading for various firms including Bear Wagner Specialists, Bear, Stearns & Co., Goldman Sachs, and Cantor Fitzgerald. Currently, he is the Owner / Operator of the infamous Yucca Tap Room in Tempe and also manages several commercial retail and residential rental properties. He is a founding member of the Arizona Distilling Company, a Tempe-based micro-distillery that produced the first locally distilled spirits in the Phoenix metro area since prohibition. Over the past 10 years, Rodney has been working in the cannabis industry and is involved in several cannabis startups and licensed partnerships in Arizona. He also helped launch popular brands such as Vital Infusions and Grand Daddy Genetics and worked with state and local regulators to allow extractions in the state. Rodney was also named one of the top 100 tastemakers by the Phoenix New Times and serves on several boards including the Tempe Sports Authority Foundation.
Philip Kim - Director
Phil Kim, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP®, CRES is the Managing Director and a founding member of Signature Wealth Concepts.
Phil is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and spent several years running restaurants in Boston before turning to his current company in 2002. He holds FINRA licenses 7, 66, and 24, along with Life and Health Insurance in multiple States. In 2014, Phil was recognized by the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management as an inductee into Beta Gamma Sigma, a national honorary society for high-achieving business members. In 2016, Phil was nationally recognized as an NTSA Elite Advisor, awarded to only a handful of advisors in the industry based on professionalism, integrity, and leadership.
Phil has served on multiple leadership committees during his career, both within the firm and also within the industry. He has been a frequent main platform speaker over the years, presenting on subjects such as business strategies, career advice, financial planning, and motivational topics.
Phil focuses on providing unbiased guidance to investors seeking advice about their financial situations, with the objective of being their trusted advisor through providing thoughtful advice regarding any financial issue that may arise. His firm develops specific strategies for Main Street families to High Net Worth households, with the goal of minimizing taxes, accumulating and protecting assets, and maximizing growth and transferring wealth.
Originally an East Coaster, Phil has resided in in the warm State of Arizona with his wife and two children since 2008. When he is not in front of clients, you might find Phil playing golf or hiking with his family in the mountains that surround Phoenix.
Nicole Lei - Director
Nicole is born and raised in Macau. She currently serves as the Sales and Marketing, Hotel Information System Manager at GreenTree Hospitality Group after graduating from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. She manages 20 of the group’s hotels in their sales & marketing efforts and supports the new hotel chain to adapt and adjust from the great success story from GreenTree China. Being raised in the “Las Vegas of Asia,” Nicole’s passion in hospitality brought her to Las Vegas to learn and experience from the city that originated modern opulence and high-end customer service.
In the past seven years, she rotated in different fields, including Hotel Operation, Sales, Food & Beverage, and Casino Marketing. Nicole’s greatest passion is to “Build Things”, just like her father, who started a construction business from nothing. With her exceptional execution and interpersonal skills, she was selected to be part of the Casino opening team to establish casino marketing plans and operation procedures. In 2017, aside from working in a major hotel chain, she participated in a restaurant startup project and successfully grew the business as the Top Korean Restaurants in Las Vegas.
Not only is Nicole hardworking at work, but she also dedicates her time volunteering with local communities and organizations. Nicole first joined ACEL through the ACEL – Thunderbird chapter as a board member. During her free time, she enjoys cooking and trying new recipes.
Khamsone Sirimanivong - Director of Public Relations
Khamsone Sirimanivong immigrated to Arizona from Laos in 1981 and grew up in Central Phoenix. She studied architecture at Syracuse and Arizona State University; and fashion design at FIDM in San Francisco and Phoenix College. Professionally she has worked in marketing and public relations in various industries including finance, land conservation, government, tourism, media & film, community healthcare, real estate, property management and technology. She once owned a clothing and gifts store on Route 66 in downtown Flagstaff. Most notably while working in tourism, she was appointed Film Commissioner for Flagstaff and Northern Arizona by the Governor’s Office.
Currently she is President of Arizona Costume Institute at Phoenix Art Museum, whose mission is acquiring and preserving garments and accessories of historic and aesthetic significance. Passion for community has influenced most of her adult life. She serves on the Board of Legacies of War, advocating to address the impact of conflict in Laos during the Vietnam War-era, including removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO), and on the Board of Skykids, Inc, building self esteem and confidence with special needs children through the unique experience of flight.
When Khamsone is not browsing a museum or serving her community, she enjoys vintage-shopping, collecting books, concerts with her teenage son and moonlighting as an artist. She aspires to be a writer and share her family’s Asian-American experiences.
Dr. Hui Wu-Curtis - Director
Dr. Hui Wu-Curtis – Hui has over 25 years of leadership experience in various executive roles. She is the Co-Founder and COO of SupportU, a global business process outsourcing (BPO) company founded in 2021, focused on its mission of employing and developing people in our underserved communities. By providing the diverse workforce with a culture and work environment that celebrates and leverages diversity of thought and innovation, SupportU allows its employees to deliver outstanding customer experience to clients and their customers. Dr. Wu-Curtis holds a doctorate degree in Business Administration from Trident University International, along with an MBA and Bachelor’s in Communications from San Diego State University.
Varesh Chaurasia - Director
Varesh Chaurasia MBA, MHA,- Varesh has been instrumental in changing the healthcare landscape in Arizona. Varesh has over 20 years of professional experience in healthcare, consumer credit and the real estate industries. In 2007, he co-founded 4C Medical Group with his late brother, Dr. Vishal Chaurasia, and grew the business from a 4-physician group to one of Arizona’s largest integrated primary care groups providing care to the community. In 2019, Varesh spearheaded the successful acquisition of 4C Medical Group by Optum, one of the country’s largest integrated healthcare delivery organizations and the leader in value-based-care. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Optum Arizona focusing primarily on strategic growth within the market. Varesh has also held board of director positions at the Rotary Club of Scottsdale, USTA Southwest and Arizona Bank and Trust, and is an active member of the Arizona College of Healthcare Executives.
Jack Liu - Director
Jack Liu – Jack was born in Taipei, Taiwan and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents at the age of 3. He has spent most of his life in Arizona and is a University of Arizona alumnus with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Economics. With extensive experience in software development, Incentive Compensation Management, and the implementation and delivery of compensation solutions – Liu is an innovator that is passionate about solving business problems through technology and automation. Liu founded ProCARE Portal in 2014, drawing upon his consulting and industry experience from various Fortune 100 and 500 companies across multiple verticals to develop a disruptive technology solution specifically aimed at the healthcare provider compensation market. His visionary leadership has shaped a platform that will optimize and advance incentive compensation delivery in the ever-changing landscape of the healthcare industry. Outside of running ProCARE Portal, Liu is an Ironman triathlete that leads an active lifestyle and likes to spend time with family and his Blue Heeler mix, Molly.