Benjamin Hum, President

Benjamin Hum is one of the founding partners and serves as Chief Operating Officer of Xystar Technologies where he plays a key role in overseeing strategic partnerships, International corporate development, and operations. As a premier social media specialists and application service provider, Xystar Technologies prides itself in providing innovative solutions that radically redefine the concept of online vertical communities.

In 2000, Benjamin co-founded the North American Association of Asian Professionals-Toronto (NAAAP Toronto) and currently serves as President. As one of the fastest growing Canadian Chapters of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, NAAAP Toronto is a non profit association with a focus on fostering leadership, community involvement and workforce diversity awareness. Benjamin is also a member of the advisory committee for Enterprise Toronto, City of Toronto Economic Development Office and the Progress Career Planning Institute Cultural Intelligence Advisory Council.

Benjamin's most recent prior experiences include being co-founder of Global Connexxions Inc. and was awarded the 1998 Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurship Best Business Startup Awards. As co-founder of United Nations Trade Point Toronto in 1999 (Member of the Trade Point NAFTA Forum, Member of the Inter-American Trade Point Forum, Member of the Technical Task force for the United Nations Inter-American Trade Point Forum, Member of the United Nations Global Trade Point Network), Benjamin was involved with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and played a critical role in fostering the efficiency of world trade with industry partnerships and integrating electronic commerce technology.

Daryl Ching, Vice President of Operations

As the founder of the Young Professionals Association of Canada (YPAC) and president for five years, Daryl Ching is well positioned to hit the ground running in his role as Vice President of Operations at NAAAP Toronto. Along with seven other individuals, Daryl launched YPAC in July 2003 securing $30,000 in sponsorships from RBC and Ogilvy Renault. YPAC was focused on the professional development of young professionals through networking, education and community involvement. Daryl expects to leverage his contacts and his management experience to grow NAAAP Toronto.

Through his wealth of experience in the financial industry, Daryl is a well recognized expert in Canada on securitization and has extensive knowledge of the hedge fund industry. Daryl has given presentations at various conferences that include the recent asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) debacle, structured finance, the hedge fund industry and current distressed debt investment opportunities.

Daryl began his financial career at RBC Capital Markets, where he structured and executed multi-billion dollar credit card receivable, residential mortgage, and equipment and auto loan and lease transactions through the issuance of term asset backed securities (ABS) and short-term asset backed commercial paper (ABCP). Daryl later moved to Coventree, which was the largest non-bank ABCP issuer at $16 billion outstanding.

In response to the ABCP debacle which is now recognized as Canada’s largest financial crisis, Daryl launched his own consulting firm to fill the void and educate investors on these complex products. Clarity Financial Strategy provided insights on the $32 billion, 18-month long restructure that was recently completed which involved numerous counterparties and escalated to the Supreme Court of Canada. Clarity’s clients included several corporate noteholders of ABCP, as well as Canaccord, who hired Clarity to provide consulting to 1,400 retail clients. During the restructure process, Daryl ran a blog that was updated four times a week, was quoted in numerous media sources such at the Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, the Financial Post, Reuters news wire reports and Risk Magazine and made about 20 appearances on BNN.

Daryl Ching is currently the Vice President of Canadian Hedge Watch, Canada’s leading educational and media organization promoting the alternative investment industry in Canada and providing informational access to the Canadian marketplace. Daryl currently educates the investor community with topical webinars, conference presentations and a monthly appearance on the Business News Network (BNN).

Gregory Chang, Treasurer

This is Greg's fifth year with NAAAP Toronto. Greg graduated from the University of Waterloo and articled with PricewaterhouseCoopers to become a Chartered Accountant. He is currently Manager of Financial Reporting for Corus Entertainment's Radio Division. Last summer, Greg was a Neighbourhood Champion runner at the 2007 Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon.

"With NAAAP, I'm always meeting someone interesting or learning something new. The board always has fantastic energy and NAAAP members come from all kinds of professions and experiences. Sometimes it's easy to forget that the group also has a strong community voice, which I've really come to appreciate."

Ed Joaquin, NAAAP National Representative

Ed Joaquin organizes Canada's Largest Asian festival, Taste of Asia in Markham, Ontario. The festival was founded in the summer of 2003 as a band-aid solution to the SARS crisis in Canada, which helped revive the downturn in the local economies in Markham and York Region. Ed Joaquin was inspired to join the special events industry as a student at St. Elizabeth high school in Thornhill, Ontario in 1991 organizing hockey and sports collectable card shows as a hobby. The hobby grew to one of the largest networks of memorabilia touring shows in southern Ontario by the time he graduated. Opportunities continued during the charity casino industry expansion in Ontario when Ed began helping charities organize fundraising campaigns, raising millions of dollars for charities.

In the mid 1990's Ed was attracted to the tiger economies of Asia, apprenticing with the largest special events companies, entertainment venues, touring concerts companies, festivals and became a brand advisor on many below the line marketing campaigns for advertising agencies in Southeast Asia. After 6 years of hands on training and mentorship overseas, Ed moved back to Canada to pursue his passion for community advocacy and political outreach and continues to organize and serve as a board member and fundraising advisor to over a dozen community organizations in Canada including the Markham Arts Council, North American Association of Asian Professionals, Federation of Chinese Canadians in York Region, Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Toronto, Canada-Philippines Association, the Centre for Dreams, Fiesta Canada’s Multicultural Day’s World Potluck Fiesta, Helping Homeless Pets’ Barkham Dog Show, Markham District Veterans Association, Social Services Network’s Health Fair, the Liberal Party of Canada, chair of the annual Markham Village Music Festival, and founder of the FCCM Diversity Job Fair.

Ed Joaquin studied culinary management at Humber College and apprenticed in restaurants in Metro Manila, Philippines. He resides in Markham, Ontario and is a member of the Markham Board of Trade, the Knights of Columbus, Markham District Veterans Association and is a partner at Asian Global Media Inc.

Matt Tham , Director of Marketing

Matthew is a graduate from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, where he has worked in a variety of industries during coop placements at Hydro One Networks, and Petro Canada. Upon graduation, Matthew made a career transition from engineering into marketing and is currently employed at Bell Mobility as a Pricing Specialist. In his marketing career, Matthew hopes to strengthen his business acumen in order to ulitimately move towards his goal of working in strategy and corporate development. Since joining Bell Mobility Matthew has developed his marketing skills, and brings professional experience as well as leadership to NAAAP Toronto's marketing committe.

Last year Matt was a Neighborhood champion runner at the 2008 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and will participate in his second run in 2009. He is currently studying accounting at Ryerson University on his way towards a Cerficate in Mangement Accounting.

Jennifer Diana Lee , Director of Community Relations

Jennifer Lee is currently working towards her CA designation at Deloitte after successfully completing the UFE in 2008. She graduated from the Rotman Commerce program at the University of Toronto in 2007 with a Bachelor of Commerce and a background in human biology. Jennifer's current position in the Private Company Services group at Deloitte allows her to develop an in-depth financial, organizational and operational insight of companies in various industry sectors through providing assurance, tax and advisory services to a broad range of clients.

As the Community Relations Director, Jennifer will lead and coordinate all philanthropic and cultural endeavours through managing and executing fundraising programs and initiatives. She will work to establish and maintain a greater NAAAP presence in student associations, young professionals and community affiliations in order to provide members with cultural awareness and a variety of volunteer opportunities aimed at benefiting the Asian community.

Jennifer is passionate about giving back to her community and being a positive influence to those around her. During her studies in Rotman Commerce, Jennifer was the Beyond Business Volunteer's Director. In this role she promoted the philanthropic spirit in the student body by coordinating volunteers with community charities. Notably, she captained the CIBC Run for the Cure team, raised over $1000 for Variety-The Children's Charity through a winter carnival, and participated in Habitat for Humanity. She also currently volunteers with Junior Achievement, participates in the United Way drive, and is an active alumni volunteering time to mentor students from her alma mater.

Jillian Lin & Michelle Xu , Director of Mentorship

Michelle Xu and Jillian Lin have recently joined NAAAP as the Co-Directors of Membership. In this role, they will lead and coordinate all membership recruitment and retention strategies, with a mandate to broaden the membership base of NAAAP Toronto and enrich its value to existing members.

Michelle and Jillian both recently graduated with an Honours Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Jillian is currently pursuing her CA designation at Deloitte in the Tax Management Consulting group, while Michelle is an Analyst in the Securitization Finance group at RBC Capital Markets. These experiences have enabled them to build a breadth of working knowledge in the area of accounting and finance. Moreover, during the summer of 2007, Michelle and Jillian had the opportunity to experience working for leading financial institutions overseas in Shanghai, China, allowing them to experience first-hand the rising importance of Asia on the global economy.

Michelle and Jillian have always been actively involved in the community. Jillian acted as the Events Coordinator for a local charity - Single Women in Motherhood training program while studying in London, Ontario. Jillian successfully organized the first fundraising Art Show which brought together aspiring local female artists and the general public. Jillian was also involved with the Hong Kong Concern club in Western as the Finance Director in which her team broadened the sponsorship base. Michelle was the Vice-President of External Affairs at Western's Chinese Students and Scholars Association, where she liaised with the local community and other student entities. She also regularly organized tutoring sessions by pairing up university students with elementary school students. Through joining NAAAP, Michelle and Jillian hope to bring on board their experience and expertise to promote Asian professionals' leadership in the North American work place.

In their leisure time, Michelle and Jillian enjoy sailing in Lake Ontario.

Sherman Kong , Director of Professional Development

Sherman acquired a mixed background of experiences having been involved in the electronics design and Business Intelligence services industries in his past. With a Bachelor degree of Electrical Engineering from University of Toronto, he was a qualification engineer intern with AMD (formerly ATI Technologies, Inc.). Upon graduation, he realized his wishes to expand on his business etiquette and social networking skills further which ultimately facilitated his decision in joining the consulting profession. He recently transitioned out of Business Objects SAP as a former consultant with specialization of solutions in the Information Discovery and Delivery (IDD) vertical, to opt for another role that offers more opportunities in leading the practice. From having serviced clients across CPG, finance, manufacturing, energy distribution, pharmaceutical and media research sectors, he hopes to bring aboard NAAAP his passion and knowledge in similarly assisting members achieve their own career-progression goals as well as professional maturity.

As Director of Professional Development, his main focus is towards the management and initiation of professional development components within NAAAP Toronto not limiting to cultural, personal, and professional development-related workshops, roundtables and speaker functions. He also places collaboration with the Mentorship Committee as well as relationship building with corporate partners and other chapters to foster new programs as other priorities. His prior volunteering experiences include assisting in fund raising events hosted by CICS (Center for Information and Community Services), evaluating sponsorship eligibility from non-profit organizations wishing to seek Business Objects SAP's financial contribution, involving in Green Committee to raise environmental awareness within the same company, as well as holding executive positions from different publications at the University of Toronto during his undergraduate period.

Siew Ling Chow , Director of Web Technology and Creative Designs

Siew Ling is a graphic designer with a passion for interactive technology who provides smart, creative solutions for a diverse range of industries. Her aim is to leverage innovative strategies combined with the right web technology to implement the solution which make the clients look amazing. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), from the Communication and Design program.

Her involvement in NAAAP has provided opportunities to work with some of the greatest minds in North America and exploring new technologies. Siew Ling currently leads the initiative to implement the new web site and all brand presence for the Toronto Chapter.

Albert Ho, Chair of the Silk Road Gala and Co-Chair for the NAAAP Toronto bid for the 2013 NAAAP Convention

Albert Ho has been a NAAAP Toronto Board member since June of 2006. Who has functioned as NAAAP Toronto Nation Representative, and is currently chairing the Silk Road Gala and the 2013 NAAAP National Convention Bid.

He has attended the following National Conventions: 2002 Boston, 2003 Toronto, 2005 Chicago, 2006 Seattle and 2007 Atlanta. He currently serves on various committees including 2008 Convention Sponsorship COmmittee, 2008 Leadership Retreat Planning Comittee, 2008 NAAAP Values Commitee.

He is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Ryerson University in Toronto. His career interests include health informatics, emergency room and mental health.