President - Committee of 100

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Applications, including cover letters and resumes, and nominations should be sent to the attention of G. Angela Henry and Mark Tarnacki at  C100@PhillipsOppenheim.com. 
 

PRESIDENT
 

THE ORGANIZATION: ITS HISTORY AND ACTIVITIES 

Committee of 100 is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, science, technology, and the arts. With a dual mission, Committee of 100’s purpose is to provide leadership and act as a constructive force in promoting the full participation of all Chinese Americans in American society and acting as a public policy resource for the Chinese-American community; and advancing constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples and leaders of the United States and Greater China. Committee of 100 is a Section 501(c)(3) tax‐exempt entity headquartered in New York City with active regional chapters in New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Beijing. 

Membership in Committee of 100 is by invitation only and is limited to U.S. citizens; as of February 2024, Committee of 100 has approximately 140 active members. 

I.M. Pei, the renowned architect, and Dr. Henry Kissinger, the 56th U.S. Secretary of State, first conceived of Committee of 100 in 1988. Secretary Kissinger had discussed with Mr. Pei the idea of organizing an influential group of Chinese Americans to address issues of international concern between the United States and China. Later, in June 1989, Mr. Pei was inundated with calls from reporters seeking his reaction as a prominent Chinese American to the turbulent events in Tiananmen Square. He believed that no single individual could adequately represent the diverse perspectives of several million Chinese Americans and instead envisioned a group of prominent Chinese Americans joining together to serve as a forum and voice for the broader Chinese American community. Mr. Pei subsequently gathered together a core group of his fellow cofounders: cellist Yo‐Yo Ma, industrial executive Shirley Young, and financiers Oscar Tang and Henry Tang. Together with physicist Chien‐Shiung Wu, these co‐founders recruited other distinguished Chinese Americans across the nation from the arts, business, academia, public service, and the scientific and technical communities to launch Committee of 100. 

Since its founding, Committee of 100 has addressed significant issues pertaining to Americans of Chinese descent and to U.S.‐China relations, always on a non‐partisan basis. Committee of 100’s broad programs have included: annual national conferences; educational workshops; Capitol Hill briefings; member delegations to Washington DC, Beijing, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; sponsorship of periodic U.S.‐China “mirror” opinion surveys; mentoring and scholarship programs for young Chinese American leadership development; issuance of public statements in coordination with other leading Asian American and civil rights groups on issues of common concern; and publication of a number of key studies and reports. Many of these issues have had strong public policy implications, including such areas as U.S. foreign relations, trade policy, immigration, public health, educational access and opportunity, civil and human rights, and social justice. 

For more than three decades, through such wide‐ranging activities and materials, Committee of 100 has become a respected and distinctive source of reliable information for thought leaders and for the media in the United States and Greater China. For more detailed information, please see the more comprehensive Committee of 100 website: https://www.committee100.org/. 
 

THE POSITION: PRESIDENT OF COMMITTEE OF 100 

For most of its history, Committee of 100 had only a modest staff headed by an Executive Director who reported to the Chair of the Committee of 100 Board of Directors. The Executive Director focused mainly on administrative functions among the members and between the members and the staff whereas the Chair, together with the Board of Directors, addressed public and policy issues. However, as Committee of 100 took a more active role in both U.S. and international affairs and as Committee of 100’s membership and staff steadily grew, its members believed the organization needed a President as a true chief executive to support the Chair, the Board, and the membership to collaborate with its members on diverse Committee of 100 programs and activities, to speak authoritatively on Committee of 100’s behalf to a wide range of public and governmental audiences, to develop and execute the group’s strategy, to manage the group’s fiscal affairs and development efforts, and to direct and supervise its staff. 

Working on site, the President reports to the Committee of 100 Board of Directors and works closely in coordination with the Chair (who is a Committee of 100 member elected to that role by the entire Committee of 100 membership for a three‐year term). The President also manages the Committee of 100 staff, the majority of which are based in the main office in New York City, with two staff members based in Washington DC. 

The President’s salary would be in the range of $200,000 to 250,000 per year, depending upon the individual’s qualifications and background. 
 

THE PRESIDENT’S ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES 

Committee of 100 desires to recruit a President who will possess the following critical skills and attributes. 

• Visionary Strategic Leadership: The President must understand and support Committee of 100’s dual missions, articulate the value proposition that Committee of 100 brings to its members, and be able to envision, develop, communicate, and execute on this vision via a multiyear strategic plan with the Chair, the Board of Directors, and, as appropriate, the full Committee 100 membership in accordance with those two key missions. 

• Pragmatic Hands‐On Management: The President must have a proven multiyear record of successful direct day‐to‐day staff management and of close collaborative relationships with members of an active board of directors within a nonprofit organization (or other equivalent and relevant organizational, academic, government, or industry background). The President must also be able to set priorities and assume responsibilities for concrete results, effective team and individual performance, clear roles, goals, and schedules, recruitment and retention of key personnel, proper staff incentives and career development pathways, and management of accountability. 

• Pertinent Subject Matter Knowledge: The President must bring to the job knowledge about the history of Asian Americans generally and Chinese Americans in particular and about the history of U.S.‐China relations over the past two centuries. The President must also understand the difficult global geopolitical environment facing the United States and China in the 21st Century, especially in the Indo‐Pacific region. 

• Development Experience: The President will direct Committee of 100’s successful fundraising efforts, working closely with the Chair to instill confidence and harness the resources of Committee of 100 members to increase annual giving and identify additional sources of support including corporate sponsorship opportunities. The President must work well with the Director of Development to ensure stable and sufficient funding for Committee of 100 from all of its members and from other donors on a multiyear basis. 

• Gravitas, Sensitivity, and Credibility in Communications: The President must represent Committee of 100 to government, business, and professional leaders in the United States and China and work and partner with a wide range of other nonprofit groups and associations across Committee of 100’s dual missions as well as with Committee of 100 members and staff. As such, the President must be known and respected across these communities, must have strong interpersonal skills, and must be an effective communicator, both orally and in writing. The President must be able to make clear and persuasive statements and presentations on complex and even controversial topics to diverse domestic and international audiences and the media as well as to the Committee of 100 membership itself and staff, and, equally important, must be able to listen well and to cope effectively with divergent views. 

• Fiscal Prudence: The President must be able to work closely with the Chair and the Board of Directors and particularly with the Chief Financial Officer to plan and manage each Committee of 100 annual budget.  

• Ability to Understand and Harness Technology: The President must understand and utilize modern information technology to advance Committee of 100’s programs and activities, particularly through use of social media and remote communications and operations, given the dispersed locations of the Committee of 100 membership throughout the United States and Greater China and its dispersed staff, as well as the global and often real-time reach and power of such technology. 

In short, the Committee of 100 President must provide thoughtful, articulate, and visionary executive leadership that will be inclusive, transparent, and empowering in a manner that supports and guides the organization’s dual missions as directed by the Board of Directors, while embracing the operating model of a member-driven organization. 

THE PRESIDENT’S OTHER QUALIFICATIONS 

Committee of 100 also expects the President to have these other qualifications. 

• At least a bachelor’s degree, with a graduate or professional degree strongly preferred. 

• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States without any employer sponsorship for such work authorization. 

• Fluency in English, with additional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese strongly preferred. 

• High integrity and ethical standards. 

• Respect for equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

• The ability to travel regularly, both domestically, particularly between the two staff locations in New York City and Washington DC, and internationally, particularly between the United States and Greater China. 
   

Applications, including cover letters and resumes, and nominations should be sent to the attention of G. Angela Henry and Mark Tarnacki at C100@PhillipsOppenheim.com. 

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