Buck Gee - Board Member at Ascend | Co-founder Asian American Executive Program at Stanford GSB

Buck Gee is a pioneer in helping to improve Asian representation in business and technology.  

Buck retired in 2008 from Cisco Systems, where he was Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Business Unit. He joined Cisco with its 2004 acquisition of Andiamo Systems where Mr. Gee was President and CEO. In 2010, he co-founded the Advanced Leadership Program for Asian American Executives, an executive education program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; and he is also a co-founder of the Corporate Executive Initiative, a national network of Asian American executives. 

He teaches executive leadership workshops for Ascend, a pan-Asian professional organization. He is a board member of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation and co-chair of the Donor Advisory Board of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Mr. Gee is a co-founding board member of the Chinese American Community Foundation and serves on the board of Ascend/Northern California, the advisory board of the Asia Society/Northern California, and the advisory board of the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute. 

Previously, he held management positions in engineering, marketing, and business development at Hewlett Packard, National Semiconductor, 3Com, Crescendo Communications, Com21, and Iospan Wireless. He has also taught computer and electrical engineering courses at Stanford University and Howard University. He holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. 

On this episode, I chat with Buck about how his upbringing as one of the few Asians in his community shaped his life, the one thing that has motivated him throughout his career, and the top skill that Asians need to develop to be more successful in their career. 

If you are interested in learning more about Buck's pioneering work be sure to check out: 

• HBR article by Buck "Asian Americans Are the Least Likely Group in the U.S. to Be Promoted to Management" : https://hbr.org/2018/05/asian-americans-are-the-least-likely-group-in-the-u-s-to-be-promoted-to-management
• Buck's research on "The Illusion of Asian Success" published by Ascend: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.ascendleadership.org/resource/resmgr/research/theillusionofasiansuccess.pdf
• Buck's interview on the podcast 'Asian Women of Power' https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-asians-glass-ceiling-in-america-with-buck-gee/id1377363433?i=1000436606339