Community Leader, Businesswoman, Parent
Virginia represents the “American Success Story” that has made our country “The Land of Opportunity.” Her parents emigrated from China to the U.S. in 1956. By 1982, Virginia had graduated from high school and was considered one of the best young pianists in Texas. She entered the University of Texas at Austin and earned her degree in Government with a Minor in Economics. She then embarked on a law degree, with a clerkship with the California Attorney General’s Office, but quickly realized that a business career was more alluring. During the next 15 years, she worked with several of the nation’s leading financial institutions, including Drexel Burnham Lambert, Alex. Brown & Sons, Bear Stearns, and PaineWebber, concluding at the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Since 2002, she has focused her time on her family and community organizations as a past board member of The Tech Museum of Innovation and the Asia-America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA), a current board member of Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, President of the Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, President of the Las Lomitas PTA, and a sustainer of the Junior League of Palo Alto*Mid-Peninsula. These volunteer opportunities have enabled her to work with people in a nonpartisan way to benefit children, engage businesses to be involved with community service, and create fiscally responsible solutions, such as building public-nonprofit partnerships.
Virginia is married and a mother of two boys, both of whom attend public schools. Her husband, Ken, is an entrepreneur and software architect. For fun, she owns and operates a small business designing high-quality customized knitted accessories.
Fifty years ago, my parents came to the United States and became American citizens to live a better life and, later, helped my grandparents to do the same. At an earlier time, my grandparents helped their fellow countrymen escape the communist regime in China. Throughout their lives, my parents helped many Chinese students who studied at the University of Texas to integrate into American life and have been a positive presence in the community. My family has lived the "American Dream" and helped others to achieve that same dream. For generations, my family has supported our communities and always had high expectations of my brother and me to do our best and leave a better future for the next generation. I am happy to be able to use my business experience and apply it to make my community better, and I am proud to be able to pass muster with the California Secretary of State's office and earn my ballot designation as "Community Volunteer." Below is a snapshot of my background. I hope it helps you to get to know me better.