AIT's New Commercial Section Chief, Gregory M. Wong

PR0640E | Date: 2006-08-30

As the new Chief of the Commercial Section at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Gregory M. Wong assists Taiwan and American companies to find partners and promotes U.S. exports in Taiwan.  AIT's Commercial Section has offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung.

Mr. Wong has been a commercial attache at U.S. embassies in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, and Hanoi.  He was the first commercial counselor (2004-05) at the newly-opened U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.  He arrived in Taipei in July this year.

Mr. Wong served as the director of the Export Assistance Center in his home state of Hawaii, where his grandparents emigrated from Guangdong Province in China.

Mr. Wong has more than ten years of private sector experience, including work for U.S. apparel leader Jockey International, and as the owner of a Chinese antique furniture business.  He also worked overseas as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the African state of Burundi, and as an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rwanda.  He has served as chairman of the board for five orphanages in northern Vietnam, and co-founded a project for training persons in tsunami camps in southern Thailand, providing them with new ways to sell crafts and earn income despite catastrophic declines in tourism to those areas.

Mr. Wong holds a B.A. in marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an MBA from the University of Hawaii, and an MPA from Harvard University, where he was named a Littauer Fellow as one of the top scholars in his class.  In 2005 he received the Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. Department of Commerce, for his work in Iraq.

The AIT Commercial Section is located in the International Trade Building.  Address: Suite 3207, 333 Keelung Road, Section 1, Taipei 110, Taiwan.  Tel: 886-2-2720-1550; Fax: 886-2-2757-7162; Website: www.buyusa.gov/taiwan.