CITY OF INDUSTRY - The Regional Chamber of Commerce San Gabriel Valley heralded local businesses and recognized the contributions of volunteers and members Thursday night at its annual Awards and Installation Gala.
Hundreds gathered at the Season's Place for the event. Outgoing chamber President Yvonne Yen, who owns Royal Florist in Walnut, passed the gavel to new leader Szu-Pei Lu-Yang.
Lu-Yang, who has served on the chamber's Board of Directors since 2006, is a senior assoiate at Graves & King, LLP in Glendale and Riverside. She lives in Rowland Heights with her her husband Kuo Yang, daughter Jaquelyn and parents David and Angela Lu. She serves on the Rowland Water District Board as the director for Division 5.
She chose "Moving into the Future" as her motto.
"We've been crawling and now it's really time to walk and run," she said. "It's going to be exciting. I want everyone to be involved."
Several awards were given during the ceremony. Puente Hills Hyundai received the 2010-2011 Business of the Year award. Angelica Michail, with Sunbelt Business Brokers, was recognized as the volunteer of the year. Ben Su, of Prosperity Wealth Management Group, received the President's Award for his service to the chamber.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe formerly installed the directors on the chamber's board, emphasizing the need for local governments and the business community to work together to create jobs and stimulate the lagging economy.
"Keep the mission going," he said. "We all know that success is not a destination. It's a journey."
Keynote speaker John Hsu, owner of commercial real estate company STC Management, focused his message on the importance of working together. With the assistance of a young helper from the audience, he took drinks of different colors meant to represent various ethnic groups and mixed them together. When the drinks were mixed, the crowd could not tell one from the other, he said.
He urged business owners of different backgrounds to work together and seek out customers across cultures as a way to grow and thrive.
"Change your competitor into your friend so we can all race up," Hsu said. "We can all get to the top together."
Article from http://diamondbar.patch.com/
By Justin Tsai, Leasing Division
