2024 Inspiring Across Generations

Maria Odiamar Racho is the Founder of Kapwa Capital, a community of diverse angel investors committed to backing underserved yet high-performing entrepreneurs. She also founded BridgeMOR Partners, a strategic advisory firm specializing in organization and leadership development for venture capital, private equity, and family office portfolio companies. In addition, Maria serves as a Venture Partner at Qubits Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on quantum technology and the future of computing. Maria's career spans three decades in Fortune 100 financial services, where she held roles in sales, technology, HR, and finance. Her expertise lies in working closely with executives to shape strategy, strengthen culture, build highly effective teams, develop networks, and facilitate open innovation. Maria has spent the last ten years partnering with intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs, guiding them from startup to growth stages. Maria holds an Executive Master of Science in Organizational Development from Pepperdine University, where she later contributed as an adjunct faculty. Maria completed highly competitive venture capital accelerators, VC Lab, and the 500 Global VC Unlocked program at Stanford University. As a published researcher and speaker on Asian American leadership, Maria actively serves her community as a National ACE Ambassador and as a board member of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago. In January 2023, she was appointed to the Women’s Business Ownership Council by the office of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Rooted in her Filipino heritage, Maria migrated to the U.S. as a toddler, embracing the richness of both her Filipino and American identities. Her personal life is anchored by her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, their two loving sons, and an extended, close-knit family the size of a small village.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Anne Shaw is the daughter of Asian American immigrants. Anne Shaw has lived and worked in the greater Chicagoland area her entire life and is a proud small business owner and attorney. Anne and her husband, Matt, live in Chicago where they are both active with family life and community service. Anne is the founding officer, shareholder and President of Shaw Legal Services, Ltd. Anne’s more than 28-year legal practice centers around taking care of families and the businesses that support those families. Her and her firm’s work focuses on civil litigation in the areas of civil rights, real estate and business. Her firm also handles estate planning, small business representation, and commercial and residential real estate. Anne has been invited to speak to numerous organizations, including the National Association of Women Lawyers, as a Keynote Speaker for DePaul University, United States Postal Service, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and others. In 2008 she was named one of the top lawyers under 40 in Chicago by Chicago Law Bulletin. In 2009 she was named a “Best Lawyer Under 40” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. In 2011, Anne was honored by Chicago Volunteer Legal Services for founding the first pro-bono legal clinic in Chinatown in 2010, which has continuously served thousands of indigent and low-income immigrants for over a decade and for which she is still an integral part of. In 2009, Anne was the first Asian American appointed to serve as a Commissioner on the Cook County Board of Ethics where she served for five years. Anne is an award-winning attorney and recognized nationally and locally for her legal work and civic leadership. She has been named an Illinois Super Lawyer from 2021 through the present and for the past decade has been rated a 10/10 Superb Top Attorney with AVVO.com. Some of her awards include the prestigious Vanguard Award from the Chicago Bar Association; an outstanding pro bono award from Chicago Kent College of Law; and the Outstanding community service award from Cook County State’s Attorney. In 2021, Anne was named a Chicago United Business Leader of Color. In 2024, Anne was awarded a Professional Alumni Achievement Award from Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2022, Anne was invited to serve on Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community’s Redistricting Committee, where she worked on creating the first Asian American majority ward in Chicago. She also served as part of the Voting Rights Act legal team for this purpose. Anne worked successfully with the Committee to help create the first Asian American Majority Chicago City ward in the 11 th Ward which was ratified by the Chicago City Council in May of 2022. Anne Shaw obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree from DePaul University and her Juris Doctorate from IIT Chicago Kent College of Law. Some of Anne Shaw’s civic and bar involvement include: Centers for Conflict Resolution. 2024 to present Board Member IIT Chicago Difference Task Force. 2024 to present. IIT Alumni Board. 2024 to present Board Member. Women of Color Coalition. 2020 to present Co-Founder and Co-Chair. American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. 2016 – 2020 Board Member. Post March Salon. 2020 to present Steering Committee Member Albert and Bernie Wong Senior Living Community Board of Directors. 2020 to present Secretary. United Chinese Americans National and Illinois. Board Member 2018 to present. Asian American Coalition of Chicago. 2016 to present Board Member. Midwest Asian Health Association. 2016 to present Board Member. Impact 100 Chicago Women Empowering Change. 2016 and 2017. Common Cause Illinois. 2016-2017 Member of Development Committee. Cook County Board of Ethics. 2009 to 2015 Commissioner. DePaul University Alumni Association. 2008 - 2013 Board Member; and 2009 to 2011 Secretary. Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership. Class of 2010. Asian American Bar Association. Immediate Past President July 2008 to 2009; President June 2007 to July 2008; Committee Chair Judicial Evaluations 2001 – 2006. Asian American Bar Association Law Foundation. President 2009 to 2013. Currently Board Member Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago. 2008 – 2012 Board Member and Co-Treasurer. Asian American Action Fund of Greater Chicago. Leadership Circle Member. Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Asian Advisory Council Chairperson 2003 – 2011 DePaul University Asian Alumni Association. President 2000 – 2004. East Village Association. Vice President April 2003 – 2004. Board member 2018 – 2021. Lieutenant Governor’s Asian Advisory Council Board Member. 2004 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Executive Planning Committee for the Chicago National Convention 2005, 2019 to present co-Chair of Civic Engagement and Leadership Committee, 2012 Chair of Small/Solo Firm Committee and co-Chair of the business development committee.

Lisa An Wong has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry in Fortune 500 firms. Currently she serves as the Director of Strategy and Operations in the National Banking Group of BMO Wealth Management where she manages the execution of new product verticals, onboarding and credit limit approvals and development of reporting, presentations to senior management and group messages to drive sales growth by improving banker and analyst efficiencies. She previously served as a Risk Officer at Bank of Montreal where she sets the strategic risk management vision in all risk stripes for a $80 Billion balance sheet. Previously, Lisa served as an Associate Director at UBS Global Asset Management where she managed market risk data on the trading floor for a $250 billion fixed income book. As an analyst at the Bank of New York Mellon she assisted in the modeling and maintenance of $85 billion of fixed income securities. At HSBC she was a Senior Analyst where she had governance over derivatives and at Freddie Mac where she analyzed the retained portfolio to suggest trades to rebalance the $13 trillion portfolio for the Chief Financial Officer according to risk limits. She is involved in the diversity, equity and inclusion space for over 20 years beginning with the Organization of Chinese Americans leading into the Whitehouse Initiative of Asian American and Pacific Islanders where she participated in working sessions to create Memorandums of Use to the President of the United States on Asian American Initiatives in 2016 and 2018. The past 10 years she has been a leader of Women Initiatives in various banks ERGs such as Bank of New York Mellon, UBS and BMO. She was the Global Chair of BMO Alliance for Women US and on the Board of Asian Pop-Up Cinema. She is currently the Co-Founder and President of the Chicago Financial Women Alliance, Program Committee Member of Private Directors Association and Vice President of the Association of Chinese-American Scientists and Engineers. She grew up in a family business encompassing over 17 restaurants across the east coast and continues to be an advocate for AAPI Businesses in the community and corporate space. She has her Bachelors in Accountancy from George Washington University and MBA in Finance and International Business from American University.

George Mui is a global strategist and Managing Partner of Global Consultants United (GCU). He develops strategies for corporations, small businesses, government agencies and non-government organizations with a keen focus on domestic and international partnerships and collaboration. Leveraging his extensive global experience, George also serves on the Advisory boards for companies and organizations with an international trade focus. GCU is a Business Consulting Group that provides world-class solutions with a team of collaborating partners. He is also the Chicago Cohort Business coach for the SBA T.H.R.I.V.E program. He is also an executive coach for www.myt.coach. Prior to GCU, George worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce – Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) with ten plus years of public services. He initiated the Global Market Access programs for gaining access to the global markets by leveraging the Diaspora Business Community with special focus on the Asia Market. This approach has also been adapted into the U.S. National Export Strategy. His innovative programs earned George two MBDA National Director Awards in 2010 and 2017. George served as the Senior Advisor for The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) from 2014 – 2016 where he served as the business liaison for AAPI businesses for both WHIAAPI and MBDA. He was responsible for the Business and Economic Development portfolio providing access to federal resources in this area. He initiated 5 major programs that are still active today: “Doing Business in Asia”, “New American Business Boot Camp”, “AAPI Construction Advocacy”, “National AAPI Business Summit” and “National AAPI Leadership Summit”. He also led multiple trade mission to China and the Presidential Trade Mission to the Philippines in 2015. Before joining MBDA, George Mui served as SBA’s Small Business Development Center Director at the Asian American Alliance where he provided consulting services to small businesses in Chicago, IL. He was also the president of New World Connections, Inc., an independent consulting company specializing in international business development and professional training. He completed a successful career at ATT Bell Labs & Lucent Technologies that spanned 19 years as a software engineer, network architect, project manager, and finally as the Product Management and Marketing Director in the Data Communication Unit where he grew his business unit from $120 million to $400 million in 3 years. George is a community advocate with special focus on Asian American advocacy. George is the founder and moderator for the Asian American Executive Network (AAEN) since 2013 – a national wide advocacy group Asian American professionals and entrepreneurs that grew to 2,000 strong with online presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and WeChat. He served on the OCA National Board from 2009 to 2012. He completed two successful years as the OCA-Chicago Chapter president in 2010 and 2011 where he initiated the OCA-Scholarship fund raising $100,000 in 5 years, OCA-Chicago Mentoring for Asian American Professionals, the Asian American Community Leadership Summit, and the Asian American Business Expo, all are first in Chicago. George has been inducted to the Asian American Hall of Fame in Chicago for his community services in 2011 and received the Asian American Coalition of Chicago Chinese American Community Service Award in 2016. George also received the Asian American community service award from the Illinois Cook County Treasurer’s office in 2016. In 2018, George was awarded the Community Leadership Award by the Midwest Asian Health Association of Chicago. He was also awarded the Community Leadership Award in 2024 by the Multicultural Education Group in Elgin, IL. He is currently serving as the Vice Chair of the IIT Alumni Board. He is also serving as an Advisory Board member for the SUAPO at Kennesaw State University. George has a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. He also completed Executive Education programs at Stanford University in Marketing and Business Management. George is married with two children and two grandchildren.