Who We Are

William J. Amelio is the Chief Executive Officer of Avnet, a global technology solutions company, and he has been a member of Avnet’s Board of Directors since 2014.

Mr. Amelio’s experience includes serving as chief executive officer and president of CHC Group LTD, a global helicopter services provider; president and chief executive officer of Lenovo Group Limited; senior vice president/president for the Asia-Pacific/Japan region of Dell; and leadership roles at NCR Corporation, Honeywell International, and IBM Corporation. Mr. Amelio also previously served on the Board of Directors of National Semiconductor.

Mr. Amelio holds a master’s degree in management and is a Sloan Fellow of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Amelio earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh University.

JoAnne Neidow became involved with CFC shortly after moving to Singapore in 2007.  Initially serving as Director of Finance, Ms. Neidow managed all of CFC’s financial activity as well as internal and external reporting. She established policies and processes, and managed government mandated audits which enabled fundraising in Singapore. Shortly before returning to New York, Ms. Neidow joined the Board of Directors as Treasurer.

Ms. Neidow has 16 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic planning and corporate development. Prior to moving to Singapore, she was the Chief Financial Officer of the Electronic Invoice & Payment Services business in the Global Commercial Services segment of the American Express Company. She also held roles within the finance department of American Express focused on investment optimization and corporate re-engineering. Prior to joining American Express, Ms. Neidow spent four years with GE Capital’s Commercial Finance business as an investment and portfolio analyst performing due diligence on companies seeking financing.

Ms. Neidow holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. She has also completed executive programs at The Wharton School. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and two children.

Michael O’Neill is general counsel and chief legal officer for Avnet, Inc., leading the company’s global legal team. He is a member of the Avnet Executive Board and a corporate officer.

Before joining Avnet in 2016, Mr. O’Neill served as vice president and chief legal officer at Canadian Helicopter Corporation. Previously he held the position of senior vice president and general counsel at Lenovo, and prior to that he was at Honeywell, where during the course of 17 years his career progressed with increasing responsibility encompassing deputy general counsel, general counsel international (Brussels), and worldwide responsibilities for global contract management.

For six years, Mr. O’Neill was a partner at Howrey, Simon, Arnold and White LLP, responsible for client mergers, acquisitions and other business transactions for both domestic and international clients of the firm. In addition, he has served as a member of the board for several organizations, including TRW International, CFC, and currently he is on the board of advisors at ARC Technologies.

Mr. O’Neill received his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Economics from Belmont Abbey College, and his Juris Doctor and MBA in Finance from University of Baltimore Law School. He has also completed postgraduate programs at Duke University and George Washington University.

Jamie C. Amelio is the founder and CEO of Caring for Cambodia (CFC), a non-profit, non-governmental charitable organization that has dramatically changed the lives of tens of thousands of Cambodian children. CFC started in 2003 with the goal to provide Cambodian children education by building a school in the Siem Reap area. That initial goal of one school has grown into a mission to secure a better, brighter future for those children and so many more.

Jamie is a four-time recipient of the prestigious Golden Hand Service Award (2014, 2012, 2010, 2005) bestowed by the Cambodian government to those who give outstanding service to the Cambodian community. She received the award for Outstanding Community Leader in 2015 and the Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2011 from the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce and was named as a 2010 Classic Woman of the Year by Traditional Home Magazine.

Jamie is no stranger to helping children and was a dedicated volunteer long before beginning the Caring for Cambodia journey. She served on the Board of Directors of Vistas for Children in Los Angeles and founded Junior Vistas for Children. She served on the CLASS (Community Leaders Advocating Student Success) and is a member of Leader For Life committee for Lake Travis School District. Most recently, Jamie has founded Staying Bothered, a global movement to help people find what bothers them the most, motivate them to get involved and provide them with the tools to stay committed to affect real, positive change.

Jamie is the author of three books: Graced With Orange, an inspiring look at how one woman set out against difficult odds to change the education of an entire population, and Stumpy the Crocodile, a children’s book about helping neighbors in need. Her latest book, Staying Bothered, Find Your Passion, Commit To Action, Change the World, was released in November 2019. She is also the orator of a TEDx Talk, Be Bothered, Stay Bothered, where she reveals the secret to staying motivated to make a difference.

Jamie and her husband, Bill, lived in Asia for a decade and now make their home in Austin, Texas. They have six children, including two from Cambodia, and one grandson, all of whom understand the importance of “Being Orange” and “Staying Bothered”.

Ryan Chin is the Managing General Partner of The Black Sparrow Group, a global advisory firm providing consulting, placement, and advisory services and specialising in helping Major Asian Family Offices receive top-quality global deal flow. Ryan founded The Black Sparrow Group after witnessing a phenomenal transference of wealth and responsibility in families in greater Asia and after learning that the next generation desired greater exposure to higher quality deal flow & opportunities from their trusted advisors. Initially starting with Asia, Black Sparrow has since extended its services to include major family offices all over the world. Today, Black Sparrow has a platinum Rolodex which includes the heads of some of the world's wealthiest and most influential families. 

Ryan holds various board & advisory board positions globally, including being Chairman of Security & Chairman of IT at Singapore Recreation Club, a double chair position he held as youngest management committee member(2018-2020) in the club's 137-year history. 

As a personal passion, Ryan is active in the Arts & Entertainment scene, being Global Art Ambassador to Dorle Lindner, "The Next Picasso", and Board Advisor to CraveX, an entertainment firm bringing A-list Celebrities to Asia.

He is a high school dropout who hails from the ACS Family of Schools in Singapore and is a member of its Old Boy's Association.

Hong Choing is the Head of Global Partner Ecosystem and Strategic Alliances at Alibaba Cloud, a business unit of Alibaba Group and the top three global cloud platform service providers.  He is a seasoned business and technology executive with 24+ years’ experience working with small and large global companies. Previously Mr. Choing spent 13 years at Microsoft Corporation in strategy and business development leadership roles driving technology adoptions and thought leadership spanning Windows/Xbox/Office/Windows Phone to the public cloud with Microsoft Azure.  Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Choing held a leadership role at Merck Pharmaceutical, ProCaveo, Inc., and was the Principal and Founder of LeviTron Consulting, a professional IT services company.  He loves tech and its positive impact on society.  He is a co-owner of 10 patents in areas of Health Information Technology.

A native of Cambodia, Mr. Choing is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) and considers himself one of the lucky few who was given an opportunity to start new in the USA.  Education unlocks unlimited potentials in life.  The CFC mission is near and dear to Mr. Choing because he is an example of one of those children that CFC is currently helping.  He and his wife Tinara are passionate about doing their small part to give back to the world.

Currently, Mr. Choing serves as a member of the board of Caring for Cambodia, and is a former board member of Pearl S Buck International,  International Spring Festival (ISF).  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Drexel University and is a proud alumnus of Central High School in Philadelphia, PA.

Cuong Do serves as Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer for the pharmaceuticals company Merck & Co., Inc. (known as MSD outside the United States). As chief strategy officer, Mr. Do is responsible for both developing and executing enterprise-wide strategy and further building connections between the current and future business plans of Merck’s franchises, divisions, and functions.

Prior to joining Merck, Mr. Do served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Business Development at TE Connectivity, one of the world’s largest providers of products and solutions that connect and protect the flow of power and data in virtually every industry. Mr. Do also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Lenovo, a global leader in personal computers. He previously was a Director with McKinsey and Company where he helped to build the company’s healthcare, high tech and corporate finance practices.

Mr. Do holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, U.S. and a Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He currently or formerly serves on the boards of Callidus Biopharma; Wuxi AppTec, Shanghai; Fugoo; Profectum Foundation; Celebrate the Children; and the National Youth Science Foundation and is a member of the Tuck MBA Advisory Board.

Christopher Graves was named founding President of the Ogilvy Center for Behavioral Science in 2017 after serving 12 years as Global Chairman, Global CEO, and Regional (APAC) CEO for Ogilvy Public Relations. He also served as a member of the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Board and Executive Committee.

Graves joined Ogilvy after two decades in media and news, including 18 years with Dow Jones & The Wall Street Journal. He also headed all news & programming for the TV networks CNBC Asia and CNBC Europe.

Christopher was awarded a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency in 2016 for his work in behavioral science in communications. He was elected life member to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2010, the most influential foreign policy think tank in the US.

Graves served two terms as chairman of the industry association, PR Council, and as a trustee of the Institute for Public Relations where he co-founded their behavioral insights initiative.

Christopher is an active and highly-rated public speaker. He appears as a guest expert on television news, and as a guest anchor on CNBC. He has chaired sessions with world leaders and CEOs at the World Economic Forum (Davos and Summer Davos in China) for more than a decade. He has also been a speaker at the United Nations, SXSW, The Clinton Global Initiative, the World Islamic Economic Forum, and has keynoted hundreds of summits and corporate meetings.

Awards include: a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency; ESOMAR World Congress top prize; Marketing Research Society Grand Prix; four WPP Atticus Awards including the Grand Prix (for thought leadership); ICCO Hall of Fame; Campaign Asia Hall of Fame; Top 25 Innovator (Holmes Report); Agency of the Year, Asia Pacific PR Professional of the Year, Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year; a news EMMY nomination and more than a dozen awards from The New York Film and Television Festivals and the Asian Television Awards.

Graves contributes frequently to the Harvard Business Review and was a contributing author of three McKinsey books: “Korea 2020;” and the business bestsellers “Reimagining Japan” and “Reimagining India.”

Elizabeth King is an educator with more than twenty years of experience specializing in teacher education and teacher professional development.  For the past twelve years, she has been an Instructional Coach to first-year teachers through the Center for Inspired Teaching Teacher Certification Program, which prepares teachers for careers in Washington, DC’s public and charter schools.  Most recently, she also has been an Adjunct Professor of Educational Research at Trinity Washington University in Washington, DC. She became involved with Caring for Cambodia in 2004 while living in Singapore with her family and played a central role in the development of CFC’s Teacher Training Project, which she continues to support. 

 Ms. King received her education in the United States, earning her MA from the University of California, Berkeley in Educational Psychology and her BA from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. 

Paul F. Randolph is the Director of the Myanmar Joint Peace Fund Technical Secretariat.    The Joint Peace Fund (JPF) is a $100 million peace mechanism funded by 12 international donors to support the nationally owned peace process in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). JPF works to resolve the conflicts that have undermined stability, democratic governance, and economic opportunity since Myanmar’s independence in 1948.   Paul manages the JPF’s daily operations and strategic engagement in support of achieving inclusive peace in Myanmar.  Prior to joining the Joint Peace Fund, Paul served within U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), UN Development Programme, and Palladium focused on improving the human condition.  He has worked for over 30 years executing and overseeing peacebuilding, development, and humanitarian programs in Asia, the Middle East, and Central Europe.  He has lived and worked in Cambodia (5 years), Iraq, Kosovo, Montenegro, Myanmar, Philippines, Serbia, and Timor-Leste.  Paul has successfully directed projects on the ground and from the headquarter offices with proven skill in harnessing the unique strengths of individuals, teams, and organizations to obtain integrated solutions that deliver development impact.   Paul holds an M.A. degree in International Affairs with a specialization in Foreign Policy and Soviet Area Studies from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. in Political Science with a focus on comparative governance systems from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. 

Brent N. Smith is a co-founder and Managing Partner of LevelOne Capital Limited, providing financial advisory, consulting, investment and business services throughout Asia, and Co-Chairman of ASIM Education Limited. He was previously with DBS Bank Ltd, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, where he was Managing Director and Group Head of Corporate and Investment Banking, based in Singapore (2003-2007). At DBS, he was responsible globally for the bank’s corporate, SME and investment banking activities, syndicated finance and private equity.

Prior to DBS, Mr. Smith was the Managing Director, Group Head – Communications & Core Technologies of Pacific Crest Securities, responsible for the firm’s investment banking and corporate finance activities across the sector. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Strategic Development for MegaPath Networks, a US-based communications technology provider. Prior to that, Mr. Smith spent 14 years in Mergers & Acquisitions advisory and Investment Banking at J.P.Morgan & Co, where he completed assignments in New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and San Francisco. In Asia, he held positions of Co-Head of M&A Asia and Head of Real Estate Investment Banking.

Mr. Smith holds an MBA in Finance from UCLA Graduate School of Management and an AB Degree in Engineering and Economics from Brown University. In addition to his role on CFC’s Board, Mr. Smith serves as a Director on the Board of Propel Insurance Company, on the Board of Governors of the Singapore American School, on the Advisory Board of the Center for Global Management at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School, on the Advisory Board of Streetsine, on the Alumni Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and previously on the Boards of the Singapore Maritime Foundation and the Asian Bankers Association.