CARLSBAD, Calif., Jan. 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) is pleased to announce its 2014 Executive Board of Directors consisting of nine of the organization's top real estate professionals from across the United States.
Ivan Choi, 2014 National Chairman, will be leading the AREAA Board with Carmen Chong as this year's vice-chair and Jim Park as immediate past chair. Choi's 16 years of experience spans mortgage, retail loan production, operations, servicing, finance, and technology. Currently, Choi is a Production Manager at Guaranteed Rate, which is the eighth largest mortgage lender in the United States. In addition to AREAA, Choi also serves REOMAC as a board member as well as the National Association of Realtors (NAR) as a member of the presidential advisory group on multicultural initiatives. Vice chair Carmen Chong, with a combined 22 years of experience with real estate and lending transactions, is the broker and owner of CC Legacy Financial. Before becoming Vice-Chair, Chong was recently the President of the San Francisco Peninsula Chapter of AREAA, where she played an instrumental role in expanding membership for the organization.
Choi and Chong will be supported by a well-qualified group of members that have been proven to exhibit the characteristics needed to lead the organization. Such a group is comprised of Immediate Past Chair Jim Park, Founding Chair Allen Okamoto, Secretary/Treasurer Andrew Le, International Committee Chair John Wong, Chapter Development Committee Chair Vicky Silvano, Policy Committee Chair Tom Truong, and Member Services Committee Chair Aaron Yu.
The new board will focus on strengthening leadership within the organization, increasing international business networks for its members, as well as expanding membership to include a number of cultural groups. "The board has laid out an ambitious set of goals", remarked Ivan Choi, "I am both confident that we can work together to accomplish these initiatives and excited for what this year has in store for AREAA."
To ensure that AREAA will have a large pool of upcoming leaders, the 2014 Executive Board is making leadership training a top priority. The organization will offer a number of training sessions to proactive members that will provide them with the leadership skills needed to successfully serve AREAA's membership. Choi added, "Our organization is undergoing impressive expansion. We have seen the number of chapters increase steadily in the past few years. With that in mind, we are looking to actively mold some of our younger members to rise up and take leadership positions in these chapters".
In addition to enhancing leadership opportunities, the board has coordinated a number of events and initiatives that will enhance the organization's reach in critical areas of real estate. Currently, the board is making arrangements for its annual Global and Luxury Summit that will be held this spring in New York City. Vice Chair Carmen Chong remarked, "The Summit will offer a number of important workshops and sessions so that our attendees can really get a sense of the direction that the international and luxury real estate markets are going. Additionally, the networking events we will be offering can really augment the clientele network of our individual members". In addition to this event, the board is also coordinating for the 2014 AREAA National Convention which will be held at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas this September. The board also plans on conducting numerous trade missions to countries of the Asia-Pacific region throughout the year in order to connect its membership to important foreign developers and associations in the area.
AREAA is a non-profit trade association of real estate professionals who serve the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. The organization boasts over 30 chapters as well as over 14,000 members throughout North America and Canada. The goal of the organization is to empower and support real estate practitioners from around the country to provide sustainable homeownership to this community.