Outstanding Americans by Choice Recognized During Naturalization Ceremony
MORRISVILLE, N.C., and MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Feb. 16, 2012 – On Feb. 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas will conduct a naturalization ceremony and welcome 20 candidates from the South Bay area as new U.S. citizens. In addition, he will recognize five of America’s immigrant entrepreneurs who are naturalized citizens as Outstanding Americans by Choice.
Ping Fu is President, CEO and cofounder of Geomagic, a leading U.S. software company that pioneers 3D technologies that fundamentally change the way products are designed and manufactured worldwide. Since 2010, she has served on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship board at the White House and has been a member of the National Council on Women in Technology. In 2005, Inc. magazine named her Entrepreneur of the Year. Fu, who describes herself as an artist and a scientist whose chosen expression is business, emigrated from China in 1983.
Christopher Che, who was born in Cameroon, is President and CEO of the Che International Group (CIG) LLC, a multinational holding company he founded in 2005 to create subsidiary companies in diverse industries through joint ventures, strategic acquisitions and alliances. He is also President and CEO of Hooven-Dayton Corp., which in 2007 became CIG’s first wholly owned subsidiary. Hooven-Dayton provides high-quality prime product labels, flexible packaging, promotional coupons and specialty printing solutions. It has two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Dayton, Ohio.
Michael Moritz is a Managing Member of Sequoia Capital. He joined Sequoia Capital in 1986 and has served on the boards of Flextronics, Google, PayPal and Yahoo!. He is currently a Director of 24/7 Customer, GameFly, Green Dot, Kayak, Klarna, LinkedIn, Stripe, and Sugar Inc. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Moritz co-founded Technologic Partners and was a correspondent for Time magazine, where he was the San Francisco bureau chief. While at Time he wrote two books – "Going for Broke, The Chrysler Story," and "The Little Kingdom, the Private Story of Apple Computer." Moritz graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1976 with an MA in History and is an Honorary Student of the college.
Vivek Wadhwa is a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley; Director of Research, Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization and Exec in Residence, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; Senior Research Associate, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School; Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University; and faculty member and advisor at Singularity University. Wadhwa helps students prepare for the real world, lectures in class, and leads groundbreaking research projects. He is also an advisor to several start-up companies, a columnist for The Washington Post and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and writes occasionally for several international publications. Prior to joining academia in 2005, Wadhwa founded two software companies.
Shervin Pishevar is Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, a venture capital fund with over $4 billion under management. Named "Bill Gates’ Worst Nightmare" by the Financial Times, Pishevar is a visionary technology entrepreneur, angel investor, published researcher, start-up advisor and incubation expert, and start-up visa activist. He has raised over $50 million in venture funding for his start-up ventures and invested in more than 40 start-up companies. Pishevar is the founder and Executive Chairman of SGN , one of the leading social and mobile gaming companies. SGN was acquired by Mindjolt, a leading social gaming company on Facebook and the Web.
Past recipients of the Outstanding Americans by Choice recognition include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Elie Wiesel, author, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity; former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao; and the late U.S. Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997.
The first Outstanding American by Choice was selected in February of 2006, followed by Rep. Tom Lantos, who represented most of San Mateo County, in March of that year. Most recently, Anni Chung, Executive Director of San Francisco’s Self Help for the Elderly, became an Outstanding American by Choice on Feb. 16 in San Francisco.
WHO:
- Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, USCIS
- Christopher Che, President and CEO, Che International Group LLC
- Ping Fu, President and CEO, Geomagic
- Michael Moritz, Partner, Sequoia Capital
- Shervin Pishevar, Managing Director, Menlo Ventures
- Vivek Wadhwa, Academic, Researcher, Writer, Entrepreneur
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 22, 11 a.m. to noon PST
WHERE: NASA Ames Conference Area, Building 152 200 Dailey Road NASA Ames Research Park Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
CONTACT: Sharon Rummery, USCIS, 415-987-0191; sharon.rummery@dhs.gov
NOTES: Media are welcome to cover this ceremony. The new citizens will be available for interviews, before and after the event. The Outstanding Americans by Choice recipients and USCIS Director will be available for interviews only after the event.
About Geomagic Geomagic (www.geomagic.com) is a leading provider of 3D software for creating digital models of physical objects. Professionals involved in the design, reverse engineering and inspection of parts and products use Geomagic Studio, Geomagic Qualify, Geomagic Wrap and Geomagic Qualify Probe to shorten time to market and improve quality. Geomagic software is also used in the dental and medical markets to create customized restorations, appliances, prosthetics and treatment plans that help improve patient care. Some of the leading companies around the globe using Geomagic software include Ford, Harley Davidson, Richard Childress Racing, Timberland, Fisher Price, Pratt & Whitney, NASA, Alcoa Howmet, Danaher and Invisalign. Geomagic is based in Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia and partners worldwide.
