by Susan Palmes-Dennis
The newest president of the Carolinas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce wants to build bridges between communities regardless of race, age and gender preferences.
Clad in a black pantsuit, 35-year-old Filipino American Ann Gonzales said she wants to dig deeper into her Asian roots and bridge the gap between East and West.
Ann, a student of Eskwelahang Munti, is the second Filipino-American to become chamber president after Dr. Nini Bautista. She also has a family and an eight-year-old son and wants to honor her Filipino roots.
She stood tall among those present while addressing last Thursday’s “Meet and Greet the CAACC Leadership Team” at Aldersgate Life Plan Services.
Ann admitted to being surprised after being approached and learning that she was nominated for the post. “We all grow up feeling doubt or uncertain about our abilities at some point in our lives,” Ann said.
She recounted her career journey, starting with her learning about computers at 16 years old. Ann said there was only America Online (AOL) and Netscape at the time.
“There was just dial up and people were just learning how to chat online and Google was not the online search giant as it is today,” Ann said. She recalled chatting with a friend who built her own website.
“I was so enthralled with this that I learned how to code and build my own website. Through the years, I built even more websites but just for fun. It was just a hobby,” Ann said.
This self-taught developer said her first official client was a massage therapist in downtown Matthews. “I charged her only $100 to build her website and back then I still had to develop my skill set,” Ann said.
“On seeing them I told myself 'This is what I want to do. I want to start my own business and be part of this organization,” Ann said.
In 2011 she started her own creative agency and sat on the board of the LGBT Chamber for five years. Ann became chamber president and served her last term last year.
“Being part of a Chamber of Commerce gave so much to me. It boosted my self-confidence. It gave me opportunities to network with people. I felt like I was part if something, a part of Charlotte,” Ann said.
Ann used her position to share her business success and to keep in contact with the community pulse. She said she loved her Filipino roots, having arrived in Charlotte in 1998. Her mother is Filipino and her father is American.
Studying at the Eskwelahang Munti, Ann learned conversational Pilipino, the Philippine national language. Ann said she was also surprised to learn during a training session in Houston sponsored by the Chamber Training Institute that 75 percent of the participants were Asian.
At that time she worked with Susan Allen of the US Pan Asian-American Chamber of Commerce. "I need to connect with our local Asian community,” Ann said.
True enough, six months later she met John C. Chen, Nini Bautista, Nimish Bhatt and the rest of the board at the Carolinas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce.
Through her presidency, Ann wants others to know that self doubt should not lead people to defeat but used as motivation to pursue one's goals in life.
“If you want to start a business, do it. If you want to work with Fortune 500 companies do it,” she said. Ann assured all businesses in the Charlotte community that the chamber will be there to help them.
“We understand because we're also business owners. We operate non-profits. We've worked with the large corporations. We can relate,” Ann said. She also called on those in attendance to build bridges rather than walls in order to help each other improve their lives socially and economically.
“Even if we're different ages, men, women, LGBT, straight, mom or dad and entrepreneurs. We're Filipinos, Japanese, Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese and a myriad of other cultures,” Ann said.
( photo credits Vedant Raval)
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