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Media Release – February 24, 2008 The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is pleased to announce that Richard R. Vuylsteke, the former Executive Director of AmCham Taipei, has been appointed as its new President, effective February 25, 2008. He will succeed the outgoing President, Jack Maisano, who has served in that position since February 2005. Dr. Vuylsteke has been Executive Director of AmCham Taipei, Taiwan’s largest and most active foreign business organization, since August 1999, and has the overall responsibility for its advocacy, programmatic, briefing, and other membership services. Prior to joining AmCham Taipei, he spent a year at Taipei American School, writing a history of the 50-year-old institution (Ties That Bind, published in Feb 2000). He continues to contribute articles and commentary to both Taiwan and international publications. Resident in Taiwan since August 1986, Dr. Vuylsteke taught for four years at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute school on Yangmingshan. During that time he became senior editor of the Free China Review (now the Taiwan Review) for 12 years and has written extensively for publications based in the United States , Taiwan and Hong Kong. Dr. Vuylsteke has studied and participated in Asia-related affairs for more than four decades. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Illinois College, with honors in history and philosophy, he spent a year in India as a Fulbright Scholar. He then served three years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer on the general staff at USARPAC and CINCPAC (both commands in Honolulu), where he was chief of the China Desk and, later, chief of the Soviet Far East Desk. On his appointment, Dr. Vuylsteke said, “The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is a strong and effective advocate for cross-border business as well as for business in Hong Kong. It’s a great honor to be appointed as its new President. I am thrilled to be moving to Hong Kong and eager to begin working with members, staff and leadership of the Chamber and the community as a whole.” Specializing in Western and Chinese political philosophy, Dr. Vuylsteke earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Hawaii. He was a visiting research fellow at Harvard Law School, assistant director of an international think tank (the Pacific Forum, now affiliated with CSIS), and a special assistant to the president of the East-West Center. For 12 years, he taught courses in Asian history and social, political, and legal philosophy – primarily at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Vuylsteke is married to Josephine Huei-fang Wu, and they have three trilingual sons.
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