New Chairman of Monte Jade Loves Living in Cupertino

In Silicon Valley, is a highly esteemed nonprofit organization, with an annual conference that always features a high-profile keynote speaker, like this year's James Plummer, dean of engineering at .

Leaders of all have prominent careers. Peter Chu, new chairman of Monte Jade since the March 26 conference, is naturally no exception. He is a managing partner at AsiaTech Ventures, a trans-Pacific venture capital firm.

While people tend to associate venture capital firms with Sandhill Road in Menlo Park, the multi-national AsiaTech Ventures has its Silicon Valley office in Cupertino. Chu also lives in Cupertino.

Chu says he moved to Cupertino in 2002 with his then-newlywed wife.

"When we first got married, she moved from L.A. to live with me in San Francisco," says Chu. "But she missed the warm weather of Southern California, and told me San Francisco was too cold for her. So, we decided to move to the South Bay."

Of all the South Bay cities, the couple picked Cupertino.

"We chose Cupertino, because we saw it as an up-and-coming city, also for its schools," says Chu. "Before having children, I already decided against private school. I wanted to send my children to public school, to give them an education of no entitlement."

Now Chu has two daughters in Cupertino's public school, an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old. He says he is very happy about the education they receive.

"Education is not only in the classroom," says Chu. "I like that they are learning about different cultures from Cupertino's cultural diversity. They are also learning about the value of work not just from me, my wife and their teachers, but also from their friends' parents who are self-made working professionals."

Chu, who cares deeply about education, is highly educated himself. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard University.

Chu started his career in the late 1980s at leading software firms such as Oracle and Verity, which was later acquired by Autonomy, in marketing and technical executive roles.

In the 1990s, Chu co-founded Envive/ReliaSoft, an enterprise and Internet provider of performance management solutions, later acquired by Keynote. He was also co-founder of Channel A, a pioneer in Asia-focused Internet content and commerce start-up.

According to Chu, it was also in the 1990s he began to attend Monte Jade events after his father recommended the nonprofit founded in 1989 as a good place to network with other high-tech professionals.

Chu joined Monte Jade's first business tour group of young professionals to Taiwan, where he was born but left at a young age.

Thrilled by the experience, he became actively involved with Monte Jade and then co-founded a young professionals' chaper of the organization for those under age 35, called MJAA (Monte Jade Asian American Chapter).

Chu was invited to join the board of Monte Jade three years ago and was elected chairman this year.

About his deep involvement with Monte Jade, he says, "Earlier in my career, joining Monte Jade was a way to learn from others about business, opportunities and to start building my own network. But as my career progressed, I came to appreciate the value of contributing to an organization with a worthwhile cause."

Chu says Monte Jade has been devoted to bridging Silion Valley with the Greater China in the past two years, and this effort is in line with the interest of Cupertino.

"Cupertino citizens are globally aware, especially when it comes to making a personal and professional bridge between Silicon Valley and the Greater China,"says Chu.

According to Chu, Cupertino residents take a high percentage of Monte Jade members and board members.

He says, "Cupertino is known for Apple, HP, school districts and ethnic diversity, but lesser known is the fact that many are involved in Monte Jade, one of the leading organizations that is dedicated to connecting Silicon Valley and the Greater China."