Directors & Staff

Howard Zee is the Tax Director at JMG Capital Management. He has over 20 years of experience working with ultra-high net worth families and their closely held businesses, advising on tax planning and compliance. Howard specializes in income, wealth transfer, charitable giving, fiduciary and estate taxes. Howard started his career at Arthur Andersen LLP and was a Principal at Holthouse Carlin Van Trigt LLP. Howard is a Certified Public Accountant who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Masters in Business Taxation from the University of Southern California.

Howard spends two months out of the year in Taipei where the majority of his friends and family still lives. In his spare time, Howard enjoys traveling with his family, trying new recipes in the kitchen, and golfing.

Paul Y. Chen is a practicing CPA and the managing partner and CEO of Chen & Fan Accountancy  Corporation, specializing in financial audits, advisory, and income tax compliance for U.S. business entities, many of which are affiliated with multi-national groups with core operations in the Pacific Rim. Paul has over 30 years of experience in public accounting serving industries such as distribution, property management, banking, manufacturing, biotech, and R&D services. Paul received his MBA from the University of Southern California and his B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also an active participant in a number of community and charitable organizations and currently serves on the  board of the Taiwan Center Foundation of Greater L.A., Taiwanese American Chamber of Commerce, Rosemead City Chamber of Commerce, STUF United Fund, San Gabriel Taiwanese Lions Club, and Genesis LA Economic Growth Corporation.

Chris Chang Dumortier is Executive Vice President in the Alliant Real Estate practice based in Los Angeles. Chris’ expertise is in developing and servicing clients who specialize in Hospitality and Real Estate development, acquisition, management, ownership and operator of limited service to full-scale resorts, entertainment venues, and attractions.

With over 19 years of industry experience as a commercial risk management consultant, Chris has been focused on the unique needs of the hospitality and real estate sector. Building master insurance programs that streamline coverage to produce significant savings for clients, Chris has always maintained that hard work, integrity, quality and professionalism should be the standard in our industry. She strives to lead our industry by providing superior insight on all lines of insurance placement, comprehensive risk management evaluation and consultation, proactive claims management and loss control for her clients. In 2019, Chris’ hospitality program had written annual premium in excess of $40 million.

Chris is the honoree of 2019 Woman to Watch by Business Insurance. The highly-competitive awards program recognizes outstanding women in risk management for their expertise, leadership and accomplishments.

Chris earned her Master’s degree in Public Policy from UCLA. She is fluent in Taiwanese, English and Mandarin. Chris is a licensed Property & Casualty retail broker in California and has non-resident licenses in many other states.

When away from her Alliant responsibilities, Chris enjoys spending time traveling with her family, playing piano and guitar, sailing, and playing badminton.

Patty Chao is a Vice President at Morgan Stanley. She is passionate about her community and giving back to causes that she cares deeply about, helping others and ones that are underprivileged. She is a strong advocate of promoting athletics, fitness, health, and the overall benefits of basketball. As the coach to a local Asian American youth team and captain of an adult team, she believes basketball builds good sportsmanship, discipline, and ethics through a competitive, fun, and safe environment. Through her time coaching the youth team, Patty hopes to encourage youths to take risks and push themselves on and off the basketball court. Patty graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Patty was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. at age of 2 with her parents.

Chun-Yen grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. After received her bachelor’s degree in  Political Science from National Taiwan University, she came to US and received  her master’s degree as well as doctoral candidacy in Public Administration from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the State University of New York Albany.

Prior to her nonprofit management career in California, she taught MPA courses at Marist College as an Adjunct Faculty and worked as a Senior Budget Examiner for the New York State – Division of the Budget, the primary fiscal advisor to New York’s Governor. Chun-Yen currently is the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Community Fund (APCF) and has over decades of professional working experience in non-profit executive management and fund development fields.

As an active volunteer, Chun-Yen has served as a recreation commissioner for the City of San Marino and as a board member of the Chinese Club of San Marino, Taiwan Center Foundation of Greater Los Angeles, and National Taiwan University Alumni Association of Southern California. In 2010, she received “Taiwan’s Top Ten Outstanding Young Person – under Public Administration Category” and received special recognition from the President of Taiwan.

She has received numerous awards and recognitions. For example, in 2004 she received the “Citizen of the Year” Award from Los Angeles Skyline Lions and “Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month – Women’s Issue Award” from California Former State Assemblymember Judy Chu (now U.S. Congresswoman). In 2005, she was selected as a “UNSUNG HERO” by KCET Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In 2006, she received “Chinese Overseas Outstanding Youth Award” from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. In 2008, she was featured by KSCI, LA 18 TV station as a “Community Role Model” and also received “Women of the Year Leadership Award” from the California Former  State Assemblymember Mike Eng in the Women History Month. In 2017, she received the prestigious “Honorary Service Award” from the San Marino United School District Annual PTA Council Founder’s Day. In 2018, she received “Community Excellent Award” from the San Gabriel Valley Civic Alliance. In 2019, she received the “Pioneer of Community Service Award” from the Taiwanese-American Professionals-Los Angeles (TAP-LA).

Shawn Chou is Attorney at Law with the Vida Law Group, APC, an immigration firm that specializes in business and family-based petitions. He has been recognized as “Top Attorney” numerous times by Pasadena Magazine and currently a member of executive committee of the Los Angeles Bar Association’s immigration section. He received his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley and law degree at the Loyola Marymount University.

Sean’s passion for philanthropy got inspired by his own struggles early on in life. After graduating University of Chicago, he had around $100K of student debt from his college and graduate degrees.  He wanted to ensure that students with financial needs within the Chinese American  and Taiwanese  American communities would have an equal opportunity for higher education. It is with this vision that he created Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund in 2014 to alleviate college tuitions of underprivileged students of Taiwanese descent, which has already supported over 100+ students.

Sean has had extensive involvement in the Los Angeles Asian community. For his contributions, he was awarded the “2014 Asian Business Award for Public Company of the Year” from the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the Philanthropy Leadership Award by the Asian Pacific Community Fund. He is particularly passionate about charitable planning, and educating the Han Chinese culture about the purpose of giving back beyond passing their wealth to their kids. Sean believes it is part of his social responsibility to help educate Chinese and Taiwanese Americans more about Donor-Advised Funds and Private Foundations, and eventually pushing them towards public foundations. His lifetime goal is to help set up 5 public foundations to give back to parts of the community that he particularly connected with, and to help strengthen the local Chinese & Taiwanese communities here in the USA.

Mr. Wang is a former Board Member of General Bank, a Los Angeles based financial institution with over $3 billion in assets. He was actively involved in the strategic planning and growth of the Bank and was instrumental in the Bank’s formation of GBC Venture Capital in 1998. Mr. Wang was an active member of the Executive Loan Committee and Community Reinvestment Committee as well as the principal strategist in the successful merger of General Bancorp with Cathay Bank in 2003.

In 2001, Mr. Wang was appointed by the former president of Taiwan to serve as a member of the Taiwan Parliament from 2001-2004. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he participated in and led several delegations on numerous diplomatic and trade missions around the world. Mr.Wang is currently a member of the advisory board for the Taiwan Parliament.

After graduating in 1986 from the prestigious National Taiwan University Law School, Ms. Ken passed the arduous Taiwan Bar Exam on her first attempt and became the youngest practicing attorney in Taiwan at age 22. In 1991, she earned a LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Catherine worked as senior attorney in Lee and Li, the largest law firm in Taiwan, where she represented multinational companies in business transactions and litigation. By 1996, she passed the California Bar and started her own law firm in Los Angeles serving the Chinese American community for estate and tax planning, business transaction, and litigation. Her devotion to the Chinese community in Southern California is reflected by her terms as president of the Taiwanese American Lawyers Association in 2000 and 2001 and involvement in local Chinese American groups and organizations.

Catherine’s unparalleled cross-border legal experience and tie to the USA and Chinese business communities enable her to effortlessly assist clients of multicultural background and those engaging business activities among the U.S., China and Taiwan.