TAIWAN PRAYER BREAKFAST DELEGATION HEAD WU LI-PEI:

UNCLAS TAIPEI 000384 SIPDIS STATE PASS AIT/W E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL TW SUBJECT: TAIWAN PRAYER BREAKFAST DELEGATION HEAD WU LI-PEI: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ¶1. Wu Li-pei, Senior Advisor in the Office of President Chen Shui-bian, was born in Changhua County, Taiwan, in 1934. He earned a B.A. in Economics at the National Taiwan University (1957) and, after his brother was arrested by the Nationalist Government, moved to the U.S., where he later earned an M.B.A. at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas (1969). ¶2. After completing his M.B.A., Wu moved to Alaska, where he worked with the National Bank of Alaska, rising to become Chief Financial Officer. In 1978, he became President of Alaska National Bank, and in 1982 moved to Los Angeles to become Chairman and CEO of General Bancorp. In 1990 he was awarded the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award by the National Association of Investment Companies. ¶3. Wu served as Chief of the Overseas Association for Chen Shui-bian during the Taiwan 2000 presidential campaign, and was made Senior Advisor to President Chen following the election. Earlier, in 1985, he had founded the Taiwanese American Citizen League (TACL),which now has 12 chapters nationwide. In 2001, he founded the Los-Angeles-based Formosa Foundation, of which he is Chairman. The Foundation, he told the "Taipei Times" (August 30, 2002),works to change the U.S. one-China policy and is intended to complement the work of other Taiwanese American organizations, such as the Formosan Association of Public Affairs (FAPA). (Note: The above information was based on open-source material.) PAAL