Alan K. Tse: Leveling the Global Playing Field
Alan K. Tse, general counsel of LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc., views success as something relative. In his eyes, he has yet to equal the accomplishment of his parents, who sacrificed everything to guarantee their sons a shot at making it in America.
Tse’s is a familiar, yet stunning, immigrant success story. It starts with both his mother and father forgoing careers in medicine to flee communist China at the height of its cultural revolution, and later giving up a comfortable life in Hong Kong to offer their young sons infinite possibilities in the United States. When the family settled in San Francisco’s bohemian Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, Tse recalls they were unable to speak English and naturally confused, but “it didn’t matter; the framework for opportunity and what America stood for had been ingrained since day one.”
Seeing his father awaken before dawn each morning to go to his job as a janitor, Tse was hardwired with a strong work ethic at an early age. While an undergrad at the University of California at Berkeley (where Tse earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and political science), he uncharacteristically complained to his father about his hefty load at work and school. The elder Tse, by this time long used to hard manual labor, simply asked his son, “And just how heavy are those books?” Tse got the message.
The same values that inspired his parents to take risks and leave China prompted Tse to head straight for Silicon Valley after graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1997.
“The boom atmosphere of Silicon Valley in the mid-to-late ’90s struck a chord with me,” says Tse. “If a young person had a great idea and was willing to work at it, success was based on merit, as opposed to New York City, where I would have had to bide my time and move up through the ranks.”
“Early in my professional life, I’d seen an entire business cycle from boom to bust, and done numerous IPOs,” adds Tse. “Those skills and experiences make me the type of lawyer I am today. I just turned 34 and am the GC of the nation’s number-two cell phone manufacturer with annual sales of over three billion; that’s opportunity.”
In addition to opportunity and technology, diversity has played a part in how Tse has chosen to map his career path.
“Part of the reason I came on board at LG is because they understand that to be a global company, they need a diverse, global workforce,” says Tse, who relocated to San Diego to head LG’s legal department in January. “There are qualified people of various race and gender everywhere, and smart corporations know they have to get the best applicants for the job based on merit and not color.”
Despite a history as general counsel with technology companies that include Ligos and Centerpoint Broadband Technologies, Inc., Tse confesses that he’s not much of a gadget guy. Rather, it’s the people that attract him to the industry.
“I’m drawn to the type of people who are passionate about technology,” says Tse. “Those who want to revolutionize the way people think and work. They tend to be very successful people with great passion and energy. Personally, being a lawyer and not a technologist, but still being able to contribute to this technological revolution, is just great fun.”
Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.
From the November/December 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®