Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF)
skip to secondary navigationGE’s Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF) is dedicated to attracting, developing and retaining Asian Pacific American talent and helping to create a resource pool to lead GE’s global growth. APAF provides its members with the tools they need to cultivate their leadership capabilities and realize their career aspirations.
APAF is one of GE’s many diversity groups, along with the African American Forum, Hispanic Forum, Women’s Network, and the GLBTA Alliance. APAF started as a grassroots organization in 1998 in Schenectady, NY with a kickoff meeting attended by 150 GE employees. Today, GE employs over 9,000 Asians and Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. The 2008 Annual Summit saw over 700 participants during the 3 day conference. APAF continues to grow, and now has over 17 different regional hubs spanning all GE businesses.
Members of the forum seek to provide career development and a support network for APAF professionals, educate themselves on Asian cultures and support the APAF community through participation in local events.
APAF focuses on three key initiatives:
Motivate, communicate, and retain our best people. GE is committed to retaining and developing our best and brightest. We keep our APAF members motivated by continuing to communicate what senior GE leadership is focused on, and how important our employees are to their plans. In addition, APAF leadership is working with local hubs to identify the top APAF talent as part of the Session C process.
Help GE grow, in the U.S. and Asia. With nearly 10,000 APAF members in the U.S., and 50,000 Asians working in Asia, APAF wants to leverage the expertise of its members to come up with creative new ways to drive growth for GE. Today, we are not just focused on top line growth and innovative ways to increase margin, but bottom line growth and identifying ways to drive cost out of the equation. APAF’s annual Growth Competition helps identify the best APAF-generated ideas that can help GE achieve success for years to come.
Help build a great GE brand to the external community. APAF has done a lot with the local communities we work and live in. APAF is focused in two areas: government relations, and community service. In the area of Community Service, APAF will be focused on education in the U.S., and partnering with the GE Foundation to help provide healthcare to Cambodia.
APAF is part of GE’s commitment to realizing the full benefits of the diversity of our workforce. To find out more about APAF, contact us at apaf@ge.com.