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New York -- The Asian American Federation of New York celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and four honorees at its May 8, 2007 Spirit of Asian America Gala.  Honorees this year included- Arvind Raghunathan, Managing Director & Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank; Sung-Joo Kim, Founder of Sungjoo Group and Chairperson of MCM; Farooq Kathwari, Chairman, President & CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc.; and Haruko Smith, Founder & Chairman of the September Concert Foundation.  Each honoree had demonstrated the best of Asia America through their work, community service and their leading contributions – whether in business, culture, science, academia or philanthropic endeavors.  Juju Chang, Correspondent, ABC News and Cindy Hsu, Reporter and Correspondent, WCBS-TV, Channel 2 were emcees.

Over 500 guests attended the fundraising dinner held at Cipriani Wall Street.  Guests included:  Ambassador Frank Wisner, Vice Chairman, External Affairs American International Group, and former Ambassador to India; City Comptroller William Thompson, New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly; and The Honorable Jun Choi, Mayor of Edison, New Jersey.

            A live auction conducted by Christie’s auctioneer, Dr. Hugo Weihe concluded the evening raising an additional $50,250.00. 

The Asian American Federation of New York (www.aafny.org) is THE leading multi-issue, pan Asian, leadership organization in New York that works to meet the needs of all Asian Americans in the nations largest metropolitan area.

The Federation also brings together the city's diverse Asian American communities and supports 39 member agencies.  It helps build these groups capacity, promotes more strategic philanthropy and strengthens delivery of community services to communities ranging from Korean-American youth to the Japanese elderly to the small businesses of Chinatown, still working to recovery from the effects of 9/11.