CPAC Annual Award Gala Recognizes Three Distinguished Professionals
TORONTO, January 13th– The Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC) and the Education Foundation of Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (EF of CPAC) held its Annual Award Gala last night, with approximately 500 guests in attendance. Our theme for the evening is Celebrating Success: the successes of students, of immigrant professionals, and also the work of CPAC and the Education Foundation.
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne sent letters of greetings to praise CPAC for its efforts in helping internationally trained professionals, new immigrants and their children. The Honourable Michael Coteau, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration , The Honourable Michael Chan, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mr. Fang Li, Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto, The Honourable John McCallum, MP for Markham-Unionville, Mr. Chungsen Leung, Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism, His Worship Frank Scarpitti, Mayor of the Town of Markham, Ms. Wu Dongmei, Consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto, and Ms. Gloria Lo, Executive of Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, attended the Gala as special guests.
Anna Yin, En-hui Yang received Professionals Achievement Award
The Professional Achievement Award is to recognize and celebrate the achievements of professionals who immigrated to Canada and achieved outstanding status in their professions. “Recipients of this award continue to inspire and provide encouragement to the work of CPAC and the Education Foundation. They give meaning to our respective organizations’ missions.” says Richard Lim, President of EF of CPAC. There were three winners this year:
Anna Yin, has had more than 100 English and Chinese poems published since 2004, authoring more than 5 poetry books. Yin’s poem “Still Life” is displayed on 700 buses across Canada in the “Poetry in Transit” program by the League of Canadian Poets. En-hui Yang is a distinguished professional in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. With over 200 papers and more than 200 patents/patent applications, Dr. Yang’s research work has had an impact on the daily life of hundreds of millions of people over 170 countries. Products based on his inventions received the 2006 Ontario Global Traders Provincial Award. Kelvin Tran is Senior VP, TD Bank Group and CFO, TD Securities. Tran is founding President and Chair of Ascend Canada, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Pan Asian business leaders. Ascend Canada now has 16 professional and 28 student chapters. Kelvin was the 2013 winner of Ascend U.S.’s PhD Award, for Passion, High Energy and Dedication.
While celebrating the accomplishments of these award winners, guests also enjoyed a sumptuous dinner along with great performances.
TD Bank Group has been the Presenting Sponsor for over a decade
“We are proud to be a long-time supporter of CPAC,” says Manjit Singh, SVP, TD Bank Group and CFO, TD Canada Trust. “At TD, we are committed to serving our customers and our communities. Organizations like CPAC are doing the front-line work to help New Canadians with their professional development and in building their networks. This is critical to transitioning to life in Canada— and to the overall prosperity of all Canadians.”
CPAC also receives generous support from HSBC Bank Canada and BMO as Gold Sponsors. Generous sponsorships and awards for the Education Foundation of CPAC come from various organizations as well as individual contributions who bought Gala tickets to this year’s event, and those that made contributions to their silent auction.
“We are a membership organization that serves and represents close to 30,000 immigrant professionals. We are a community organization that plays a role in the Chinese community building”, CPAC President Margaret Yang, says in her welcome speech. “We are a charity that promotes excellence in education, leadership and good citizenship. We also serve as a bridge between Canada and China for cultural and economic exchange”
For a visual presentation of the biography of the award winners, please visit
Anna Yin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_YuzBkiNI&feature=youtu.be
En-hui Yang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jr33L8Gj8o&feature=youtu.be
Kelvin Tran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyM2XNdokwA&feature=youtu.be
For a photographic report of the event, please visit http://www.thestar.com/photos/2014/01/12/city_nights_cpac_gala.html
Inquiries:
Phoebe Wong
Marketing & Development Officer
Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC)
4150 Finch Ave East, Toronto ON M1S 3T9 Canada
T: (01) 416-298-7885 x 115 F: (01) 416-298-0068
www.chineseprofessionals.ca