Apex for Youth

27th Anniversary Inspiration Awards Gala

Flipping the Script

Wednesday
April 17, 2019

6:30–9:30 pm

Cipriani Wall Street
55 Wall Street

Black Tie

The 27th Anniversary Inspiration Awards Honorees

Gemma Chan

Gemma Chan

International film, television and theater actress

Gemma Chan has quickly established herself internationally as one of the industry’s leading actors.

After graduating with a law degree from Oxford University, Gemma was offered a job with a leading law firm but turned it down in order to train at the prestigious Drama Centre London. Since graduating from Drama Centre, she has demonstrated her versatility in a career spanning multiple countries, mediums and genres.  

Gemma has shown her range in television dramas such as Sherlock, playing alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, and in Humans, Channel 4’s (UK) most successful drama in 20 years in which she played Anita, an anthropomorphic robot.  An accomplished stage actress, she performed in the sell-out run of the critically acclaimed Yellow Face by Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang. In 2015, Gemma starred in the West End revival of Harold Pinter’s masterpiece The Homecoming at The Trafalgar Studios.

Gemma was most recently seen starring in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, Crazy Rich Asians, which quickly became the most successful studio rom-com in nine years at the U.S. box office.  The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and recently won a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Comedy.

Gemma also starred in the short film Mr. Malcom’s List, which used a culturally diverse cast to reclaim historical narratives traditionally played by white actors.  This year will also see Gemma joining the cast of Captain Marvel, the first female-led superhero project by Disney.

Gemma is classically trained on the violin and piano and is a passionate supporter of human rights, working with charities including UNICEF.

 

Olivia Munn

Olivia Munn

Film and television actress and bestselling author

Olivia Munn most recently starred in 20th Century Fox’s The Predator opposite Keegan-Michael Key and Sterling K. Brown. She also starred in the critically acclaimed second season of HISTORY series SIX, where she played “Gina,” a ruthless and smart CIA operative. Up next, she will star in the new STARZ series The Rook, premiering in 2019.

Munn was also recently seen voicing the role of “Koko” in The LEGO Ninjago Movie. In 2016, she starred in Office Christmas Party alongside Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, in X-Men: Apocalypse as “Psylocke,” and in Universal’s Ride Along 2 with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. From 2012 – 2014, Munn starred as Sloan Sabbith on Aaron Sorkin’s hit HBO political drama The Newsroom, which followed behind-the-scenes events of the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel.

Variety recognized Munn as the “2014 Breakthrough Actress” winner at the Variety Breakthrough of the Year Awards. Her film credits include Mortdecai, Deliver Us From Evil, Magic Mike and Iron Man 2.  She had an arc on FOX’s Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated comedy The New Girl and appeared in the Emmy-winning Showtime environmental documentary series Years of Living Dangerously from James Cameron and Jerry Weintraub. Munn is a spokeswoman and activist on environmental issues, including working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and DoSomething.org’s “Green Your School Challenge” and the Sierra Club.

An Oklahoma native, Munn spent the majority of her childhood in Tokyo, Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. She attended the University of Oklahoma after moving back to the U.S. and relocated to Los Angeles. In 2006, Munn joined G4 network’s popular Attack of the Show! as co-host. She later joined the Emmy-winning Comedy Central series The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as correspondent in 2010, becoming one of five female cast members to ever appear on the show. Her first book, “Suck it, Wonder Woman: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek” was also released that year and debuted on The New York Times and Los Angeles Times best sellers lists.​

Olivia Munn
Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Credit Karma

Kenneth “Ken” Lin is the founder and CEO of Credit Karma, a company he grew from a small team of three people to more than 1,000 employees on a mission to champion financial progress for all.

Ken started Credit Karma in 2007 to offer free credit scores and bring transparency and simplicity to the credit industry – an industry built around and prioritizing banks, not consumers. Today, Credit Karma serves more than 85 million people in the U.S. and Canada and is valued at $4B. It continues to use technology to bridge the gap between consumers and financial services by consistently rolling out free, consumer-first tools designed to help members manage their full financial lives — to provide certainty in a world of financial uncertainty.

Ken spent his early career working with mission-driven businesses like Upromise and Eloan. He was inspired to build Credit Karma with a unique business model that creates genuine, organic value by reducing marketing inefficiency for banks and empowering consumers with information.

He has won numerous awards including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and has been a featured speaker at prominent conferences like Money 20/20 2018 and RISE Hong Kong. Ken has a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and economics from Boston University and was selected to join the Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellows in 2018.

Ken moved with his family from China to the U.S. when he was only four years old and, like many of Apex’s students, his parents worked long hours, sometimes six days a week.  He is the first in his family to complete college and is an inspiration to entrepreneurs and Asian Americans throughout the country.

For more information, please contact, PR@CreditKarma.com.   

Gala Chair

  • Dao-Yi Chow

    Designer and Co-founder Public School NYC

Gala Committee

  • Jonathan Chu

    Chu Enterprises
  • Karen Wong

    Deputy Director New Museum
  • Mike Chen

  • Patrick Yee

    Senior Advisor Refinery29

Benefit Committee

JEAN BROWNHILL
Founder & CEO, Sweeten

JULIE YOO
Google

MALI SANANIKONE GAW

MICHELLE CHOO

ROY KIM
Partner, Roden Development

SEAN TAN 
Managing Director / Co-Head of Trading, PointState Capital

WEN ZHOU
CEO & Co-founder, 3.1 Phillip Lim

Apex for Youth Thanks Our Sponsors!

Champions

  • Anonymous

  • James Chang

Underwriters

  • Eric T. Lee & Cindy Chua

  • J.T. Tai & Co. Foundation

  • The Plum Spring Foundation

Benefactors

  • Cariann Chan and Robin Chan

  • The Chu Family

  • Coalition of Asian-American IPA, Inc.

  • Thomas S. Chin

  • WAC Lighting/Glow Community Center

Patrons

  • Chis Chao and Justin Walsh

  • Edwin & Charmaine Chin

  • Gelila Bekele

  • Jeff Chen

  • Karen Wong

  • Kramer Levin
  • Ling & Gilbert Liu

  • Michael & Nadine Chen

  • Patrick Lo & Natasha Wattel

  • Simon Kim

  • Sonia Low

  • Taylor Yi

  • TransUnion

Sponsors

Anonymous

Amazon

Bernice Kwok-Gabel and Harold Koda

Betty Wong

Blaise Chow & Kristin Quitoni

Boba Guys

The Chauncey F. Lofkin III Foundation

Credit Suisse

Diageo

Facebook

The Giovanni Family

Glenn & Jill Luk

Julie Yoo & Michael Lee

Kenneth Chan

Kevin C. Ng

MACRO

Macy’s

Mali Sananikone Gaw & Akarin Gaw

Margaret & Daniel Loeb

Melissa & Alec Gunn

Michael & Michelle Cho

Michelle Choo & Alexander Popov

Miranda & Hamburg Tang

New York Life

Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Rany Ng and Edward & Joyce Wu

Ricky & Kathy Wong and Friends

Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley

Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE)

Toni Wang McNicoll

Viacom/Marva Smalls

Waterfall Asset Management