On Wednesday, April 15, 2015, more than 650 people gathered at Cipriani Wall Street to celebrate an unprecedented year of achievements at Apex and honor three inspirational leaders – Eva Chen, Chief Creative Officer of The Lucky Group; Gregory Yep, former senior VP of Research and Development at PepsiCo; and Ronnie C. Chan, Chairman of Hang Lung Properties Limited. Eva, Greg and Ronnie are strong advocates and supporters of our youth and education, and delivered inspirational acceptance speeches on mentoring and leadership in the community.

We were also joined by our 2015 honorary gala chairs Dao-Yi Chow and Jason Wang, as well as other special guests from the fashion world like Liu Wen, Bryan Boy, Soo Joo Park, Ju Xiaowen and Phillip Lim, who generously customized a makeover for the second year for 2015’s student speaker Shu Min He. Mark Bustos, the hair stylist who gives the city’s homeless free haircuts, also attended and styled Shu Min’s hair for the evening. Guests enjoyed a special performance by our P.S. 184 student dancers, led by ATS of the Rock Steady Crew, and tried their hand at winning the raffle prize of a student painting by answering test questions from the 4th Grade Common Core test, SHSAT and SAT tests–all tests we help our students prepare for. In between nibbling on passed canapes and sipping on Cipriani’s signature peach bellinis, guests perused stories from our mentors and students, displayed through a photo exhibit on the mezzanine level.

Our record-breaking gala this year raised over $875,000. With this support, we’ll continue to serve the city’s Asian and immigrant youth and double the size of our programs by next fall. Thank you for all your support and for helping us continue our work in the community.

For more on our gala, check out coverage on Vogue.com and Downtown magazine.

 

Thank you to all of our 2015 sponsors:

 

CHAMPION

James Chang

 

UNDERWRITERS

Columbus Hill Capital Management, L.P.

Eric T. Lee & Cindy Chua

 

BENEFACTORS

Alex & Irene Chu

J.T. Tai & Co. Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Ronnie C. Chan

PepsiCo

The Plum Spring Foundation

 

PATRONS

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Basepoint Capital

BNY Mellon

RBC Capital Markets

Teresa Chan

Thomas S. Chin & PhotoShelter

 

SPONSORS

Adam & Brittany Levinson

Adam Kirby and Philip Ha

Blaise Chow and Jonathan Chu

Casablanca Ventures

Colgate Palmolive

Credit Suisse

CWS CPA LLP

Deutsche Bank

Edwin & Charmaine Chin

First American International Bank

GE Capital Aviation Services

International Academic Alliance

Karen Li, Dr. Raymond & Evangeline Yung and Barney & Yvonne Ghaw

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

Melissa & Alec Gunn

Michael Chen & Nadine Graham

Michael & Michelle Cho

Mizuho Securities USA Inc.

Morgan Stanley

NBC 4 New York

Patrick Lo & Natasha Wattel

Ricky & Kathy Wong and Edward & Joyce Wu

Societe Generale

Stanley & Fiona Druckenmiller

The Sriratana Family

Waterfall Asset Management LLC