Tae Chong

February 12th, 7pm

Portland Media Center

516 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101

 

Tae Chong is Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies for the Maine State Chamber.  He specializes in market research and strategies with multicultural and people of color communities in Maine and the Northeast.  Tae has over twenty years’ experience working with the immigrant and refugee and people of color populations in Maine in economic development, business counseling, workforce development, education, and multicultural programming.  He has consulted with Hannaford to expand their product lines to attract more immigrant, refugee and people of color to shop at their stores and he also assisted them with community outreach and with employee recruitment and retention strategies.  In his role as Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies, his goal is to educate, advocate and outreach to Maine businesses interested in increase sales and services to People of Color in Maine and Northern New England as well as businesses interested in hiring and retaining more People of color.  

 

He has worked with the multicultural and people of color populations as an educator, advocate, policy maker, social service provider and as a business advisor.  In his work as an advocate for economic integration of immigrants and refugees in Maine, he has been featured in Maine Biz and Maine Magazine, he was a speaker at MaineLive and Ted Dirgio, and he has published several articles and reports including CEI’s Building Maine’s Economy and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  He was named as one of Maine’s 50 most influential people by Maine Magazine, and he attended the White House Conference on retaining and recruiting immigrant and refugee knowledge workers.  

 

Tae has also held leadership positions as co-chair of the refugee advisory council for the state of Maine’s DHHS Department, as a board member of NAACP, LULAC, and Asian American Heritage Foundation and as board member of University of Southern Maine’s Department of Social Work.  He is also a long-time resident of Portland and is the first Asian American elected to the Portland City Council, Portland School Committee and as Senior Class co-president at Deering High School.  He has also served on the United Way’s Children Leadership Council and the City of Portland’s CDBG Committee.  On the Portland City Council, he serves on the Economic Community Development, the Health and Human Services Committees, Portland Downtown Corporation and Creative Portland.  He also served on the Governor of Maine’s Economic Recovery Committee and chaired the Supportive Services and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committees. He holds a B.S. degree in Political Science and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine.