Asian American women rarely make it to the top in corporate America. Here’s how three did and at the same company.
Debby Soo has never been shy about admitting she’s ambitious. “I’m not going to hide from it. I always knew that I wanted to be a CEO,” she says. “That was the North Star and that was not in question. It was not, yes or no? It was, when?”
So when the top job at restaurant reservation website OpenTable opened up in 2020, she jumped at the chance, never mind that Covid was raging and the hospitality industry was in crisis. “It wasn’t even a choice,” Soo says.
Soo’s ascent to CEO is a rare feat for an Asian American female: In fact, a 2021 study by McKinsey and LeanIn.org looked at more than 400 large companies and found Asian American women made up about 6.2 percent of the entry-level workforce, but their representation drops off with each level of seniority. The same report found that Asian American women hold just 2.5 percent of senior vice president roles and 1.8 percent of C-suite executive positions.