People

Charles B. Wang
Charles B. Wang is Founder and Chair Emeritus of Computer Associates, co-owner of New York Islanders, and philanthropist. Coming to America from Shanghai as a child of eight, Charles Wang proved a keen athlete, star student, and an outstanding businessman whose software company, Computer Associates International Inc., became a world leader.

Wang embodies the American dream, but he is also steeped in an older heritage: “As a Chinese-American I cherish the land of my birth,” he says, “and I cherish the land that gave me a home. I am indeed doubly blessed. It’s a long way from Shanghai to Stony Brook, but thanks to technology, the world is shrinking every day, and that’s a very good thing for us. As we all get to know one another, as we get to interact with different cultures and different countries, the walls that divide us begin to crumble.”

Wang founded Computer Associates International, Inc. with three associates in 1976. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1944, he moved to the United States with his family in 1952. He earned a B.S. degree in mathematics from Queen’s College and began his computer career at Columbia University’s Riverside Research Institute as a programming trainee. He is the author of Techno Vision II: Every Executive’s Guide to Understanding and Mastering Technology and the Internet, which educates decision-makers about the e-Business Revolution. He serves on several corporate boards and has been active in charitable causes such as the Smile Train, the Make a Wish Foundation, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

He believes passionately that he should share the benefits of his unique experience and success. As a beneficiary of public education, Wang chose to endow Stony Brook University to reach those young people, many of
them also immigrants, who will use the gift as a gateway to
success.

Sunita Mukhi
Sunita S. Mukhi, is a cultural manager, performance scholar, and artist. Her early education was from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, Philippines. She has a B.A. in Behavioral Sciences and in Literature from De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines; an M.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Social  Sciences from San Francisco State University; and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University.

Born and bred in the Philippines, having short stints in Mumbai and Singapore, and having lived the last 21 years in the United States, has provided Dr. Mukhi with an international understanding of migration and the global interconnectedness of peoples–a true product of the Manila Sindhi Diaspora.  As a cultural manager, Dr. Mukhi  continues to produce innovative programming in light of promoting a multi-faceted, intellectually sound and humane understanding of Asianness. She has presided over, participated in, and moderated numerous panel discussions, and given lectures and addresses on topics ranging from identity politics, performativity, arts, and the South Asian diaspora. She is also currently teaching at the Asian and Asian American Studies Department at Stony Brook University.

The courses she has developed as part of the faculty of the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University are Popular Indian Cinema and Culture, Peformance in Contemporary India, Desis in the Diaspora, and Presenting Asian/American Cultures Internship Program.
Her poems appear in the anthologies Desilicious: Sexy, Saucy, South Asian and Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America, her articles in Art Spiral, and Little India magazine and Cinevue. The essay "Underneath My Blouse Beats My Indian Heart: Indian Womanhood, Hindi Film Dance, and Nationalism" appears in A Patchwork Shawl (Rutgers University Press, 1998), and her most recent book is Doing the Desi Thing: Performing Indianness in New York City (Garland Publishing/Routledge, 2000). She also co-wrote a ground-breaking report  Engaging Asian America: Challenges and Opportunities (2004) for the Asia Society.  Just recently, her work 10 Poems was published in the Philippines.

She has performed, directed, and choreographed in university, community, and professional theatrical, television, and film productions in Manila, the United States, Mexico, and Singapore. She has also appeared in a number of short independent films. She is a story-teller and appears in numerous family day events at the Asia Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum and other venues. Her most recent performance works are on sexuality, women’s power, the slipperiness of identity and other yearnings such as It’s a Drag Being an Indian Woman and Cornucopia. Liberty’s New Wedding Day is a tongue-in-cheek indictment against imperialism and terror. As a story-teller, she has composed and performed tales with dynamic women as central characters such as Kalahati, the Half-Girl, Butterfly and the Pin Man, Princess Guddi Saves NYC, and Brown Fox. White Tiger, among others.

P.H. Tuan
Wang Center designer P.H. Tuan was born in Shanghai, China, where he completed his secondary school education. After a brief stay in Hong Kong, he immigrated to America in 1955. He received his architectural degree from the University of Michigan in 1961.

Tuan gained his early training and experience at SOM, Perkins & Will and Victor Gruen, before establishing his own practice nearly thirty years ago. His practice usually includes both design and construction management, based on the traditional concept that the architect is responsible for the design and construction of a building, from conception to completion.

Tuan has described the Wang Center's unique design as "an introduction to Asian architecture." Although Tuan's work is greatly influenced by international currents, he resists being labelled as an "international style" architect.

Tuan recently designed a new university law school for 2000 students in Suzhou, China. On his many trips to China, he noted that new construction has been prolific, but discovered very few new buildings can be identified with China in a contemporary sense. For this reason, he formed a non-profit organization, the Institute for the Advancement of Contemporary Chinese Architecture (IACCA), with the long-term goal to promote a new style of contemporary Chinese architecture. IACCA is currently funded by private contributions.