Michael Chen is currently the General Partner and CEO of Chen & Associates, an advisory services firm focused on the media, financial services, aviation, and food industry. Michael founded the firm in 1997, and joined full-time in 2013. In addition, he serves as the Strategic Advisor to the President of Grace Farms Foundation (www.gracefarms.org), where he advises and works with the President on all key decisions, including financial, organizational, staffing, operational, legal, and communications. He also serves as the Chairman of The CEO Forum (www.ceoforum.ceo), a fast growing media company focused on disseminating CEO wisdom exclusively to the top 10,000 CEO’s and aspiring CEO’s.
From 2012-2013, he was a Management Committee Advisor and Strategic Partner to the Chief Investment Officer at Bridgewater Associates.
From 2011-2012, he was the President of NBC News’ Strategic Initiatives Group and served on the Board of Directors for The Weather Channel.
Prior to joining NBC News, Michael was a GE Officer and President & CEO of GE Capital’s Media, Communications, and Entertainment (MCE) business from 2006-2010.
He was also the Chairman of the Board and co-creator of the Peacock Equity Fund from 2006-2010, which was a digital media fund supported by GE and NBC Universal that returned 40% IRR before being merged into Comcast Ventures.
Michael started as a financial analyst for IBM. After spending nine years in financial planning, pricing, financial investments, and credit analysis for IBM and IBM Credit Corporation, he joined GE in 1994 as Vice President of Risk Management for GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). He was named Senior Vice President and General Manager, North America of GECAS in 1999. From 1999-2006, he helped grow the North America business by 4x to nearly $500M in Net Income.
He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA in Finance from the SC Johnson School of Business at Cornell University.
Michael has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as an Emeritus Advisory Council member for the SC Johnson School of Business, and is Vice Chairman of Grace Farms Foundation. In addition, he previously served on the Board of The Weather Channel, the Norwalk Community College Foundation, the Diversity Advisory Board at Sodexo Corporation, the Executive Diversity Council of GE, and the Planning Team for Grace Community Church. He was named the top Asian American in business in 2008 by the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC), and was the highest ranking Asian American in the media sector when he worked for NBC News in 2011.
Michael is married, and has 4 children. He and his family live in New Canaan, Connecticut.