Steve Okun
University of Virginia '85 

DSF: Tell us about yourself.

SO:      I was born in Chicago and then went to high school in New Jersey. I then attended college and law school at the University of Virginia. I have been married to Paige since 1999, and we have two boys, Bennett, who just turned 7, and Mason, who is about to turn 5.

DSF:   What made you decide to go to the University of Virginia for undergraduate andthen law school?

SO:      I have always been interested in government and politics, and when I was looking at universities in high school, I was immediately attracted to the University of Virginia, in part because it was founded by President Jefferson, and in part because of their great government program. When I went down there as a senior in high school on a college visit and took a tour of the grounds, I knew immediately that was the place I wanted to go to school.

DSF:   What made you decide that you wanted to join Delta Sigma Phi?

SO:      I went through rush during my first year, and went to a few different fraternities. It ended up that the people who I was rushing with in Delta Sig seemed to be the people who I wanted to be friends with, and with the brothers there  as well. So, really it was the people, both the brothers and the people who I was going through the rush process with, who led me to want to be a member of Delta Sigma Phi.

DSF:   What leadership positions did you hold on campus or in the chapter?

SO:      Wow! That was so long ago. I am trying to remember… I was secretary at one point, but I have to really think through my memory now. At UVa was also involved with The University Journal, which was then one of the two school newspapers. I was also a co-founder of this group called CAVS, which stood for Crazy About Virginia Sports, and we did a lot of work with the football team, especially in the recruiting process when the high school juniors and seniors came for visits during football weekends. We did a lot with them and their families during that process. Later when I was in law school, I was very involved as a counsel on the Honor Committee.

DSF:   Did you happen to catch if the Cavaliers won their football game this weekend?

SO:      I didn’t. I don’t even know the score.  It’s very hard to get news out here on things like college football. It’s easy to follow certain sports, but it’s very difficult to follow other sports in Asia, and college football does not have a big following so you really have to look. The news that Michigan lost to such a small school made the newspapers out here, as well as  that Virginia Tech won, because people were very interested in following that game in the afrtermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, which was front page news in Asia when it happened.

DSF:   Talk about your career prior to your position now, especially your role in the Department of Transportation during the Clinton administration.

SO:      After I graduated from law school in 1991, I went to work at a law firm in Washington, but at the same time, I did some work on the Clinton campaign such as by doing some advance work for campaign events, a little bit of fundraising and also drafting and coordinating issues papers for the campaign. When President Clinton won in November of ’92 and came to office in January 1993, I got the chance to go into the administration. I did a little bit of time at the White House in the first year of the Administration, but the majority of my time was at the Department of Transportation. I got an appointment there in 1994.

During my 5 years at the DOT, most of my focus was on aviation matters. I had a couple of key areas that I really worked on.  One was in regard to aviation competition, and that centered on what standards would be used when  major air carriers like United or American or Delta would compete with new entrant airlines like Airtran or Spirit or Reno or Access Air – all of the startups that were coming along in the mid-90s. I did a lot of work with the legal team at the Department of Transportation, where I worked in the General Counsel’s office, and with the policy team and also with the immediate office of the Secretary.  Our focus was on what standards the Department should from a legal and policy perspective  when it came to competition in the airline industry.

The other issue I worked on quite a bit was with regard to how the families of the victims of aviation disasters should be treated in the immediate aftermath of a crash. This was a big issue that had not been addressed systematically for years.  It first received government attention after the Pan Am 103 blown-up over Lockerbie, Scotland.  At that time there was a realization that  we collectively were not doing a good job assisting families involved in the aviation disasters, and that “we” was the government, including the Department of Transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Department of State, but then also the airlines themselves, the Red Cross, and other groups that would be involved or would have jurisdiction during these disasters like local law enforcement. The policy framework remained unresolved, and then after disaster in the mid-1990s such as ValuJet and TWA 800, it was decided the government would address formally the matter.

Pursuant to an Act of Congress, a task force was created for which the Secretary of Transportation and the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board were chairs.   I served as the Executive Director of that Task Force. The Task Force was made up not only of various government agencies, but also the airlines, lawyers, and families of victims as well.  The Task Force came up with recommendations on how families would be treated by the airlines, the Red Cross, the government, who would have jurisdiction and how we would coordinate. A lot of those recommendations that came out back in 1997 are still being used today.

DSF:   Tell us about what your role entails with UPS as the VP of Public Affairs for the Asia Pacific Region.

SO:      I left government in May of 1999 and went to UPS’ Washington office. From there, I came out to Singapore as our Vice President of Public Affairs for Asia in March 2003, so  I have been out here for 4 ½ years now. My job here is to represent UPS to the governments of Asia when it comes to matters regarding aviation, trade and competition, such as with national post offices. In short, what I do is go to the different governments in which UPS operates, and UPS operates in essentially every country in Asia, and explain to them the services that we provide, how logistics and express service are key drivers to the economy, and why their policies and laws should open their markets for companies like UPS. In addition to working a lot with the foreign governments, I also work with US Embassies  on trade issues that might arise because trade rights that are granted to the US might not be opening, or opening as fast enough as was committed, for a US company.

DSF:   So UPS is in every country in Asia?

SO:      Yes. Well, we don’t operate in North Korea – that would be illegal, but we are pretty much everywhere else.  I am responsible for Public Affairs in the entire region, which you can think of as a triangle with the points being Tokyo, Aukland and Mumbai, with everything inside the triangle making-up the region..

DSF:   It seems as though there is a lot of opportunity in some of those markets like China and India. What is UPS’ market share, and are there other shipping companies also trying to break into these markets?

SO: Essentially in all of Asia, the top three express delivery firms in Asia in terms of international market share are UPS, FedEx and DHL. The three of us are the top three in most every market.

China is extremely interesting right now – it’s where I spend most of my time for work because a lot of the rules that we take for granted in the United States are literally just being written in China. China only really started to open up its economy in the late 1970s, and even today, a lot of the competition rules and labor rules are just being drafted, as well as the rules on how airlines can operate. It’s an extremely exciting time to be out here.  A lot of what I am spending my time on now is working with the UPS China team, the UPS Airline, and the Chinese government in the establishment of the regulatory framework for how UPS can operate its hub in Shanghai. UPS will have the first foreign airline hub in China, and we are going to be opening up in Shanghai next year. But the Chinese rules that will govern how we’ll operate our hub don’t now exist. They’re being drafted right now, so I am spending a lot of time working with the UPS team on what we need to be able to operate our hub and maximize its efficiency, which will obviously do the most for our Chinese businesses which use us in China. We are also working with customs officials, aviation officials, and airports explaining to them what we need and how we work so they can craft rules that will work in China from the government’s perspective, but will also allow us to do the most good for our customers, who of course who are generally doing work in China.

DSF:   It sounds like you have a lot going on.

SO:      There is a lot going on, as Asia is one of our fastest growing markets. But my function is growing, too.  You know, when I came out here, our Public Affairs team for Asia was just me. I was the only UPS person dedicated to Public Affairs.  Now, we have six people in China that we’ve hired since I’ve been out here in the last 4 ½ years. We also hired a person in Tokyo, and we now have a person who works with me here in Singapore.  Next we’ll hire somebody in India. We’re building everything from scratch out here, and it is great to be part of that.

DSF:   What is your proficiency in learning all of the languages in the region? Do you need to know them?

SO: Singapore’s primary language is English, so you don’t need another language to live in Singapore. One of the things we want for our boys is for them to learn Mandarin Chinese, because that is going to be, I think, the second most important language to know in the 21st century.  They have been taking Mandarin since they were two, and our both pretty good.  For me, my Mandarin is not so good, but it’s good tell the driver where I want to go and he can usually get me there. In China, I can go into Starbucks and my Mandarin can get me a coffee and a blueberry muffin. Of course, one of the first words I learned was for the Chinese word for beer. No one really expects me to be able to conduct business in Mandarin, but spending the time to learn enough to say hello and introduce yourself with your Chinese name shows you do care about the culture.

For business, I don’t need to know Chinese because our UPS China team does. In hiring people to do Public Affairs, it is really only the people who were born in China, grew up in China, and went to university in China who can understand how to best get things done in China.  You can supplement that with expatriates who bring in a different type of expertise, but having local knowledge is crucial. So it is our China Public Affairs team who are the ones who do the business for us in Mandarin, but when I’m there and if we’re in a formal meeting, we will get a translator if needed.  But more and more foreign government officials in this region speak English, as this is really the language of international business.

DSF:  Tell us about some of the dignitaries that you’ve been able to meet in your job.

SO:      One of the neat things about working for a company like UPS, which is a Fortune 50 company with a strong global brand that provides a unique service in Asia, is that it gives me  the ability to function at all levels of government.  For example, there isn’t a company in China or the Philippines that has a global network like UPS, so governments over the world recognize our value and want to have our services there.  There is a strong recognition that we are good for global business, and we also do our part to show that we are a good global citizen as well.  Some of my fondest memories are of being on UPS projects and building computer labs in remote villages in China and India.

By working for UPS, I have gotten the chance to meet some really interesting people in relatively small settings. I have had the great opportunity to be in private settings with  China’s Premier Wen Jiabaoao, Prime Minister Singh from India, President Arroyo from the Philippines, Prime Minister Lee from Singapore and then-Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. Some of those meetings have taken place when our CEO comes out to the region, so I get a very personal perspective on how they see regional developments.  This in turn allows me to understand how governments see what role UPS can play in building global trade.

DSF:  Tell us a little more about the things that you have been selected to participate in – the National Committee on US-China Relations Young Leaders’ Forum, as the of the 21st Century Leaders program of the Boao Forum for Asia, and the America/Australia Leadership Foundation. What have those been like?

SO:      One of the things that is kind of key to doing public affairs and government affairs work is having a large network of people that you can learn from and that can teach you,  and likewise, hopefully,  you can do the same for them.

One of the things that I got to do early on was with the National Committee on US-China Relations.  In 2002 they created this group called the Young Leaders Forum, in order to bring 12 Americans and 12 Chinese together who were under 40.  Every year since they bring people together and add to the group.  The purpose of this program is to build connections between our generation in the US and China.  . This has been a fantastic organization for me to be a part of, because it has taught me a lot about China. I have gotten to be friends who I usually wouldn’t get the opportunity to meet who are Chinese.  I have also gotten to meet a lot of Americans. In fact, one of the people who was in the class after mine was then a state senator from Arizona, and is now a member of Congress.   Another of the US fellows is space shuttle astronaut, and my boys absolutely love this, as he sent them t-shirts from his  space shuttle mission, along with some pictures and patches from NASA. 

DSF:   What is the culture like, and how long have you been there? How often do you get back to the States?

SO:      One of the great things about Singapore is that it is very multicultural. Sinaporeans are  from Chinese, Malay, Indian and Indonesian backgrounds so you have a mix of different cultures here. On top of that, you have a large and diverse expatriate community, with families living here form Japan, Korea, Australia, the US and Britain.  It’s a great place because it exposes you to so many different cultures, different languages and different traditions.

Our children are in an international school here because we want to have them exposed to all of these different cultures. Our son Mason, who is now in senior kindergarten, has 16 kids in his class. Of these, there are ten different nationalities, and he is one of only two Americans. It really teaches him and his brother that the world is really a big place with diverse cultures.

We get back to the States once a year, and we visit our friends in DC, and family in Louisiana and California. One event we always to which we always look forward is the annual cook-out we have with some of my fraternity brothers and their families.  It is really great to see all our children playing together, although I don’t think we’re quite ready to lose in the annual wiffle ball game.

DSF:   Tell us about a typical day in your life.

SO:      There isn’t one. In the month of August alone, I was in the US, Singapore, Australia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China and Japan. That’s a little atypical, because that’s more travel than I would normally do in a month, but I have the whole region so I am usually on the road  2 – 2 ½ weeks per month. At any given time I can be working on the establishment of our air hub in Shanghai, being involved in aviation negotiations between the US and Japan, or  be in India giving our comments on the new postal law., Then, there are always various trade missions throughout the region.  In the next few months we will have them in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and someone from UPS will be there. So, there is absolutely no typical day, month, or even year. It changes all the time.

DSF:   What are your hobbies?

SO:      There are two things. One, we try, even as much as I am on the road, we try and travel as a family, as Singapore is such a great jumping off place. Paige and I want to get our sons the chance to see this part of the world while we’re living out here. We are taking them to Cambodia in a few weeks, and are going to the ancient temples in Angkor Wat,  to give them a chance to see that. Since we moved out her, Paige became the Chief Operating Officer of Caring for Cambodia, which is an NGO that builds schools in Siem Reap.  We will also take the boys there to see how much need there is in places in this part of the world and what we can do to help.
 
For my second hobby, I  love to play golf when the schedule permits, but that doesn’t happen often. There’s just not a lot of time, especially with all of the travel I do. When I am home, I don’t want to take the weekend to play golf.

DSF:   Where do you see yourself in the future – what are your goals for the coming 5-10 years?

SO:      I certainly see myself staying with UPS. I have been with UPS for 8 years now, and it’s a fantastic company to work for. I definitely want to stay in our international business, whatever role that may be.. The US is our largest market is always going to be our largest and most important market. But the fastest growing market is international, and Asia is one of the key components of that. I definitely want to stay in international and work in the international relations and public policy side.

DSF:   What advice can you give to the other brothers on being successful in their chosen fields?

SO:      A couple things… One is to really work on building networks in whatever it is that you want to do. Getting to know more people and being exposed to new things is a great learning and development experience. When you make a new connection, you never know where that’s going to lead, and it will be good for your self-development and it may end up being a great career opportunity. I always look forward to meeting new people and look forward to anyone who wants to get in touch, and my e-mail is sokun@ups.com.

I think a second one is that if you want to get involved, international is certainly a great growth area, and there is a great deal of potential out here and a great deal of need for US-educated people with US-experience who can combine that with an international understanding.   

Lastly is that you have to enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing. Try different things and find out what interests you the most and then focus on that.