International Businessman -
Managing the Risks

Stephen Johnson, who has lived in Singapore for the past 13 years, is currently director of Asiawerks Global Investment Group. Steve has a unique family background, as well as an intriguing life story. He was born in the state of Michigan to a father who is a full-blooded Native American of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe and a mother of Polish-Catholic and Russian-Jewish heritage. His parents had met as students at the University of Michigan.

As a teenager, Steve's skill in American football, as well as his excellent academic record in secondary school, caught the eye of recruiters from several Ivy League universities, including the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he played on and captained the American football team in addition to pursuing his studies. The University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in finance at the Wharton school, educated Steve in ways that went beyond the purely academic; as he puts it: "I learned many lessons there, most of them outside of the classroom. It [the university] was a melting pot of people from all walks of life, all pushing each other to achieve great things."

Steve learned about the value of hard work outside the classroom as well. During most of the summer vacation months of his college years, he worked in construction six days a week and up to 12 hours per day. He had a passion for adventure and travel, and spent one college summer in the United Kingdom under a work-permit exchange program. Steve had left for London without any firm job lined up or even a definite place to stay, thinking that jobs and lodgings would be easy to find. He learned differently, however, and had to search long and hard before finally finding a job as a bartender in a South Kensington pub called the Anglesea Arms. But he didn't settle for that alone, persevering until he eventually found a finance-related position. During the day he worked in finance, but he kept his bartending job three evenings a week because he enjoyed the exposure to the local people and to British life. Steve says his day job helped him lay the foundation for the successful business career he has had, and his time in London stimulated a life-long interest in foreign cultures and peoples.

Much of Steve's career has been spent in the risky and challenging, but highly interesting and rewarding, fields of foreign exchange derivatives trading and risk management. As Steve points out: "Foreign exchange rates tend to be the first indicator of the impact of world events, so it is fascinating to go into work and have my job be different everyday."

Steve's job has also given him the opportunity to travel widely in Asia and to learn about the continent's diverse cultures and peoples. He says it has been very rewarding, personally and professionally, to gain the in-depth knowledge of foreign cultures that can be derived only from long-term exposure and open-minded observation. In his view, Americans who have seldom if ever traveled outside of the United States tend to have an overly U.S.-centered viewpoint and would profit from more exposure to different cultures. Similarly, he has found that his time living abroad has allowed him to view his own country more objectively than he would have had he lived his entire life in the United States.

Steve's many years abroad have not, however, diminished his admiration for the United States or his pride in his Native American heritage. He flew from Singapore to Washington, D.C., to take part in the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in September 2004. Being present at the opening, and being able to walk down the National Mall in Washington with tens of thousands of Native Americans wearing traditional dress, was a deeply emotional experience for him. Like many persons of Native American heritage, Steve is deeply aware of past historical injustices committed against Native American peoples, and he believes that the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian has finally given proper recognition to the nation's first settlers and to the numerous contributions that Native Americans have made in every aspect of American life and culture. — Steven M. Lauterbach

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