ONE
PERSON STEPHEN CHEUNG INTERNATIONAL EXPERT
“ M Y IN TERNSHIP EXPERIENCE P REPARED ME FOR WO RKIN G IN LO C AL AND STATE GOVERN MENT.”
As the city’s first director of international trade, Social Welfare graduate Stephen Cheung oversees import/export activities at two major transportation hubs: Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles. While the position may be new, the focus on international trade and transportation is not; Cheung previously served as the director of international development with the Port of Los Angeles. In that role, he led the nation’s busiest port by attracting new partners and strengthening current relationships. “We have been the ideal and more advantageous destination” for container ships crossing the Pacific, Cheung says. “But by 2015, places like the Gulf Coast and the expanded Panama Canal are going to create
more competition. So we have to be more strategic and look at new partnerships and commodities to attract and retain business.” Cheung praises the service requirement at UCLA Luskin, crediting his current career to an internship with Rep. Karen Bass’s office he held while he was a student. Soon after graduation, he began working in government at the mayor’s office, where he helped create and run the city’s Clean Air Action Plan. “Los Angeles is a global leader in trade and in mitigating our environmental footprint,” Cheung says. “My internship experience prepared me for this work.”