By Paul Feinberg
For Daniel Tsai, it's all about family. And love.
Tsai and his brother Richard, together, lead the immensely successful financial services business their father founded and that has become the second largest in Taiwan. His professional achievements are many, but Daniel Tsai makes clear that his family — its strength, unity and closeness — is his most significant accomplishment.
“When I had my family,” he says, “I felt that the most important thing was to make my children feel loved.”
Indeed, the Tsai clan, even with grown children, remains remarkably tight-knit. It includes daughter Iris (’17), a UCLA Anderson alumna and the founder of Esteemed Tea Collective, an Oolong tea importer to the U.S., who splits her time between Taiwan and Los Angeles. Whenever possible, Daniel, his wife Irene, Iris and her siblings still make every effort to be together at meal time.
“We will wait for each other to arrive before we start dinner or lunch (and) I'm always the one who's being called and asked, ‘Where are you, Dad? Are you ready for the meal?” Tsai joked. “I will try to rush home. I ask them to hold on a bit so I can be there to be with them to start the meal together.”
It was through Iris’ positive experience at Anderson that Tsai came to realize the value of the work being done at the school, he said, and that led to the generous gift that created the Daniel Tsai Fellowship for UCLA Anderson students interested in living and working in the Greater China region, including for foreign companies based in those areas.
Along with his brother, Tsai heads Fubon Financial Holdings, a Taiwan-based company with interests in banking, insurance and securities. He also serves as chairman of Taiwan Mobile, a leading telecommunications service provider on the island, and in a recent interview, he explained why he created the fellowship at Anderson.
“I thought that business education in our area needed more international input,” he says. “Whether they be students from our region or students from other regions, I thought that promoting such exchanges of business experience is a good idea. Our region, because of the economic goals, is full of opportunities for international students from Anderson.”
While Iris’ time in business school helped forge her father's relationship to UCLA Anderson, another of his children was the reason he first connected with the broader UCLA campus. His youngest son was born with an underdeveloped brain, which caused him myriad health issues. As a last resort, Tsai and his wife brought the toddler from Taiwan to the United States in search of treatment. A family friend introduced the Tsais to UCLA pediatric surgeon Dr. James Atkinson (since retired), who immediately operated. The procedure was a success and Tsai’s son is now 23 years old. “UCLA saved my son,” Tsai says.
Tsai and his other family members have followed in their patriarch’s footsteps in becoming dedicated philanthropists. “The biggest influence was my father,” Tsai says. “He believed that wealth is not created just for an individual or a family; he believed that you should try and do a lot of good for society.”
Along with his wife, Tsai is involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors, including efforts to help youngsters understand and use new media, and through work with Taiwan's indigenous peoples, helping underprivileged children who live in Taiwan’s mountainous region. “We don’t want the next generation to start from a lower starting line than their peers, so we’re helping them catch up,” he said.
Tsai is also a governor at the Center for Asian Philanthropy and Society. “The center’s goal is to try and help people who want to do philanthropic work in Asia. We all have good intentions, but sometimes we may not be going in the right direction or we may not be using the most efficient way to help the people or causes we want to help.”
Daniel Tsai is one of more than 13,000 benefactors whose generosity helps the entire Anderson family. Together, they’ve given more than $300 million in support of the school’s Into the Next: The Campaign for UCLA Anderson efforts.
This line "I felt that the most important thing was to make my children feel loved.” melted my heart.SO much of love towards Family that's just Amazing.
Posted by: Radhika Jain | 11/04/2018 at 10:58 PM
It is a really emotional story. I am happy to know that his youngest son is now healthy, thank God.
Posted by: José Llopis | 09/27/2018 at 01:04 AM