Taiwanese Students Visit Successful Entrepreneur Eve Yen and are Inspired about Turning their Ideas into Reality

On January 26, Taiwanese students from the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of California at Riverside took part in an enterprise visit organized by the Career Taiwan USA Association. They visited Diamond Wipes International in Chino, Southern California and met the founder and CEO Ms. Eve Yen to learn about how she successfully transformed a traditional industry into a company with 400 employees. It produces some 2,000 different products and has an annual revenue of more than 50 million dollars. Diamond Wipes International was started in 1994 by Ms. Eve Yen who had just moved to the US from Taiwan. It began as a one-person operation selling disposable moist hand wipes to Chinese restaurants in and around Los Angeles and is now the largest wet wipe manufacturer in the western part of the US. Eve spent half a day and an evening with the participants, providing a lot of invaluable advice based on her own experience: such as how to establish a company from scratch, how to create products, how to survive when a company faces challenges and crises, and how to become a good employee or a good leader. She is passionate and constantly looking for creative ideas about products and talented employees. All the visitors greatly appreciated her giving them this rare opportunity to visit the company. Afterwards they all also enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Eve, and everyone shared their takeaways from this visit. Rebecca Lan, Director of the Education Division at TECO-LA accompanied the visiting students and also participated in the entire event. She was really inspired by Eve, especially when Eve emphasized that the company stays true to its founding spirit and its belief in its core values; honesty, respect for the vendors, and being grateful to and feeling responsible for taking care of its employees. The company also takes its corporate social responsibility very seriously: its “California plant produces more than 500,000 kwh of electricity using solar energy, providing approximately 86 percent” of the electricity it requires, and “the company has also achieved Rainforest Alliance and Forest Stewardship Council certifications to provide wipes that come from responsibly managed forests, maintained by workers who are treated fairly.” The Education Division of TECO-LA was glad to once again be working together with Career Taiwan USA Association organizing this visit. The Education Division is sure that the students who participated will draw inspiration from Eve’s spirit as they pursue their own entrepreneurship dream or seek out the right pathway to a different future career. Career Taiwan USA Association was founded by successful and enthusiastic overseas Taiwanese in Southern California. It strives to support young people from Taiwan, especially students who just graduated from a university there, to pursue a career, their ideals, and a life in the US. The association regularly organizes workshops on career developments in the US and works with local enterprises to provide opportunities for young people from Taiwan to visit these enterprises and exchange ideas with successful entrepreneurs. Career Taiwan USA Association hopes that more people from Taiwan will settle down in the US and contribute their talents, thereby increasing Taiwan’s profile overseas. Photo:Ms. Eve Yen (second row in yellow), founder and CEO of Diamond Wipes International, taking the visitors on a factory tour.