Charles Woo

Charlie Woo is the co-founder and CEO of Megatoys, a toy manufacturing company headquartered in Los Angeles, with an office in Hong Kong, manufacturing plants in China and in City of Commerce, California. Charlie is also known as the founder of the Los Angeles Toy District, and credited with turning the once blighted industrial area in Downtown Los Angeles into a thriving international trade center. Charlie is a former Chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and has been the only Asian American to head the 119-year old business organization. He currently chairs the Workforce Investment Board for the City of Los Angeles, a body that oversees the nation’s second largest workforce development system. He has served in this capacity under four different mayors. He is a member of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs and a former member of the State Commission for Economic Development. Charlie has found time to serve on the boards of many civic organizations, including Pitzer College, LA Police Foundation, LA Inc., KPCC Public Radio, and UCLA School of Public Affairs. He is the Chair of Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE), a non-partisan community group that provides leadership development, as well as voter education and registration programs for the APIA community. He previously served as chair of the Asian Rehabilitation Services, Inc., and was on the boards of LA Library Foundation, Town Hall Los Angeles, LA’s Best, American Red Cross LA Chapter, and YMCA Metropolitan Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Committee of 100 and the Pacific Council of International Policy. Charlie came to the U. S. from Hong Kong at the age of 17 to attend UCLA where he graduated summa cum laude and received his master’ degree.