Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Chia-Li Chien came to the United States to attend college in 1988 at the age of 21. She blends elements of the rich Chinese culture (slightly influenced by Japan, which once claimed Taiwan as a colony) with American openness.

As an entrepreneur, Chia-Li has experienced many of the issues that women business owners face. That's one reason she's so passionate about helping women entrepreneurs excel.

Chia-Li founded Chien Associates LLC in 1993--the day before her son was born. For the next six years, she had only one client. Her income provided for her family, but she knew she needed a strategy to grow her business.

So she fired her longtime client and shifted her business model to handle multiple clients. One of those clients was a Fortune 500 company. Working for that firm taught her how to create and capture value for a business. That inspired her to retire from the technology consulting business in 2002 and transform her business into a niche business in exit strategy the following year.

Three years into this transformation, she realized that exit strategy was only a part of the equation she should be considering. Many factors drive business value over a period of time, and these strategic value drivers are what set the conditions for entrepreneurs to increase their business's value.

She has helped clients such as Diageo win awards in best practice of human resources. Westinghouse was honored for a strategic planning system that links company strategy to individual employee performance in a continuous, real-time process. Even before moving to the United States, Chia-Li was appointed a junior ambassador of Taiwan for a goodwill mission to the U.S. in 1986.

Chia-Li received her associate degree from Ming Chuan University in Taipei, her bachelor's degree from Central Connecticut State University, and her master's degree from the University of Hartford. In addition, she is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC), Charter Trust and Estate Planner (CTEP) and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

She is a board member and a pro bono director for the Financial Planning Association of Charlotte. She is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Women Presidents' Organization and the National Association of Women in Construction. She provides pro bono services to the community along with CharlotteSave, the Charlotte Housing Authority and many local nonprofit community organizations.

She has been married since 1990 and has two children. She describes her family as national parks fanatics. They aren't serious hikers, but they enjoy nature through international travel.