The managing director of Weidlinger Associates’ bridge engineering division is one of fifty outstanding business leaders honored by AABDC this year.

NEW YORK – Guang-Nan Fanjiang is a 2007 recipient of an Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award from the nation’s largest and most influential program honoring Asian American entrepreneurs and business professionals. The sixth annual presentation of the awards by the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC) took place on June 22, 2007, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. AABDC was established in 1994 to help Asian-owned businesses compete in the general marketplace and to promote greater recognition of Asian American contributions to the economy.

Mr. Fanjiang is Managing Director of Weidlinger’s bridge engineering practice, which specializes in the design and rehabilitation of suspension and other long-span bridges nationwide. During his 38-year career, he has been responsible mainly for reconstructions of aging bridges, some of which are United States designated historic landmarks. He has created new, innovative technologies to modernize and strengthen bridge structures and to protect them from corrosion damage and earthquakes. New York commuters and transportation officials benefit daily from his leadership in reducing the cost of bridge operations, improving structural safety, and limiting inconvenience during construction.

Mr. Fanjiang is a principal and part owner of Weidlinger Associates and serves on its Board of Directors. He is responsible for expanding Weidlinger’s complex bridge engineering practice in New York, California, Florida, and New Jersey, which has tripled in value since the mid-1990s. He currently heads a group of 70 bridge engineering professionals who are working on more than 50 projects in North America that amount to billions of dollars in construction. Mr. Fanjiang is a registered Professional Engineer in New York, New Jersey, and Florida and is affiliated with numerous technical societies in the transportation industry. In 2002, he was given an Outstanding Achievement Award in Bridge Engineering from the International Chinese Transportation Professionals Association. He was born in Tau-Yuan, Taiwan, and received degrees from Kansas State University (MSCE) and Taipei Institute of Technology (BSCE).

The award was presented at a dinner whose 800 invited guests included prominent leaders from a broad range of businesses and industries. Mr. Fanjiang stated, “It is a special honor for me to represent the contributions of all American Asians and the engineers among us in particular. AABDC should be commended for calling attention to our accomplishments in the civil engineering field, since they are not widely known and benefit many Americans.”