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tracesKANSAS CITY, Mo. - Dalal. Chen. Tai. Ramanujan. Dang. Park. Singh. Check any honor roll, any list of science fair winners, any Phi Beta Kappa roster and you'll see Asian names far out of proportion to the size of the Asian-American population. But look for Asian names among top U.S. corporate executives, and they're markedly under-represented. What happens to all those bright, well-educated, hard-driven graduates? Asian-Americans are 18 percent of the Harvard University enrollment, 24 percent at Stanford University, and a whopping 46 percent at the University of California-Berkeley. Academic pedigrees like that typically vault graduates into the upper echelon of the U.S. workforce. But a national study released Thursday by the Center for Work-Life Policy says that Asian-Americans - 5 percent of the U.S


. population and the nation's fastest-growing minority by percentage - hold less than 2 percent of top corporate jobs. The study analyzed chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and other top executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Researchers, supported by Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and Time Warner, conducted 2,952 surveys of working-aged men and women and gathered qualitative and quantitative data to conclude that many Asian-Americans, whether immigrant or native born, find it hard to "fit in" the upper management ranks. According to the report, it's not necessarily that they're victims of discrimination. It's that Asian-Americans don't toot their own horns, don't flourish in American-style networking and office politics, and may struggle with communication. "The Asian culture is that you work hard on your own, and the belief is that you'll be recognized based on your work," said Joel Ma, who was born in Hong Kong and now works in global procurement at Hallmark Cards. "But western culture is more about whether you're assertive enough." Those who are unassertive or lack the right networks are likely to hit what has become known as the bamboo ceiling.

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