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US-based Asia Society cuts jobs
The Asia Society, a leading US-based institute promoting ties across the Pacific, will cut some 10 per cent of staff as it feels the pinch from the economic crisis, a spokeswoman said.
The Asia Society, a leading US-based institute promoting ties across the Pacific, will cut some 10 per cent of staff as it feels the pinch from the economic crisis, a spokeswoman said.
The New York-based society said on Friday it would eliminate about 20 positions -- 11 per cent of its workforce -- as endowment money and donations decline.
"We had been on a pretty strong growth trajectory in recent years. In the last five years we have been growing at about 12 per cent a year," said Asia Society spokeswoman Elaine Merguerian.
"But in the current climate, we have been affected, so there was a feeling that we needed to take this step," she said.
The Asia Society is seeking to trim its 26 million-dollar operating budget by 10 per cent, she said.
Founded in 1956 by wealthy philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, the Asia Society has been a leading institute offering educational and cultural programming to promote relations between Asia and the United States.
It had been expanding before the global economic crisis, opening a centre in Mumbai in 2006 and in Seoul last year.
