In a video chat with AmCham Senior Advisor Don Shapiro, Bill Wiseman talked about his astronaut brother, his experience with the Chamber, and more.

When Bill Wiseman served as AmCham Taiwan Chairperson in 2011-2012, his day job was country head for influential consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Now senior partner in McKinsey’s Seattle office and co-leader of the firm’s global semiconductor practice, Wiseman is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds an M.S. in electrical engineering from North Caroline State University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Before joining McKinsey, he was a platoon commander with Navy SEAL Team 5 and an integrated-circuit design engineer with IBM.

Below are excerpts from the recent video conversation, edited for brevity and clarity:

Your younger brother Reid was commander of the historic Artemis II mission that circled the moon last month. What was that experience like for you and the rest of the Wiseman family?

It was really exciting to see Reid do what he does so well and loves doing, which is pushing the boundaries of what humans are capable of. As the big brother by five years, I think I was probably his role model until I was around 17 or 18. Then it wasn’t too long before he flipped the script.

Over the years, as families we would go on vacations together twice a year. And regardless of where we went around the United States, he would always include a side trip to see some supplier or other facility connected to NASA. And no matter where it was, the reception that he got was amazing. There was always a bunch of people that he was close to and knew by name, whether engineers or administrators or finance people. To me it was kind of a masterclass in what great leadership looks like.

Reid was always an extremely competent pilot, but over his career, and especially in his previous role as chief astronaut, he developed the leadership skills that were so evident on this moon mission. It was wonderful not only to see the U.S. industrial base coming together to accomplish something really hard, but to watch my brother be the focal point as the mission commander. It was awesome, and I was taking notes all the time.

From Reid, through you, AmCham got a photo of Taiwan that he took from space in 2014 during his six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. It’s hanging in the Chamber’s conference room, and with some embellishment it was the basis for gifts given to President Lai Ching-te and American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene at this year’s Hsieh Nien Fan. What’s the story behind that photo?

Reid had about an hour of unscheduled time on the Space Station every day. They keep those guys pretty busy with exercise, the science experiments they’re doing up there, and the maintenance activities and whatnot. But he would religiously use that hour of free time every day to sit in the cupola with a pretty awesome Nikon camera and look for interesting things on planet Earth to shoot. He’d take his favorite shot of the day and send that down to his Twitter account. He called it “Earth Art.”

He got really skilled at taking pictures of different things on Earth from orbit, and every time I got to talk to him on the phone — probably once a month — he’d tell me that he was trying to get a photo of Taiwan for me but every time there was such thick cloud cover that he couldn’t see anything.

Then one day he called me and to say: “I got some fantastic pictures of Taiwan at night, and you can even see all the squid boats out there.” When he got back from the mission, we went through his photographs, and he probably had 20 exposures of that Taiwan image. We picked the best one and printed up a few large copies, including one for AmCham. 

It was a pretty amazing shot. You can see where lights of the cities and towns spread all along the west coast. I thought it was super special. That was my gift back to the Chamber, and I’m glad you were able to get it to President Lai.

What were some of the ways that your time with AmCham was beneficial for you, professionally and personally?

It was a great experience for my career, with lots of personal growth as well. Probably the biggest impact was that — not ever having run a regulated business — I had never really looked hard at the intersection of trade policy, government relations, and business. And having to do that through the lens of an organization as diverse as AmCham, which is involved in everything from pharmaceuticals to banking to technology to chiropractors was eye-opening.

It really broadened my view of the importance of government policy and trade relations, and the fact that business can actually get some things changed that need changing. When I step back and think about it, I believe we had some impact on the ability to import American beef into Taiwan, on intellectual property protection in Taiwan, and even on building support in Washington for getting funding for a new AIT campus funded, which was sorely needed and went a long way towards ensuring a well-established American presence in Taiwan.

Another thing that made a big impression on me was the week spent on AmCham’s Doorknock trip to DC.  Calling on executive-branch and Capitol Hill offices, educating folks on the importance of Taiwan as a trading partner – and the obstacles that get in the way of that reaching its potential — was a great opportunity. And it gives you a true sense of what a representative democracy is all about.

It’s a mission that we need to continue to carry out, because with our House of Representatives up for election every two years, there’s a lot of turnover there. It’s necessary for AmCham to continually bring its message to Washington.

What particular events from your time with AmCham were the most memorable?

Certainly, Hsieh Nien Fan was always fantastic, especially the care and attention that we got from President Ma and other top officials.

The other one that really sticks in my mind, because I almost got fired from my McKinsey job over it, was an event in 2012 where we had the two presidential candidates, Tsai Ing-wen and Ma Ying-jeou, come in and talk to the international business community, one after the other, before the election. A prominent Taiwanese business leader, who had a bit of a beef with the U.S. at the time, went on TV and came after AmCham, and me in particular, as being disrespectful to President Ma by not calling him by his title, which was a complete farce.

That got me more press attention than I needed. But we had a tape proving the accusation to be wrong, and explaining that to the media was effective in calming things down. The potential PR crisis was averted.

Something that I under-appreciated at the time was the power of AmCham, just in terms of the sense of community in the organization. I still keep in touch with so many of the people I got to know through AmCham, and not just board members but members in general. We had a good, active calendar of events. Of course Hsien Nien Fan was the marquee one, but there were many other great, well-attended events.

In this 75th anniversary year, do you have thoughts on AmCham’s historic role in the U.S.-Taiwan relationship?

Rob Parker [the AmCham chairperson in 1979 at the time of the shift in U.S. diplomatic relations from Taiwan to the PRC] and I spent a lot of time together reflecting on 1979 and the remarkable role that AmCham played at that point. He had some incredible stories of real selflessness and commitment by the Chamber under his leadership, making sure that American community institutions like the radio station, the American Club, and others could be preserved. He and AmCham had a lasting impact on Taiwan and U.S.-Taiwan relations.

And I should also mention the work AmCham did to ensure adequate intellectual property protection. A lot of that was due to the leadership of Alan Eusden of Corning [who served as AmCham Chairperson in 2009-2010]. Together with other business associations, AmCham successfully pushed Taiwan to put legislation in place to treat trade secrets as a form of intellectual property. Getting that changed was a big deal.

Alan was kind of my inspiration when he was chair and I was on the board. I thought to myself “I have a lot to learn from this guy.” He was a great coach to me, and that was the kind of excellent, meaningful personal connection I was able to make through AmCham.