Former AmCham Kaohsiung president Brian Aiello passed away late on January 26th, 2025. He is survived by his wife, Carrie Wang, his adopted children in Taiwan, as well as relatives in the United States. A massive fan of the UK band Pink Floyd, Brian left this world while listening to The Dark Side of the Moon on a speaker his wife brought to the hospital.
Born in 1955, Aiello came to Taiwan around the year 2000 and quickly chose Kaohsiung as his Taiwan home. Not long after arriving, Ms. Wang and Brian met and married. Carrie and Brian were together until his passing.
Eryk Michael Smith, who was elected in late 2024 as the new AmCham Kaohsiung Chairperson, said Brian was one the most optimistic people he’s ever met. “Brian told me he saw getting sick as a positive thing, and that promoting Taiwanese medical companies working on early cancer detection tech was his new mission,” said Smith.
Many comments on social media following Aiello’s death likewise mentioned Brian’s positivity – as well as remembering him as a person with passion, and passionate views.
Carrie Wang told AmCham KH English News that Brian refused to concede defeat. “They took him into the ICU around Christmas,” said Ms. Wang, “but this stubbornly positive man survived the ICU. I was talking to him in a regular hospital ward just days before he left us, and I was kind of shocked as he seemed to just keep beating whatever was thrown at him.”
AmCham Kaohsiung extends its deepest sympathies to Carrie Wang, the children of Carrie’s departed sister whom the couple adopted, and his relatives in the United States.
Below: Brian Aiello meets with now-Taiwan President Lai Ching-te at an AmCham event in 2012
