Min Zhu

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Min Zhu is the co-founder and former president and chief technical officer of WebEx.

Zhu holds an M.S. in Engineering from Stanford University. ^[1] He developed his technology expertise at the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, California. He was also the deputy to the chief technical officer of Price Waterhouse and the vice president of Expert Edge, a software design company. In 1991, Min co-founded Future Labs, one of the first companies to produce multi-point document collaboration software. Quarterdeck acquired Future Labs in 1996, and Min went on to co-found WebEx with Subrah Iyar.

On May 13, 2005, Min Zhu resigned from WebEx and left the United States. Min Zhu continues to serve as a science and technology advisor to the municipal government of San Jose, a member of the University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation, a Board Director of the Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association and a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates.

In September of 2005, NEA has announced its plans to financially back an independent Chinese venture firm called Northern Light, which is not to be confused with the search engine, Northern Light. This venture fund is raising is first, $100 million, fund this fall. NEA General Partner Scott Sandell calls his firm's relationship to Northern Light one akin to a "special LP," whereby Northern Light will not only receive part of its institutional backing from NEA but will also provide NEA with deal flow. The new firm, which is being founded by Min Zhu along with Chinese entrepreneurs Feng Deng and Yan Ke will share office space in China with NEA venture partner Xiaodong Jiang.

[edit] Zeleny legal dispute

On 13 May 2005, WebEx announced that Min Zhu was stepping down as WebEx's CTO and WebEx leadership, and retiring to mainland China where he would serve as a "WebEx Fellow." [2] This was amid a spate of lawsuits between the Zhu family, WebEx and their former business partner Michael Zeleny for various torts, including breach of contract and defamation. [3] In the course of these, Zeleny made public online that a complaint for childhood sexual abuse had been made by Zhu's daughter, Zeleny's former domestic and business partner, and alleged that Zhu diverted WebEx assets to settle that complaint. Zhu denied these claims in court records and WebEx sued Zeleny for defamation. [4] Zeleny's claims have since been settled out of court and the WebEx counter-claim dropped.