Nicholas Yang

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yang.

Nicholas Yang Wei-hsiung (Chinese: 楊偉雄, born 1955) is a Taiwan-born Hong Kong businessman, and prospective government official, who has also served as the Executive Vice President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.[1][2]

Education and business career

Yang lived in Jersey City, New Jersey before moving to Pasadena to attend the California Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.[3] He went on to obtain a master's degree at Stanford University in the same field, and worked as a senior design engineer at Intel. He returned to Stanford to earn an MBA, and worked briefly at Bain & Company before moving to Asia in 1983.[4]

Yang spent sixteen years at Shell Electric (蜆殼電器) in Hong Kong and mainland China, where he served as executive director and deputy group managing director, and guided the company through its initial public offering and the sale of its fibre-optic business to JDSU. He moved to JDSU in 1999. Afterwards he became involved in venture capital and private equity.[4] In 2003 he was appointed CEO of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company.[2]

In academia and government

Yang became Executive Vice President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010.[5] After Leung Chun-ying emerged as the winner of the 2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Yang's name came up as one of the top candidates to head the government's newly created Technology and Communications Bureau. As the Hong Kong Basic Law requires that principal government officials have no right of abode in any foreign country, Yang visited the U.S. consulate to renounce his U.S. citizenship in May that year.[1]

In July 2012 Yang became the target of an investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption regarding a government contract which a foundation he directed, the eInclusion Foundation, had obtained in 2010.[6]

On 2 March 2015, he was appointed the Innovation & Technology Adviser to the Leung Chun-ying and an non-official member of the Executive Council to pave the way for the city's Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB).[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "楊偉雄到美領館　疑放棄美籍". Apple Daily. 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "靠你帶起數碼城市". Wen Wei Po. 2006-03-23. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  3. ↑ "Eighty-Third Annual Commencement". California Institute of Technology. 1977-06-10. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Executive Vice President: Mr. Nicholas W. Yang". Offices of the President, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  5. ↑ "長線投資蝕轉賺 楊偉雄". Wen Wei Po. 2010-02-27. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  6. ↑ "大熱新局長楊偉雄遭 ICAC調查". Apple Daily. 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  7. ↑ Chan, Kahon (2 March 2015). "Nicholas Yang appointed tech advisor". China Daily Asia.