Grace Ueng

Grace Ueng
Grace Tedx Speech
Born	1965 (age 51–52) Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Alma mater	S.B. MIT MBA Harvard Business School
Occupation	Founder and CEO of Savvy Marketing Group
Parent(s)	Professor Charles En-Shiuh Ueng Mrs. Shirley Wen-Hwa Chen Ueng
Website	Savvy Growth

Grace W. Ueng (Chinese: 翁惠芷; pinyin: wēng huìzhǐ, born September 8, 1965 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a Chinese-American business executive. In 2003, Ueng founded Savvy Marketing Group, later rebranded to Savvy Growth. The firm’s services include management consulting, executive coaching, motivational speaking. She served on management teams for several entrepreneurial technology companies that produced more than $1 billion of value for investors. She has served on adjunct faculty teaching entrepreneurial marketing in the MBA program at Kenan–Flagler Business School and in an international MBA program at Fudan University in Shanghai, a joint venture with MIT Sloan School.

Personal life

Ueng graduated from MIT in 1987 with a degree in management science from the Sloan School. She co-founded the Sloan Undergraduate Management Association and served as President of her class for three years. She was named one of Glamour's Top Ten College Women her senior year. She was granted deferred admittance to Harvard Business School where she received her MBA in 1991.^[1] Grace Ueng is the youngest daughter of Professor Charles En-Shiuh Ueng and Mrs. Shirley Wen-Hwa Chen Ueng. Her mother was a Shanghai-born classical piano teacher. Her father, who born in Yangzhou, was an engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her older sister is a graduate of Juilliard and a classical piano teacher.

Career

Fortune 500

Ueng worked in management consulting for Bain & Company and then corporate development for Sports Illustrated and Time Asia. She developed an interest in journalism and co-founded the New Asian Times. After business school, she worked in consumer packaged goods brand management at General Mills and then Clorox.

Entrepreneurship

She joined the management team of the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation (MECC) shortly after their IPO. Her most significant accomplishment was managing the Trail series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Oregon Trail and launching additional editions. MECC was acquired by Softkey International and merged with The Learning Company. Ueng then served as director of business development for Interactive Magic before joining OpenSite. One of her most notable success stories as vice president of marketing was building the team that developed the brand that resulted in an acquisition by Siebel Systems at a large multiple. She then served as the marketing executive for Togethersoft (sold to Borland) and SmartPath (sold to DoubleClick).

Personal challenges

Ueng literally went downhill when she turned 40 in a storied cycling accident.^[2] As she worked hard to get back “in the saddle” to help her clients, Ueng saw in a new light how adversity makes entrepreneurs stronger.^[3]

Writing and speaking

Ueng has proven to be a favorite keynote for inspiring business leaders around the globe. ^[4] She has published and been asked to speak on the correlation between successful entrepreneurs and endurance athletes as well as summit ascenders. A popularly requested motivational speaking topic is "Downhill at 40: On Obstacles and Entrepreneurship”.^[5] An inspiration to many, Ueng was named by Audrey Magazine as one of their eight 2013 Asian-American Women of Influence. ^[6]

Following the tenth anniversary of her cycling accident, Ueng is working on a book on ascending the “summit" and the spirit of the successful entrepreneur.

References