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Chinese-American billionaire businessman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eric S Yuan[5] (Chinese: 袁征; pinyin: Yuán Zhēng; born 20 February 1970) is a Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom Video Communications, of which he owns 22%.[6][7]
Eric Yuan | |
|---|---|
_at_World_Economic_Forum_Davos_2021.png) Yuan in 2021 | |
| Born | 20 February 1970[1] |
| Citizenship | United States[2] |
| Education | Shandong University of Science and Technology (BS) China University of Mining and Technology (MS) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | Founder and CEO, Zoom Video Communications |
| Spouse | Sherry (m. 1991 or 1992)[3][4] |
| Children | 3[4] |
| Eric Yuan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 袁征 | ||||||
| |||||||
Yuan is the son of geological engineers.[8] He was born and raised in Tai'an, Shandong Province, China.[9][10] In the fourth grade, Yuan collected construction scraps to recycle copper for cash.[9]
As a first-year university student in 1987, Yuan was inspired to develop videotelephony software while he took 10-hour train rides to visit his girlfriend and was looking for an easier way to "visit" her.[11][10] Yuan earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics with a minor in computer application from Shandong University of Science and Technology,[12] and a master's degree in geology engineering from China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing.[13][14] Yuan completed a Stanford University executive program in 2006.[9][15][16]
After earning his master's degree, Yuan lived in Beijing,[17] and attended a training program in Japan for four months.[14] Inspired by Bill Gates, who spoke in Japan in 1995, Yuan moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 to join the tech boom.[11][18] At the time, Yuan spoke very little English, and applied nine times before being granted a visa to the United States.[10][19]
Upon arriving in the U.S., Yuan joined WebEx, a web conferencing startup, where he was one of the first 20 hires.[9][8] The company was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007, at which time Yuan became vice president of engineering.[10] In 2011, he pitched a new smartphone-friendly video conferencing system to Cisco management.[20] When the idea was rejected, Yuan left Cisco to establish his own company, Zoom Video Communications.[10]
In 2019, Zoom became a public company via an initial public offering,[21] at which time Yuan became a billionaire.[9][2] His wealth has increased during COVID-19 pandemic, as Zoom benefited from the shift to online work and teaching.[22] On 1 September 2020, Yuan's net worth was estimated to be US$16.4 billion, a figure 360% higher than his net worth at the beginning of the year.[23] In March 2021, Yuan transferred $6 billion worth of Zoom shares to a grantor retained annuity trust, for which Yuan is a trustee.[24]
Yuan married his girlfriend, Sherry, at the age of 22, while he was a master's student at China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing.[9] They have three children. One of his children is Roy Yuan, who plays on the Stanford basketball team and has a YouTube channel with over 40,000 subscribers.[25] Yuan and his family live in Santa Clara, California.[2] In 2007, Yuan became a naturalized United States citizen.[26]
Yuan chose the middle name "S" after Subrah Iyar, cofounder of WebEx.[5]
Yuan was named the 2020 Time Businessperson of the Year,[27] and was included in the Time 100 Most Influential People of 2020.[28] In 2020, Yuan was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Awards[29][30]
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