Eric Xu
徐勇
Born1964 (age 59–60)
Beijing, China
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Co-founder, Baidu
  • Chairman , YIFANG Group Holdings Limited
  • Founder, Xu Family Charitable Foundation Limited
  • Founder, YIFANG (Beijing) Foundation
Websitewww.yifangventures.com

Eric Xu Yong (Chinese: 徐勇; born 1964) is a Chinese entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as co-founder of Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine.

Dr. Xu is founder and chairman of Yifang Capital, an investment holding company engaged in venture capital investments and asset management.[1] He also founded family philanthropic organizations including The Xu Family Charitable Foundation Limited,[2] Yifang Foundation, and Zhengyu Education Foundation.[3]

Education

Xu earned his B.S and M.S. degrees in biology at Peking University from 1982 to 1989.[4]

A Rockefeller Foundation fellow 1989–1993, Xu obtained PhD degree in Biology from Texas A&M University. Xu was also a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1994 to 1996.[4]

Career

Dr. Xu's career ranges across research in life sciences, biotechnology, film production,[5] entrepreneurship in information technology, venture capital and fund management.

Biotechnology

Prior to Baidu, Dr. Xu worked at Qiagen, Inc. and Stratagene, Inc, two biotech start-up companies in California in technical support, sales and marketing.[6]

Television

Dr. Xu is a producer of the first Chinese TV documentary on Silicon Valley's unique history and culture in 1999.[5] Titled "A Journey to Silicon Valley", the TV series brings to light the history, start-up culture, business management and venture capital mechanisms of the Valley in an objective and comprehensive fashion, and profoundly reveals the mystery behind the success of Silicon Valley as the world model for high-tech innovation.[4]

Baidu

In 1999, together with Mr. Robin Li, Dr. Xu co-founded Baidu, the world's largest Chinese search engine (NASDAQ:BIDU) and served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer from 1999–2004.[6]

Venture capital and asset management

Dr. Xu is the founder and chairman of YIFANG VENTURES, an investment company, engaged in venture capital investments and asset management. Dr. Xu also serves as a board member for several technology start-up companies. Yifang currently invests in information technology, new media, bio-pharmaceuticals, healthcare and clean-technologies, etc.[7] It counts Allele Biotech, AcuraGen, AIC Semiconductor, BravoKids, BioHermes, Imune-Onc, TSM, Yidian, Haizhi, Kuwo, Baihe, etc., as its portfolio companies, among others. YIFANG is also a limited partner of several venture capital and private equity funds, including Sequoia Capital China, Decheng Capital Fund, Dragonfly Fund, among others.[8]

Personal life

Dr. Xu and his families are based in Singapore and Beijing.

References

  1. ↑ "Yifang Ventures". yifangventures.com/EN. Yi Fang Ventures. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  2. ↑ "Xu Family Charitable Foundation Limited". Xu Family Foundation Limited. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-04-03.
  3. ↑ "Yifang Foundation (Beijing)". Yifang Foundation (Beijing). Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  4. 1 2 3 Sullivan, Lawrence; Liu, Nancy (2015). Historical Dictionary of Science and Technology in Modern China (1st ed.). 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 468.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. 1 2 "Journeying Into Silicon Valley". Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  6. 1 2 "Bloomberg Business Company Profile". Bloomberg Business Company Profile. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  7. ↑ "Yifang Ventures Investment Mandate". Yifang Ventures. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  8. ↑ "Yifang Ventures Partnership and Investee List". Yifang Ventures Partnership and Investee list.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.