“AACYF Top 30 under 30” list releases, Class of 2021
“AACYF Top 30 under 30” 2021 list was released by the All America Chinese Youth Federation, LAPOST, Chinese American Institute for Public Diplomacy in Los Angeles on March 18, 2021.
There are 6 categories this year, 38 recipients were selected from about 420 candidates. AACYF Top 30 under 30 is the only list selecting from Chinese American and Chinese students in the states, and it’s recognized as the most influential and credible selection for Chinese American start-ups.
According to AACYF Top 30 under 30 List Judging Committee: they are most important young entrepreneurs, creative leaders and brightest stars for our Chinese communities’ future.
Entrepreneur, Manufacture, Consumer Tech （8）：
Wang Liang, Co-founder and CPO of Surreal, Master of Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014.
Wang had a First Prize in National Olympics of Information from high school and went to Tongji University as a CS undergrad. In his junior year, Wang independently developed an iOS financial app EasyWallet which ranked top 10 in App Store China Finance section. EasyWallet was awarded Apple Scholarship by Apple and Wang was invited to WWDC 2012 in San Francisco. For graduate school, he went to Carnegie Mellon University for its prestigious Master of Human-Computer Interaction degree.
After graduation from CMU, Wang joined a musical tech company Smule in San Francisco and became the youngest Director in the company, managing an international design team, establishing internal workflows and methodologies as well as leading critical product innovations which grew the user base and user-generated content over 10x. As ByteDance went after the international market , Wang joined its North America team as one of the early key members, leading the design for enterprise solutions and internal product innovations. During his career, Wang has been granted over 10 design patents in both China and US, paved high-standard foundations of product and design for his teams.
In 2020, Wang co-founded Surreal (surreal.la), backed by top VCs including Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital and ZhenFund. Surreal is focusing on inventing a revolutionary AI-based content generation engine, which will revolutionize how industries and people create content, empowering the world with next-level efficiency of content generation.
Honghao Deng (zh:邓鸿浩) is an award-winning innovator and computational designer focusing on building context-aware built-environment with the integration of IoT, AR, and tangible interfaces. He holds a Master of Design Technology with Distinction at Harvard. He is the CEO and co-founder of butlr. He formerly was a researcher at City Science Group, MIT Media Lab.
Honghao has won multiple awards in the field of smart city technology, including Architizer A+ Award in Smart Building Technology, Red Dot Best of Best, Core77 Award, Gold and Platinum A’ Design Award, iF Design Award, Fast Compay Innovation by Design, and World Changing Ideas, 1st Place Future Cities Contest. He and his co-founder Jiani Zeng are recognized as the “Next Generation 2021” designers by Wallpaper Magazine. His research is published on SIGGRAPH, CHI, TEI, DIS, and ISWC. His work has been covered by TechCrunch, World Economic Forum, Domus, Arab News, the National, and CCTV.
In the pandemic, Honghao led his team at Butlr to rework their privacy-friendly sensors to help battle COVID-19. Their ceiling-mounted sensors detect individuals’ body heat to track occupancy and body temperature. Butlr is delivering its technology to thousands of retail stores and assisted living apartment units in Europe to protect people’s health and wellbeing.
Xinran Liu, graduated from the full-awarded honorary student of the Department of Mathematics at Georgia State University in the United States, and then entered Georgia Tech to obtain a graduate degree. As a young professional, I have worked at Ernst & Young Consulting Firm, Bank of America, etc. Currently, I am an algorithm engineer at Sina Weibo’s North American Artificial Intelligence R&D Center. I am also participates in the fellowship program and investment analyst work for UpHonest Capital, FosunRZ Capital, and MiraclePlus Capital. I am also a serial entrepreneur myself, and I won the honor of 2020 AACYF California 30u30 last year. I used to be the co-founder of Memeois. The company has been reported by Forbes and many other media and has received multiple rounds of investment. It is a platform with tens of millions of data traffic. The entrepreneurial project that I am currently working on as a co-founder is the LighTrace which is based in Wuhan, China. This company is mainly responsible for the development of 3D dTOF LiDAR receiver. At present, the company has obtained tens of millions of RMB financing and has entered the second tape-out process. And at the same time, I am also very active in the Sino-US venture capital community, such as the China-US Youth Cloud Summit, DeCode Forum, Stanford CEO org etc.
Linhang is a serial entrepreneur with strong passion in hospitality, travel tech, and food & beverage industry. He is currently a 1st Year MBA student at Yale University. Before coming to Yale, he co-founded MilesLife, HotelsNow, Touch Travel, and Touchtrips. The startups have all been backed by venture capital, raising over 30 million RMB. He recently started NoGuilt, a food incubator at Yale and is working for CommonPass app, a digital passport with secured vaccine and test records to help nations reopen their border.
Jiacheng is the co-founder and CSO at Laurea Technology Ltd, and general partner at NBC & CICC Digital Strategy Fund. Jiacheng graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in computer science and is a Microsoft alumnus. As an early-stage personal investor, Jiacheng invested in BrainCo, NetStars, BSPK, etc, and has an IRR of more than 30% in the secondary market over the past five years. Laurea Technology focuses on providing omnichannel digital transformation and operation solutions for physical retail companies. The company offers digital advertising, e-commerce, marketing tools, smart hardware, ERP, SCRM and clienteling platform for offline brands and shopping malls. Laurea Technology serves many industry-leading customers and is the core strategic partner of Tencent Smart Retail. Founded in early 2021, NBC & CICC Digital Strategy Fund manages US$150 million and invests in industry digital transformation opportunities across China. Its current portfolio includes Pachira and Moviebook.
Shunkun XIE, with a master’s degree, and is now serving as CDO at Whale Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Mr. XIE attained a master’s degree in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Hong Kong Baptist University.
Juncheng Zhuang（Johnson），graduated from Pennsylvania State University major in Health Policy Administration, currently pursuing his science of biotechnology graduate degree at Georgetown University. When he was in the student period, he was the general secretary and co-founder of the BIG TEN conference US-China student forum. The BIG TEN conference team was dedicated to providing more support for international students and helping overseas students to be able to combine Chinese culture and global vision. When he graduated, he becomes the founder and CEO of Medmax Healthcare Investment. In 2013 He joined Brigham and Women hospital as a research intern in Joseph bonventra’s lab. In 2015 he started to promote international medical cooperation projects between U.S and China. In 2019, he began to build up the new company Medmax and focuses on developing international medical cooperation projects and personal health management services. At the same time, Medmax medical research and investment will be focused on endocrinology, sports rehabilitation, elderly care, and other related industries.
Zhao Zichun, Koala Reading CEO, a continuous entrepreneur in education, former vice president of Chinese Students And Scholars Association of Columbia University and executive chairman of CU Asia, who has served successively in Goldman Sachs Group and Oppenheimer Fund in the United States. He once studied in Financial Mathematics and Operations Research in Columbia University and Chicago University, and graduated with tpo5%.
Art, Culture, Science： （6）
Ziyang Wu is an artist based in New York and Beijing, currently teaching at the School of Visual Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is a member of the Experiment on Art and Technology Track at NEW INC, New Museum.
With an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a BFA from the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, his video, augmented reality, artificial intelligence simulation and interactive video installation have exhibited internationally in China, North America, and Europe. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Annka Kultys Gallery in London, Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York, Hatch Art Project in Singapore and CO2 Gallery in Florence, and group exhibitions at Medici Palace and Milan Design Week in Italy, Today Art Museum and Times Art Museum in Beijing, Artron Art Center in Shenzhen, Powerlong Museum in Shanghai, New Museum & Rhizome in New York, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia, Walker Art Center and Rochester Art Center in Minnesota, Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art and Brown University in Rhode Island, Academy Art Museum in Maryland, The Hole Gallery, Eli Klein Gallery and Microscope Gallery in New York.
Wu has received numerous fellowships and has participated in many residencies including the Residency Unlimited (RU), the MacDowell Fellowship, Artist-in-residence at Institute for Electronic Arts (IEA) at Alfred University, Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship by Northern Lights.mn and Jerome Foundation, the AICAD Teaching Fellowship by Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design and the Winner of The ROCI Road to Peace exhibition by Robert Rauschenberg Art Foundation and Artsy. His work has been reviewed by It’s Nice That, Hypebeast, Artnet, Wall Street International, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Neural Magazine, Vie Des Arts Magazine, ANTE Magazine and more.
Zoey Chen, co-founder and artistic director of ETHOS International Music Education, a young contemporary improviser and zither performer. Member of Boston Chinese Musicians Association, member of Beijing Chinese Traditional Music Association, Envoy of cultural exchange between China and Cambodia.
Since 2017, she has been traveling domestically and overseas, leading the teaching and research team to develop a creative international music curriculum system suitable for domestic middle school students, focusing on the personalized training of students and inspiring their critical thinking. At present, they have established cooperative relationships with many internationally renowned universities in music teaching resources. In her efforts, one Music already has the first domestic music overseas admissions officer alliance platform, covering dozens of international colleges, admissions officers, department heads and hundreds of outstanding music and art returnees. It is committed to helping China have the potential of music and art, Families with dreams provide individual, professional, and cost-effective music and art expertise training solutions.
As a musician, she has performed in more than ten countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and she has won many domestic and foreign music competitions. In Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall, Shanghai Grand Theater, Oriental Art Center, He Luting Concert Hall and other places, she performed many solo, chamber music and electronic music works including world premieres. Invited by the Berlin City Government to participate in the “3rd Asia-Pacific Week” in Germany, and followed up to eight European countries for art and cultural exchanges, and then was invited to the Hamburg Conservatory of Music in Germany to perform the stage play “HanGan” with German artists; As a cultural exchange envoy of the “60th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Cambodia”, she went to Cambodia to hold a Chinese cultural exchange concert and was personally received by leaders such as the Royal Princess of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Minister of Culture. During the school, she was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music High School Attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music majoring in music performance successively. The graduate was admitted to the New England Conservatory of Music major in contemporary improvisation, Boston University and the Boston Conservatory of Music in music education, all received scholarships.
Lin Ji, also known as Webson Ji, is a New York-based Chinese multimedia artist and curator. He holds an M.A. degree in Sculpture from Savannah College of Art and Design and a B.F.A. degree in Public Art from China Academy of Art. Webson Ji is a member of the International Sculpture Center, a member of the New England Sculptors Association and an associate member of the National Sculpture Society.
The exploration of the essence of materiality is the driving force throughout Ji’s artistic career. His background as a competitive swimmer during his youth contributes to his perspective on the nature and movement of water. As such, Ji’s practice focuses on the presentation of this substance, combining it with various industrial materials to present the viewer with a unique interpretation of his meditation.
Webson Ji’s works have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. His most recent solo exhibition was held at Obition, Seoul, South Korea 2020. Other exhibitions include solo exhibitions at theBlanc Gallery in Manhattan, NY 2019; Besharat Museum Gallery, Atlanta 2019; Garcia Wilburn Gallery, Atlanta 2018, as well as group shows at the Oculus World Trade Center, Manhattan NY; Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn NY; La Mama La Galleria, Manhattan NY; Novado Gallery, Jersey City NJ; BINNAR Art Festival, Portugal; Loosenart Gallery, Rome Italy; CICA Museum, Gyeonggi-do South Korea; Gustein Gallery, Savannah GA; Yonsei University, Soul South Korea; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art; Z-Art Center, Shanghai China. In July 2018, Webson Ji was honored as the Best Young Artist of the Year of 2018 GAMMA Young Artist Competition in Tokyo, Japan, out of 226 participants from over 26 different countries.
Qian Wu graduated from the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, and received master degree from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. From 2011 to 2016, he studied at the Art Students League of New York, and he completed the first advanced research class on abstract art at Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2020. Qian Wu has received the tenth Most Achieved Chinese Awards (MACA), the third Powerlong Art Recognition Award, the 13th Top Ten Outstanding Chinese American Youth Award, and he was selected as the Annual Young Artist of the “Robb Report Best of the Best” in 2020.
Working at the intersection of emerging technology, art, and design, Jiabao Li creates new ways for humans to perceive the world. She works across nature, humans’ designed environment, and belief structures and creates works addressing climate change, humane technology, and a just, sustainable future. Her mediums include wearable, robot, AR/VR, projection, performance, software, and installation. In Jiabao’s TED Talk, she uncovered how technology mediates the way we perceive reality. At Apple, she invents and explores new technologies for future products. She has been awarded multiple patents for her inventions. She is the co-founder and chief design officer of Snapi Health and advises several Silicon Valley startups.
Jiabao is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including iF Design Award, National Endowment for the Arts, STARTS Prize, Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award, Core77 Design Award, IDSA, Ubicomp/ISWC Design Award. Her work has been exhibited internationally, at Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, Milan Design Week, Dubai Design Week, International Symposium on Electronic Arts, Anchorage Museum, Codame, Primer, OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal, CHI, Donghu Shan Art Museum. Her work has been featured on Yahoo, TechCrunch, Domus, CCTV, Yanko Design, Fast Company, Harvard Political Review, The National, Arab News, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Leonardo, iF World Design Guide, Gizmodo, and South China Morning Post.
Jiabao graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master of Design in Technology with Distinction and best thesis award. She received her Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Distinction Honors from the National University of Singapore.
Qinmin Liu is an artist & entrepreneur based in NYC and Beijing. Her artworks have been presented at important international institutions such as UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, The 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, etc. In 2015, Qinmin was selected as the cover artist for the San Francisco Weekly Newspaper. Her artworks have been reviewed by Artnet, The Guardian, Timeout, Reuters, CCTV, etc. In 2019, She received an Emergency grant from the Foundation Of Contemporary Arts. In 2020, She was selected as The Watermill Center residency artist, and Silver Art Project residency artist. In May 2020, Qinmin became the first ever Chinese artist to collaborate with COS. Recently, she is among the eight finalists of the Han Nefkens Foundation-Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2020. She is honored to be inducted into Forbes 30 Under 30, and awarded as Art & Fashion industry Vanguard . In 2021, Qinmin is nominated as finanlist of the Net A Porter Incredible Female Artist Award. Qinmin holds a MFA from the School of Visual Arts。She is also the creator of Angelhaha Airline, which is a viral art project that has been covered by 300+ influential media outlets worldwideᐧ
Designer (2)
Yijie Hu, Bachelor of Architecture from Zhu Kochen Honors College of Zhejiang University, Master of Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, Associate Member of American Institute of Architects. After graduating from Columbia University, he joined Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates New York headquarters as an architectural designer. During his career at KPF, he participated deeply in the design of Hangzhou Hang Lung Plaza – Westlake 66, Shanghai West Bund Financial Hub and other projects, and accumulated a certain amount of experience in Sino-US architectural design project cooperation. In addition, he also served as the North American contact person of Morningside Cultural Chinese Scholars Organization, and was responsible for organizing a series of online forums with American political and business leaders to contribute to the non-governmental communication between China and the United States.
Min Lu is an award-winning artist and tech entrepreneur with a focus on digital marketing, branding, graphic design and art direction. Her works have garnered recognition internationally, including American Graphic Design Awards, AppliedArts Advertising Awards, IAA Global Awards and A’ Design Award, etc. Her works have been exhibited globally at renowned museums and art centers in the US, Italy, and Canada. Min received MA degree from Columbia University and has extensive working experiences for tech giant and conglomerates in the advertising industry including Facebook, NBC Universal and Ogilvy. Min’s mission is to continually inspire, provoke and serve the creative industry by creating game-changing ideas that shape the future of advertising.
Social Entrepreneur:（4）
Sheng Zhong has a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Emory University in the United States. He is one of the founders of CANINE CRO and has published the book Guidance of International Standard Search and Rescue Dog Training and Certification.
Founded in 2011, CANINE CRO is the first AAA social organization focusing on the education, training, certification and protection of international standard search and rescue dogs. In 2016, CANINE CRO joined the International Search and Rescue Dog Organization (IRO) on behalf of China and established long-term cooperative relationships with multinational search and rescue dog organizations. CANINE CRO is committed to co-creating a new ecology of professional and healthy Chinese search and rescue dogs, and actively changes the current situation of serious shortage of search and rescue dogs in China. Over the past ten years, CANINE CRO industry-first search and rescue dog open course cumulatively watched more than 50000 times, and hundreds of professional search and rescue dog teams have been successfully formed to prepare for the frontline. As a benchmark pioneer, CANINE CRO is willing to work with all sectors of society to promote the development of Chinese search and rescue dog career.
Hoffon, male, CEO of Zongzai Culture and Huofeng Technology, actor, model, agent, village teacher, youth culture observer and practitioner, fashion innovator, promotion ambassador of China Foundation for Aging, vice president of 108 Degrees Foundation. At the age of 23, he joined Ma Yun and Guo Guangchang in the 2019 Shanghai Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce Forum and became the youngest entrepreneur in the history of Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce.In 2020, he devoted himself to public welfare and went to Ganzi, Seda, Gesar and other places to support education and fight poverty.
YU, Ho Wing (Lawrence) is now a Ph.D. candidate (Experimental Psychology) at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and Schwarzman Scholar (Major in Global Affairs) at Tsinghua University. He is currently heading an international mental health research project funded by Wellcome Trust, the Great Britain-China Centre, and EuroFins Scientific. As a cultural psychologist, Lawrence considers himself not only a researcher who studies people and culture but also a people-centric, culturally sensitive pioneer. As a local and international public affairs enthusiast, he was elected the founding President of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme Scholars Association (HKSESSA) and was granted the title of “Leader of Tomorrow” in the St. Gallen Symposium. Also, Lawrence co-founded Good City Foundation (GCF); formerly known as “Future City Summit”) to foster cooperative arrangements between young leaders of public and private institutions mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. In the long run, Lawrence aspires to solve problems and create values for the community by fostering public-private partnerships through the GCF’s network in over 20 countries along the Belt and Road routes.
Xuehua Xiao has also co-established two non-profit organizations for Chinese overseas students: Chinese Overseas Students Conference and Providence Academy. Upholding philosophies of taking on today’s responsibility and changing the prospects of Chinese overseas students. The organizations are committed to serving Chinese overseas students, and to create opportunities for Chinese young people to discuss domestic and foreign economic trends and norms with outstanding entrepreneurs, professional scholars, and leaders from a variety of fields.
Finance, Investment:（3）
Johnson Liu, Johnson got his bachelor’s degree at the College of William and Mary in Government and is pursuing his master degree at Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University. In the past, Johnson worked at the Russian International Affairs Council on energy security in Eurasia, Sino-Russian relations, and Eurasian Economic Union. Johnson has also held internships with various media outlets such as CGTN America and CollegeDaily. For the last year, he has worked as the Investment Associate at Venture Gurukool, an Indian Venture Capital attracting Chinese investment into India. This experience inspired him to become an entrepreneur and start a company that helps Chinese companies to go overseas. His firm offers consulting services on political risks, legal affairs, business cultures, etc. Johnson’s academic interest in international relations has enriched his knowledge of conflict resolution and nation-building processes. Other than his professional and academic experience, Johnson remains an independent observer of current events that happen not only in China but around the world.
KT.Geng, founder and Chairman of Guangheplus, Founding partner of Tehsingchiu group, founder of Lightrips, Angel Investor. He was honored as Forbes China 30 under 30 list in 2020, the entrepreneurial elite under 30 years old in Hurun Report in both 2019 and 2020, Phoenix Plan, Zero2IPO VENTURE 50, and the annual business leader of The Fashion Group. He was also served as Director of G20 YEA representing CHINA, VP of PURDUE Beijing Alumni Association and director of Jilin Young Entrepreneurs Association.
Guangheplus is a professional integrated company providing smart scenario solutions, such as smart cities, properties, campuses, parks, business offices, urban renewal, media, and other smart scenarios. The company fully supports cities, real estate and property companies to fulfill the complete life cycle of smart cities and communities, starting with referral consultation, design planning, smart-engineering construction and long-term operation and maintenance support. It owns many patents and intellectual property rights, property management manuals and SAAS systems, planning and design cases, Internet of Things products, and experienced engineering teams.
Cynthia Cheung, she started her own business during her undergraduate study of economics at Peking University. Since 2017, she led her team to participate in exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Dubai, Japan, Spain and Hong Kong, and was committed to bringing Chinese design to the world. During her undergraduate period, she went to Harvard University as an undergraduate exchange student and participated in the China Gazetteer Project as a research assistant, which focus on quantitative analysis of China’s economic data and policies.
In 2020, in the face of the international epidemic, she established Shenzhen Holi Industrial Sub-Fund. During the epidemic, she cooperated with Harvard University alumni to raise fund and donated epidemic prevention materials to more than 90 schools and institutions including Harvard and Yale Medical School. She also assisted in building a national public welfare anti-epidemic resource platform, helping overseas demanders to connect with more than 200 suppliers from all over the country. Now, as the co-founder of Shenzhen Holi Industrial and its sub-funds, she focuses on investing Global E-commerce, Fintech and Saas, and pays attention to public welfare projects in the fields of education and public health. She is committed to combining family philanthropy with economic development, and do her part for the arrival of the “good economy” era.
Education, Service Provider：（7）
Ruby Chen, founder and CEO of American Medical Advancement Program (AMAP), graduated from George Mason University with Master’s Degree in Business Management and was certified by Harvard Business School for Sustainable Business Strategies. In 2016, she won the gold award in the AIW Small Fund Entrepreneurship Competition. In 2018, she won the silver award in the Asian American ILF Entrepreneur Innovation Competition. In 2019, she won the enterprising award in the “International Huichuang Battle” Innovation Contest.
AMAP is certified by the US State Department, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the US, and the Asia Pacific Medical Center. Since its establishment in 2017, AMAP has relied on North America’s high-quality medical education and advanced medical industry to train our students. Through of the use an AI-powered search platform, AMAP has helped match international medical students and practicing doctors with major U.S. hospitals and medical institutions for short-term clinical training.
Tianci Zeng, founder of Shanghai Zizhi education and technology Co.,Ltd. He graduated from University of Southern California Master of Arts, Economics. Zizhi Education is committed to the fair distribution of educational resources, reducing the asymmetry of educational information. Zizhi’s three main business are Zizhi Education Cultural Salon, building a Community of Shared Future for Youth, encourage communications and cultural exchanges among experts from different field; “Ten years for sword” Experimental Education Variety Show, scheduled to shot in 31 major countries and regions on six continents in ten years; and Chinese Science Popularization Video/Audio Series.
Beibei Li is the founder and CEO of Advent Children’s Museum, one of the first private children’s museums in China. In College, Beibei studied and developed passion in psychology and education. She served as a student teacher at Wellesley Child Study Center and Harvard Yard Child Care Center. As a researcher, she observed children at Boston Children’s Museum regularly. Beibei later became a curriculum designer at MIT Design Lab, and was trained as the first certified Social Emotional Learning teacher in China. Reflecting on her own upbringing, and her time in different children spaces in Boston, Beibei believes in the value of children-friendly spaces that promotes the power of play and engage parents in the valuable experience. With a team who share similar background and belief, Beibei started Advent. Advent Children’s Museum seeks to create experiential learning experiences through specially curated exhibitions on various topics. Since 2018, Advent has hold three major exhibitions and several community exhibitions in shopping malls, public parks, community centers, and libraries, serving more than 100,000 families. Prior to Advent, Beibei was on the Investment team of Zhen Fund, one of the top angel funds in China. Beibei received an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Economics and Psychology.
Chenyu(Sean) Wang, graduated from Indiana Univeristy Bloomington, and used to be the vice President of IUCSSA. Chenyu founded Gaoman Education in 2018, working on China-international Education programs, school running and Digital Tech R&D. Chenyu founded Collegein.com in 2020, which is a digital in-campus management app for college students. Chenyu was awarded as 2020 Liaoning Startup Business Pioneer.
When working as the Principle of International Department of Shenyang Feiyue Experimental High School in 2018, Chenyu helped organize TOEFL TALKS Shenyang with ETS Center, and 2018 College Fair Shenyang by Education USA. Chenyu is also the liscensee of TEDxWulihePark program, and he used to be a guest speaker sharing view of education on TEDx programs, EducationUSA events.
Boya Gong
Founder of ‘Eureka International’ Education and Investment Group. Successful led Acquisition of Shanghai Jinqiao College. Its main business focuses on five areas: Education Investment, International Educational Exchange, International Educational Service, International Educational Training, and International Educational Cooperation. Boya founded Hand-In-Hand Education in 2014. Hand-In-Hand aims to teach children in China’s rural area a set of integrated skills and bring them education resources they urgently lack. Boya is also the representative of the China Association for International Science and Technology Cooperation in handling issues related to its special consulting status in the United Nations. Boya has acquired the level 10 (the highest level) certificate of Chinese Calligraphy. Boya is currently a junior student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Kody Wong One of the founders of the NACG (North America Cyber Games). Graduated from the University of California, Davis. love for e-Sports and clear understanding of the development trend of e-sports industry. He leaded NACG successfully held eight international college students’ e-Sports competitions in the North America region.
NACG aims to build a high-quality E-sports competition platform, so as to strengthen the link between e-sports fans from various colleges and universities. Meanwhile, building collaboration in-between domestic and foreign resources for cultural exchanges. Bring out the benefits of e-Sport spirit.
NACG also participated in several large-scale open competitions as international team, such as the 2020 GESO E-sports open, WUCG and WCAA National College Championship. Including Guangzhou to Hong Kong, Macao and other regions in China, held online and offline competitions, and become a member of Guangdong E-sports Association, as the designated event team for different national e-Sports events.
Hanxiang Wang is the founder of Enlighten – an intelligent education SaaS platform. Hanxiang graduated from Columbia University; he is a serial entrepreneur in education industry, a former national athlete in China’s ITF Taekwondo National Team, has represented China in ITF Taekwondo World Championships three times. His startup, Enlighten, is committed to energize teachers by AI, to improve teachers’ production capacity by 10x and to reduce teaching cost by 10x, promoting education equity.
2021 Cal C 30 under 30: (5)
Shawn Xiao is an entrepreneur with a bachelor’s degree in Econ & Business from UCSD, and a master’s degree in AAU, Media and Director.
He is an investment analyst at CRCM VC and founded his first company I-intern Career Consulting Group in 2018. I-intern gained millions of rmb as angel investment, with Shawn being the CEO. I-intern helps international students with enhancing their career profiles, polishing their resumes and documents, applying internship experience, and building networks. As now, I-intern has over 40 employees in total, 15000 customers consulted, 1000+background enhancement program created, and more then 500 elite mentors co-operated from fortune 500 companies all over the world.
Shawn is also the founder and CEO of his second company, Leon Media & Entertainment, funded by multiple limited partners for millions of RMB. Leon team is consisted of awards winner of Los Angeles film festival, and vice actor director of China famous film “Xunlongjue”. As now, Leon has built 12 independent video channels on Youtube, Bilibili, Douyin, Tecent, and so on. More then 700+ Long/Short videos are released, which gained total views exceeding 300 Million! Leon also has more than 1.5 million fans in total, and created 380+ original series, including stories, videos, and short films. Shawn and his two start-ups are eagerly growing and creating value for the youngs and world.
Jian Pan, after graduating from UC San Diego, founded a transportation company, F&J Express Inc. Starting with one tractor and one trailer, now his fleet has 27 trucks and achieved sales of 10 millions in the year of 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic, his company dedicated to transport personal protection equipment for hospitals and essential workers. With a goal of helping Asian communities in the United States, Jian’s company provided more than 50 job opportunities to new immigrants and international students
Rachel Xu currently serves as the CEO of Curalens.ai and the Board of Directors at Rising Youth Association. She has a deep passion devoting her life to social entrepreneurship in the education and mental health industries. At age 16, she started a Saturday social group teaching science and technology curriculums to children with autism, 5 years later turning it into a 501(c)3 nonprofit with chapters in five countries, reaching over 1000 students and 200 mentors in China, US, Nicaragua, Thailand, and India.
At the age of 19, Rachel founded a mental health tech startup, Curalens.ai, that is recognized by YCombinator, Expa Ventures, and USV. They are set to launch their product to university partnerships in Stanford, NYU, Emory, and Brown. Curalens will donate the product to underdeveloped communities and non-profits with our established partnerships in 20+ states. Rachel is also serving as a venture partner at Skydorm Fund, as well as being selected as the council member of Forbes Business Council.
Blake Zhu, is now a partner of SVLC (Silicon Valley Leadership Community), general manager of strategic business development of IntelliPro Group, and director of HYSTA Huayuan Technology Association. Worked at LYRICS as a project manager/senior assistant, and at ZZ Ventures as an investment analyst/business development manager.
During his tenure as SVLC partner, he was responsible for formulating the overall process of SVLC business cooperation, carrying out business development work, finding strategic partners that meet the development needs of SVLC, and facilitating the conclusion of cooperation projects; completing preliminary communication and business negotiations, and maintaining business partnerships, Formulate cooperation plans, supervise and control the entire business cooperation process and results; formulate project business cooperation strategies and plans, and be responsible for implementing the company’s project planning; establish long-term, good and stable partnerships through customer relationship maintenance, in-depth negotiation and communication System; organize online and offline social welfare activities and management consulting courses.
In 2014, Blake studied for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Lehigh University
Ma Zhiyao, a native of Heilongjiang Province, was born in Beijing. He is the founder of Seagulls Society, an International-student non-profit organization. At the same he serves as the general secretary of the U.S. Beijing Association, the former president of the U.S. Southwest Students and Scholars Association (SWCSSA) from 2019 to 2020, and the former president of UCSB – CSSA from 2018 to 2019. In addition, he is one of the Cathay Bank scholarship winners in 2020. Ma Zhiyao is currently studying at the University of Chicago’s MAPSS program with emphasis in development economics on a half-scholarship and he graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a double bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and economics. In industries, his previous Internships cover IBM Global, Bank of China, Shenwan Hongyuan Hong Kong and other grassroots positions. During the fight against COVID-19, he led the SWCSSA and international students to raise money for Wuhan on public platform of Tencent Welfare. Later, when the epidemic in the United States became more and more serious, he help the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce, and other non-government organizations collect and distribute more than 40,000 pieces of anti-epidemic materials for the overseas students. In March 2020, he was invited to participate in the CCTV live broadcast and have a dialogue with Doctor Zhang Wenhong. In May, he was invited to participate in the video shooting of 2020 graduation season for Studying Abroad magazine of Guangming Daily. At the end of the year, the Seagulls Society was launched by him jointly with 65 social organizations, NGOs, and the Student associations. He led oversea students from all over the world to visit rural areas in China, helping the country’s “rural revitalization” strategy by arousing the youth’s awareness of social responsibility and self-education, which has been widely reported by China Youth Daily, China Securities Journal, People’s Daily and other medias.
AACYF 2021 U30 Honor Roll (3)
Jin, founder/ CEO of Beeznests Connection, Master of Intercultural and International Communication from Royal Roads University.
Beeznests Connection is a student freelance platform that remotely connects companies and hiring individuals with our partnering universities. The aim is to offer a strong academic support to business community globally.
Right now, they are not only collaborating with Peking university business school, Cornerstone International Collage and multiple local Canadian universes, but also work with Canadian Federal government (Wil digital program) to offer wage subsidy support to local business. The unique part about their business is that in addition to having long term remote internship opportunities (4, 8 months), they try to break the traditional way of hiring. Their platform also enables hiring parties to post short, remote, project-based work opportunities (ranging from 1-90 days).
Another unique approach they take towards their project platform is that they enable hiring parties to either hire student talents alone or an academic team, which consists of 1 professor or industry expert as team lead and a few students.
So far, there are more than 9ooo students and more than 250 companies sign up on the platform from all over the world.
Jin has won multiple awards in the field of broadcasting and hosting.
Nie Xibei, a Beijing native, went to Michigan State University for undergraduate degree in 2010, came back from US to start his own business in 2013, served as vice president of Beijing Yixue Huateng Education Technology Co., Ltd.，and established Cadillac owner alliance at the same time. In 2019, he became VP of Beijing lucky 7 super running club. Then established McLaren China Car Association and as the moderator of McLaren forum in 2020. Its company, Beijing Dongbei Trading Co., Ltd., has accumulated sales of more than 100 million cans in four years since its establishment, ranking of China’s top ten canning company.
Zhu Feng, graduated from Tongji University, TU Berlin, the founder and chief architect at VON Architects. Honored as China “Forbes 30 Under 30”, he is also recognized as one of “The 100 Most Talented Young Architects and Interior Designers in China 2020” by AD magazine.
VON means “hope” in Icelandic. VON Architects advocates to extract culture from different regional contexts and present a beautiful vision through cutting-edge designs based on the users’ behavioral requirements as well as the analysis of typical problems in urban-rural development. Through innovative research and design, VON is committed to providing representative solutions to the critical issues of urban-rural developments and meeting the ever-evolving demands. The business covers architectural engineering design, interior design, landscape architecture design, urban planning and other related areas. The internal research and practice are primarily oriented towards culture and art, innovative business, urban and rural renewal.
As an innovative design team based on the perspective of multi-disciplinary interaction, the office designers pay attention to the development of urban environment and develop the art maps of cityscape for Shanghai Planning and Land Resources Administration Bureau. The team members participate in the construction of rural housing and commit themselves to the residential renaissance in rural area; meanwhile, they focus on the field of culture and contemporary art, and many practical projects have been accomplished, such as Chongming Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museum, Oulun Group Corporate Showroom, Yunhe Middle School History Museum etc.
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AACYF is 501(c)3 organization launched its Top 30 under 30 list since 2017. Each year the list recognize 30+ professional talents, business and industry future leaders.
