Mr Nicholas W. Yang

Executive Vice President,

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University









Mr Nicholas W. Yang is Executive Vice President of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He graduated from California Institute of Technology in the US in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, followed later by a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University in 1978 and 1982 respectively.

Mr Yang started his career in the US in 1978 working as a senior design engineer for Intel Corporation and, subsequently, as a strategic management consultant for Bain & Company. In 1983, Mr Yang left the US to pursue a sixteen-year career in Hong Kong and China as the Executive Director and Deputy Group Managing Director of Shell Electric Mfg. (Holdings) Ltd., focusing on investing and managing infrastructural and technology ventures. He was instrumental in bringing Shell Electric to IPO, creating its fiber-optic telecom venture and eventually selling it profitably to JDS Uniphase Corporation, which he joined in 1999 as Vice President of Asia in Strategic Planning and Sales & Marketing. JDS specialises in fiber-optic telecommunication products.

In 2002, Mr Yang became senior consultant and director of several well-known venture capital and private equity investment firms. He was appointed CEO of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (HKCMCL) in 2003. In 2010, he joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with thirty years of experience in general management, sales and marketing, strategic planning, consulting, and technology development in various industries.

In the years with Cyberport, Mr Yang managed to turn its operation cash positive and delivered an impressive cumulative surplus by leveraging Hong Kong's core competence, favorable infrastructure and economic advantage while applying his business management experience to rejuvenate the facility. On one hand, he streamlined the Cyberport operation quickly into a cost efficient outfit with just 45 full-time staff. On the other hand, he focused Cyberport's public mission on digital lifestyle so as to minimise overlap with other organisations such as the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks, hence optimised the use of Cyberport resources to deliver consistent results. With regard to the Le Meridien Cyberport Hotel, he adopted new business strategies which helped the hotel become the most profitable HKCMCL business unit in 2008/09, reversed from the most money-losing business unit in 2003/04. In recent years, to facilitate the development of creativity, Mr Yang introduced in 2009 a grant scheme — Cyberport Creative Micro Fund — to spur and harness the local creative culture.

Mr Yang has been a member of the ICT Services Advisory Committee, Hong Kong Trade Development Council since 2004 and Vice Chairman of Monte Jade Science and Technology Association of Hong Kong since 2006. He has also been a member of MAA since 1973 and a member of IEEE since 1977.