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Born Dan Dan (meaning very red in Chinese by her father who was classified as a black sheep during the Culture Revolution in China), Dr. Dan Yang was the first grandchild of an entrepreneurial family of six sons and two daughters. Her grandfather owned a boat factory and operated a transport business on the imperial canal which connects north and south China, but was relocated to rural China during the Culture Revolution. Her father, a self-taught man, tested airplane motors initially but eventually grew to lead the operations of a joint venture between his factory and Japanese motorcycle maker Suzuki. Her mother was a technician at a state-owned factory that produced electronic tubes. Against traditional belief that girls would not be strong at Math and Science, Dr. Yang took a bachelor’s degree in physics at Nanjing University in 1982. She continued her post-graduate education in France, winning one of the top state sponsored scholarships at the Paris-Sud 11 University and earned her master’s and PhD in Optics and Photonics.
In 2000, she made a $1 million dollar donation to Nanjing University for the construction of a student center. It was the largest donation ever given to the university until 2005. Dr. Dan Yang named the activity center after her late father and has also established a scholarship in his name.
What are you working on right now?
VINCI, a new category of learning systems designed exclusively for toddlers and young children using touch screen Android technology and adopting results from developmental science.Where did the idea for VINCI come from?
My daughter Hera who just turned toddler at the time. She is very bright energetic and easily gets bored. I kept asking myself what she can get from what she was playing with my phone and tablet and became unsatisfied with both the physical devices and the content, thus VINCI.What does your typical day look like?
I get up at 8, wash and get ready before waking up Hera and get her to eat breakfast. I bring her to the nursery school, pass by the office and work with the team for an hour or 2 then back to my home office, making some calls cleaning up emails etc. At 3:30 I go pick up Hera, play with her either outdoor or go for activities such as swimming lessons before coming back to prepare dinner. After dinner I bring Hera to wash and to bed then get back to work on some serious stuff like strategy or research for 3 to 4 hours before heading to bed at 1 or soHow do you bring ideas to life?
I’m good at execution and just make it happen after ideas hit me. This is my 3rd startup and forth company I lead as CEO. Most important thing in bringing ideas to life is to draw a clear picture with steps, scaffold to where you want to be while paying attention to details. I find people most often are either too strategic or too detail oriented. Having a good balance is my secret recipe3 trends that excite you?
- The world is more connected than ever thanks for engineers like myself who have put optical fiber to every corner of the planet allowing huge bandwidth for Internet or mobile computing (my previous ventures are all in optical networking)
- As the connectivity progresses there is less and less boundaries from culture and lifestyle point of view. I can find my favorite French or Italian recipes at the click of a mouse and I can have fun with people I’d never have a chance to meet somewhere in the remote villages
- People are more aware of the importance of a balanced early childhood. I see parents who traditionally focus more on Math or language start talking about creativity and parents who usually let their children do whatever start to think about objectives and goals
