Min Zhu (朱敏; born 1948) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. Zhu is the co-founder and former

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and chief technical officer of

WebEx Webex by Cisco is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing and contact center as a service applications. It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007. Its headquarters are in San ...

Biography

Born in

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

, Zhu received his bachelor's degree from

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the na ...

. He also holds an M.S. in Engineering from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He developed his technology expertise at the IBM Scientific Center in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He was also the deputy to the chief technical officer of

Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

and the vice president of Expert Edge, a software design company. In 1991, Zhu co-founded Future Labs, one of the first companies to produce multi-point document collaboration software.

Quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...

acquired Future Labs in 1996, and Zhu went on to co-found WebEx with

Subrah Iyar Subrah S. Iyar (born June 11, 1957) is an entrepreneur of Indian origin. He co-founded and was CEO of web conferencing provider WebEx until its acquisition by Cisco Systems in 2007 for US $3.2 billion. He is an early investor in and an advisor ...

. On May 13, 2005, Zhu resigned from WebEx and left the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Zhu continues to serve as a science and technology advisor to the

municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of San Jose, a member of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

President's Board on Science and Innovation, a board director of the Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association and a partner at

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

. In September 2005, NEA announced plans to back Chinese venture firm Northern Light. This venture fund is raising a first, $100 million fund this fall. NEA general partner Scott Sandell described his firm's relationship to Northern Light as akin to a "special LP," whereby Northern Light will receive part of its institutional backing from NEA and provide NEA with deal flow. The new firm, founded by Zhu along with Chinese entrepreneurs Feng Deng and Yan Ke, will share office space in China with NEA venture partner Xiaodong Jiang. Min Zhu is the father of Erin Zhu, CEO of OpenNote. Erin is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a Sloan Fellow. She and her husband

Blixa Bargeld Blixa Bargeld (born Christian Emmerich, 12 January 1959) is a German musician who has been the lead singer of the band Einstürzende Neubauten since its formation in 1980. Bargeld was also a founding member of the Australian rock band Nick Cave a ...

are featured in the 2010 book Designing Media written by

Bill Moggridge William Grant Moggridge, RDI (25 June 1943 – 8 September 2012) was an English designer, author and educator who cofounded the design company IDEO and was director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He was a pionee ...

about 37 of the most influential people in the media industry. Blixa Bargeld is the founder and lead vocalist of the German band

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments; perc ...

. The couple resides in San Francisco, Beijing and Berlin with their daughter.

Retirement

On May 13, 2005, WebEx announced that Zhu was stepping down as WebEx's CTO and retiring to China, where he would serve as a "WebEx Fellow."

References

External links

University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation listing

* ttp://www.neubauten.org/ Neubauten Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhu, Min 1948 births Businesspeople from Ningbo Living people Zhejiang University alumni Stanford University alumni American businesspeople Stanford Sloan Fellows Chinese computer scientists American people of Chinese descent