Background
Yang was born on November 12, 1964 in Hefei, Anhui Province.
元庆 杨
Yang was born on November 12, 1964 in Hefei, Anhui Province.
Though he has never studied the subject academically, Yang has progressively demonstrated his outstanding capability for marketing.
In 1989, Yang entered Lenovo Group, which became the most important turning point in his career. At Lenovo, he intended to engage in technological work that fitted his major, and then go abroad, but he was assigned to the sales department instead. Although he did not much enjoy sales, he devoted himself to the work and achieved remarkable success. In 1991, he was promoted to head the auxiliary equipment department, responsible for selling plotters from Hewlett-Packard.
Though he has never studied the subject academically, Yang has progressively demonstrated his outstanding capability for marketing. Turnover increased 100 percent every year, and in only two years he had raised the total turnover of his department from RMB30 million to RMB300 million. As a result, Yang was a regular recipient of HP’s best global agency award.
In 1993 China’s national computer industry went through a serious crisis, and for the first time Lenovo did not meet its goal. In the following year, 29-year-old Yang took the post of general manager, with responsibility for research and development, logistics, financial operation, production, and sale of Lenovo computers. Under his leadership, Lenovo sold 42 000 units of its own branded computer that year, ranking among the top three in the Chinese market. Since then Lenovo and other Chinese branded computers have gained market prestige and acceptance among users, and have reversed the alarming trend towards dominance of the Chinese computer market by foreign branded PCs. In 1996, when the Chinese market share of Lenovo computers was still less than a third that of Compaq, Yang determined to make Lenovo number one in the Chinese market within three years.
He outlined his strategies, reorganized production and sales, and motivated his employees to work hard toward this ambitious goal. Within only one year, Lenovo had defeated foreign computer giants, such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, and had become the champion in sales volume in the Chinese PC market, an achievement which marked an important milestone in the development of the Chinese computer industry. In 1997, Lenovo computers emerged for the first time among the top six brands in the Asia-Pacific region. Under Yang’s leadership, Lenovo has since become China’s best-selling PC brand. In 1999, it ranked first in PC sales in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan and has maintained this position ever since. During the same time Lenovo also broadened its product lines, and its brand was included in computer board cards, server products, notebooks, household appliances, digital apparatus, consumer electronics, digital output products, and information value-added services, covering nearly the whole range of information products.
In 2001, because of his exceptional talent and enormous contribution to Lenovo in both management and sales, 37-year-old Yang was named the president and CEO of Lenovo Group. On 8 December 2004, Yang took over as chairman of the board of Lenovo Group from Liu Chuanzhi. He and Liu have made great strides towards transforming Lenovo into a truly global company, not only by becoming the International Olympic Committee’s worldwide partner in March 2004, but also by winning the top sponsor honor at both the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Among the 500 most valuable brands in China, Lenovo ranked fourth in 2004, with a brand value of over RMB60 million. Yang was also responsible for spearheading Lenovo’s landmark acquisition of IBM’s PC business in May 2005, fulfilling the company’s internationalization strategy, and making Lenovo the third largest PC manufacturer worldwide. The acquisition also marked Lenovo’s entry into the world’s 500 top enterprises in terms of marketing scale.
Under Yang’s leadership, Lenovo has become more internationalized and multicultural, while continually producing first-class Chinese-branded computer products. In addition to his entrepreneurial work, Yang is also a committee member of the National Youth Association, director of the Chinese Entrepreneurs Association, a visiting professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange.
Yang was awarded the May Fourth Youth Medal, by the All-China Youth Federation in 1999. In 1999 and 2001, the magazine BusinessWeek named him one of the "Stars of Asia." In 2004, he was listed among "Asia's 25 Most Influential Business Leaders" by Fortune Asia. Yang was named "2007 Chinese Business Leader" by Fortune China. In 2008, Forbes Asia named Yang "Businessman of the Year." In 2011, Finance Asia named Yang the "Best CEO in China."
In December 2012, Yang was named one of the "2012 CCTV China Economic Figures" in a televised award ceremony. Yang received the same award in 2004. During the ceremony Yang said, "I have a dream that Lenovo will become the pride of China in the IT industry. Lenovo is my life's struggle and career, I have invested all of my energy into it. I firmly believe that Lenovo, a product of China, will stand atop the world's stage. As you can now see, our dream is being realized step-by-step."
Yang serves on the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top governmental advisory body that includes more than 2,000 of China's elites from all sectors of society. In 2014, he pushed for legislation to protect privacy and personal data on the web and electronic devices. Yang said that while the internet has brought many advances it also brings new challenges such as protecting privacy and securing personal information. Yang said that legal loopholes and widespread corruption create major challenges to securing personal data. Yang made his proposal at the advisory body's annual meeting.
Yang also serves on the board of China's national Youth League, as director of the China Entrepreneurs' Association, and as a member of the New York Stock Exchange's International Advisory Committee. Yang also teaches as a guest lecturer at China's University of Science and Technology.
