Our Team

James Yao, is founder and Managing Partner of AsiaTech Ventures, a leading technology venture firm focused on Greater China Region. He has extensive knowledge and experience of the communications and information technology market in both Silicon Valley and Asia. In recent years AsiaTech has expanded their scope to include Clean Technology and Advanced Materials. Prior to establishing AsiaTech, Mr Yao was Vice President of Marketing, Asia Pacific for Anixter, a leading US data communications firm. At Anixter, he managed the firm’s Asia Pacific Network Integration business and was instrumental in transforming the company from a supplier of local area networks to a leading provider of world class Internet/intranet solutions, multimedia applications and high-performance networks. Before joining Anixter, Mr Yao was Managing Director, Greater China for Banyan Systems, responsible for establishing the firm’s Greater China operations. This included building a regional sales force, developing channel partnerships and opening offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

Previous to Banyan, Mr Yao spent six years at leading software vendor Oracle occupying a number of senior level roles, the most senior of which were Deputy Managing Director and Technical Director for Oracle and Country Manager Oracle, Taiwan. Before his Asian assignment, Mr Yao was a founding member of Oracle’s Network Products Division, responsible for the marketing and development for Oracle’s Client/Server technology. Whilst developing his career in Asia, Mr. Yao was also a seed investor and director in a Silicon Valley network management software startup called Ecosystems, which was later acquired by CompuWare.

A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Yao is fluent in Chinese, Taiwanese and English. He holds Bachelor Degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.