As a Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, and Chairman of Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group (ARD), Dr. Ya-Qin Zhang is responsible for driving Microsoft’s overall research and development effor ts in China. ARD has become Microsoft’s largest R&D centre outside of U.S., with more than
3000 engineers and scientists engaged in basic research, technology innovation and incubation, product development, and strategic par tnership. In addition to this role, Zhang serves on Microsoft Great China Executive Management Committee providing leadership and governance across all of Microsoft’s organizations in the Greater China Region.

He was formerly Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, responsible for Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Division in Redmond, USA and Managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft’s basic research arm in Asia-Pacific region. Before Microsoft Zhang was Director of Multimedia Technology Laboratory at Sarnoff Corporation in Princeton, NJ (RCA Laboratories).
Zhang is a Fellow of IEEE. Zhang received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1983 and 1985. He received his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, Washington D.C. in 1989 and has executive business development training from Harvard University.