Yi Zhao

Yi Zhao, PhD is the Vice President of Futurewei Technologies, Inc. (Huawei R&D USA), the North America subsidiary of Huawei Technologies, Ltd. headquartered in Shenzhen, China. As its first U.S. employee, Dr. Zhao assisted the parent company in successfully establishing the subsidiary organization in Plano, Texas. During his career in Huawei USA, Dr. Zhao has been in various leadership roles of company’s operation, research and development, sales and marketing, industry standards, business strategy and development, intellectual property rights, as well as the company’s public and industry relations.

Dr. Zhao has over 25 years experience in telecommunications and IT industries. Prior to joining Huawei, Dr. Zhao worked for research institutes (Shanghai Jiao Tong University and The University of Texas at Dallas) and major corporations — Hewlett Packard and Ericsson — in different technical and managerial positions.

Dr. Zhao has served in the board for numbers of forums and committees in ICT industry including Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), IPsphere Forum, Open Patent Alliance (OPA), and International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). He has been frequently invited to speak to various industry and business forums in the U.S. and China. Dr. Zhao was a board director for the Dallas Regional Chamber and co-chair of the DRC Innovation and Technology Council. He is currently a member of Associate Board for SMU Cox School of Business, and serves as industry advisors to the Eric Johnson Engineering School in the University of Texas at Dallas and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in SMU.

In 2008, Dr. Zhao received the Distinguished Alumni Award from The University of Texas at Dallas. It is the highest honor bestowed on alumni and is given to individuals who are distinguished in their chosen profession or life’s work and who demonstrate pride in the University. Dr. Zhao has a BSCS and an MSCS from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Texas at Dallas.