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太太 had
a lovely visit in Beijing courtesy of her brother-in-law. PRESS Venture
Capital Westport, Conn.
Oak Investment Hires Yahoo Alum Allan Kwan Oak
Investment Partners has hired former Yahoo Inc. executive Allan Kwan as a
venture partner, becoming the latest venture capital firm to pluck from the Web
company's upper echelons.
Kwan joined Oak last month as its ninth venture partner and will focus on
telecommunications deals. He will be working out of Beijing and Hong Kong,
becoming the first partner at the firm to be based in China. As such, he has
been charged with finding new deals in the region and serving as Oak's
representative on company boards.
"With a critical mass of investments and our investment pace accelerating,
we concluded that it was the right time to have a dedicated partner based in
China," said Oak Managing Partner Fred Harman.
Given Kwan's expertise in the information technology and telecommunications
industries, his addition marks a big score for Oak. Prior to joining the firm,
Kwan served as vice president of Yahoo International, following the company's $1
billion investment in Alibaba.com in 2005. Before that, Kwan was managing
director of the company's North Asia regional operations.
Kwan is one of several Yahoo higher-ups that have flocked in recent months to
positions in venture capital. Dave Goldberg, for example, former vice president
and general manager of Yahoo's music operation, joined Benchmark Capital as an
entrepreneur in residence, while Andrew Braccia, Yahoo's former vice president
of consumer Web search, joined Accel Partners as a principal.
Kwan's defection comes amidst accelerating turnover at the very top of Yahoo.
Chief Executive Terry Semel resigned abruptly yesterday amid mounting investor
criticism that the company needs new leadership as it lags Google Inc. in
crucial areas. Co-founder Jerry Yang was tapped to be CEO. Susan Decker, former
chief financial officer and head of a key operating unit, became Yahoo's
president.
Oak started investing in Asia more than a decade ago and since completed seven
deals in the region. The firm is based in Westport, Conn., and maintains offices
in Minneapolis and Palo Alto, Calif. -By Tennille Tracy
6/19/2007 DOW JONES
Yahoo! switches priorities to lift revenue
More changes are afoot at
struggling portal network Yahoo!, which announced on Wednesday a US$48.5 million
loss.
The company has appointed former chairman and chief
executive of Asia.com Allan Kwan as the head of Yahoo! North Asia, a position
left vacant since March, when former head Savio Chow abruptly resigned.
Mr Chow was head of Yahoo! in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore and India.
However, Yahoo! in Asia underwent a quiet restructuring in the second quarter,
putting Singapore, India, Australia and Southeast Asia in the charge of a new
head, Tony Faure, regional vice-president of Yahoo! South Asia.
Mr Kwan, as new regional vice-president and managing
director of Yahoo! North Asia oversees three places - Hong Kong, Taiwan and
China. - Saturday, July 14, 2001 SOUTH
CHINA MORNING POST
Wireless Leader Named
CEO of Asia.com
Former Motorola Executive, Allan Kwan, Selected By WORLD.com
05/01 04:48
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000--WORLD.com, Inc.,
a leading global incubator of premier domain properties and a subsidiary of
Mail.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAIL),
today announced Allan Kwan has joined its Asia.com property as chief executive
officer. Kwan, the former vice president and general manager of Motorolas
Asia Personal Networks Group (PNG) will lead the rapid expansion and development
of Asia.com, which is destined to be the dominant pan-Asian network of Web
properties serving the major countries in the region including Greater China,
Korea, Thailand and Singapore.
While at Motorola, Kwan held several senior management and officer positions
and was instrumental in building Motorolas wireless and telecommunications
business in the Asia Pacific region. As vice president and general manager of
Asia PNG, Kwan spearheaded the companys applications development initiative
to lead the wireless industry in the integration of content information, data
communications networks, software, Internet and telephony.
In the past year, he successfully established strategic alliances with over
140 Internet content providers, financial institutions, news media, systems
integrators and top university research labs in Greater China. He also signed
key distribution agreements with leading IT and online auction companies. These
content, software, and distribution partnerships enabled consumer acceptance of
Motorolas personal communications products and launched wireless
application protocol (WAP) phones in the region. He also developed mobile
e-commerce business models for advanced markets in China, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Thailand.
From 1994 to 1999, Kwan first headed up the sales and distribution function,
then became general manager of Motorolas Greater China Paging Subscriber
Division, where he managed a growing staff of over 2,500 employees and was
responsible for over US$1 billion in P&L. Under his leadership, Motorola
became the dominant supplier of messaging products in Greater China by improving
geographical penetration, retail coverage and distribution channel
relationships. In addition, he expanded local materials content and
manufacturing capacity, established a profitable joint venture in Shanghai,
improved local management training, developed new products linking the Internet,
and aggressively increased market share with consumer branding and innovative
marketing promotions.
Prior to joining Motorola, Kwan was director of wireless marketing for
Northern Telecom (Nortel) Asia/Pacific. He quickly built a focused marketing and
technology team that introduced low-power digital wireless products for the
business and public access markets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan
in just one year. Kwan was also the senior business development manager for
Northern Telecom World Trade in Canada. In total, he spent 12 years in various
functions at Nortel including manufacturing, engineering, ISDN product
operation, telco marketing, business planning and international market
development.
Kwan earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School
of Business and also received his MA in International Studies from the School of
Arts and Sciences. He graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering from the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Because Asia is one of the most advanced wireless markets in the world
and there is a strong trend towards making Internet functionality widely
available in devices beyond the PC, one of the key factors for the success of
Asia.com will be the rapid migration into the wireless market, said Gary
Millin, chief executive officer of WORLD.com.
Asia.com already has over 250 people on the ground in China and is
rapidly expanding its operations throughout Asia. With a strong management team
already in place, the opportunity to build the first dominant pan-Asian property
and the category-defining brand, 'Asia.com', we were able to attract a unique
industry leader. Allan Kwan is not only a visionary in the wireless field, but a
highly respected business leader with an in-depth understanding of the Asian
community. With over 18 years of senior management experience in the
international telecommunications industry, Mr. Kwan has the insight and
expertise to make Asia.com a pan-Asian Internet powerhouse.
I want to thank Mail.com for the opportunity to develop Asia.com into a
world-class business-to-business, consumer marketing and e-commerce company. The
Internet is flourishing in Asia, but it will have unique characteristics and a
development path based on the regions diverse culture, economy,
technological advances, and business environment. I look forward to contributing
to Asias transformation into the new economy," said Kwan.
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