Team

  • Feng Deng Founding Managing Director

    Feng co-founded Northern Light Venture Capital in 2005, a China focused fund. He has more than 15 years of technical and managerial experience in the computer, communication and data networking industries. In 1997, Feng co-founded NetScreen Technologies, and served as the Vice President of Engineering, Chief Strategy Officer and Board member. NetScreen went public on NASDAQ in 2001 and was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4 billion. From 2004 to 2005, Feng served as VP of Corp. Strategy at Juniper Networks. Feng was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002 and the Innovator of the Year award in 2003. Prior to founding NetScreen, Feng worked at Intel Corp. Feng holds a MS degree in computer engineering from the University of Southern California, a MS degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, and a MBA from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania. He also holds five U.S. patents in computer system architecture and IC design. Feng serves on the Board of Directors of Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association (HYSTA), and is a board member of the Tsinghua University Foundation.

  • Yan Ke Founding Managing Director

    Yan has over 15 years of technical and managerial experience in network programming, and multi-processor communications. He was previously a Vice President of Juniper Networks, where his responsibilities included establishing the China R&D Center located in Beijing at Tsinghua Science Park. Prior to Juniper he co-founded NetScreen Technologies and served as Vice President and Chief Architect. Prior to NetScreen, he was a senior software engineer at Cisco Systems and a senior software engineer in Hughes LAN Systems. Yan received an MS and Ph.D in Computer Science from John Hopkins University and also obtained a BSEE from Tsinghua University.

  • Robert Shuhua Zhou Managing Director

    Robert joined Northern Light in 2006 as a Managing Director with over 14 years of industry experience in China at prominent TMT and multinational enterprises. He recently served as Vice-President of China’s leading online portal, Sina (NASDAQ: SINA). Over the last six years, he has succesfully managed the Search and Sina.net teams and has orchestrated key co-operations with Google and Eachnet (an Ebay subsidiary). Prior to Sina, he was a manager at Apple Computer in China and was responsible for new product launches plus channel and market development. He also managed sales and marketing at the American Standard Group, Philips, and Orient Electrical Group. He holds a graduate degree in Computer Applications from the University of Science & Technology of China and a B.S. in Business Management from Xi’an University of Technology.

  • Datong Chen Venture Partner

    Datong joined Northern Light in 2005. He brings with him over 20 years of technical and managerial experience in semiconductors and communication. He is the co-founder and CTO of SpreadTrum Communications Inc., a China/ Silicon Valley company which develops IC chipset for 2.5G and 3G cellular phone systems. He is also the Co-Founder of OmniVision Tech (NASDAQ:OVTI), which is a leading provider of SMOS image sensors. Datong worked for National Semiconductor from 1992 to 1995 and holds more than 20 patents. He received a BSEE, MSEE and PhD, EE from Tsinghua University. He’s also served as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Illinois and Stanford University.

  • Raymond Yang Venture Partner

    Prior to joining Northern Light, Raymond served as Chief Executive Officer and as director of Linktone (Nasdaq LTON). He has built reputable leadership and in-depth industry knowledge over the past sixteen years in the telecommunication sector both in China and the US. Raymond joined Linktone in March 2003 as CEO, and dedicated himself to building a “Cross-media and Cross-platform Wireless Broadway”. Within eleven months, Raymond increased its valuation by over twenty folds. He also took Linktone through its IPO on NASDAQ, and created the first “Chinese wireless entertainment company on NASDAQ”. Raymond has been awarded “China Top 10 CEOs”, “World Honored Entrepreneurs”, “China Top 10 IT Leaders”, and “2005 New Economy Entrepreneurs”.

  • John WuVenture Partner

    John joined Northern Light Venture Capital in January 2008 as a Venture Partner based in Shanghai. Mr. Wu worked as the Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Group from May of 2000 through December 2007. He directed the design and implementation of the technology platforms for Alibaba.com, Taobao.com and other services in the company. He was a personal investor in Alibaba, and founded Alibaba US branch. More recently, he worked on the post-merger integration between Alibaba and Yahoo! China; particularly he focused on the enhancement of Yahoo! China’s web search technology. Mr. Wu brought a wealth of technical and management expertise to Alibaba through his many years of work in Silicon Valley. He joined Yahoo! Inc. in the US in April of 1996, where he directed the company's search and e-commerce technology engineering team. He was the chief architect of Yahoo!'s directory search engine and its many applications. He received US Patents for his technical work in "Semi-structured Search". Mr. Wu also participated in the construction of Yahoo!'s e-commerce platform as an engineering leader. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Mr. Wu was the Development Manager at Oracle's Server Technology Group. Mr. Wu received a BS degree with High Distinction from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, majoring in Computer Science. He was born in Shanghai and studied at Shanghai Jiaotong University.

  • Elton Jiang Senior Vice President

    Elton has more than 7 years of experience in venture capital investments in China. He started his VC career in 1998 with IDG VC and continuously focused on IT, Telecom and Media industries. During his employment at Shanghai Information Investment (SII), he played important roles in a number of significant strategic investment transactions in partnership with Fortune 100 companies. He was responsible for and involved in investments for Target Media, Framedia, China Netcom (CNC), BokeSoft, etc. Prior to joining Northern Light, he co-founded e-Rainbow’s wireless advertising business., and worked for Hina Group as an investments banker helping technology companies in fundraising and cross-border M&A. Elton, holds a MA degree in investment management with high honors from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and double BS in Electronics Engineering and International Trade with high honors from Shanghai JiaoTong University. He is a CFA Charter holder.

  • Jeffrey Lee Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

    Jeffrey manages the financial, legal, and administrative aspects of Northern Light, as well as provides support for the US development activities of the firm and its portfolio. Previously, Jeffrey was a Strategic Marketing Manager at Agilent Technologies Wireless Semiconductor Division, supporting 3gpp RF modules. Jeffrey served as Director of Business Development at Wavics Inc., a 3G wireless RFIC company that was acquired by Agilent in 2005. Prior to Wavics, Jeffrey was a founding Partner of Newton Technology Partners, an early stage cross border venture capital firm based in Seoul, Korea. Jeffrey has an MBA from the Wharton Business School, and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard.

  • Hongping Zhang Senior Vice President

    Hongping has 11 years of experience in China related investment, consulting and business development. He joined CITIC for a China investment fund in 1995. Also, he worked for several strategic consulting projects for Haier and other Chinese companies as well as multinationals, and then served as Chief Representative of CIEC/CITIC. Hongping co-founded ServGate Technologies in 1998 and served as Vice President of Business Development. He also worked as General Manager, Great China for ANDA Networks and Senior Director of Business Development, Asia Pacific for Lantern Communications. He previously served advisor for NetScreen and Tsinghua Uni-Splendor. Hongping holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco, a MS in Imaging Science from Rochester Institute of Technology and a BS in Optical Engineering from Tsinghua University.

  • Ying Wang Associate

    Ying Wang joined Northern Light in 2006 as the first NL fellow. She focuses on commerce, entertainment, and LifeScience sectors. She has over 6 years experience in corporate finance, M&A, and strategic consulting and fund raising for startups. Before joining Northern Light, Ying led corporate development of PeopleSupport Inc (NASDAQ PSPT) in Los Angeles, and helped the company successfully acquire RapidTex in 2005. Prior to that, Ying worked for GC3 Associates, helping clients in media and technology industries on strategic planning, financing, acquisitions and divestitures. Her past experience also includes helping Boeing to a joint venture with investment of $46M, and business analysis at Dun & Bradstreet. Ying holds a MBA degree from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a bachelor's degree in Economics from the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade.

  • Figo Zhang Associate

    Figo joined Nothern light in 2008. He brings with over 6 years of deal sourcing, execution and consulting experience in private placement, M&A and management consulting service industries. Before joining Northern Light, Figo worked in China eCapital as financial advisor to lead and close many private placement and M&A deals such as Goodbaby, Acorn, Redbaby, 8ins, Happigo and so on. Before that Figo work for Price Waterhouse Coopers and is responsible for US listed companies audit and financial consulting. Figo received a bachelor degree from the University of International Business and Economics in 2001.

Senior Advisers

  • Lixin Li Senior Adviser

    Lixin studied his master in School of Economics and Management in Tsinghua University after he graduated from Electrical Engineering Department at the same university. Lixin co-founded a start-up company focusing on image processing and recording, and successfully sold it. Then Lixin joined Beida Jadebird Group. From 2001, Lixin served as president in Chinese public company in the field of optical technoledge, and as director in several Chinese and Hong Kong public companies. Lixin has over 17 years experience in corporate management, start-up and investment, successfully led several M&A cases. Lixin has in-depth knowledge in local corporate management, M&A and corporate valuation.

  • Dr. Qi Lu Senior Adviser

    Dr. Qi Lu is the senior vice president of engineering for search and search marketing at Yahoo!. Lu leads development efforts around Yahoo!'s Web search and monetization platforms. Previously, Lu was the vice president of engineering at Yahoo!, responsible for the technology development of Yahoo!'s Search and Marketplace business unit which includes the company's search, e-commerce, and local listings of businesses and products. Prior to joining Yahoo! in 1998, Lu was a Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center. Before that, Lu worked at Carnegie Mellon University as a Research Associate, and at Fudan University in China as a faculty member. Lu received his B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Fudan University and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Victor Tsao Senior Adviser

    Victor Tsao is a vice president of Cisco Systems Inc, in charge of efforts on new opportunities in China. Previously, Victor was the co-founder, vice president and general manager of Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc. He served as the company’s president and CEO before it was acquired by Cisco in June 2003. As president and CEO, Victor Tsao built and managed Linksys to become the leading provider of networking hardware for the home and small business with a revenue market share to date of more than 50 percent. Linksys was also listed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in North America seven consecutive times. Prior to joining Linksys, Tsao served as the Director of MIS Strategic Systems Development, for Taco Bell Corp from 1985 to 1991. In other roles, Tsao was a supervisor of technical services for Santa Fe International Corp., a senior systems programmer for TRW Inc, a senior software engineer for Kraft, Inc. and a database administrator for Montgomery Ward & Co. Tsao has more than 30 years experience in the computer and IT industry. Tsao has an MBA, MS and BS in computer science from Pepperdine University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Tamkang University in Taiwan, respectively. Tsao was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” in January 2004 by Inc. Magazine and Orange County “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernest Young in 1999. Tsao was also the recipient of a BridgeGate 20 award for being one of the Top Industry Leaders in Southern California in October of 2002.