Michael Z Zhang Email and Phone Number

Founder of the executive advisory firm dedicated to help U.S. companies expand into China and Chinese high-tech companies looking to establish operations in the U.S. Areas of focus include strategic planning, alliance building, start-up investment, executive advisory/coach/mentor, organization and leadership development, global expatriate assignments in North America and Asia Pacific. Top clients include leading Cloud Services companies such as Dropbox, Inspur, HCD Learning and TongDun Technology (2015 Red Herring Global 100 winner).

Founder of Microsoft Cloud Services in Greater China. Responsible for P&L, business leadership, strategy, marketing, partner engagement and compete.• Developed plan and established teams to start Cloud Services in the Greater China Region. Managed $2M annual budget, made strategic investments and built infrastructure to support new releases of Cloud Services. • Guided product incubation, development, localization, launch, deployment and migration efforts. Successfully launched Virtual Earth, Live@OEM, Windows Live Platform services, Student Hero, Live@EDU and Office 365. Grew Live@OEM to #1 and Live@EDU to #2 in the world with more than 3 million active users across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. • Orchestrated Google compete efforts. Defeated Google Earth to make Virtual Earth the exclusive service provider for the 2008 European Cup and Beijing Olympics. Partnered with CCTV to webcast Olympic programs worldwide.

Quarterbacked Microsoft Commerce Service planning to enable people around the world to participate in digital commerce. • Led the design and launch of Microsoft Points, a world-class stored value micropayment and loyalty reward platform. Generated $1.2 billion revenue and 2 million active users in 1 year. Defined the Microsoft Points vision, roadmap, business model, branding, naming, pricing, user experience, as well as design goals and feature sets. Evangelized Microsoft Points to product groups like Xbox, Zune, WindowsLive Gallery, Windows and Office Marketplace to enable whole new ways to sell and market digital products and services, and ultimately alter the way Microsoft ship products and do business globally.• Worked with engineering, business and operation groups to develop Microsoft Commerce Services. Managed workload for a team of 360 employees across Redmond, India and China development centers, maximized ROI for R&D resource by delivering the right technology to the right customer/partner at the right time.

Acquired and integrated mid-market ERP companies such as Solomon, Great Plains, Navision and Axapta into Microsoft Business Solutions. Developed and executed global product marketing plan for integrated Microsoft ERP Solutions.• Directed worldwide launch and go to market activities. Greatly strengthened Solomon and Great Plains business fundamentals and made them the most profitable ERP solutions within Microsoft Business Solution. • Championed Microsoft Business Solutions-Project Management and Accounting (PMA). Identified vertical industries and crafted global marketing strategy for the Professional Service industry. Prepared business plans and budgets; developed and managed scorecard.

Reported to VP of Strategic Marketing. Involved throughout every phase of the product life cycle and had end to end responsibility for final products delivered. • Authored product roadmap and vision documents; defined and delivered Virtual School products to the K12 eLearning market. The ClassTools product under my management was selected for the prestige 2001Codie Awards by SIIA as the Best Education Administrative Product.• Created and managed the master schedule for product release; identified critical path and key dependencies, and drove resolution of resource/feature tradeoffs; managed inter-department handoffs and tracked key milestones to ensure critical deadlines were met.

Directed ecommerce merchant acquisition and product marketing programs at a start-up online payment solutions company. • Developed B2B and B2C strategic objectives, business initiatives and marketing plan to build mass merchant base; represented eCharge at various analyst/press meetings and industry events.• Managed a team of highly motivated staffs and consultants to focus marketing and merchant acquisition effort on top 200 “brick and click” retailers to increase partnership and revenue.

Created global marketing plans for Microsoft Project 98 and Project 2000, Project for Mac, Team Manager, and version 1 of Microsoft Visio; managed $1.5M annual budget; grew MS Project install base from 3M to 5M+ worldwide and increased revenue from $260M to $480M in 2 years.• Implemented the largest marketing trial program with 2 Million evaluation kits distributed worldwide. Directed co-marketing programs with 50 leading online, retail and direct marketing partners; led channel marketing virtual team across Office, Home and Retail Division, MS Press, Shop.Microsoft.com, and other MS product and business units to champion Microsoft Project inclusion in variety of marketing programs globally.• Interfaced with PR and creative agencies, Marketing Operations, Technical Training, Legal, Licensing, and 3rd party vendors for all aspect of operations, training and certification, as well as anti-piracy.

Planned and launched Microsoft Developer and IT programs in Far East, South East Asia, South Pacific, Indian Sub Continent, and Latin America regions. Types of programs include subscription/continuity, order & ship, e-commerce, marketing and customer support etc.• Translated global marketing requirements to operational requirements; analyzed regional infrastructure, determined optimal implementation strategies, and prioritized implementations with regional and subsidiary sales & marketing groups.• Led cross functional teams consist of international marketing managers, regional program managers and vendor account managers; acted as the central point of contact for Microsoft and external vendors to develop solutions to achieve business goals and objectives.

Directed the regional export service programs; teamed up with state and federal trade organizations to increase export from Eastern Washington.• Identified area companies with potential to export; worked with producers, suppliers and foreign buyers for the purpose of developing trade relationships. Assisted exporters with market analysis, product marketing, promotion, packaging, financing, shipping, licensing, legal and other export-related issues.• Hosted foreign trade representatives, government officials and economic development specialists; established invaluable contacts to build resources and networks aiding local companies to compete in Asian markets.