Yao Zhang, founder & CEO of RoboTerra Inc., former co-founder of Minds Abroad, is a 2016 Young Global Leader recognized by the World Economic Forum for her outstanding work in ed tech and innovation. Yao has worked with a variety of companies and organizations in both US and Asia on ed tech products, ed tech investing and learning solution assessment. In past years, she has worked with: McKinsey & Company’s research arm, McKinsey Global Institute; Edison Learning Inc.; Soros Foundation TRACE Project; Plan Int'l and PACT’s headquarter offices. She has also provided advisory and due diligence work on investment opportunities in education for several venture capital funds including the Mid-Atlantic Capital, Bloomberg Ventures and 水星创投. Yao frequently addresses at conferences: Sina AI+Robotics, the LINK Conf, etc. She was an invited speaker at the United Nations 2008 Gender and Empowerment Week addressing educational development and the "Digital Divide" in modern era, China Scope Conferences at Harvard/MIT in 2010, NYC in 2011 . Yao Zhang received her undergraduate degree in Beijing at the Central University of Finance and Economics. She holds a Master's degree in Education Economics from Columbia University Teachers College, where she has completed all dissertation requirement toward a Ph.D. Yao's research includes ed tech and market innovation, computational models in assessment and big data in education. She has presented at major academic conferences including the American Education Finance Association, Association of Institution Research, Eastern Economic Association conferences, and the largest international education conference, NAFSA. Alongside her research projects, she also writes for the Hechinger Reports' International Education section, as well as the What's New(s) Weekly. Most recently, Yao Zhang is recognized as one of the "Top 25 Women in Robotics" by RoboHub for her entrepreneurial work in bringing robotics into education.