Kai-Fu Lee

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Kai-Fu Lee : biography

December 3, 1961 –

On July 19, 2005, Microsoft sued Google and Lee in a Washington state court over Google’s hiring of its former Vice President of Interactive Services, claiming that Lee was violating his non-compete agreement by working for Google within one year of leaving the Redmond-based software corporation. Microsoft argued that Lee would inevitably disclose proprietary information to Google if he was allowed to work there. (August 2, 2005)

On July 28, 2005, Washington state Superior Court Judge Steven González granted Microsoft a temporary restraining order, which prohibited Lee from working on Google projects that compete with Microsoft pending a trial scheduled for January 9, 2006. On September 13, following a hearing, Judge González issued a ruling permitting Lee to work for Google, but barring him from starting work on some technical projects until the case goes to trial in January 2006. Lee was still allowed to recruit employees for Google in China and to talk to government officials about licensing, but was prohibited from working on technologies such as search or speech. Lee was also prohibited from setting budgets, salaries, and research directions for Google in China until the case was to go to trial in January 2006.

Before the case could go to trial, on December 22, 2005 Google and Microsoft announced that they had reached a settlement whose terms are confidential, ending a five-month dispute between the two companies. (December 22, 2005)

At Google China, Lee helped establish the company in the market and overseen its growth in the country. He was responsible for launching the Google.cn regional website, and strengthened the company’s teams of engineers and scientists in the country.

Several months after Dr. Lee’s departure, Google announced that it would stop censorship and move its mainland China servers to Hong Kong.

Innovation Works

On September 7, 2009 he announced details of a $115m venture capital (early-stage incubation and seed money business model) fund called "Innovation Works"http://www.innovation-works.com that aims to create five successful Chinese start-ups a year in internet and mobile internet businesses or in vast hosting services known as cloud computing. The Innovation Works fund has attracted several investors, including Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube; Foxconn, the electronics contract manufacturer; Legend Holdings, the parent of PC maker Lenovo; and WI Harper Group.http://www.ftchinese.com/story.php?storyid=001028641

In September 2010, Lee described two Google Android projects for Chinese users: Tapas, a smart-phone operating system tailored for Chinese users and Wonderpod (Wandoujia), which allows downloading from Chinese video sites.

In December 2012, Innovation Works announced that it had closed a second $275 million fund.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 1988
  • B.S. in Computer Science, Columbia University, 1983

Previous jobs

  • Vice President, Google; President, Google Greater China, July, 2005 – 4 September 2009
  • Corporate Vice President, Natural Interactive Services Division (NISD), Microsoft Corp. 2000 – July, 2005
  • Founder & Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia, China, 1998–2000
  • President, Cosmo Software, Multimedia software business unit of Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), 1999-2000
  • Vice President & General Manager, Web Products, Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), 1998-1999
  • Vice President, Interactive Media Group, Apple Computer, 1997-1998
  • Director, Interactive Media, Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer, 1994-1997
  • Manager, Speech & Language Technologies Group, Apple Computer, 1991-1994
  • Principal Speech Scientist, Apple Computer, 1990 – 1991
  • Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, July 1990
  • Research Computer Scientist, Carnegie Mellon University, 1988–1990

Notes

Membership

  • Fellow, IEEE (inducted 2002)
  • Member, Committee of 100
  • Time 100, 2013

Others

Barred From Weibo

Lee was barred from Weibo for three days from posting on local micro-blogging sites, where he at the time had more than 30 million followers. Lee has used Weibo to complain about China’s Internet controls. A Feb. 16, 2013 post summarized a Wall Street Journal article about how slow speeds and instability deter overseas businesses from locating critical functions in China. In January 2013, he also posted support for staff of a Guangzhou-based newspaper during a standoff with government censors.Bloomberg News http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-18/ex-google-china-head-with-30-million-followers-barred-from-weibo.html