10 Questions with Jason Yao, Head of Greater China

To celebrate our tenth anniversary, we interviewed Jason Yao, Head of Greater China. Jason’s success lies in developing Ardian’s close-knit team in Beijing, all of whom have been with the company for 5-10 years. He also played a critical role in launching the Primaries & Secondaries platform in China.

Building Lego at age 10, Jason thought he might become an architect, building skyscrapers. Now, his focus is on building companies that last. He developed a career as a business analyst, working for McKinsey & Company before joining Ardian in 2011. Driven by Ardian’s core values of achieving excellence, maintaining honesty, and striving for perfection in everything we do, he has found success in leading the firm’s institutional investor relations within Greater China and is proud to have witnessed the growth and expansion of the Beijing team which he describes as "a family."

The team faced the challenge of introducing Ardian's first secondary at a time when few in China knew what secondaries were. Now, the team’s secondary investment services are “leading the pack in the Chinese market."

On a more personal note, Jason expresses his gratitude for Ardian's support in his transition from investment to analysis and then into leadership and management. Having been placed in control of the business in Greater China at a relatively young age, Jason says that "the firm places a lot of trust in young people."