Pressing Flesh on the Factory Floor
from
January/February 2006
by Lisa Ferri
By age 22, Edward Yang had been a political refugee not once but twice. Born in Sichuan in 1945, he first fled Communist China with his family just as the Cultural Revolution was beginning to wreak its havoc. They crossed the border into Burma but didn’t stay long; Yang’s father soon lost his factory under the military government’s policy of nationalizing all Burmese businesses. The family sought refuge in Taiwan, and in 1967, with $20 in his pocket, Yang became a transfer student at National Taiwan University, studying chemical engineering. He eventually ended up in the U.S., where he received master’s degrees from both the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Pepperdine University in Southern California.
For eight years Yang worked at the Asia Pacific business of Electronic Data Services, rising to corporate senior vice president. He now lives in Hong Kong, where he is CEO of NetStar Group, which manages a high-tech portfolio for ING Baring Private Equity and other investors. A year ago he was named to the board of Novelis, an Atlanta company that is the world leader in rolled aluminum products.
For all the trauma of his childhood, Yang, 60, puts great value on the cultural insights he gained over the years. He not only speaks five languages—Burmese, Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and a regional dialect, Yunnanese—but also understands the intellectual underpinnings of each tongue. As a result, he has a status few in the business world—or any field, for that matter—possess: that of a cultural chameleon. “I can pound the table as hard as anyone when I’m in America,” says Yang, who holds a U.S. passport. “But when I’m in Japan, I’ll bow. And when I’m in Korea, I’ll slow down my speech. That’s how it’s done.”
Clearly Yang knows how it’s done, even in Oswego, New York. When he recently found himself on a director’s tour of a Novelis factory there, the cultural chameleon transformed himself from Asian-tech-company boss into U.S.-factory-floor student. He shook some hands, had lunch with the group, donned protective glasses, and soaked up what he could from this small-city operation. “The guys there said, ‘Gosh, a board member took the time to put on the protective clothing and walk the factory!’ But I was just glad, at this stage of life, to be learning so many new things I didn’t know.”
As Confucius said, and as Yang frequently repeats, “When there are more than two people in a group, one of them can be my teacher.” It’s a good motto for any board member.
