Eric S. Yuan

Eric S Yuan (; born 20 February 1970) is a Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom Communications, of which he owns 22%.

Early life and education Yuan is the son of geological engineers. In the fourth grade, Yuan collected construction scraps to recycle copper for cash. and a master's degree in geology engineering from China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing. Yuan completed a Stanford University executive program in 2006.

Career After earning his master's degree, Yuan lived in Beijing, and attended a training program in Japan for four months. At the time, Yuan spoke very little English, and applied nine times before being granted a visa to the United States.

Upon arriving in the U.S., Yuan joined WebEx, a web conferencing startup, where he was one of the first 20 hires. The company was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007, at which time Yuan became vice president of engineering. When the idea was rejected, Yuan left Cisco to establish his own company, Zoom Communications. at which time Yuan became a billionaire. On 1 September 2020, Yuan's net worth was estimated to be US$16.4 billion, a figure 360% higher than his net worth at the beginning of the year. In March 2021, Yuan transferred $6 billion worth of Zoom shares to a grantor retained annuity trust, for which Yuan is a trustee.

In 2024, he announced plans to allow people to avoid attending Zoom meetings by using AI clones as their replacements.

Personal life Yuan married his girlfriend, Sherry, at the age of 22, while he was a master's student at China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing.

Yuan chose the middle name "S" after Subrah Iyar, cofounder of WebEx. and was included in the Time 100 Most Influential People of 2020. In 2020, Yuan was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Awards In 2025, Yuan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.