Written by Rebecca Beyer | Posted October 2024

As an undergraduate student in China, Ben Yang (MET’12) thought he wanted to pursue a career in computer science. He enjoyed coding and could spend hours in front of the screen without growing tired.

But a professor convinced him to consider other options, helping him realize that his love of computers was more of a hobby. With his parents’ encouragement, Yang took a chance and moved to Boston to complete a master’s degree in financial economics at BU’s Metropolitan College. The skills he learned there helped him navigate a career in venture capital, technology, and, most recently, biomedical engineering.

But Yang found something more than career skills at BU—something he has worked hard to nurture and cultivate for others as a long-time volunteer with BU’s Alumni Network in China: connection.

Yang is now the chief executive officer of Suzhou Enlightening Medical Technology, a medical device company that manufactures products used in coronary vascular interventions. He’s also helping organize this year’s Asia Alumni Forum in Shanghai, which will feature panel discussions on artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and family business.

Following Opportunities

Yang grew up in northernmost China, near Mongolia. His mother is a retired government employee, and his father has an import-export business between the two countries. Ben studied computer science at Maharishi International University in Beijing before moving to Boston for graduate school.

At Metropolitan College, Yang enjoyed a class on corporate finance with Senior Lecturer San Chee. He also found a course on business strategy to be particularly influential.

“The professor taught me to use a structured method to analyze all business questions,” Yang remembers. “It can help you break down complex questions into very simple perspectives.”

Yang’s first job was with a large venture capital (VC) firm in China.

“At the time, I couldn’t tell the difference between PE [private equity] and VC,” Yang laughs. But he learned a lot, sourcing potential deals in the region and conducting due diligence, market research, and post-investment management.

Next, he worked at Qihoo 360, a major internet provider in China, where he looked for technology-related deals. In 2015, he left that company to try his hand at entrepreneurship.

“I had funded a lot of people who were doing very well, and I thought, ‘Why can’t I do that?’” he explains. But he soon realized the work was “extremely difficult.”

Yang had met Haidong Pan (ENG’04), the founder of Baike.com, a Chinese wiki site, when Yang was working in venture capital, and, in 2018, he took a job with the company to help it raise funds from external investors. Ultimately, the company was acquired by TikTok developer ByteDance.

After about a year with Baike.com, Yang found another opportunity advising a distributor of cardiology equipment and supplies in a reverse takeover of a publicly listed company. Today, he leads the resulting entity, Suzhou Inlet Medical Technology, which manufactures and distributes guidewires and catheters. In 2023, the company successfully completed animal trials on its fractional flow reserve (FFR) guidewire, which helps doctors make more accurate diagnostic and treatment decisions.

“We built this company from the ground up,” he says, including building a new facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, where Yang and his family live.

Giving Back to the BU Community

Yang has been attending BU’s Asia Alumni Forum for several years; last year, he helped organize entertainment for the event’s 200 or so attendees. This year, Yang spoke as part of a biomedicine panel that includes TK Wong (CAS’12), associate director of AstraZeneca, and Peng Xu (SPH’12), a venture partner at Centennial & Huivalue Group. The discussion will be moderated by Elise Morgan, ad interim dean of BU’s College of Engineering.

“It’s great to have the opportunity to talk with others to spark ideas,” Yang says. “It’s essential.”

The Asia Alumni Forum will also feature keynote addresses by Morgan and Dean of Arts & Sciences Stan Sclaroff and concluding remarks by attorney Xiaotian Geng (LAW’19), president of the BU Alumni Network in Shanghai.

Yang says it is important for him to give back to the BU community that provided so much to him and his wife, Kunqi Liu (MET’12).

“We feel deeply connected with Boston,” he says. “The feeling is good, and we want more people to have it.”