Andrew Yang

Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Policy maker, Public servant, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor

Andrew is the Founder and CEO of Venture for America, a non-profit that recruits top college graduates to work at startups in Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland and 14 other U.S. cities to generate job growth and train the next generation of entrepreneur. VFA's goal is to help create 100,000 new U.S. jobs by 2025. Venture for America was recently featured in the major documentary 'Generation Startup,' now available on Netflix. Andrew was the CEO and President of Manhattan GMAT, a test prep company that was acquired by the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2009. He has also served as the co-founder of an Internet company and an executive at a health care software startup. Andrew was selected by the White House as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and a Champion of Change for his work with Venture for America. He is the author of Smart People Should Build Things, published by Harper Business. He was named one of Fast Companys 100 Most Creative People in Business, and has appeared on CNBC, Morning Joe, Fox News, TIME, Techcrunch, the Wall St. Journal, and more. He is a graduate of Columbia Law and Brown University and lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.

Channeling talent to solve meaningful problems in ways that create opportunities and improve society.

What our human and intellectual capital is doing is the main determinant of our society's future. If our smart people were to build businesses in diverse regions across the country, then our economic and social prospects would be much stronger. On the flip side, if our talent congregates in only a small handful of cities, then the problems we solve will be more narrow. Geographic diversity matters.

Thrilled to be here. My first time and I've heard amazing things from many of my friends and people I respect and admire.

Quoting 80s action movies and martial arts movies generally.