Ms. Jean Su

biography

Splitting her time between Silicon Valley and China, Jean is the leader of our China Practice and a Managing Director and founding partner of our firm.

Jean is one of the few search professionals in the world who have conducted CEO level searches in both the U.S. and China, and the only executive search professional in the U.S. who was born in the PRC and who was educated and has worked as a search professional in both mainland China and the U.S. Jean has lived and worked in China, Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, Boston and London. Her multicultural, global background uniquely qualifies her to assist companies in finding senior executives who will be the "bridge between cultures".

Jean was the first executive search professional in mainland China working for a major international firm, opening Korn/Ferry's China office in 1994. Jean served as Korn/Ferry's Chief Representative in China from 1994 to 1998 and during that period was the youngest office manager within the firm's 59 worldwide offices.

After successfully launching and building the Beijing office, Jean was asked by Geoff Champion to help develop Korn/Ferry's pan-Pacific services, with a focus on technology companies requiring global executives, and transferred to Silicon Valley in 1998. Subsequently she joined A.T. Kearney Executive Search as a senior member of their Global Technology Practice, where she worked with Tony Scott to build senior management teams for pre-IPO and established technology companies. She later was a co-founder of our predecessor firm.

Prior to her career in executive search, Jean managed her own trading company that specialized in mineral product sales between China, Southeast Asia and the United States. Previously she was the manager of Martin Marietta Corporation's Beijing Office, and worked for the Chinese operations of ENI, the Italian Fortune Global 100 oil company.

Born in Beijing, Jean grew up on the campus of Tsinghua University and attended the prestigious secondary schools associated with Tsinghua and Peking Universities. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Jean earned her MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a Sloan Fellow. She is fluent in Chinese and English.