Check Out This ‘Class Photo’ of Tech Leaders Meeting Xi Jinping
Check Out This ‘Class Photo’ of Tech Leaders Meeting Xi Jinping
2 minute read
Chinese President Xi Jinping (front-row-center), poses for a photo with a group of CEOs and other executives at Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, Washington on Sept. 23, 2015.Ted S. Warren—Reuters
It’s pretty rare you see the CEOs of Facebook, Apple and Microsoft in a room together, let alone standing awkwardly in an imitation of everyone’s third grade-class photo. But Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella and other tech luminaries bore this burden for a chance to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping this week.
The group gathered for an economic forum in Seattle hosted by the Paulson Institute, a think-tank started by Henry Paulson, former Secretary of the Treasury. Other American CEOs in the photo include Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, AMD’s Lisa Su and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky. A number of Chinese business leaders were also present, including Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Tencent’s Pony Ma and Baidu’s Zhang Yaqin.
American tech companies are eager to tap into massive and fast-growing Internet population, which is already more than double the population of the United States. But many have faced challenges gaining a foothold in the country. Google CEO Larry Page was notably absent from the event. His company left the Chinese mainland in 2010. Also missing was Uber’s Travis Kalanick, who is orchestrating an aggressive expansion of his ride-hailing service in the country.
See The 7 Most Important Tech CEOs You Wouldn't Recognize
Jack Ma, founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, stepped down as that firm's CEO in 2013. But he's still the company's most public face, and after Alibaba's September IPO, China's single richest man.Scott Eells—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesLarry Ellison stunned the tech world in September by announcing he's stepping down as CEO of Oracle, the enterprise software company he co-founded in 1977. Since Oracle doesn't sell products to the public like Apple or Microsoft, Ellison's a little less-known outside Silicon Valley: But he's a hugely important figure, having heavily influenced Steve Jobs and a host of other tech leaders.Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesTony Hsieh, CEO of shoe-tailer Zappos.com, is a controversial figure in the world of tech chief officers. He's pouring money into Zappos' corporate home of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is welcome by some locals but spurned by others. Still, Zappos is known for being a very fun and very different place to work, thanks in part to Hsieh setting those qualities up as priorities for the company.Noah Berger—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesSatya Nadella just took over the reins at Microsoft earlier this year from now-Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, but he's already making his presence known through sizable layoffs and simultaneous acquisitions. Nadella's Microsoft has let go of nearly 15,000 employees this year — a chunk of whom were made redundant when Microsoft closed an approximately $7.2 billion deal for Nokia's device wing. Also on Microsoft's tab? $2.5 billion for the Swedish gaming company behind top-hit Minecraft.Microsoft/CorbisLinkedin CEO Jeff Weiner, formerly a longtime Yahoo employee, has grown the "Facebook For Professionals'" user base and revenue exponentially since coming becoming CEO in 2009. He's got quite the fan base, too: His workers, 100% of whom support him as CEO, according to Glassdoor.Robert Galbrath—Reuters/CorbisJohn Donahoe has been president and CEO of eBay since 2008. He's now guiding the company in a time of deep uncertainty: In early 2014, eBay settled a nasty public feud with activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants eBay to spin off payment service PayPal as an independent business — and Icahn isn't the only one who thinks that's a good idea.Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesDon Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, the social gaming company that brought us FarmVille, in 2013, coming over from Microsoft. He's been tasked with leading Zynga through a tumultuous period — the now publicly-traded company hasn't been able to replicate its FarmVille success, leaving many to wonder about the company's future.Michal Czerwonka—Getty Images
