Board & advisory

Vobile is a Hong Kong-listed software-as-a-service company providing digital content protection, monetization, and authentication infrastructure to film studios, sports leagues, and digital platforms worldwide. As Chair of the Remuneration Committee I oversee executive compensation policy, equity-incentive plan design, and the alignment of pay outcomes with long-term shareholder value; on the Audit Committee I review the company's external audit, internal controls, and financial-reporting integrity.

Venture partner and limited partner at Brave Capital, supporting diligence, founder coaching, and portfolio company guidance at the intersection of technology entrepreneurship and institutional environment — the same set of questions my academic research has examined for nearly twenty years.

Active angel investing

Active angel investor across early-stage technology companies, primarily originated through Stanford and MIT alumni networks. Personal positions are held separately from any Foundation investment activity, which is disclosed publicly on the Zhou & Eesley Family Foundation portfolio page.

Co-founded NovoEd, a cohort-based online learning platform spun out of Stanford research on the role of peer interaction and team-based projects in online education. The company's platform was used by Stanford, the Wharton School, Carnegie Mellon, the World Bank Group, and a range of corporate learning programs before being acquired by Devonshire Investors, a Fidelity Investments-affiliated private investment firm. The acquisition validated the cohort-based model that has since become standard across the EdTech industry.

Founded and ran Refuge Advisors, LLC, an independent registered investment advisory firm managing client portfolios on a discretionary basis using fundamental, bottom-up value investing. The firm operated for seven years before being wound down to focus on academic, board, and Foundation work.

Chair of MS&E's department-level pipeline committee, with a mandate to broaden access to engineering education and engineering research careers for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students. The committee's work spans undergraduate research access (anchored on Stanford's SURF and UGVR programs), graduate-school preparation and admissions outreach, and translation of MS&E research opportunities into STEM career pathways. Now in its sixth continuous year of chairing.

Steering committee member at Stanford's hub for research on poverty alleviation and global development through entrepreneurship, policy, and evidence-based field engagement. The King Center funds, convenes, and publishes some of the most rigorous applied development research at Stanford — including the Foundation's Uganda refugee-entrepreneurship RCT (King Center Research Fellow sponsorship, 2024) and the incoming postdoctoral position for Tess Lallemant (King Center sponsored, Fall 2026). Earlier service: King Center Grant Review Board (2017–2020).

Advisory board for Stanford's cross-disciplinary master's program in clinical informatics — combining medicine, business, and technology to prepare leaders for digital innovation in health care.

Faculty advisory board at Stanford's center in Beijing, supporting research, education, and exchange between Stanford and Chinese partner institutions.

A private operating foundation co-founded with my wife, Lijie Zhou, in January 2021 (EIN 86-2048582). The Foundation supports computer-science training, entrepreneurship training, and program-related and mission-related investments in underserved communities globally — currently running teaching programs across nine geographies and an MRI/PRI portfolio of eleven active positions.

Governance documents — the investment policy, conflict-of-interest policy, and 990-PF filings via ProPublica — are public on the Foundation site under About / Governance.