Mary Yang Appointed to Palo Alto University Board of Trustees

Palo Alto University announces the election of Mary Yang to its Board of Trustees. Yang is a strategy and corporate business development executive focused on growth acceleration and business model innovation for publicly traded global companies and emerging growth organizations.  

“We are very pleased to welcome Ms. Yang to Palo Alto University’s Board of Trustees,” said Daniele Levy, Chair of the PAU Board.  “Mary joins the PAU Board at an exciting time for the organization as we invest in new business opportunities and partnerships to augment and deepen our mission. Her leadership skills and remarkable business development expertise will help PAU expand its footprint at the forefront of psychology and counseling,” said Levy.

As a C-Suite executive and senior leader at three publicly traded companies, Yang has over 25 years of experience creating new business models and scaling strategic partnerships in different industries, including Cybersecurity, Autonomous Driving, and Cloud Infrastructure. 

Yang had served as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President at Ciena Corporation, a networking systems, services, and software company.  Previously, she was Vice President of Corporate Development and Business Development at NIO Inc., a leader in the design and development of premium, smart electric vehicles. Earlier, as Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Alliances at Fortinet, a global cybersecurity leader, Yang initiated the IBM global alliance and led the Meru acquisition.  At Cisco, she led the $2.7B acquisition of Sourcefire as the global lead for Security Corporate Development and built the VMware-Cisco alliance from inception.  In addition, Yang has advised and launched multiple venture backed global startups. 

In 2021, Yang was appointed to the board of directors for Sunnova Energy, a publicly traded leading energy services company, and serves as a member of the Audit Committee.

Yang is a graduate of Stanford University where she received a JD/MBA degree, an MS in Engineering Economic Systems and AB Quantitative Economics.  She is on the Executive Leadership Team for Stanford Women on Boards and a member of the California State Bar Association.