Chief Executive Leadership Institute Honors Eric S. Yuan with Maverick in Leadership Award

June 3, 2021 —  Eric S. Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, Inc, will accept the Maverick in Leadership award of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute during the virtual Yale CEO Summit and Mayors College. The Maverick in Leadership award will be presented to Yuan by Steve Case; Founder & Former CEO, AOL; Chairman & CEO, Revolution.

Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 to bring teams together in a frictionless video environment. Zoom’s video communications platform continues to dramatically transform the way leading global enterprises communicate. Under his leadership, Zoom was one of the highest-performing tech IPOs of 2019.

Prior to founding Zoom, Yuan was corporate vice president of engineering at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco's collaboration software development. Yuan was one of the founding engineers and vice president of engineering at Webex. Between 1997 and 2011, he grew his team from 10 engineers to more than 800 worldwide and contributed to revenue growth from $0 to more than $800M.

Yuan has been named one of the Most Powerful People in Enterprise Tech by Business Insider. In 2018, he was named the #1 CEO of a large US company by Glassdoor and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California (software category). In 2019, he was added to the Bloomberg 50 as a leader who changed the game in global business. Yuan is a named inventor on 11 issued and 20 pending patents in real-time collaboration.

Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management, commented:

“Eric Yuan has not only changed the way we work and the way we live but built a system that kept global commerce flowing, enabled life-saving national public health processes, and linked families together for vital life milestones from weddings to funerals this past year. His smooth systems were used in life science, financial, educational, and media exchanges.  Few bankers believe we will ever return to in-person IPO road shows and many board rooms and classrooms will be hybrid going forward. The reliable, easy-to-use “Hollywood Squares” style gallery of photos has become part of pop culture.”      

The Maverick in Leadership Award recognizes current CEOs who are disruptors, bringing creativity with honorable character into their industries in new ways with global significance. Previous recipients of the award include: Reem Fawzy, founder and chief executive officer, Rimo Tours Group and Pink Taxi Egypt; Edward W. Stack, chairman and chief executive officer, DICK’S Sporting Goods; Kay Koplovitz, founder, USA Networks, and managing partner, Springboard Growth Capital; Stuart A. Weitzman, founder, STUART WEITZMAN; Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group; John J. Legere, president and CEO, T-Mobile USA; and Alan Patricof, founder and managing partner, Greycroft Partners.

The summit theme is The Ins & Outs of Infrastructure: Getting from Here to There. A conversation with 60 mid-to-large-size city mayors will kick off the Summit, followed by a lively, candid discussion with distinguished global corporate leaders from across industries for the final CEO Summit held remotely over Zoom.

Conference partners include AccuWeather, Deloitte, Evercore, Gladstone Place Partners, IBM, IEX, Korn Ferry, The Stagwell Group, and UPS.

Steve Case, a prior Maverick in Leadership award winner and former CEO of AOL, will present this award. Also attending are US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor, Cyber & Emerging Tech, National Security Council; and CEOs and chairs from such firms as: General Motors; Goldman Sachs; American Airlines; Delta Air Lines; IBM; Deloitte; Hyundai; AMD; Freeport-McMoRan; eBay; Royal Caribbean; Stanley Black& Decker; Snap-on; Lowes Hotels; Goodyear; Xerox; and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.  A full list of CEO Summit and Mayors College participants can be found online.