Insider: How long has Sun been in China?

Melanie Gao: Sun has had sales here in China since the late ‘80’s, but we only started doing engineering here about seven years ago when the Sun Engineering and Research Institute was set up to work on development projects through partnerships with local universities.

Sin-Yaw Wang: You might have seen the announcement earlier this year about our first overseas expansion of Sun's OpenSPARC educational program. This program is where we open the underlying design of our advanced microprocessors to developers, and provide educational support to universities. Originally, it was only open to six U.S. universities, and we have now extended it to five Chinese universities.

We opened R&D operations in China in 2001 when we formed the Institute. I participated at the beginning and then returned to China in 2005 to run the Institute. Like most MNCs (multinational corporations), Sun’s Institute here in China has relationships with the business units back at headquarters – most business units are still based in the U.S., but not all. Some business units have a large presence here in China, some maintain smaller ones. And all come for various reasons. As a result, the Institute doesn’t have just one function; it does a dozen things.

I’m more of a U.S.-style “Dorm Director” here in China

My role isn’t a technical one, though. I consider myself to be the landlord here – actually, more of a U.S.-style “Dorm Director.” I ensure that the lights stay on, that people have interesting career paths, etc. That being said, externally, I have a highly visible role as Sun’s most senior person in China. Therefore, I am seen publicly as strongly promoting the company’s strategies in China, especially open source.

Insider: Do you promote open source differently in China than when you were based in the U.S.?

Wang: Yes. In fact, I promote open source in a drastically different way than does my U.S. counterpart, for several reasons.

First, the U.S. is entrenched in Microsoft. There is little chance that it will ever be free, or if it does free itself, it will be a long, hard road. But China isn’t like that. It has much greater potential to be the dominant player in open source because the business opportunity is much more real here. We engage frequently in business level discussions, e.g., how do I make money with your open source software? However, in the U.S., it’s much more of a “religious discussion,” i.e., Open source is good for you. It’s the right thing to do.

People don’t want to pay what they consider to be taxes to U.S. companies for using their technology

And as your readers know, the Chinese government still plays a critical role in business. This means that companies are mandated to consider open source before everything else. It’s due to a combination of national pride and business savvy. There is a much stronger incentive here to use software without royalties because people don’t want to pay what they consider to be taxes to U.S. companies for using their technology. Also, Chinese players are younger in terms of business maturity and technology adoption, and they are highly influenced by their government. The difference is really night and day.

As their own software sector grows, the wish not to pay royalties will remain ingrained. If they can get away with it, this will continue. Of course, common business sense tells you to choose the non-royalty option whenever you can. China also knows that it’s big enough and young enough to choose alternative solutions. This will only intensify until it is big enough to call the shots itself as a market.

Gao: My team is engaging with the local open source community in China in a number of ways. As many of your readers already know, the Chinese government has designated certain cities here as Tier 1, 2 and 3 in terms of development focus. We have already set up user groups for OpenSolaris in the Tier 1 cities of Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai. The Tier 2 cities are still a huge opportunity.

Our goal is for our local employees to become the local people’s image of Sun

Everyone visits their home cities for Chinese New Year, so this year, we provided travel grants (USD 250) and funding (USD 150) for five of my team members to hold OpenSolaris events during their time back home, allowing them to stay for an extra two to three weeks. Our three people from Chengdu were able to establish Sun’s fourth Solaris User Group in China during this time.

We have made it clear that this group is “their baby,” and that they are responsible and need to nurture it. Of course, the three were very excited and already have core group members, with more meetings set up.

In Chongqing, our employees were able to connect with users of NetBeans, Java and Solaris. It’s great – they’re still really plugged in to their networks with their alma maters and their professors. They become the local people’s image of Sun. That’s what we want.

Insider: Has Sun experienced any problems related to IP protection since it set up in China?

Wang: Any incidents since 2005? No. It’s not over, but it’s not a problem for Sun, since most of our software products are open source already.

However, this is still a very complicated issue. IP rights should be viewed in two broad sectors: one for retail and one for the enterprise. For retail software (movies, music, Microsoft Office), piracy is rampant around the world, with the U.S. being the biggest offender. However, China is guilty as charged (just like everyone else).

Our software may be free, but we still make money out of it

But for companies like Oracle, SAP, Sun, etc., IP protection is no longer about royalties. It’s about people paying for all of their licenses, so it’s still about theft. What happens is that a company will pay for one license, but install it on five machines. This happens more frequently in China than it does in the U.S. Oracle still has a big problem in this area because they charge basically the same prices here in China that they do in the U.S., even though the revenue streams are much lower. Oracle implementations are easy enough that you can pay for one with Oracle personnel and then “cookie cut” the rest. SAP has less of a problem because their implementations are harder, so SAP people are required for each project.

The other issue with piracy is that of developing IP and having it stolen, i.e., my employee disappears all of sudden and then opens his own company, based on a copy of my widget. I haven’t heard of this happening for the past few years. Obviously, this must not be as profitable as it once was, or people would still be doing it.

Sun’s revenues are somewhat shielded from the effects of piracy because we still sell lots of machines. In other words, Sun sells a lot of hardware through its free software. It really helps us to open up markets, e.g., try Solaris for free and write cool apps on top of it. Our goal is to have more people try and buy, who then pay to use our services once they are convinced. This also leads them to buy more hardware. And we do sell services here in China; people are willing to pay for our help by subscribing to our services because they perceive value. Our software may be free, but we still make money out of it!

Insider: Do you ever find yourself still battling the perception of China as the “low-cost option?”

Wang: Ah, yes, the low-cost perception battle. There are lots of ignorant people in the U.S., and Sun is no exception to this, unfortunately. I must still repeat my mantra, “There are 1 billion people here in China who will make you lots of money.” And many have been converted. And as soon as people visit here in person, they are always converted.

Don’t ever forget that customers have choices

I always explain that low cost is definitely no longer the selling point. Costs here in China are rising substantially – it’s more expensive here for companies like Sun than it is in India, though costs in both countries are rising.

I personally stopped using low cost as the advantage about two years ago. However, China is still lower from the U.S. point of view. When people come to me about entering China, I always ask them why. If their first answer is “low cost,” I tell them to go to India (or Vietnam or the Philippines).

And in response to the people who are trying to protect jobs in the U.S., I gently remind them that they have forgotten that customers have choices. If you don’t do this better than China, someone else will. The world is flat. The Chinese are competing with the Vietnamese, who are competing with the Indians, who are competing with the Africans. It will remain this way for awhile. So, innovation becomes the key to staying ahead.

Insider: Do you think China will become a global center for product development?

Wang: My personal opinion is that it will take China 10-15 years to become big enough in GDP terms for this to happen. But if U.S. software companies do not change their model, China will come up with its own solution.

Business is the driver, but national pride is the grease

Why? They have 200 million of their own internet users (China surpassed the U.S. earlier this year). The math is simple – it’s 1.3 billion Chinese inhabitants vs. 300 million U.S. inhabitants. This means that about 1 billion people haven’t known Microsoft. And remember, until recently, the $100 laptop had no Microsoft software – everything was open source.

National pride also has something to do with this. Business is the driver, but national pride is the grease that is making it go smoother and faster.

Insider: What about for Sun itself?

Wang: We have the intention, and Sun is philosophically agreeable to it, but we’re not in any hurry to do this. We have four large Engineering Centers in Prague, St. Petersburg, China and India. We are developing all of them to have expertise in certain areas. But, take the Solaris operating system for example, which has 3,500 people actively assigned to it, and 5,000 total who contribute to it. It would be very hard to put all of these people in one country; it doesn’t even make sense. And, it’s hard to find these people. When we do, they usually don’t want to move. So, moving Solaris to China doesn’t make sense.

Small- to medium-sized products are possible, though. For example, we’re making the Czech Republic the center for NetBeans. The Star product line is mostly developed in Germany since it started there, but people are gradually dispersing.

Sun needs more “virtual Dorm Directors” to manage this structure

I see this happening organically. Each development group will become a center for certain types of expertise with encouragement and long-term planning. “Birds of a feather tend to flock together,” you know. Then, each will gain momentum.

That’s what the “internet age” means … Sun recently purchased MySQL with 500 people. However, MySQL doesn’t have a central location. I think they have one office somewhere in Europe with only 5 people! Everyone else is spread throughout the world. Same thing for Lustre that we just acquired – it has only fifteen people in Beijing, with the other 65 people spread out around the world.

Our challenge is that we need more virtual Dorm Directors to manage this structure!

Gao: I also believe that Sun will move more R&D work here. It will happen naturally, though, as we mature. Two years ago, there were no local staff level engineers here – only expats (expatriate employees) at that point. You can’t expect junior engineers to be the frontrunners on product development. Now we have 10-15 staff engineers promoted from within, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, with lots more on the way. We’re still proving that we can be trusted with the “little things” before we move onto the big things. But we won’t have to push – we’re already doing product development in pockets.

Within the next three to four years, we’ll be an obvious choice for product development.

Insider: Sun was one of the earlier companies in Silicon Valley to really focus on globalization and to set up teams and workflow to do it professionally. Where are you nowadays vis-à-vis globalization?

Wang: The terms globalization and internationalization are really interchangeable these days from a technical perspective. They are both about making it easy to adapt software, without changing the binary, to be runnable in many locales. This makes it possible for the same piece of software to be sold and used in another country. All that should be required are a few keystrokes or a different configuration, and an IME (input method editor), and you’re off. No new coding should be needed.

Localization simply means adapting the UI so that it’s suitable for whoever might be using it. Most of the localization process now involves only a translation of the UI.

U.S. English is just one more locale – no more critical than any of the rest these days

Sun’s globalization effort isn’t much different from that of any other organization. Our internal policy and process now ensure that our code is not locale-dependent. In other words, we’re not building it only for the U.S. English locale in its original form. U.S. English is just one more locale – no more critical than any of the rest. A program should be able to display any Unicode character, and our messages should appear in double-byte characters with no problems. The UI shouldn’t depend on English syntax or grammar.

Of course, we have to start somewhere, though. Since the U.S. market is still a major one for Sun, we do design the UI, the help system, documentation and packaging based on the U.S. English locale to start with. Then we have a special team, of which Melanie is a member, whose role is to ensure that the entire product is truly globalized. Frequently, an engineer – whether s/he is based on the U.S., India or China – will have overlooked something. Melanie’s team cleans everything up. Her team is also responsible for IMEs for the European Community, Japan and China, and it handles all translation.

Some products are released for all locales at one time; others are released separately. The U.S. English locale is seldom released first nowadays, and most of our localized versions are simultaneously shipped with the U.S. English version.

Insider: Has Sun’s focus on open source impacted its globalization process at all?

Wang: Open source doesn’t really change much in this process. Open source is a two-way street – one side is for people to reach your source. The other is for them to contribute back to you. Whatever they contribute is subject to Sun’s same globalization policy, e.g., no locale-dependent code. However, we don’t require them to localize for all locales. Of course, all contributors must sign an agreement to allow us to modify and enhance their code. Localization is considered to be one type of enhancement.

There are various standards in localization, including IME, Unicode and software APIs. Sun plays no significant role in driving the standards, but we do participate actively in the community. We adhere to the standards once they gain acceptance, but we’re not a leader in this area.

We usually release Japanese and Chinese versions prior to the European ones

Sun used to adhere to a rigid policy that required us to release in fourteen languages (covering 99% of the world’s population) at the same time. This was to pressure Engineering to fix all critical bugs prior to release. However, we are much more flexible now, planning releases based on business requirements. Some of our products may not even be localized in certain languages, or they may only be localized for major releases. Others are localized for every release and patch. I think this is a reflection of the maturity of our globalization effort.

No more big boxes with 14 CDs!

Another factor is that releasing software on the web has become more and more popular, meaning that we don’t have to produce CDs or packaging. This allows for a lot more flexibility because we no longer have to operate under such long lead times – no more inventory control, no more big boxes with 14 CDs. Everything is now released on the web, with CDs and DVDs being very rare.

Insider: Has Sun completely globalized its financial function, i.e., can you easily slice and dice your internationally related revenues and costs?

Wang: Actually, not fully. You can go to the investor section of Sun’s web site and calculate the contribution from each Geo (geographical region). However, it’s difficult to figure out the non-U.S. costs and revenues, even as a Sun employee. I have to call country managers to obtain data when I need it.

Over half of Sun’s revenues now come from outside of the U.S.

There’s another issue at Sun, though, that affects this. We rely very heavily on our reseller and channel partners for our revenues. And these partners sometimes sell worldwide for us. For example, all of Fujitsu’s revenues are attributed to Japan for U.S. financial reporting purposes. However, when I call our Country Manager in Japan for his revenues, he doesn’t include Fujitsu’s sales in the numbers he reports.

But I can say that over half of Sun’s revenues now come from outside of the U.S.

Insider: Melanie, what is your globalization team in China responsible for?

Gao: In total, we have about 350 people working at the Institute. I have about forty full-time employees and another fifteen interns and contractors on my team. All globalization is done here for the products that are released in Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Korean.

One part of the globalization function is in PCE (Product Central Engineering). This group does most of the interfacing with the engineering teams, who we consider to be our internal customers. They stay up-to-date with the roadmaps and requirements, so that they can create and maintain the globalization plan, which usually focuses on localization.

Editor’s Note: If you’re interested in meeting Mimi Hills in person, attend the LISA Forum USA on June 24, when Mimi will present, Sun’s Shift to Localization for Open Source: Sparking the Imagination of Customers.

This team then turns to Europe (Prague), China (Beijing) or Japan (Tokyo) for the actual work to get done, in other words, to my group here in Beijing, which is called a GC (Globalization Centers). GCs are responsible for the actual production work. We concentrate on execution, and most of our communication with the development teams goes through PCE.

Sun has been dabbling with how to set up the reporting structure, as our globalization model has evolved. Our current model seems to work well for us. I report directly to Mimi Hills (Director for Globalization in the U.S.). Though Sin-Yaw is vested in my team’s success – and he’s a valuable resource for us – I don’t report to him (not even through a dotted line).

It used to be that someone in my role reported to a local manager, unless you were at the director level. However, the teams have matured now; and at the same time, the U.S. managers are more comfortable about managing across the ocean. Even lower-level managers now report in to U.S. headquarters from around the world.

The three GCs are mirrors of one another and serve the same function. This means that the Engineers can switch in and out for one another, except for the languages.

The Project Managers on my team work with our language service providers. They’re responsible for both software and content, as well as all languages. They really do switch in and out for each other.

Insider: What challenges have you faced as you built your team in China?

Gao: Challenges? There are lots of them! First, moving to Idiom WorldServer and building it into our workflow. It’s requiring a lot of work to get it to do what Sun needs it to do. Our organization has had to change as well to leverage the implementation. The next challenge with WorldServer will be to ensure that all of the teams are able to work together in this environment over the next year.

Editor's Note: For more insights into Sun’s localization experiences with open source products, log onto the LISA web site (if you are a LISA Member) and download Gao’s presentation during the LISA Forum Asia CHINA FOCUS in Beijing in March, Open Source Localization.

Insider: Was there a particular reason that you chose WorldServer instead of an open source solution?

Gao: We wanted to switch to an industry-standard solution that would be supported by a third party, rather than continuing to develop and maintain our own homegrown tools. Idiom gives us operational efficiencies because they know the localization industry inside out, and they free us up from having to maintain our own tools.

But change management is always painful, and this Idiom implementation has required a whole Change Acceptance Plan (CAP) itself. I head the group, so I know exactly how painful it has been!

As it stands now, if we want a bug fixed or an RFE (request for enhancement) created, we must wait for the next release cycle. That being said, the tool is now up and running in production for almost all of our product lines.

There are two more challenges that are perhaps related. The first one is machine translation (MT) and how to make it work for us. The second is the fact that our software is no longer released in batches or as releases. “In the old days,” the Solaris OS (operating system) was only released every eighteen months to two years. The Developer’s Edition of OpenSolaris is now released every month, for example. And the documentation is being updated daily by customers on wiki sites, as well as by our own writers.

Insider: So how do you decide what to localize and when to release?

Gao: The PCE group decides when the Chinese version, for example, will launch. That may mean putting a stake in the ground on a certain date, e.g., when all software and documentation available at that point in time will be localized. We’re fairly consistent worldwide right now with our releases. We do create mini-releases, but we’re are still trying to find a way to stay current with day-to-day changes. Just imagine – our customers are updating our docs on wikis, so this means frequent updates that we don’t control from people who are not Sun employees. A bit of a challenge, to say the least. That being said, some products – like the commercial release of Solaris – still have big releases

So perhaps MT might be a good, if albeit temporary, solution for customer-updated documentation, for example. We have licenses for Systran and Language Weaver. Language Weaver has been more successful for Sun, but we have only used it so far from English into Chinese and French, and from Japanese to Korean. Also, we’re only using it right now for products where there’s a different quality expectation, e.g., some of our online content for developers, which requires only a small amount of post-editing to be useful.

Insider: What role do open source standards for language play in your globalization model?

Gao: To tell you the truth, we haven’t focused much on standards for our glossaries or TMs (translation memories).

It’s not about leveraging free labor; it’s about engaging individuals to be champions for Sun

We do use an open source tool called Pootle, which is like Idiom, but geared for translators. It’s an open source solution that we ask our OpenOffice community translators to use. We also have DocWeb, which is our own online tool for localizing Java API documentation. It allows people to vote on translations and to annotate them. It’s actually a really cool tool.

From a service provider’s perspective vis-à-vis open source, it’s still very much the same working for us, as it would be for Microsoft, for example. We still work through agencies and MLVs (multi-language vendors). The difference is for Open Source translators who contact us individually, while they’re doing their work. And people do approach us, and my team is responsible for working with them. Currently, we’re working with individual translators on NetBeans and Open IDE, which are both open source.

But I want to be clear that we’re not trying to take advantage of these efforts as free labor! Quite the contrary, actually, since there is a sizable overhead required to manage these efforts. So it’s not about leveraging free labor; it’s really about engaging these individuals to be champions for Sun, so that they can help us move into markets where we wouldn’t otherwise be present.

Insider: Would you do anything differently if you were to start over again?

Gao: I wish that we had had a site lead (aka “Dorm Director”) such as Sin-Yaw from the very beginning. Originally, there were simply individual teams working independently in a building here. A manager from the U.S. would decide that s/he needed a team in China, and it would be created.

In the beginning sometimes, payroll amounts weren’t right, and they remained messy for a long time. This actually led to some attrition issues. If you can’t keep people, you’re losing ground, even as you think you’re gaining it.

Sun really wasn’t clear about why they were here during that period, either. Were they coming for the abundant and cheap labor? Did they need to be closer to the local market? Did local sales require local R&D? No one really knew – not even Sun itself.

Now, it is clear. Sin-Yaw is the Sun VP in China who concentrates on the Research Institute, and Fred Sit is the VP of Sales for Greater China. It has been like this for the last three to four years, and it has been working well.

Insider: What other responsibilities do you expect to shift to your globalization team in China over the next one to two years?

Gao: Our responsibilities are shifting due to the Idiom implementation. Since it automates a lot of program management work, it is freeing up a lot of Project Manager (PM) resources and allowing them to move up the value chain a bit. For example, PMs are now able to manage all languages for a project. They are starting to interface with the product development teams more. They are shadowing the U.S. PMs, with the goal of eventually taking over some of their tasks. It frees up people to investigate MT and to focus on future issues, so that we can build structured programs around them sooner rather than later. The bottom line is that it allows PMs to add more value.

Our employee retention rate in China is higher than in the U.S.

And our Engineers become more senior every year, taking on bigger leadership roles. For example, if someone who was a technical lead in the U.S. leaves or moves on now, that position may come to China, rather than remain in the U.S. The key is employee retention, and our retention rate here is higher than in the U.S. The attrition on my team has been very low. And we’re determined not to lose people to IBM or Symantec, right as they become productive!

Insider: Are you doing anything special to develop your local management team in China?

First and second-level managers are the hottest commodities in China right now

Wang: China is a very young country, regardless of its 5,000 years of history. Anyone older than 40 is considered old now. Everyone is young and impatient and full of energy and full of brightness in their eyes, and they want more than anything else to learn. They grab the chances to self-improve – joyfully!

Insider: I know that look! When I checked out the Wal-Mart on a Friday night while in Beijing for the LISA Forum Asia CHINA FOCUS in March earlier this year, I couldn’t even walk down the book aisle because it was full of young people reading self-help books.

Wang: That’s right. They attack the opportunities – there’s no other word to describe it.

People development takes two forms at Sun in China: formal learning and coaching/mentoring. We integrate senior people in various forms. Some are direct employees like Melanie, while others are long-term guests (anywhere from three to twelve months). We encourage our employees to do this through providing various forums for them to interact together very frequently.

We have tried to establish a culture that’s flexible and free, so that people can roam around and explore technology, as well as career opportunities. We plan everyone’s career path here according to their own characteristics and then prod them along on their chosen paths.

And we maintain a totally open door policy – there are people in my office all the time for all types of consultations, i.e., career, personal, investment! It’s very fun for me to be able to work with them. They soak everything up like a sponge. Young people have this incredible energy, and it’s very addictive to work with them.

What we don’t do here in China is to try and hire senior people

As Dorm Monitor and Director, I get to assign people to different rooms (literally), based on their needs. If there’s a certain job opportunity – plunk, I place a person there for growth and learning. What we don’t do here in China is to try and hire senior people. Most of the hires are new grads or people with less than three years of experience. We do our best to make it thrilling to work here, and in return, we ask people to commit to work at Sun for five years (though we don’t require them to sign anything).

I would like to point out that this flexibility extends to where people work as well. As part of our OpenWork program, all of our employees can work from home as much as four days a week. The only day that they must be in the office is on Thursday.

Melanie’s team was one of the first to really take advantage of this opportunity. This means that they've given up their assigned workspace in our office and, instead, have a home office with laptop, printer, phone, headset … you name it. They can be just as productive at home as they would be in the office, but they save themselves the hour-plus commute.

Of course, this style of management takes time, but it’s not hard. It just requires a lot of attention. And you must put your heart in it – just like a Dorm Director.

Gao: We just introduced the Leadership Institute, which is a whole program around leadership and what’s expected of leaders at Sun. It includes three to four days in the classroom, mentoring sessions and lots of outside group activities for six to eight weeks. It’s a 360 degree review program, so feedback is a critical part of the course. Two of my managers and I are taking part in the program right now.

Managers usually learn by doing. First and second-level managers are the hottest commodities in China right now, especially since the software industry is so young here. Of course, I continue to be responsible for mentoring and training the managers on my team.

Insider: What are some specific examples of the forums that you provide for interaction between your employees of varying ages, cultures and experience?

Wang: We form clubs, e.g., we have a Toastmaster Club that is chaired by someone from the U.S., and all activities are in English. Of course, there are many social activities. The most active one is the travel group, which goes mostly around Asia. Most of its members are young and single, or recently married. They travel in groups of 8-10, with a Sun Sponsor and funding.

There is no reason to send our work to Vietnam!

Gao: When I joined the team here in China, it was stable. There were no fires to put out, so I really had to figure out what value I could add. I decided to raise the team’s profile to ensure that my manager, and her manager in the U.S., could more easily understand the real value that we were adding, and that we would be adding in the future. Basically, I am the team’s cheerleader and number 1 public relations person. It’s so critical that both of these managers realize that our contributions are something that no one else can do, especially vis-à-vis the local development community. In other words, management in the U.S. needs to understand why there is no reason to send this work to Vietnam! As I constantly remind my team, Doing great things is only half of what you need to do; everyone needs to appreciate what you’re doing.

One of the ways that my team has increased its visibility is by blogging. Blogs are very important on www.blogs.sun.com. There are about 60 of them that receive lots of hits, and two of my people are there. This means that 1/30 of the hottest blog content is being generated by two of our team members, even though they represent only .01% of the Sun population. They’re plugged into the community, and they’re adding value.

Insider: Can I come to work for you in China?

Wang: YES! You would find it very rewarding. One thing, though, you will make less money!

Insider: What two pieces of advice would you give other high tech companies when setting up their globalization teams in China?

Gao: You can’t value your people enough. Investing in your people is the best investment you can make. The people I’ve met here in China are so incredibly sharp and have so much potential. The key for managers such as myself is to find ways to release it. These are rock stars, so you must garner all the resources you can to make them happy and successful. It’s good for them, and it’s good for the company.

I will say, though, that as a remote site (read “low-cost site” from the U.S. perspective sometimes), it’s hard to gain attention for your team. The attitude at headquarters can be, Just do what we ask you to do, and don’t bother us. But low cost is not the reason to be here. It’s the talent.

Editor’s Note: For more insights into Sun and its globalization strategy, you can log into the LISA web site (if you are a LISA Member) and then download the following presentations from previous LISA Forums:

Managing Content Globally: What Works, What Doesn’t

Translation Technology for the Open Source Communities

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Sin-Yaw Wang has worked in the IT industry for over 20 years. A native of Taiwan and now resident of Beijing, he is Vice President of Sun’s Global Engineering Organization. Wang earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tamkang University and his Master’s in Manufacturing Technology from Arizona State University. He also has a Master’s in Computer Science and an MBA from Santa Clara State University.

Melanie Gao is a Senior Manager at Sun and is responsible for Sun’s Asia Globalization Center in Beijing. She holds a B.A. in German and French from the University of Alabama and an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.