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So today is Monday, July 21st, 2025. My name is Grace Park and I am interviewing Dr. Haibin Xu on behalf of the Houston Asian American Archive at Rice University. So my first question for you is when

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and where were you born? Yeah. So I was born in Hefei, rural part of Hefei city in China in 1976. The city is now probably, like, 8 million people, but it was much smaller at the time when I

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was born there. Yeah. So you mentioned a little bit about the city, but how would you describe, you know, your childhood and adolescence years growing up in that area?

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It's kind of like a contradiction. You know, on one hand, the life was pretty basic at the time in terms of material. China was not very developed at the time, actually was pretty—very

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undeveloped at the time. So in terms of material wealth, there was very little. So life was pretty hard, challenging sometimes. On the other hand, I think, it's also pretty simple life.

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So in a way, it was a very happy life. I have—I had, you know, at the time, my parents, my sisters, is a very simple and loving family. So, it's kind of a contradiction in that way.

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I see. Year, so you mentioned your family. Would you mind elaborate-elaborating a little more on what your parents' occupations were, and were there specific values or lessons that they instilled in you? Yeah. My father, he was born in

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1938. So, and, he was actually the first one and one of the very few who was able to go to college. And then after college, he became a high school teacher and later middle school teacher to move back

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closer to-to the family. So my mom, she, on the other hand, you know, she was, a bit different because her parents passed away when she was very young, and she had a younger sister

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who had some development challenges, in terms of brain development, and couldn't take care of herself. So when my mom's parents passed away, she basically dropped out of school from elementary school to take care of her little sister.

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So, that was my family. And-and in a way, this is quite a contrast. So, it has a quite a influence on my mom's decision. So, she always saw a lot more opportunities my father had-had

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there, than she did. So she was really, you know, has a strong conviction for me and my sister to receive education. She just valued extremely high to the extent that she, you know, wouldn't sometime allow me to do any housework or work in the

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field and just focus on study. So that was something that's pretty deep in my impression that, you know, they just value education extremely highly. I see, yeah. And speaking of education, would you mind kind of taking me

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back to your early educational experiences? So elementary to high school, what was that like? Was there any teacher who inspired you? So I did my elementary school, middle school,

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high school, and college all in China. And then later I came to the U.S. For my grad school right away. The system in China at the time was, I would say,

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is quite different from the U.S in terms of, even in college, you don't you don't kind of juggle the classes around, that every class you have new classmates. That was not the case.

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It's rather, you know, you are with a group of people, almost like cohort of people of either 40 or 50 or 60. And then throughout the college years, you're always with the same group of people. So that was the environment that I grew up—I grew up in,

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all through my K-12 education, but also in college. So, the impact of that is that, you know, you just build a lot of really deep bond with the same group of people and form a kind of friendship. And then some of them last really a lifetime.

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So I'm still keeping in touch with a lot of the same group of college classmates and high school classmates to this day. So that was the—what was the education like. Yeah. That's great. That's definitely different than the school system in America.

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Yeah. I think there's pros and cons. From the way I saw my children, you know, they get to explore different activities. Just, you know, they-they seem to learn a lot more than I did at the

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time. My school life was a lot more simpler. It mostly just focused on academics. There was very little extracurricular activities. And as I mentioned, you know, the same group of people.

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You go to class every class at the same time. So the internal exposure is less, but the bond is a bit deeper. Yeah. For sure. My next question was, do you remember in which grade your first history classes were taught?

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And, you know, what teacher-told stories or stories from history textbooks kind of stuck out with you? Yeah, probably elementary school. We start to have some simple history lessons.

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Mostly just stories, right? You know, there's the-the as you know, you know, we—in China, there are a lot of historical legends, you know, either in literature or in military or in government or

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the interaction between the different ethnicities. And kind of focus a lot on heroes. So that left a strong impression. I see, thank you for sharing.

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And you touched upon this a little bit earlier, but how would you characterize kind of the culture and the community of China that you grew up in before you moved to the States? China is probably

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different now, but at that time it was a lot more community type of culture, right? So it's less individualism. It's a lot more collectivism.

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So, you know, just the relationships with either your family or extended family and also in—with your classmates a lot closer. And there are pros and cons. I feel, you know, after I came to the US, on one hand,

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if you have really close knit communities, you get a lot of support. But when I came to the U.S., I also realized the individualism culture has a lot of benefits because it feels a lot more free. You know, there's a lot more liberty.

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You don't feel—sometimes, you know, you in a very community-based culture, it helps you. But sometimes you could also feel like there could be things that people viewed as wrong or non-typical or fear of being

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judged. So in the U.S., you know, I never felt-felt any either lifestyle choices or even choices about major about jobs or any of that. It feels very individual, and no one kind of never judge you.

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So it's just very different. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's definitely one of the biggest differences between the two countries. [HX: Yeah.] Thank you for the response.

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And then next I'm going to ask some questions about your immigration experience. So, what year was it that you moved to the States for grad school and what was the transition like? So I moved to the US in 1997 to right after college

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to study in Stanford University for my PhD program. The transition, surprisingly, was very easy because later I realized, you know, sometimes people say, you know, you move yourself alone to a brand new environment,

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it must be very, very difficult. But for me, I felt it was pretty easy. The-the probably two reasons: one is, you know, Stanford is not very typical America by any means,

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right? It's a very, very well developed. You know, there's just a lot of abundance of everything. So it's very well supported. That's one and two being relatively young at the time.

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I feel, you know, I really value the freedom that you can do. You could do anything you want without being judged. So it was a pretty easy transition. The only challenge was my English language.

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I could barely understand or speak much English at all. So for my first year in Stanford, I spent a lot of time in the library watching an animation from Disney. You know, like, Beauty and the Beast even, or 101

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Dalmatians and all of those to learn English. And I probably watched all the Disney movies because they are the-the pace of speaking was a bit slower. It's easier to understand.

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So yeah. So that was the transition in 1997. Yeah, I can definitely see how Disney movies would be perfect for learning English. [HX: yeah.] But yeah. And my next question for you is, specifically speaking of Houston, how would you describe the Asian American

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community in Houston compared to those in other cities that you've lived in? I only have comparison—you know, I mostly live in the U.S., first in the Bay area and then later moved to Houston. I will say there are a lot of similarities, right?

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The immigrant community always have a kind of togetherness that-that you just feel, you know. When I first moved to California, I was picked up by the students who were already there, Chinese students.

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You know, the—during the first year, I couldn't—I didn't have a car, so I have senior students who, you know, I can get a ride for-for grocery store shopping and things like that. When I first came to Houston, I was introduced to a few of the Asian

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community groups, some of them professional, some of them more community type of organizations. And it always felt pretty close. And yeah, a lot of similarity in the cultures between the different cities.

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I see, that's great to hear. And my next question is, out of the different those few cities that you've lived in in both the states and China. Is there a place that you would call your home?

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I—yeah, I feel like, you know, I thought about it before. I feel home is kind of defined by who the-the people you are most close with. So Hefei, which is where my parents live, I feel that's my home.

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But also Houston, since that's where my children live and grow up, I feel that's my home. So Houston and Hefei are the two places closest to-to me, in terms of emotionally as at home.

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I see. Thank you for sharing. And then, next I'm going to ask you some questions about your college experience and the further education that you pursued. So first, what prompted you to study geophysics?

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So when I was a high school student, you know, I—unlike in America at that time, you know, there was no college business, right? So I didn't go to any college to visit before apply.

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And also, there was not a lot of preparation in terms of counselors, we didn't have counselors for majors, so it's all just students. You know, they kind of look look at the name of the departments, and then they kind of just decide.

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So I picked a few, like, electrical engineering, biology, and then also the Department of Earth and Space Sciences. And I was—the university put me into earth and space sciences.

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And then that year, interestingly, there were only geophysics degrees. They didn't offer space sciences. That was actually my initial interest.

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I was, like, I want to study space sciences, so it's quite accidental. And then I got into geophysics, but since I got into it, I found it really interesting as well. So that was sometimes I-I, you know,

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tell the-the-the children who are somewhat young as well, just because accidental doesn't mean you cannot make something good out of it. Yeah, that's very meaningful that at first it was accidental, but you ended up making a lot out of it.

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So, yeah. And then my next question for you is, could you describe your general undergraduate experience at the University of Science and Technology in China? Yeah. As I may have mentioned earlier, you know,

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the college education in China at the time was very different. It's very academic focused. So, unlike in the U.S., you know, there are all kinds of clubs, organizations and entrepreneurship, people think about starting companies,

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that was not the case when I was in college. So, it's mostly academic-academic studies. I spent a lot of time studying, but at the same time, you know, because of the cohort of students together,

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we tend to play together a lot of times as well. So by Friday night, students would play card games, go to movies on campus, or chess, you know, all kind of games together. Or soccer, you know, the sports.

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So that was my experience. And the other thing I would say is that, you know, my college at the time was pretty unique. Maybe even to today. It's a highly kind of—there

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was no—very little humanities majors. It's all very engineering. As a result, they attracted, at my time, male to female student ratio, about 7 to 1.

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Which is, you know, nowadays it's kind of unthinkable, but that was a reality. So the social life in the college was quite different. Mostly kind of boys playing sports,

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you know, type of activities together. I see. Thank you for sharing. And now going beyond college, what prompted you to pursue a PhD degree? And could you exp-describe your experiences at

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Stanford and also the Harvard Business School? Yeah. I —when I, when I first got into college, I never thought of going to the U.S.. You know, there was really a seismic shift at the time

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in the Chinese education system. So for a long time, for example, in my father's generation, if you go to college, when you finish—complete your college, you get assigned a job by the government.

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You know, the government will say you go to that city in that company or school to do this job. It's assigned. During my time probably around, you know, like, sophomore or junior year, it really has shifted

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where students will find their own jobs. It's a great thing if you really think about it. But for my time, a lot of students actually were very fearful. They were, like, I don't have any connections.

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I don't know anybody. It's not a thing. Now I have to find a job. So people are, like, what do I do? So and then I was just observing the more senior students,

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you know, a lot of them decided to take exams and then pursue grad school in either U.S, or Europe or Hong Kong, maybe even Singapore. So, I decided to do the same. And-and then that's how I got, you know, into-into the U.S.

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Grad school. So it's almost kind of a necessity because of the change. You know, if the-the-the society doesn't change, I probably stayed in China and just got a job in a company. Yeah.

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Yeah, it's always very interesting to see how the society changes over decades. Yeah. And my next question for you is, in terms of your career, at what point in your life were you inspired to pursue a career in energy?

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So once I got into Stanford, it really opened my eyes. Um, I got into Stanford in 1997. And at the time, IT started to boom. A lot of people, students decided to go, you know,

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no matter which degree they were in, a lot of them changed to computer science and electrical engineering. But I felt a bit different. I took a few classes in computer science. I felt it just didn't click with me.

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On the other hand, you know, pursuing geophysics and geoscience, I was just, like, amazed by the opportunity to go travel, see a lot of geological sites and see the lifestyle that people are having. To go to remote places, studying geology and really having fun.

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So I decided to stick around rather than following, you know, 90% of my classmates or friends, they have—they have converted to computer science. Yeah. So, I stick with geophysics. And then, that's really a natural way that led

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me to the field of energy after graduation. I see. And could you talk a little bit about your experience at Schlumberger? So your first job and you know how that transition was from

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academics to the workforce. Yeah. So after I graduate, I started looking for jobs. And then my-my professor in Stanford, actually, he has a consortium which

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was funded by a lot of companies. So I got to know some of the company at the time, and Schlumberger was one of them. So the chief scientist at the time,

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he-he-he really liked me, by the name (unintelligible). And so he hired me into Schlumberger. So I was there for three and a half years, and it was a just enormous amount of learning when I was there. In particular,

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the kind of, you know, non-technical aspect because I joined in as an engineer to do very technical work about Schlumberger being a company that provides services to other companies, they need to do a lot of technical marketing.

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So I was pretty involved in those as well. And one thing I learned, you know, benefited me to even today was a manager was telling me, something about sales and marketing. And he said, you know, if you are in marketing or sales,

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with the client for the first time, just pretend—just try to forget what you do. And just listen for half an hour. What they, you know, their problem is and without even thinking about your

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products or services because that in the long run will win you the friends and potential customers. Even if you don't have anything to sell at that time, it's fine. Just listen for half an hour really really actively. So that was probably beyond the technical aspect,

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the biggest learning I have had when I was at Schlumberger. Yeah. I think it's very valuable that you learned a lot of soft skills on top of the technical skills. So how would you describe the day to day experiences of your career now?

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So I've changed, quite a bit through the last almost 20 years now in Shell. And before that, three and a half years in Schlumberger, I started as, you know, pretty technical.

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And then I changed to, you know, grow quite a bit my-my roles into commercial, into company strategy, into innovation, into startup investment, into working with, you know, partners, governments, you know, very,

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very different jobs. So in terms of day to day, it really changed a lot in—I guess in a number of ways. One is the content is different. You know, obviously a technical job is very different from a commercial, from a strategy and from a innovation job.

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And the other big difference is the type of people you interact with. You know, on a technical job, you know, I probably interact more with scientists and engineers.

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And once I was in commercial, then it's more customers and partners, sometimes even community members that we deal with. So, yeah, the day to day has really shifted quite a lot over the last 20 years.

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I see. Thank you for sharing. And how do you practice people leadership through your career? And specifically, could you describe how you practice that as a global general manager at Shell?

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Yeah, it has been a journey. I first became a people manager when I was, back in 2011. So I was promoted to be a team lead, really leading only a very small team of two people.

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And at that time, you know, the first time I now looking back, I was, like, I realized that I was not really leading two people. I was more leading their projects. And at that time, it always felt sometimes it was not very easy.

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And later I realized that was the reason because I was not leading them. I was more really focused on projects and tried to lead their projects, which is not very motivating. So over time, I learned, you know, quite a lot of skills and also

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learned to observe the human aspects. You know, how to motivate people. So over time, actually, I even, I think I wrote a piece on LinkedIn, my learning on that, which is simply I summarize as

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people first, projects next. So—and this has been my guiding principle for quite a long time now. When I lead a team, I want to really understand as individuals, you know, the team members first.

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For example, what's their drive? What-what's their passion and how does that passion link to their job, to what the team try to achieve as a whole? And also very importantly, from time to time,

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you also observe people may have constraint, right? So for example, there may be, you know, a few weeks or a few months where either their personal health or maybe their, you know, parents, older parents or maybe their

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kids, they have something at home that prevents them from being fully, fully, you know, on the job as they used to—usually do. That doesn't mean they are not a good team member. It just means they have constraints.

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And it's very, very important to understand those. And what I realized over the years was during those downtimes, if you give them a bit of flexibility to say, you know, we-we-we back you up, once they

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bounce back from that, they are really, really dedicated. Because people in general, I believe they want to do their best. If they feel supported, if they feel like during their downtime, they get supported, they really, genuinely want to do their best.

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So, that has been my philosophy of leading people, which is understand them as individuals. And then help them with their projects rather than the other way around. Yeah. That sounds like a very compassionate and so effective way of leading

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people. So that's very admirable. And my next follow up question is, you know, as someone who has practiced a lot of people leadership, what do you think are the key elements of team leader—team leadership that can be

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applied to enrich everyday life? Yeah. So I think there's quite a lot. One would be just practice active listening. As you can imagine, you know, if you,

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do not carefully listen, and if the employees say something and you judge right away, they'll probably stop communicating with you over time. But yeah, so-so listening skills is extremely important

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that I actually learn first in my job, and then I take it into my personal life. And the other one I will say is, kind of, you know, the being purposeful is extremely important. One thing I learned from actually the CEO of Microsoft,

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he-he-he it might be described leadership in a way that I feel very, very spot on, which is, you know, as a leader, you need to provide three things. One is clarity. You know, why the team exists?

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What they need to do in terms of clarity of purpose? The second one is energy. You know, a team lead-a leader who put people down—that's not helping with building energy, that's just draining the energy of people.

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So a leader should really bring energy to the people. And the third one is, you know, just because you have clarity and you have energy, it doesn't mean you achieve things. It still has to be executed into, you know, translate those into actions.

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So clarity, energy, and action are extremely important. And I took that into my personal life as well. You know, when I do things I think about you know does that what is the purpose of that? Do I feel energized by doing it?

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And lastly, if I do, You should not sit on it. I should just get it done. Yeah. So-so there's a lot of things that can work that translate into your personal life as well.

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I see, thank you for your response. My next question is, I saw that you hold a lot of leadership and membership in professional organizations like the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering.

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So would you mind touching on the organizations that you're a part of? And just, like, the impact that you have made through those groups? Yeah. So over the years I've been, you know, serving a number of the, some of them professional,

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for example, Society of Exploration Geophysicist. I was an associate editor and then some of the advisory boards in University of Houston, University of Texas, and other places. Over the last, I think, maybe 2 or 3 years,

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I've been very, very involved as a board director for the Asian American Academy of Science Engineering that is a nonprofit that's dedicated to really promote the Asian American contribution to American society as one, and also to inspire and help the next generation of

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talent as well. So I've been very involved with that as a board director, doing a number of things. You know, I teach in the summer camp; I coach students; and also I have been, you know, just really doing my best to help

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fundraise as well as a nonprofit we're always short of funding. Everybody is a volunteer. So—and it's very, very meaningful. I feel a lot of satisfaction from working on this

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because I feel I'm making a difference. And also just the, I feel it's a really—real privilege to work with a lot of like-minded people through the organization as well. You know, all around the country.

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West coast, East coast. Working together. It was-it's a lot of fun. Yeah. It's very admirable how you work with those like-minded people to make impacts throughout the community. I think it's very meaningful.

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Yeah. And my next question for you is, what do you what do you consider to be the greatest highlights and the challenges of your career? I would say the greatest highlight, probably just the way I've been working with my teams, you know,

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and really deliver real results through the teams as well. Maybe a few examples. You know, one is a few years ago, you know, I found that incubator on clean tech, clean energy, together with

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National Renewable Energy lab of the Department of Energy of the-the U.S. Government. So that's between them and the company Shell called GCN. I was a founding director of the program as well.

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And then over the three years, we were able to source many companies, startups into that incubator, probably like 20 or 30 over three years. Many of them are doing really well. Some of them got funding later from, like, Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

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You know, other venture capital companies as well. Some of them have already, I think, achieved unicorn status, which is, like, $1 billion evaluation-valuation. Some of them are building a really, pretty large scale

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projects now, so I feel very happy with that. And the other one was a couple of years ago, I also built a global practice in Shell of open innovation between Shell and a lot of universities government bodies as

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well. So for example, with, you know, Rice included, University of Houston, MIT, Stanford and then university in Europe as well, like Imperial College, Cambridge, University in India, China, Singapore.

00:32:54.720 - 00:33:14.640

A lot of them. Probably, like, hundreds on energy technologies. So I had really built from scratch those teams and those projects and also with a global way of working together, kind of collecting the different expertise

00:33:14.640 - 00:33:30.640

from-from inside the company, like technical science, the commercial aspect. And so it has been really satisfying to build that. Yeah. That must be very gratifying and just meaningful too.

00:33:30.670 - 00:33:47.590

[HX: Yeah.] Yeah. And my next question is, what advice would you give to someone who is aspiring to advance in the corporate world? Yeah. So, you know, there are a few basics. I think everybody probably know already.

00:33:47.590 - 00:34:00.030

I don't need to repeat, you know, if you want to do well in a company, delivery is very important. Communicating the results in a very effective, concise way. Communication is important.

00:34:00.750 - 00:34:16.630

You know, networking in the right way. What I mean by that is, you know, just don't-don't just network for the sake of network, but network through working together normally is very, very effective. All of those are extremely important.

00:34:16.950 - 00:34:35.180

But over the years, I also realize, and this is probably a bit more true for Asian American communities, which is—which is, kind of the, the risk taking aspect because, you know, I came from East Asia

00:34:35.180 - 00:34:52.300

and it's a-a more collective type of mindset community. And sometime, you know, the risk taking aspect, I feel is a bit different from the U.S. In the U.S., there seem to be just a lot more tolerance for failure

00:34:52.780 - 00:35:06.340

for, you know, working out loud. It doesn't matter if you fail, you know, just try your best. So that also means just taking a lot more risk. That aspect, I feel, is probably, it's important for everyone,

00:35:06.340 - 00:35:27.460

but probably more important for people with backgrounds like me. I see. And then I'm going to ask you a couple questions, specifically regarding Asian American identity and how that can coincide with your career. So what are some differences that you've

00:35:27.460 - 00:35:43.620

observed between, you know, the first generation of Asian American immigrants versus the younger generations that are born and raised in the United States. And, specifically, you know, how do you think they differ and how they approach their careers?

00:35:45.020 - 00:35:59.300

Yeah, I think a number of different things. You know, the first generation like myself, at least initially, there are probably a survival mindset, right? You know, you move to a new country, a new environment.

00:35:59.340 - 00:36:13.940

Survival is very, very important. So—and normally that means, not too selective and just try to do whatever is available right away, hyper-focused. The second generation, of course, very often have a lot more

00:36:13.940 - 00:36:27.740

opportunities than options. I think, you know, both are great. You know, either if you are focused or if you say, I'm going to be a bit more open-minded and explore a bit more.

00:36:28.010 - 00:36:44.570

Both have pros and cons. The-the second generation do have the luxury of being a lot more open and exploratory. At the same time, I think, you know, to be decisive,

00:36:44.730 - 00:37:00.530

one needs to be and be focused is also quite important. At the same time, I think for the first generation, really, really hyper focused. But I think sometimes the tendency could be that

00:37:00.570 - 00:37:18.050

you don't look bold enough, and I feel like, you know, once after the initial stage that you achieve that survival, to be open-minded and look broader is also quite necessary. That is—that is what I noticed, you know,

00:37:18.090 - 00:37:34.600

the probably the difference between the first and second generation. Yeah. Those are very interesting differences to analyze and think about.[HX: Yeah.] Then my next question for you is, you know, as an executive of a major operating company,

00:37:34.840 - 00:37:52.600

what's your view of the future advancement opportunities of Chinese Americans given the increasing inflammatory rhetoric related to U.S. and China relations? Yeah, I think this is a really tough question,

00:37:52.600 - 00:38:07.440

right? So on one hand, I feel the challenge is very real. So I don't want to minimize it by any way. But on the other hand, I-I tend to and I-I talk to even my children about this as well.

00:38:07.440 - 00:38:24.160

I tend to be on a more positive and optimistic side. Because I do believe, you know, what Colin Powell always say, positivity is a force multiplier. One of the, you know, leaders that who

00:38:24.160 - 00:38:41.040

have quite a strong impression on me is Ajay Banga, who used to, I think, run Citibank and now run the World Bank. So his background was, you know, he came from India, but he's really a global leader on the world stage.

00:38:41.480 - 00:38:57.640

And he said, you know, one should try to be at home in every culture. And that really had a strong impression on me. I think, you know, as immigrants, especially as a minority, one can do two things.

00:38:57.640 - 00:39:15.600

You can—one can choose to focus on the more challenges, or one can focus on, you know, being positive and make the best of everything. And-and to me, you know, there's always challenges, you know, from time to time we see in the United States maybe,

00:39:15.640 - 00:39:28.630

you know, you know, there were time after 9/11, a lot of challenges for the Muslim community, American community. So over a different time, they're always challenging for certain group of people.

00:39:29.470 - 00:39:46.350

We should not ignore it. Right? We should be very, you know, we should recognize that at the same time, I think we also should not fall into a victim mindset. So always be positive and make, yeah,

00:39:46.390 - 00:40:03.430

do-do our best. Yeah. For sure. My next question for you is, you know, have you personally experienced or witnessed things like model minority perception or bamboo ceiling at the workplace?

00:40:03.430 - 00:40:20.390

And yeah, if you could share your thoughts on those perceptions. I think, yeah, I think I can recognize it. So model minority, that's probably, yeah, you-you hear that. You-you feel that, you know,

00:40:20.390 - 00:40:37.660

sometimes I feel it's—probably could be a misconception between minority versus immigrant. Because a lot of the minority, if they're immigrants, there's also something about immigrants, which is they-they tend to be self

00:40:37.660 - 00:40:55.580

selective, taking more risk. So-so rather than model minority, maybe just, you know, the-the underlying logic is that we take more risk and work, you know, really make the most effort

00:40:55.580 - 00:41:10.140

for that. And then in terms of bamboo ceiling, I think it probably exists as well. But at the same time, you know, I also feel we should not, you know, be too—I think we-we also should look at the positive

00:41:10.140 - 00:41:27.090

side as well. It might be because, you know, from time to time, every identity probably face some barriers here and there. You can always find a reason why there's a barrier, but, you know, there are also just ways,

00:41:27.090 - 00:41:39.770

you know, individuals, even individual effort can make a difference. I'm not saying that, you know, I think structurally, if there is a barrier, it should be addressed. But at the same time, individuals have a lot of power to overcome,

00:41:39.770 - 00:41:54.810

even in a structural infrastructural barrier. It's true. It's real. Yeah. For sure. Thank you so much for your response to those questions. Next I'm going to ask a couple questions related to your general identity.

00:41:54.810 - 00:42:12.450

So first, what does your Chinese heritage mean to you? So obviously, you know, I, yeah, it's very real to me, you know, that my, you know, the way I live, you know, the food I eat, you know, a lot of them,

00:42:12.490 - 00:42:30.770

you know, so very deeply rooted in Chinese culture. I try to celebrate both my heritage and also my new country here in the U.S. You know, a lot of things about both, right? In the-the-the-the kind of community support in the Chinese

00:42:30.770 - 00:42:47.250

culture and the individualism liberty in the U.S. And then the tolerance for failure, the risk tolerance in the U.S., you know, all of those that need to be celebrated. So I-I really value both in the best way

00:42:47.250 - 00:43:04.130

possible. I see. And my next question for you is you mentioned how you interact with your children throughout this interview, but if you could elaborate a little more on that, and specifically, do you think you're experiencing grow-growing

00:43:04.130 - 00:43:18.730

up in China affects how you parent your children? I think it probably does. Sometimes maybe I don't even realize it. Yeah. So, one thing, quite a few years ago, I

00:43:18.850 - 00:43:34.960

have decided was, for me, the most important thing with the children are open communication. Meaning that, you know, when they talk about something, I should really try my best to hold judgment.

00:43:35.240 - 00:43:52.120

Because if I jump into conclusion right away and judging, you know, maybe they will not care for a couple times. But, you know, if it's too often, they probably will stop talking anything meaningful. Yeah. So, that is really a guiding principle I've been

00:43:52.120 - 00:44:05.120

using. And so far it seems to be doing well. You know, my two kids, they seem to still tell me a lot of things, you know, like their failures or the struggles, their fears.

00:44:05.280 - 00:44:23.070

They still tell me. So that is something that I try to do. And the other aspect is, I think, you know, maybe without me knowing, I, you know, in China, there's a—there's a culture of no pain, no gain.

00:44:23.270 - 00:44:36.990

So there's a probably a different way of viewing pain in different cultures. In-in China. Sometimes pain is celebrated. Meaning that, you know, if you doing any, you know,

00:44:37.030 - 00:44:51.990

making any effort that is substantial enough, that is not possible to not have pain, like studying, you know. If you want to do really well in math, you study very, very deep understanding very well. It probably takes some pain, but the

00:44:51.990 - 00:45:06.990

joy out of the pain is worth making it worthwhile. And I still remember, you know, there was a—there was an interview by Vincent Huang from a media. And I feel really I can resonate that people were asking him about,

00:45:07.270 - 00:45:19.190

you know, how he treats his employees. And he said, you know, I have extremely high expectations of my employees. Sometimes if they are not performing, I torture them into greatness because I believe their abilities.

00:45:19.390 - 00:45:32.020

They may feel I'm torturing them a little bit, but the-the reason I torture them a bit is because I want I know they are good. I want to torture them into greatness. He may be exaggerating, I don't know, but I feel,

00:45:32.060 - 00:45:49.350

you know, that's a kind of mindset I-I have a bit as well. I feel no pain, no gain. So that is sometime in the US culture I feel that is not always the case. Sometimes

00:45:49.350 - 00:46:05.940

pain is viewed as something negative. Yeah. For sure. Thank you so much for sharing. And then I'm going to conclude the interview with a few more questions regarding just your advice for the future-future generations.

00:46:06.180 - 00:46:18.900

So first, do you have any advice for Asian American young adults and also specifically for those who would—who are aspiring to pursue the field of energy or people leadership? Or, yeah.

00:46:22.020 - 00:46:40.420

Yeah. My general-general advice I probably mentioned earlier as well, I feel risk tolerance is extremely important. You know, for example, you know, it's—in my own experience, I started out

00:46:40.420 - 00:46:55.780

in-in technical and then, you know, when the company was asking me to do a commercial job, it was very, very unsettling. It's something I didn't know. And the other fear people could have

00:46:55.780 - 00:47:15.700

was—can be that, you know, if I change, do I lose what I knew before if I change to something really new? I think, you know, if you want to, you know, progress in your career, there all kind of skill that is needed:

00:47:16.140 - 00:47:33.010

technical, commercial, people skills. And if you are too comfortable in a job, then the opportunity to develop those skills can be limited. So-so-so for me, I feel like every time when there's a new job,

00:47:33.250 - 00:47:49.770

especially when it is kind of challenging, that I feel like a bit fearful, I feel excited, I feel like, oh, this is something that is feels messy, that I can actually make a difference. If it is something that I started out and I knew already it's kind of

00:47:49.810 - 00:48:06.890

easy, then-then it does not excite me. So-so I really feel like risk tolerance and taking a risk is something that's extremely valuable. Yeah. For sure. I think celebrating that fear of new experiences and learning from that

00:48:06.890 - 00:48:24.640

is very, very important as well. And then my next question for you is if you have the power to make change in society, what would be on the top of your list? I would say probably, you know, just have more common

00:48:24.640 - 00:48:43.080

sense in society. Sometimes I feel like ideology in all kind of spectrums can drive the society in a certain way and really polarizing. So maybe I'm simple minded, but I also I always feel like,

00:48:43.120 - 00:48:58.840

you know, for a lot of the issues that's hotly debated in society, there seems to be at least some kind of common sense. But for one reason or another and some of them, you know, maybe just because of election, the-the fundamental underlying

00:48:58.840 - 00:49:14.720

logic of elections that you have to polarize. But I do feel, you know, I wish the society can have more common sense rather than trying to drive polarization. That would be the one thing I really like to have the

00:49:14.720 - 00:49:31.710

society to do. And the other one was—is, you know, the, with advancement of technology, geopolitics in everywhere. You know, the society is really transforming very, very fast. I wish the American society can find

00:49:31.750 - 00:49:47.550

real solutions to solve those issues. Yeah, that would be good for everyone. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. And my last question for you is if you could go back in time and give a piece of

00:49:47.550 - 00:50:07.990

advice to your younger self, what would that advice be? Actually, I would say, you know, I-I feel like if I go back and I will say what I have done so many years, I feel I probably listen to my advice now;

00:50:07.990 - 00:50:22.270

because what I—what I really feel what I've been doing over the years is, I try to live a very real life, you know? Just be very authentic. I never try to pretend to be more than anything.

00:50:22.310 - 00:50:38.230

I never—I don't hide my weakness. If I'm, you know, feel unsettled about something, I don't hide it. Because I-I really feel, you know, life is—we only have one life.

00:50:38.270 - 00:50:53.390

You know? So to be able to do what you enjoy and to live a real, authentic life, to me, that's very important. So—and I feel I've done it. So if I go back in time, I'll probably say, you know,

00:50:53.430 - 00:51:07.590

that's-that's what I would give myself, and that's what I've done. So I feel pretty happy with the way I live my life. Yeah. That's really great to hear. So these are all the questions I had prepared.

00:51:07.590 - 00:51:15.270

Was there anything else that you would like to share with our archive? No. Yeah. Thank you for the great questions.