Charles Chao or Guowei Chao () has served as the chairman of the board of directors since the inception of

Weibo Corporation Weibo Corporation is a Chinese social network company known for the microblogging website Sina Weibo. It is based in Beijing, China. History Weibo was established by Sina Corporation as T.CN, but it changed its name to Weibo in 2012. See also * ...

. He has served as the chairman of the board of directors of Weibo's parent company,

Sina Sina may refer to: Relating to China * Chin (China), or Sina (), old Chinese form of the Sanskrit name Cina () ** Shina (word), or Sina (), archaic Japanese word for China ** Sinae, Latin name for China Places * Sina, Albania, or Sinë, a vi ...

, since August 2012, and has been Sina's Chief Executive Officer since May 2006. He served as Sina's president from September 2005 to February 2013, Chief Financial Officer from February 2001 to May 2006, and Co-Chief Operating Officer from July 2004 to September 2005. He also served as Sina's Executive Vice President from April 2002 to June 2003 and Vice President, Finance from September 1999 to January 2001.

Education

Chao holds a B.A. in journalism from

Fudan University Fudan University (FDU) is a public university, national public university in Yangpu, Shanghai, Yangpu, Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and is co-funded with the Shanghai Municipal ...

in Shanghai, an M.A. in journalism from the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

, and a Master's in Professional Accounting from the McCombs School of Business at

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Career

Chao joined Sina in 1999 when the company was facing difficulties in its attempts to get a listing on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. He overcame this challenge by establishing Sina as a VIE (Variable Interest Entity) company, which cleared the way for a successful listing in the US. Since then, he has served as Sina's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President in September 2005, and finally chairman of the board and CEO in 2011. He is the first chairman and CEO in company's history. In 2009, he helped launch

Sina Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ...

, which has gone on to achieve great success. Chao has also made use of the company's platform to support public welfare undertakings in China. Currently, Sina is one of the largest venues for making donations and emergency fundraising and is one of the first internet companies to set up a charity and public welfare platform. Now, Sina has established Yang Fan Public Welfare Fund, which will enable the company to participate more effectively in charity and public welfare causes.

Work history and other roles

Prior to joining Sina, Chao served as an audit manager at

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

, LLP, an accounting firm. Prior to that, Chao was a news correspondent at Shanghai Media Group. Chao is currently the Chairman of Weibo Corporation, a leading media company, Co-chairman of E-House, a real estate services company, and a director of NetDragon Websoft Inc., a company providing technology for online gaming and a director of Leju Holdings Ltd., an online-to-offline (O2O) real estate services provider in China.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chao, Charles Living people Chinese chief executives 1961 births Fudan University alumni Businesspeople from Shanghai Sina Corp people 20th-century Chinese businesspeople 21st-century Chinese businesspeople PwC people