Richard Yan

VP, Global People & Talent

Airwallex

Apr 2023 - Current (3 years 6 months)

Leading the global People & Talent function at Airwallex, reporting to the CEO. My team of 100+ covers the full employee lifecycle — talent acquisition, rewards, HR business partnering, people ops, talent development, and workplace experience — across 2,500+ employees in 30+ cities worldwide.

Since joining, we've scaled through some of Airwallex's most ambitious chapters: hitting $1.2B ARR, expanding across 11 countries, and breaking hiring records — all while maintaining an engagement score of 85, a Sense of Purpose score of 96, and a 91% participation rate across a global workforce.

Current focus: building AI-powered systems into how the People function operates at scale.

Vice President, Global Head of Talent & Org Development

Airwallex

Nov 2022 - Apr 2023 (6 months)

Senior Director, Global People & Organization Development

Agoda

Aug 2016 - Mar 2022 (5 years 8 months)

Agoda is one of the world's largest online travel platforms, part of Booking Holdings (NYSE: BKNG), operating across 50+ offices globally.

Joined as a senior People leader, with scope expanding significantly over my 5+ year tenure. Built and scaled the People & Talent function during one of Agoda's most ambitious growth chapters — growing the organization 4x from ~1,500 to 6,000+ employees across 50 offices worldwide.

Led a global team of 80+ across talent acquisition, people analytics, employer brand, internal communications, culture, compensation, rewards & benefits, and payroll. At various points reorganized and rebuilt teams to match the pace and shape of the business.

What I'm most proud of: we didn't j

Director, Business Development

Talkdesk

Jun 2015 - May 2016 (1 year)

Early-stage BD role at Talkdesk, then a Series A cloud contact center startup backed by Salesforce, DFJ, and 500 Startups.

Led the launch of Talkdesk on Salesforce's AppExchange and managed key technology partnerships with Twilio, Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft, and SugarCRM. Also worked across business operations — digging into churn, pricing, and margin metrics to sharpen the commercial model.

A formative role in understanding how product, partnerships, and GTM motion fit together at an early-stage SaaS company.

Platform Development & Partnerships

Blue Jeans Network

Sep 2013 - Jun 2015 (1 year 10 months)

Acquired by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) in 2020.
Platform and partnerships role at Blue Jeans Network, an enterprise video communications company backed by NEA, Accel, and Norwest.

Highlights include launching "Blue Jeans for Salesforce" on the Salesforce AppExchange and securing a Dreamforce 2013 keynote demo; finding product-market fit for the Blue Jeans Platform, enabling partners to embed white-label video via SDK & APIs across telemedicine, distance learning, and customer support; and signing OEM partnerships with Logitech and others to drive leads and upsells.

Recognised twice by founders and senior leadership for exceptional contributions — one of the earlier experiences that showed me how GTM, product, and partner

Director, Corporate & Business Development

Tapjoy

Jul 2011 - Jun 2013 (2 years)

Acquired in 2021 by IronSource (NYSE: IS).
Corporate strategy, M&A, and partnerships role at Tapjoy, a mobile ad and publishing network with 1 billion+ users.

Promoted to Director within 8 months. Executed two acqui-hire transactions and a divestiture of a web asset to an international buyer — hands-on deal experience spanning sourcing, due diligence, structuring, and close. Also led and launched a strategic partnership delivering third-party mobile app analytics to developer partners.

A formative role in applying PE deal instincts to a high-growth tech environment — and the bridge between my investing career and the operator roles that followed.

Chief of Staff to CFO (MBA internship)

Hulu

Jun 2010 - Aug 2010 (3 months)

Hulu is a global streaming video platform.

Worked closley with CFO, SVP of Sales, and Product teams on weekly video ad-forecast models, Hulu Plus (subscription product) for Q4 2010 launch, and international expansion (Asia & Austrlia) business plans.

Investment Associate

GarMark Partners

Sep 2007 - Jun 2009 (1 year 10 months)

Investment Associate at GarMark Partners, a $750M AUM private equity firm investing across leveraged buyouts, growth equity, and turnaround situations.

Deployed $100M across 6 transactions during the height of the Great Financial Crisis — spanning deal sourcing, due diligence, valuation modelling (LBO, DCF, public comps), structuring, and execution. Covered 5 portfolio companies with regular board participation and direct CEO/CFO dialogue.

This is where I learned how to evaluate businesses from the inside out — the financial architecture, the management dynamics, the gap between what a company says and what the numbers show. It's a lens I've carried into every role since, including how I think about People strategy tod

Senior Associate - Advisory

KPMG US

Jul 2005 - Aug 2007 (2 years 2 months)

Started my career in M&A advisory at KPMG, supporting due diligence on private equity and strategic transactions across infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, retail, consumer products, and media.

Promoted to Senior Associate after one year. Work covered commercial and financial analysis — revenue and margin by segment, synergy validation, operating cost trends, working capital, and CapEx — coordinating across CXOs, investment bankers, lenders, and legal teams.

The foundation for everything that followed — learning how to stress-test a business, read management, and separate signal from noise in complex deals.

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Richard Yan

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