Franny Yao

Franny Yao is a Partner at Ernst & Young, where she is responsible for Key Accounts and Government Relations in China. Franny has been a driving force in bringing E&Y services to major Chinese companies. She plays a key role in serving top Chinese financial institutions including as lead Relationship Partner for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China (ICBC), China Life, PingAn Insurance, CNOOC and Global Client Service Partner for China Investment Corporation (CIC) and Bank of China. Franny works closely with Chinese regulators and stakeholders, i.e. China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, People’s Bank of China, Central Huijin and Ministry of Finance. She has worked on several cross-border M&A transactions and strategic initiatives by major Chinese companies. She also helps multinational firms seeking growth in China. Franny’s deep knowledge of the business environment in China enables her to help Western business executives to understand the Chinese market and formulate strategies to operate effectively in China. After more than15 years working with major Chinese financial institutions at HQs and the Chinese regulators and key stakeholders, Franny returned to EY New York office Dec 2015. Currently she leads Chinese Financial Institutions inbound services for EY America Financial Services.

17 years ago, Franny became the first Mainland born partner at E&Y, a leading global professional services firm with 230,000 people and 728 offices in 150 countries around world. Also, she was the first woman partner at EY Beijing office. She was the inaugural leader of Diversity & Inclusiveness for EY Asia Pacific in 2011. Prior to joining EY in 1997, Franny had a diverse working background including at an European bank, with Chinese SOE and Chinese government agency. Her education is equally broad including studies at Xi’an Foreign Language University and The Wharton School.

Franny currently serves as Senior Advisor to Shaanxi Provincial Government, International Advisory Board Member of the School of Management Xi’an JiaoTong University and a Founding Director of the International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border Investment and M&A (a joint study institute among Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, the Pollack Center for Law and Business of NYU and Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge).