Brian Burns

Brian’s interest in Asia was sparked at age 11 during a life-changing visit to San Francisco’s Japantown, which then grew during his academic years and into a career focused on business development between the United States and Asia. Brian started his technical journey as an engineer in a remote part of Japan, later starting his business journey as the first Apple employee dispatched to Vietnam before lifting the US embargo. He has also lived and worked in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam throughout his career. 

Today, Brian is co-founder and principal of BYG, a Hong Kong-based consultancy specializing in fundraising, market-entry, and management for tech firms expanding globally; BYG operates in 30 countries across Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. Brian’s leadership roles included spearheading market entry and local operations for companies like Hortonworks, Hashicorp, CyberSource, Microsoft, and ViXS Systems across Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, Brian was an Adjunct Professor of Analytics at NYU Tokyo campus and has served on the Boards of Directors for Edge Matrix Systems (Japan), Wigwag (acquired by ARM), and Keio University Alumni Group of Bay Area. Brian is also an active investor in many early-stage tech ventures in Silicon Valley. 

Brian graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in engineering and Asian languages. He earned his MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business where he was an InterPacific Scholar at Keio University in Tokyo. He speaks/reads/writes Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.