Mi Yan is an entrepreneur, with a twist. His initiatives are intended not only to turn a profit, but advance the public good, particularly in the area of addressing climate change and sustainability. Most recently, he’s the co-founder of Elumin8, a revolutionary new energy efficiency system designed to educate and empower households to reduce energy consumption, save money and contribute to the global effort to reduce carbon emissions.
Yan, a native of China, will be bringing his special skills to Cornell University this fall, where he’ll be participating in the 2016 Global Leadership Fellows Program. He attended the Alliance’s Asia Leadership Course on Strategic Planning and Effective Grassroots Organizing in Thailand this past January, where he worked with other Chinese representatives to design the Bridge to Science communication strategy for sustainable agriculture and biotechnology in China.
He previously participated in a fellowship exchange between China and the Europe Union that took him to Brussels for seven weeks while he delved into the topic of China’s overseas investment in coal in Central and Eastern Europe.
Yan is also the founder and CEO of Youth Lead, a social enterprise platform in China aiming to promote global understanding, leadership, and entrepreneurship among young people in the fields of environment, green growth, climate change and sustainability. His training programs have reached thousands of students all over the world, and he is currently working with high schools and universities in China to develop STEM courses on sustainable development education.
While earning a bachelor s degree in material engineering at Xi an Jiaotong University, Yan founded a the Western China Clean Energy Collaborative, managing 50 team members to achieve energy reduction goals in six university departments.
He is also a youth ambassador approved by the Ministry of Environment Protection of China.
Yan’s enthusiasm, business acumen and organizing skills will be an asset to the 2016 cohort of Fellows, whose 29 members come from 12 nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He and two others, Liping Wang and Yihong Tan, are the first to represent China at the Alliance.
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