Dr Christina Yan Zhang is an award-winning leader with 18 years of experience turning forward-thinking ideas into successful businesses. She has extensive experience working with UN leaders, governments ministers, universities presidents, and Fortune 500 CEOs on innovation strategies. Christina is a metaverse pioneer since 2006 and completed a PhD using... Read More
Dr Christina Yan Zhang is an award-winning leader with 18 years of experience turning forward-thinking ideas into successful businesses. She has extensive experience working with UN leaders, governments ministers, universities presidents, and Fortune 500 CEOs on innovation strategies. Christina is a metaverse pioneer since 2006 and completed a PhD using digital twin in the metaverse to augment the construction industry.
Between 2013 and 2020, she was China Director for QS World University Ranking and grew the UK-headquartered firm’s success in China. In 2016, China’s Vice Premier highlighted the use of QS rankings in a speech, with the rankings impacting £750bn- 5 years funding allocations to 3005 universities with 48 million students.
Between 2012 and 2013, she worked in the UK Parliament developing policies for the Shadow Business Secretary’ team.
Christina was the first Chinese elected to the national executive of the UK National Union of Students (NUS) since 1922, and represented the interests of one million international students studying at 600 UK higher and further education institutions who contribute £60bn annually.
She has sat on 20+ advisory committees for UNESCO, World Bank, Commonwealth, EU, and UK Governments. She is the UN International Telecommunication Union(ITU)’s Vice Chair on Metaverse Working Group on Sustainability, Accessibility & Inclusion and Co-chair of Task Group on Pre-standardization for the CitiVerse with the mandate to set up the first UN roadmap using emerging technologies to develop citizen-centred future smart cities, leading to international standards.
Alongside the 73rd President of the UN General Assembly, she is one of six leaders appointed to the advisory council of Centre for Science Futures at International Science Council, the world’s largest science body with a membership of 230 national and international academies of sciences, to advise on the impact of frontier technologies.
For two years, Christina contributed to the BBC as a campus journalist. She has seven years’ experience as a TV presenter for People’s Daily, interviewing heads of states and the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
She regularly meets with top leaders, is a frequent keynote speaker at high level events, and is interviewed by media.
She recently chaired the opening panel for The World Intellectual Property Organization’s summit on IP and Metaverse, addressed UNESCO on the future of education, and the UN High Level Political Forum on future cities, UN Science Technology Innovation Forum on Sustainable Development Goals, ICAO on future aviation, UN Tourism on Innovation.