Merging disciplines, alumna found her niche in M&A
Linda Yao wasn’t the type of kid who was dead-set on becoming a lawyer or doctor when she grew up.
With wide-eyed curiosity and a bit of indecisiveness, she was tugged in dozens of different directions until she landed at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Applied Sciences (SEAS), where she chose an applied math concentration because of the field’s flexibility.
It should come as no surprise that Yao, director of mergers and acquisitions and business development at Lenovo, has found a role that is impossible to narrowly define.
“I like the fact that my work is truly multidisciplinary,” said Yao, A.B. ’10. “Every M&A transaction is defined by a bunch of disciplines that all come together, like finance, strategy, project management, negotiation, law, etc. It ensures I’m never bored.”
It’s a good fit for Yao, but not a career she necessarily considered during her undergraduate days. At Harvard, she filled her schedule with a mix of science and humanities courses—everything from economics to Chinese—while also working on a cognitive science research project in the lab of Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology.
She designed experiments and collected data from test subjects to examine the genetic inheritance of the general intelligence factor, a concept that describes a person’s broad mental capacity to successfully complete cognitive tests.
“That research showed me that ‘multidisciplinary’ isn’t just a buzzword,” she said. “There is real research and innovation and progress being made in a field that truly requires a touch of this, a pinch of that, and contributions from other subject areas, as well. It showed me the value of people who embraced a broader scope of academic interests.”
Yao took that lesson to heart, and to her first industry job at IBM, where she rotated through several finance and strategy roles.
Some of her most rewarding experiences at IBM came during a stint in corporate development, where she cut her teeth working on mergers and acquisitions. Yao focused on acquiring companies that could fill IBM’s strategic gaps, a tall order at a firm with major milestones reaching back into the previous century.
“I was constantly asking myself, ‘How do you think about innovation and new business models at a company that is 100 years old and has a lot of legacy?’” she said. “How do you take all that history and constantly bolt on new things and new ideas?”
Seeking a new challenge, she joined Boeing as finance manager, overseeing a portion of the company’s $60 billion pension fund portfolio, and $45 billion of 401(k) assets. From there, she was named senior IT manager and tasked with building a team to formalize the use of data science at the aerospace giant.
Yao sitting in the engine of a Boeing 757. (Photo courtesy of Linda Yao.)
Her team created aviation applications that used artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance aircraft operations. They also developed AI and data analytics solutions to optimize the supply chain, focusing on lead-time, inventory levels, demand forecasting, and supplier performance.
“We are creating products that take a decade to design and build and then operate for 40 years,” she said. “Every little bit of time counts when the links in your supply chain are measured in years.”
Yao jumped at the opportunity to join Boeing Global Services, a new business unit centered on after market services for the company’s aircraft, like maintenance, component repair, and training. She built a mergers and acquisitions team inside the new business unit to identify areas where the company could inject innovation. In less than a year, her team completed the company’s largest acquisition in more than two decades.
Volunteering is one of Yao's passions. Here, she collaborates with several Boeing team members to build benches for Greenwood Cemetery in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy of Linda Yao.)
Looking for further lessons in global innovation, she recently moved to Lenovo, where she is also focused on growth initiatives. In the company’s Data Center Group, Yao seeks to build partnerships and explore new business models to keep the company at the leading edge of a constantly transforming industry.
She is excited to join at an inflection point and help write the next chapter for the company, while working through complex and interesting scenarios.
“The biggest challenges of mergers and acquisitions and business development come when you are balancing your company’s needs with an entirely external slate of concerns from your counterparts,” she said. “How do you harmonize? How do you bring people to the table who have different points of view and different goals to work towards a common objective?”
Accomplishing that with speed and efficiency, in a regulatory landscape that is as complex as they come, is a delicate balancing act. The multidisciplinary mindset she developed at Harvard helps Yao meet those challenges head-on.
Thinking back on her career trajectory, she advises current students to widen their horizons, dive headfirst, and drink the Kool-Aid.
“If you are creative enough, if you are bold enough, if you are humble enough, you can apply your chosen discipline to any industry that interests you, to any company or product that excites you,” she said. “The best way to understand the limitlessness of those options is to explore them and stretch yourself.”