China President, HTC HTC中国区总裁
Global VP of Corp. Dev., HTC HTC企业发展全球副总裁
Alvin Wang Graylin travels from Seattle, USA.
Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青)has been the China President at HTC, leading all aspects of Vive/VR and Smartphone businesses since 2016 and in 2022 added the role of Global VP of Corporate Development, driving key partnership engagements for the company.
In 2024 he became the chair of the Virtual World Society.
He is also currently the Vice-Chairman of the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance (IVRA) with 300+ company members, President of the US$18B Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA) and oversees the Vive X VR Accelerators in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Tel Aviv. ViveX is the most active investor in the VR/AR space with over 110 investments in the space in the last 7 years.
Graylin has released in 2024 Our Next Reality, a book about the pending transformation of society this decade brought on by the convergence of AI and metaverse technologies published by Hachette Book Group.
Under his leadership, HTC has been voted as the top VR company in China at the World Conference of VR Industry (WCVRI) three of the last four years, and Graylin has been recognized by media/industry experts as the most influential person in VR/AR in China from 2016-2022.
Graylin first did his research in VR space 30+ years ago under the tutelage of Prof. Tom Furness (The Godfather of VR) at the Human Interface Technology Lab, and specialized in AI/Natural Language Processing while at the University of Washington and MIT.
Graylin has over 30 years of business leadership experience in the tech industry, including 20 years
in Greater China.
Prior to HTC, he was a serial entrepreneur, having founded four separate venture-backed startups in the AI based natural language search, mobile social networks, AD tech, and big-data AI analytics in China and the US. He also helped found a mobile internet focused investment
incubator based in Taiwan for SOSV. Additionally,
Graylin has held major P&L roles at major corporations such as Intel, Trend Micro, WatchGuard Technologies and IBM. He helped co-found
Intel’s operations in China in the early 1990s. GRAYLIN is a sought-after keynote speaker at major conferences around the world and appears regularly in major print/online/broadcast media. He’s a respected expert in the areas of Immersive Computing (AR/VR/MR), Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurship, Venture Investing, and operating technology companies in the China market.
Graylin was born in China during the Cultural Revolution, educated in the US during the PC revolution, played a significant role to fuel the internet and mobile revolution, and now recognized as a global thought leader for the coming AI/Metaverse revolution. He received his M.S. in computer science specializing in AI from MIT, M.S. in Business from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and graduated top of his department with a B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Washington, where he had specialized in VR, AI and CPU architecture.
Graylin is fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
Some quotes from event organizers:
Sonya Haskins, Head of Programming
Alvin has been invited as a priority speaker at two high-level Economist Impact events in Bahrain and Washington DC, for his profound expertise and unique perspectives on the future of AI and the metaverse. His engaging speaking style and ability to combine forward-thinking insights, humour and evidence from research makes him a highly sought-after speaker on this theme and related topics. Alvin demonstrated an exceptional ability to demystify complex concepts related to the AI and the metaverse, making them accessible and intriguing to a diverse audience. His insights not only highlighted the current state of technologies but also delved into their potential future impact on various industries and society at large.
Shayna Jadeja
Programme Editor – Americas
Economist Events
You can look for his recent articles here.
Alvin Wang Graylin discusses his book on the metaverse in Moonshots
From De-globalization to Di-globalization, at the AWE Asia 2023.
Graylin discusses with hit former professor Tom Furness the start of the Virtual World Society (2023)
Graylin on his role at HTC Vive (2022)
AWE Asia 2022 Main Stage: Metaverse Metamorphosis by Alvin Wang Graylin (in Mandarin)
