Leaders in the Limelight: LuLu Yang

Myname: LuLuYang

Mycompany: Genentech/Roche 

Mytitle: People & Organization Capabilities Strategy Leader 

Mylocation: South San Francisco, California

 

Bestbusiness advice I ever received: To builda high-performing team, you’ll need to worktogether, play together, and break bread together. This advice has served mewell, as you get to know who you’re working with and create a shared sense ofaccountability to one another on a personal level that builds real trust toaccomplish great things.  

Mostdaring personal career move: Taking a two-year breakfrom the corporate world and then starting a consulting business with my husbandthat ran for 16 years. Both of us were working crazy hours on executiveteams of two different dot-coms. When we were able to have dinners together,they were at a restaurant named Oliveto’s at 9:25 PM, before the lastcall. We knew our priorities were totally screwed up when during one ofthese late dinners I realized that I had not seen my parents for over six months!They lived just five miles away … not 5,000 miles away! We were so caught upin chasing the financial dream that we lost sight of what was really importantin life.

WhatI’m most proud of: Taking the two-year breakto travel/sail the world with my husband, and having a son during thattime. During our dinners at Oliveto’s we started to dream about sailingaround the world. After many brainstorms we decided to fly around theworld with six boat charters for a year, calling our adventure “The Best WayGoing Upwind Is on a 747.” Right after we paid for everything we found outthat I was pregnant! So the updated plan was three sailing destinationsfor six months instead. My parents, relatives, and friends were able tojoin parts of our adventure along the way. I stayed home after my son was bornand didn’t have to worry about rushing back to work. It was the bestdecision ever!

Currentworkplace challenge: Acceleration of changesfrom digital/disruptivetechnologies and companies. We’ve developed a strategy to meetevolving business needs and befuture-ready, but words are easy. Now the hard work starts aswe actively prepare the workforce/organization with the right skills,knowledge, behaviors, and mindset to meet the challenges along the way.

Somethingpeople don’t know about me: I was on Food Network’s Food Fight, a show that lasted only oneseason in the early days of reality TV cooking competitions. 

Editor’s note

LuLuYang will be participating in The eLearning Guild’s second annual ExecutiveForum on October 23, 2018. This special one-day experience, whichtakes place prior to the Guild’s DevLearn2018 Conference & Expo, is designed for senior learning anddevelopment leaders who want to collaborate with peers and industry experts oncutting-edge strategies that address the key challenges of the modern learningorganization. Join LuLu and other senior executives at this exclusiveevent.