Robin Li

Robin Li is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu, and oversees the company's overall strategy and business operations.

Robin received a bachelor of science degree in information management from Peking University in 1991, and a master of science degree in computer science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1994. Robin worked as a senior consultant at a subsidiary of Dow Jones and designed the real-time financial information system for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. Robin received a US patent for a system of hyperlink analysis in 1999, one of the inventions that has helped shape today's search technology. He later joined InfoSeek, one of the early search engines, in Silicon Valley as a senior engineer.

Since founding the company in January 2000, Robin has led Baidu to be China’s largest search engine, with over 70% market share. Baidu is the largest Chinese search engine globally and the second largest independent search engine in the world. China is among the four countries globally—alongside the United States, Russia and South Korea—to possess its own core search engine technology. Through innovations such as Box Computing to Baidu’s Open Data and Open App Platform, Robin has substantially advanced the theoretical framework of China’s Internet sciences, propelling Baidu to be the vanguard of China’s Internet industry.

In 2005, Baidu became a NASDAQ-listed public company and in 2007 was the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index. In 2007, The Financial Times listed Baidu as one of the Top 10 Chinese Global Brands, with Baidu being the youngest company, as well as the only Internet company, in the top ten.

As one of the pioneers and leading figures in China’s Internet industry, Robin’s achievements are widely recognized. Robin acts as the vice chairman of the Internet Society of China (ISC). He has also been a vice chairman of All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference since December 2012 and 2013, respectively. Robin is a “1000 Talent” National Distinguished Expert and has received honors including “CCTV Key Figure in China’s Economy,” “The Top 30 Figures in China’s 30 Years of Reform,” “Ten IT Leaders,” and many others. Robin topped Forbes’ list of “2012 China’s Best CEOs” and was named in Forbes’ List of World’s Most Powerful People three years in a row. Magazines such as BusinessWeek and Time Magazine have repeatedly put Robin’s on the lists of “Best Business Leaders in the World” and “China’s Most Influential Business Leaders.” Robin currently serves on the board of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., a private educational services in China (NASDAQ: EDU), and Ctrip.com International, Ltd., an online travel agency in China (NASDAQ: CTRP).