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Eric Yuan

Executive

Type
Person
Role
Executive
Updated

The profile

Founder and chief executive of Zoom, whose revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 rose 326% to $2.65 billion.

Identity and role

Eric S. Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 and has been chairman of its board, president and chief executive officer since June 2011. The company is based in San Jose, California, trades on Nasdaq as ZM, and now reports as Zoom Communications, Inc.; an October 2024 filing announcing a new chief financial officer still used the name Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

Biography / career arc

Yuan holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Shandong University of Science and Technology and a master's in engineering from China University of Mining and Technology. He was one of the founding engineers at WebEx Communications and worked there from August 1997, most recently as vice president of engineering, until Cisco Systems bought WebEx in May 2007. From May 2007 to June 2011 he was Cisco's corporate vice president of engineering, responsible for its collaboration software. He left to found Zoom. Zoom completed its initial public offering in April 2019, eleven months before the pandemic.

Pandemic role

For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, Zoom's revenue was $2,651.4 million, up 326% from the year before. At the end of that year it had about 467,100 customers with more than 10 employees, up about 470%, and 1,644 customers paying more than $100,000 a year, up about 156%.

Their own relief

No PPP loan to Zoom Video Communications or to Yuan appears in the SBA's PPP loan-level data, which runs through September 30, 2024.

On November 9, 2020 the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Zoom; the Commission voted 3-2 to issue the complaint and accept the consent agreement, and Zoom's annual report says the FTC voted to make it final on January 19, 2021. The FTC alleged that since at least 2016 Zoom had advertised "end-to-end, 256-bit encryption" while keeping the cryptographic keys that could let it reach the content of customers' meetings and using a lower level of encryption than promised. It also alleged that a ZoomOpener web server, installed secretly with a July 2018 Mac update, bypassed an Apple Safari browser safeguard. The order requires an information-security program and biennial assessments of it by an independent third party.

Private suits followed the growth. Beginning March 30, 2020, putative class actions over Zoom's privacy and security practices, including alleged data sharing with third parties, were filed in federal and state courts. In April and June 2020, Zoom and certain officers and directors were sued in putative securities class actions and shareholder derivative suits alleging false and misleading statements about its privacy and security measures.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Yuan is still chairman and chief executive. Revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025 was $4,665.4 million, up 3.1%, and Yuan's own summary of that year credited Zoom AI Companion with turning Zoom into "an AI-first company"; the release also named Contact Center and Workvivo. On February 7, 2023 Yuan announced that Zoom would cut about 15% of its staff, around 1,300 people, and that he would reduce his own salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and forgo his FY23 corporate bonus.

Sources

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