Program Director, Clean Power

Dr. Yongping Zhang is the Program Director of Energy Foundation China’s Clean Power Program. Aiming to accelerate the Chinese power sector’s transition to a clean, carbon neutral future, he is responsible for developing and implementing program strategy, and overseeing grants and projects execution to achieve the program’s goals.

He has over 20 years of academic and business experience in the energy and utilities industry. Prior to joining the foundation in April 2023, he spent three years at Baidu AI Cloud Group, the cloud arm of the Chinese technology giant, after he worked for one and a half years at ENN, one of the largest privately-owned energy groups in China. At the two companies, he held management positions for corporate strategy, operation, products, solutions, and ecosystem management. Before that, he stayed with IBM for eight years and with Accenture for four years, where he provided consulting and industry solution services to Chinese energy and power enterprises in the areas of electricity markets, smart grids, and the digital transformation.

Dr. Zhang received his doctor’s, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees, all in electrical engineering, from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was also a research assistant at the University of Hong Kong.