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Eric Yuan on remote work

From Liu Distinguished Visitor x President's Lecture Series: Eric Yuan, Zoom's CEO & Founder · · Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

“I think first of all, you know, used to be, you know, we have office headquarters, I'm gonna say, right, at Kansas office and the Denver office and New York office. Normally when it comes to hiring, you know, we always think about our physical office. Now seriously, every time we have a candidate, right, we do not even worry about it. We must be close for our physical office. We can hire those employees anywhere.”

Eric Yuan
Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Zoom Video Communications
remote workhiring practicesfuture of work

On , Eric Yuan, Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman at Zoom Video Communications, spoke about remote work during Liu Distinguished Visitor x President's Lecture Series: Eric Yuan, Zoom's CEO & Founder on Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Liu Distinguished Visitor x President's Lecture Series: Eric Yuan, Zoom's CEO & Founder
Watch on YouTube at 40:25
Liu Distinguished Visitor x President's Lecture Series: Eric Yuan, Zoom's CEO & Founder
Watch on YouTube at 40:25
From startup to industry leader, hear Zoom's story from the founder himself, and where he plans to innovate next. For this event in Rice University's Lilie Lecture Series and President's Lecture Series, we are joined by Eric Yuan, CEO and Founder of Zoom. The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is the home of entrepreneurship at Rice. Through courses, co-curricular activities, and a suite of resources for student and alumni founders, we are bringing Rice innovations to the world. Yael Hochberg, Head of Lilie and the Ralph S. O’Connor Professor in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Finance at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business, moderates this discussion. Mr. Yuan dives into his entrepreneurial journey advancing Zoom from startup to industry leader, and what's next for Zoom's role in innovating education. Just nine years later, this innovation is shaping how we interact and learn in ways we - and he! - never had anticipated. Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 to deliver happiness and bring teams together in a frictionless video environment. Zoom’s video-first unified communications platform continues to dramatically transform the way leading global enterprises communicate. Under Eric’s leadership, Zoom was one of the highest-performing tech IPOs of 2019. Prior to founding Zoom, Eric was corporate vice president of engineering at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco's collaboration software development. Eric was one of the founding engineers and vice president of engineering at Webex. Between 1997 and 2011, he grew his team from 10 engineers to more than 800 worldwide and contributed to revenue growth from $0 to more than $800M. Eric has been named one of the Most Powerful People in Enterprise Tech by Business Insider. In 2018, he was named the #1 CEO of a large US company by Glassdoor and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California (software category). In 2019, he was added to the Bloomberg 50 as a leader who changed the game in global business. Eric is a named inventor on 11 issued and 20 pending patents in real-time collaboration. Rice University's President’s Lecture Series (PLS) was created to enrich the intellectual life of the Houston community by bringing to the Rice campus "celebrities of substance," speakers of both high intellectual distinction and broad public appeal. These annual lectures are sponsored by the Office of the President and various departments across campus. This event is in partnership with and hosted by Lilie, Rice University's President's Lecture Series, and the Chao Center for Asian Studies.
Eric Yuan

About Eric Yuan

Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman · Zoom Video Communications

In a 2021 podcast appearance, Eric Yuan stated that Zoom offered free service to over 125,000 K-12 schools in 25 countries, attributing the decision to the company's value of "care." He predicted a hybrid future of two to three days in the office and two to three days at home, and expressed a vision for telemedicine where a doctor in Silicon Valley could serve a patient in Africa. Yuan also noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom's product architecture and ability to increase servers were key to its success. In a 2026 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Yuan said he does not believe a five-day workweek is necessary, as digital agents will allow more time for human interaction. He described using an AI digital twin to deliver prepared remarks on a quarterly earnings call, stating it saved him time. Yuan also said that hiring more than 6,000 employees within 18 months was a "huge mistake" that "completely broke" the company's culture.

Profile compiled from Eric Yuan's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →

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