Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, the founder of Venture for America (VFA), and a U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. He worked in startups and early-stage growth companies as a founder or executive from 2000 to 2009. After he founded VFA, the Obama administration selected him in 2012 as a "Champion of Change" and in 2015 as a "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship". One of the main elements of Yang's bid for the 2020 presidential nomination, which he officially launched in November 2017, is a proposal for Universal Basic Income (UBI), known as the Freedom Dividend, for every American adult aged 18-64, in response to the rapid development of automation that is leading to workforce challenges. 2Early life and education Yang was born in Schenectady, New York, to immigrant parents from Taiwan. His parents met while they were both in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. His father graduated with a Ph.D. in physics and worked in the research labs of IBM and General Electric, generating over 69 patents in his career. His mother graduated with a master's degree in statistics and later became an artist. Yang attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire. He graduated from Exeter in 1992 and went on to attend Brown University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in economic