Raymond Chang

Raymond Chang from Taipei has a bachelor’s degree in geography from National Taiwan University (NTU). From 2009, he began to study at the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at NTU. He was enrolled in a semester program in architecture and town planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

In 2008, Raymond led a team of students on the South Pacific Research and Inquiring Team (SPIRIT) – the first joint project on international development between the department of geography at NTU and the Taiwanese government. The team conducted in-depth geographical surveys in two environmentally vulnerable states – Tuvalu and Kiribati – in the South Pacific. Over six months, the team produced more than 50 maps, and held several workshops at NTU to promote international development. Raymond successfully raised NT$2.5 million (around US$82,575) the International Cooperation and Development Funds (ICDF) for the project.

Raymond was also the co-founder of the NTU World Volunteer Society. From 2007 to 2008, he organized and led four volunteer programs for 80 Taiwanese students in India. The volunteers worked at the Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and taught mathematics to children in the slums of Mumbai. Raymond was responsible for all pre-trip arrangements for the club members and organized more than ten training classes for attendees to learn about international development, volunteer, and NGO activities. He also successfully raised a fund of NT$1 million (around US$32,832) for the project.

In 2010, Raymond founded the NTU thinking club with eight other NTU students. He was the leading TA of a creative workshop held by Stanford school’s alumni in Taipei. Since then, Raymond has been active in promoting a new innovative thinking called “design thinking”. Over the past year, Raymond has organized more than 15 design thinking workshops, written articles for United Evening News in Taiwan and organized new product development projects with public-listed companies such Acer, Asus, Quanta Computer and LCY chemical.

However, Raymond is also interested in the venture capital field, and was a business analyst intern at DKSH, focusing on Taiwan’s high-tech industry. Quoting a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, Raymond believes that “Taiwan is a launch-pad to invest in China” and that the merging of Israel’s leading innovation capabilities with Taiwan’s excellence in manufacturing could develop a new Blue Ocean Strategy over the global market.

In 2009, Raymond completed a 250km trek to the Everest Base Camp (5200m), in Nepal (2009).