Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds - Softcover

Fu, Ping

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670922013 ISBN 13: 9780670922017

Publisher: Portfolio Penguin, 2013

Synopsis

Bend, Not Break chronicles Ping Fu's journey from China's work camps to top CEO.

'Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times' -Ping Fu's Shanghai papa

Ping Fu is one of the few women running a tech company in the US. But her story begins long before.

Born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution, she was separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the vindictive teenagers of Mao's Red Guard. At twenty-five she escaped to the United States; her only resources were $80 in traveller's checks and three phrases of English: Thank you, hello, and help.

Yet Ping persevered. Within a year she had completed her English qualifications and started studying computer programming, rising to run the team behind Netscape. She then founded Geomagic, a company that has literally reshaped the world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing NASA spaceships.

Bend, Not Break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from Mao's China to technology start-ups. It is a tribute to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience.

Ping Fu is President and CEO of Geomagic, Inc. A survivor of China's Cultural Revolution, she was imprisoned for her reporting on female infanticide under China's one-child policy and deported to the USA. Fu is one of the few women CEOs in technology and was named the 2005 "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine. She is a member of President Obama's National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and an adjunct professor in computer science at Duke University.

About this title

About the Author

Ping Fu is VP and Chief Entrepreneur Officer at 3D Systems. She co-founded Geomagic, a 3D imaging software company, which was later acquired by 3D Systems. Previously, Ping was involved in the NCSA Mosaic software that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. In 2005, she was named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' by Inc. Magazine. Ping serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Commerce and on the board of directors at the Long Now Foundation.

From the Back Cover

'Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times'
Ping Fu's Shanghai papa

Ping Fu is one of only three minority women running Fortune 500 companies. But her story begins long before.

Born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution, she was separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the vindictive teenagers of Mao's Red Guard. At twenty-five she escaped to the United States; her only resources were $80 in traveller's checks and three phrases of English: Thank you, hello, and help.

Yet Ping persevered. Within a year she had completed her English qualifications and started studying computer programming, rising to run the team behind Netscape. She then founded Geomagic, a company that has literally reshaped the world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing NASA spaceships.

Bend, Not Break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from Mao's China to technology start-ups. It is a tribute to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience.

Jacket design: Dan Donohue Cover photograph © Will Stanton/Alamy

Edition details

• Publisher: Portfolio Penguin
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670922013
• ISBN 13: 9780670922017
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288