BEIJING & PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GSR Ventures today announced that Kevin Fong was honored at this year’s gala dinner as the “2010 Investor of the Year” by HYSTA (Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association), a leading industry organization fostering closer U.S.-China business relationships. HYSTA presented its prestigious award at its annual conference highlighting the thriving high technology industry and strategic investments in China. This year’s conference theme was “Drivers for Growth and Innovation,” and featured presentations on Clean-Tech, China Leading the Next Wave of Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Demystifying Science Parks in China, and VC Investments.

"Kevin Fong was honored as the first recipient of HYSTA’s Investor’s award for his contributions to the industry as an entrepreneur and also an investment professional promoting the entrepreneurial spirit in U.S.-China collaboration,” said Dr. Shoucheng Zhang, President of HYSTA and Professor of Physics, Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. “Kevin has provided unrelenting support to entrepreneurs as a mentor and an investor – his recent and very successful $2.35B exit of 3Par is one of the many examples of his investment leadership and mastery in managing calculated risk. Kevin understands and takes the time to nurture the spirit of an entrepreneur, to understand what is possible, to stand by the entrepreneur, and he serves as a role model for the HYSTA community.”

“HYSTA plays a key role in fostering China-U.S. relations through its ongoing support of entrepreneurs and I am extremely honored to receive this award for 'Investor of the Year,'” said Kevin Fong, Special Advisor to GSR Ventures. “The investment opportunities in China today are endless, but finding the right entrepreneurs, and supporting them with the guidance and infrastructure to minimize their risk and maximize their potential toward a successful outcome can be like walking through a mine field. I look forward to continued collaboration with HYSTA and the many entrepreneurs who rely on their leadership.”

Kevin Fong is a special advisor to GSR Ventures, which he helped start in 2004 to focus on investments in China. He sits on the board or is responsible for GSR investments in Liquidity, Clean Focus, and Playdom and has a 23-year track record of supporting entrepreneurs in early stage companies to build industry leaders. Prior to GSR Kevin was at Mayfield Fund for 20 years as a Managing Partner where he contributed to the creation of companies with an enterprise value of $13.4B and returned over $1.2B in returns to limited partners in the past 23 years from investments which include: Alantec, Legato Systems, Citrix, Crescendo (now Cisco Catalyst) Redback Networks, Velocity 11. His recent exit from 3Par returned over $250M to LPs.

While at Mayfield Fund he focused on investments in the communications, wireless, semiconductor, software, and consumer media sectors. He was an operating executive at David Systems, Hewlett Packard and Nortel/Bell Northern Research and earned an M.B.A. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in electrical engineering from U.C. Berkeley.

About HYSTA

HYSTA (Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association) is a leading Chinese professional association in US. Founded in 1999 by a group of successful Chinese entrepreneurs, HYSTA aims at nurturing entrepreneurship and career development among Chinese technology and business professionals and facilitates networking and the exchange of business ideas between Silicon Valley and China.

About GSR Ventures

GSR Ventures is a venture capital fund focused primarily on investments in early and growth stage technology companies with substantial operations in China. The GSR team brings together a unique combination of strong operating experience in China, extensive international investment experience, and deep networks in China.GSR has US$700 million under management and has offices in China and the Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit www.gsrventures.com