By Erin Reid P’01,’05

Murong Yang ’08 arrived in Lakeville as an incredibly shy 14-year-old who was learning English. At Hotchkiss, music gave her a way to express herself and find her voice. Today, she is partner and head of global capital markets at Future Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in technology investments.

“Gisele Witkowski was my piano teacher and holds a very special place in my Hotchkiss experience,” she said. “I was still finding my footing in English, and music became the one place where I didn’t have to worry about finding the right words. Gisele understood that and used music to gently coax me out of my shell. Her studio became a place of comfort and peace for me.”

Almost 20 years after leaving Lakeville, she has not forgotten Hotchkiss and its music program. Together with her husband, Corey Hamabata, she worked with Fabio Witkowski (the Joanne Eastman Sohrweide Chair, head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department, director of music, and instructor in piano) and Gisele Witkowski (instructor in piano) to build and fund the inaugural Hotchkiss International Piano Competition. The event was held in May 2026 and brought together exceptional young pianists from around the world to perform in Katherine M. Elfers Hall in the Esther Eastman Music Center.

“I wanted young people whose gift is music to have a stage where excellence in the arts is celebrated with the same excitement we give excellence in athletics. Sometimes a stage is all a quiet kid needs to discover her voice,” Yang said.

Yang was introduced to Hotchkiss by a family friend from Hong Kong. “There were very few students coming from mainland China then,” she recalls. “Being dropped into such an unfamiliar world at 14 built a tremendous amount of resilience. I learned early that being uncomfortable isn’t necessarily a bad thing — it’s often where growth happens.”

She has fond memories of Tim Acker’s sense of humor. Acker was her advisor and Spanish teacher. “Sarcasm is one of the hardest things to learn in a second language! Only now, when I catch myself teasing my own kids, do I realize how much of my sarcastic sense of humor probably came from him.” Yang was also beholden to the late Julia Trethaway P’06,’09. “She was my class dean and had this wonderful ability to notice effort, especially the quiet kind. I learned from her that hard work does get noticed. That’s such a hopeful lesson, and I’ll always be grateful to her for it.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Yale, she matriculated at Tsinghua University for an MBA. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have studied at two extraordinary institutions. Yale and Tsinghua gave me very different ways of looking at the world. Learning to move between cultures and perspectives has probably been as important to my career as anything I learned in a classroom.”

Yang received Tsinghua University’s Award for Leadership, and she was recognized as one of the World Economic Forum’s “30 Under 30.”

Finance is in her blood. In fact, her name means “to appreciate finance.” “My family was involved in the early development of mainland China’s modern financial system,” she said. Yang co-founded and operated a 200-person business in China and worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse and investments at JLL before deciding to focus on venture capital. “I realized I could be very good at spotting exceptional founders, believing in them when what they're attempting still seems impossible, and bringing them the capital and resources to build. Today, I get to channel global capital to entrepreneurs building some of the world’s best robotic hands, AI that can reason and create, flying vehicles, brain-computer interfaces, and machines that automate scientific discovery. I basically get to spend my days looking at things that sound impossible and asking, ‘What if this actually works?’”

Yang’s favorite part of her job is “living in science fiction. I get to help turn something that sounds impossible into something real. There aren’t many jobs where the future regularly walks into your conference room.”

She acknowledges the challenges in her field regarding venture capital. “The speed of technology can be difficult, and the obvious example right now is artificial intelligence. AI is changing not just individual companies but entire industries, and something you thought you understood two weeks ago can suddenly be obsolete. In venture capital, you have to stay relentlessly curious and be comfortable changing your mind.”

Yang serves on the board of the Hongru Financial Education Foundation. “Mr. Liu Hongru, a mentor to my father and family, was one of the architects of the early financial sector of modern China,” she explains. “I grew up around people who understood finance almost as a second language, which made me realize later what a privilege that was. Financial literacy gives people agency — the ability to understand money, make informed decisions, and take greater control of their own futures.”

Her Hotchkiss connections are strong and growing. “My younger brother, Jerry Yang ’16, followed me to Hotchkiss, and then married his Hotchkiss classmate, Amelia Cao ’16. Now Amelia’s younger brother, Zachary, is at Hotchkiss, and my two little boys already have their Hotchkiss hoodies. We’re becoming a bit of a Hotchkiss family.”

Looking back on her time in Lakeville, Yang says, “Hotchkiss taught me discipline and resilience. I learned that you can be uncomfortable, work through it, and eventually find your footing. I first learned that at 14, arriving from China and trying to find my place. I’ve been doing some version of it ever since.”