Podcast Interview with Keith Lau, Top International Development Authority and Entrepreneur

This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Keith Lau, Top International Development Authority and Entrepreneur, Founder Parametric Ventures Inc.

Keith provides to this interview a rich background in development, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, invention, and international markets. Take a moment to look at his background and then listen to the interview. Moreover scan the topic index to find the areas that resonate with you!

Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP

View Interview Time Index and Topics

Listen to the Interview (MP3)

About Keith Lau

Keith LauA Microsoft veteran of over 10 years, Keith Lau spent most of his career based at the Redmond Corporate headquarters, where he had taken up senior roles in Development and Program Management. Focused primarily on communications, content delivery and scalable, high-availability servers, Mr. Lau had played leadership and management roles in marquis Microsoft products such as Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as invented several patented technologies for the company. In 2001, he joined the elite Xbox 1.0 launch team, where he led the design and development of the end-to-end content delivery system. For the next generation Xbox 360, Mr. Lau successfully realized his vision of using automated processes to create developer interfaces for Xbox Live, which significantly reduced development cycles, and minimized issues originating from human error.

With a penchant for creative and start-up efforts, Mr. Lau became part of a 3-person incubation team tasked to help Microsoft start a new R&D center for the Windows Server Division in Shanghai, China. He helped interview a total of over 500 junior and senior candidates, and actively participated in recruiting the core team. Mr. Lau's main charter was to consolidate the division's China outsourcing efforts, and create a strategic roadmap for China outsourcing that can be replicated across the company. Based in Shanghai, Mr. Lau made frequent trips to Beijing, where he worked with VPs and C-level executives of top outsourcing companies such as Chinasoft; and to Redmond, where he collaborated with corporate groups and engaged in business development to bring more projects to China. By the time he left Microsoft, he had successfully built a stable China outsourcing practice with over a dozen clients, which employed over 100 outsourcing staff in Shanghai from a handful of top vendors.

In late 2006, Mr. Lau relocated back to North America and founded Parametric Ventures, Inc. to pursue creative entrepreneurship. He developed tippingmonkey.com out of his passion for options trading and the idea that collective intelligence can improve a group's overall probability of success. Tipping Monkey is a website that fuses investing, education and collective intelligence, and primarily targets high school seniors, college students, and recent college grads.

Mr. Lau holds an Honors Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computer Engineering and a Minor in Business Management from the University of Waterloo.