Overview

Gender

male

David Ben Kay is the Founder & President of Function(x). David graduated from Brown University in 1976 with a degree in Chinese and then did graduate work at UC Berkeley and the Stanford Center in Taipei. He received his MBA from Thunderbird – Garvin School of International Management (1981), and his JD from UCLA Law School (1986). David has been in Beijing 22 years.

During his 15 years as a corporate lawyer, David assisted over 250 companies set up businesses in China. Among David’s largest clients was Microsoft, for which he set up China operations in the early 90s and continued to serve as their outside counsel. In 2003, David joined Microsoft China as General Counsel, heading up the Law and Corporate Affairs Group where he managed all commercial and IPR work, as well as government relations and corporate social responsibility. In 2005, David took on the role of “Piracy Czar” (aka General Manager, Genuine Software Initiative). David was Microsoft’s spokesman and “evangelist” for innovation and IPR protection.