Yao King is Founder and Chief Investment Officer of YKAM, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in New York City. He was most recently Global Head of Program Trading, Americas Head of PT, ETFs, and CRB Trading, and Managing Director at Deutsche Bank where he oversaw one of the firm’s largest businesses and a multi-billion dollar global book of risk. Previously, he spent time in derivatives trading and as Head of North America Risk Program Trading, where he revolutionized the risk-taking capabilities and generated record profits for his businesses. Before his tenure at Deutsche Bank, he was Head of ETF Trading at Citadel Securities.

Yao’s philanthropic interests extend from supporting the arts to the underprivileged to social issues and representation. Most recently, he built and led the #GoldOpen movement on the East Coast, a venture of Gold House that supports diversity in media both in front of and behind the camera; in the last year, alone, #GoldOpen has brought an audience of tens of thousands ranging from underprivileged students to working professionals to seniors into their local theaters to see their stories told while supporting critical and diverse films from their communities like The Farewell, Parasite, and Just Mercy.

Yao studied Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, the highest award presented by the Institute in recognition of excellent achievements in citizenship and devotion to the welfare of the MIT community, before taking a trading role at Morgan Stanley. He also attended the French Culinary Institute, wrote the restaurant review for his school paper, and in his spare time, enjoys cooking and learning about food history and culinary technique.