Linear Capital-led angel round portfolio company Tezign's founder and CEO Fan Ling was named to the *Harvard Business Review* 2023 China New Growth · Pioneer list.

On December 8, the New Growth Night and 2023 New Growth Annual List ceremony was held in Beijing, unveiling six major lists: "Pioneer Figures," "New Business Evolution," "Technology Leadership," "Agile Teams," "Digital Pioneers," and "ESG Innovation Practice." Tezign founder and CEO Ling Fan was named to the "2023 China New Growth · Pioneer Figures" list for his leading business practices, intellectual sharpness, and commercial influence!

The Pioneer Figures list selects across three dimensions — practical results, intellectual sharpness, and commercial influence — with the aim of identifying figures with contemporary business impact who have profoundly shaped commercial growth through operational innovation, creative invention, and more.

• Practical results: Evaluates growth contribution based on genuine innovation cases the candidate has led in their field, such as business operations, organizational management, or technological innovation;
• Intellectual sharpness: Assesses whether the candidate possesses forward-looking growth thinking aligned with the characteristics of the era, drawing on their public statements and published works;
• Commercial influence: Gauges business impact through external evaluations, visibility metrics, and other indicators.

Now in its sixth year, the New Growth Annual List has continued to evolve alongside its observation and documentation of how enterprises have grown and transformed. We have always sought to apply more rigorous methodology to distill growth experience from the China market, staying true to our founding mission of "grounding ourselves in China's best business practices to explore the real pathways and underlying logic of commercial growth." In 2024, we will keep searching for those intrepid innovators and patient, dedicated operators — working steadily together to pursue new growth.

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Ling Fan

Founder and CEO, Tezign

Professor and PhD Advisor, Tongji University; Director, Design and Artificial Intelligence Lab

Dr. Ling Fan is a design technology entrepreneur and a thought leader in generative AI. He founded Tezign in 2015, an AIGC content technology unicorn building enterprise-grade digital infrastructure for content experiences, serving over 200 leading enterprises and more than 100,000 creators worldwide. Fan is a professor and PhD advisor at Tongji University. He is a Young Global Leader and Cultural Leader of the World Economic Forum, a China Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a master's from Princeton University, and has previously taught at UC Berkeley and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He was the inaugural recipient of the Hong Kong M+ Museum / Design Trust Fellowship, received the 2018 China Design Top Ten Outstanding Youth Award (national level), and was named to Fortune China's 40 Under 40 in 2019.