Rustic Canyon

Shoa-Kai Liu joined the Rustic Canyon team with 25 years of diverse technical and management experience in telecommunication networks and services, data and optical networking, and semiconductors. Most recently, Shoa-Kai served as the Director of Network Technology Development at MCI, where he and his team evaluated emerging telecommunication technology. After he joined MCI in 1982, he spent 22 years focused on networking technology development and deployment for networks that today provide the backbone of the Internet. He played a central role in MCI's strategic network planning, large system integration, services and products rollout on a global scale. Shoa-Kai is also a proven entrepreneur. From 1998 to 1999, he was the co-founder and Vice President of Market Development at Avanex, where he helped the company grew into one of the largest optical component suppliers worldwide. Prior to MCI, his experiences also included working in various government projects such as the OTH Radar System, the SDI, the NASA Space Telescope ground data network system and the USAF Consolidated Space Operation Center Communication System Modernization, while he worked at SAI, Inc., CSC and the Aerospace Corporation.

Since he joined Rustic Canyon team, Shoa-Kai has played a vital role to facilitate and support RCP's portfolio companies to engage their product launch into AsiaPac markets as well as to establish manufactures in China. With his understanding of Chinese culture and well connected to the Chinese carriers, major ISP players, telecommunication system providers and consumer electronic manufacturers, Shoa-Kai is the RCP subject matter of expert in doing business in great China.

Shoa-Kai graduated from Northern Illinois University with an M.S.C.S., earned an M.S.E.E., majored in Communication at George Washington University, and earned an M.B.A. with an International Management track from the University of Dallas. He served as the MCI Fellow of the Technology Leadership Council from 1993 to 1995 and has chaired various industry conference committees and been a frequent speaker at OFC, Supercom, WOCC, SATEC, APOC, and METS conferences. Shoa-Kai is active with the Chinese Institute of Engineer Association and Photonic Society of Chinese-Americans. He has been awarded four patents.