Chenny Zhang

Chenny Zhang is a program manager at In-Q-Tel, the strategic investor for U.S. national security agencies. Chenny works with startups to enhance their products for particular government use cases. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Chenny served as the China portfolio lead at the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Board (DIB), an advisory committee charged with catalyzing innovation across the Department of Defense and providing recommendations to its senior leaders. She was responsible for research, analysis, coordination, and policy development on Chinese economic influence in the U.S. national security innovation base while also supporting the DIB’s AI principles project and other initiatives.

Before the DIB, Chenny split time between Beijing and Silicon Valley at a software startup she co-founded. She was responsible for the product development and technical support teams, as well as raising the company’s seed round of financing. Prior to that, Chenny was a program manager at Cisco Systems. In total, Chenny has lived in China for seven years.

Chenny holds an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with a concentration in International Economics, Strategic Studies, and China Studies, and a BA from Boston College.