December Fellows Luncheon with Alvin W. Graylin

*This event is only open to our 2025-2026 Fellows 

The World Affairs Council Fellows Program offers a unique professional development opportunity to a small group of greater Seattle's business and community leaders. The Fellows convene monthly for breakfast discussions with carefully selected high-caliber international experts who offer unparalleled insight into current global issues, in addition to meeting throughout the year for additional Council events and dedicated networking opportunities.

About Our Speaker

Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) is a globally recognized tech leader, author, investor, and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of innovation across AI, XR, cybersecurity, and semiconductors. He currently serves as Chairman of the Virtual World Society, Vice-Chair of the Industry of VR Alliance, and is a Digital Fellow at Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab (within HAI). Previously, he was Global VP and China President at HTC, where he led the company’s XR business for nearly a decade.

Graylin is the author of Our Next Reality (Hachette Books), which explores how the convergence of AI and XR will transform the future of society. He has founded four venture-backed startups in conversational AI search, mobile social, mobile AR, and AI-driven big data analytics, spanning both the U.S. and China markets. As an active investor, he has backed over 100 startups and helped launch HTC’s ViveX Global VR accelerator and SOSV’s mobile internet incubator. 

His career includes exec roles at Intel, IBM, Trend Micro, and WatchGuard. A sought-after global keynote speaker, Graylin is frequently featured in international media as a thought leader on AI, immersive computing, technology policy, entrepreneurship, and the Chinese tech landscape. 

Graylin holds an M.S. in Computer Science specializing in AI from MIT, an M.S. in Business from MIT’s Sloan School of Management with emphasis on entrepreneurship and operations, and graduated top of his class with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, focusing on VR, AI, and CPU architecture. Fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, Graylin’s bicultural background, Eurasian heritage and cross-border leadership experience uniquely position him at the intersection of technology, business, and global impact.