I learned to ask about the work around the product

My first professional explanations were about instruments, not brands. After completing an electrical-engineering degree at Jingwen Academy in June 1995, I joined Yunqiao Instruments as an application engineer. Customers wanted to know what a device would do in their setting, and an answer that worked in a demonstration could become much less useful when someone described the conditions on a factory floor. I learned to ask about the work around the equipment before deciding which feature deserved the most attention.

From July 1995 to June 1999 I worked in an eight-person application group, reporting to its manager. That application appointment carried neither staff supervision nor spending authority. The privately held Suzhou instrumentation manufacturer employed 380 people and reported CNY90 million annual revenue by the end of that period. I prepared demonstrations, documented questions and brought unresolved application issues to colleagues with the relevant technical responsibility. I did not make engineering assurances merely because I was the person speaking to the customer.

In July 1999 I moved to the newly established Shenqiao Systems. Its industrial software work interested me because the proposed change reached beyond a device into how people planned and coordinated work. As solution consulting manager, I helped commercial teams explain the software in relation to an operating setting. By June 2005 I led six employees through two direct reports, with CNY1.8 million annual authority for demonstrations and workshops. I reported to the commercial director; delivery budgets and contractual commitments belonged elsewhere.

Shenqiao had reached 410 employees and CNY260 million annual revenue by June 2005. I saw buying groups reach very different conclusions after watching the same demonstration. An operations colleague might see a useful scheduling method while a technology reviewer remained concerned about the surrounding systems and a finance sponsor questioned the proposed basis for benefit. Repeating the demonstration more confidently did not resolve those differences. I became interested in the material that would help people continue the discussion after we had left the room.

The product marketing appointment in July 2005 allowed me to work on that problem across more than one opportunity. By June 2012 I led fifteen employees through three direct reports and held CNY9.5 million annual marketing authority, reporting to the commercial director. The company then employed 780 people and reported CNY640 million annual revenue. I developed explanations for different readers, worked with technical colleagues on what could be stated publicly and learned that making an account shorter could sometimes remove the qualification that made it useful.

In July 2012 I became market development director, reporting to the chief executive. My remit widened to the choice of markets and the evidence used to explain our relevance within them. By June 2019 the team comprised twenty-eight employees through four direct reports, with CNY32 million annual marketing authority. Shenqiao employed 1,200 people and reported CNY1.45 billion annual revenue. I worked across China and Southeast Asian markets, separating a market hypothesis from a sales forecast and asking what local customers would need to examine before the proposition could be credible.

I became CMO in July 2019. Today I report to Rongxi Zhen and lead forty-six employees through five direct reports, with fourteen agency personnel counted separately. My 2026 marketing authority is CNY72 million. The company's CNY2.6 billion 2025 revenue and 1,800 employees describe its scale, not my personal result. Peiyu Qiao leads sales; product, implementation and contractual decisions retain their own owners. Marketing contributes by making the proposition understandable, the evidence accessible and the limits of an account visible before they become a customer's disappointed expectation.

The decisions in this profile show that contribution in practice. We studied stalled buying discussions before recommending more general exposure. We made selected technical reading public even though it removed a familiar source of form submissions. We changed a value workbook so that incomplete customer assumptions remained incomplete, rather than supply a universal answer for the convenience of a presentation. These choices do not establish that marketing caused subsequent revenue. They show how I use its authority to improve the quality of a commercial conversation.

I have presented marketing and market-development matters to the board in my executive capacity since July 2019, but I hold no directorships. That distinction matters as I consider a first non-executive contribution. I would bring experience of how an enterprise understands its customers and represents its capabilities, while learning the wider responsibilities of the particular board. Twenty proposed annual days would need to fit a real calendar, employer consent and a review of relationships. I would not seek an appointment primarily to open sales conversations for Shenqiao.