Living between countries taught me to question systems.

I was born in Taiwan and grew up between Taiwan and the United States before spending time studying and working across South Korea, South Africa, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Living between countries made it difficult to take any one system for granted. The same questions about opportunity, trust, health, and economic life left me with a lasting curiosity about how institutions shape human lives.

My academic path began in computational biology. I was initially drawn to science because of its ability to improve lives at scale, but over time I became increasingly interested in a different question: what determines whether those benefits actually reach people? That question led me toward economics, healthcare, and the study of institutions. At Stanford, I study computational biology and economics and conduct research through the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. My work focuses on healthcare markets, pharmaceutical procurement, and the ways incentives, financing, and contract enforcement shape real-world outcomes.

That interest eventually drew me toward companies. I became increasingly interested in building systems myself. Today, I am the founder and CEO of Niora Systems, a company working on procurement and financing systems for healthcare institutions. I am currently based in Accra, Ghana, where I work with hospitals, suppliers, and healthcare leaders on the practical challenges of building more reliable systems.

Alongside building and research, I write about institutions, development, and the lessons that emerge from direct engagement with the world. I believe ideas should ultimately be judged by their ability to survive contact with reality. Whether through travel, research, or building organizations, I am driven by a desire to understand how the world actually works rather than through theory alone. Much of my writing returns to a similar theme: people have a responsibility to engage with the world around them — to take ownership of what they can, to spend less time watching from the sidelines, and to do something real in this world.