Faculty Directory | Rui Yang

Professor Rui Yang is a science-trained commercial leader and marketing strategist who has launched, built, and scaled some of the most impactful brands and innovations across consumer healthcare, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. He brings a rare end-to-end perspective to marketing—spanning discovery science, intellectual property creation, portfolio strategy, market access, go-to-market strategy and execution, omnichannel activation, and general management.

Professor Yang began his career in R&D, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry and inventing patented technologies that were successfully commercialized across global consumer healthcare markets. He later transitioned into marketing and general management, where he has led brand creation, major product launches, and business turnarounds across multibillion-dollar healthcare categories. He led team and transformed underperforming businesses into market leaders, accelerated growth for blockbuster brands and unlocked new demand through data-driven, customer-centric strategy.

A defining theme of Professor Yang’s career is innovation with commercial consequence. He has led strategic planning and marketing execution for iconic brands and first-in-class therapies, translating complex science and evidence into simple, scalable strategies that drive adoption, access, and patient impact. His leadership spans P&L ownership, portfolio and M&A commercial diligence, and enterprise- wide transformation through digital and omnichannel models.

At NYU Stern, Professor Yang is the architect and instructor of Stern’s only MBA and EMBA course dedicated exclusively to healthcare marketing, Innovation and Marketing in Pharma and Consumer Healthcare. His teaching bridges the boardroom and the classroom, combining rigorous academic frameworks with real-world tradeoffs and live strategic tensions drawn directly from industry. He challenges students to think like general managers and business owners, balancing the healthcare- specific 4Ps: product, pricing, placement (access), and promotion (evidence- and insight-driven behavior change) in one of the world’s most complex and consequential industries. Through every class engagement, he inspires curiosity and creates connection—between knowledge, ideas and people.

Beyond the classroom, Professor Yang serves on multiple advisory boards across healthcare and business media, contributing to thought leadership on marketing, innovation, and leadership. He is deeply committed to inspiring the next generation of healthcare leaders to make the future of healthcare simpler, more accessible, and more customer-centric for all.