{"id":146197,"date":"2019-02-18T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=146197"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:24:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T15:24:40","slug":"alumnus-among-forbes-game-industry-30-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/02\/alumnus-among-forbes-game-industry-30-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Among Forbes’ Game Industry \u201830 Under 30\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under any circumstances, alumnus Jimmy Tang\u2019s recognition by Forbes<\/em> as one of the elite \u2018Thirty Under 30<\/a>\u2019 leaders in the game industry would be remarkable.<\/p>\n

But as the shy, first-born child of refugee parents, who grew up in Hartford speaking English as a second language, his meteoric success is even more impressive.<\/p>\n

Now 29, Tang is director of finance at Twitch, a livestreaming video platform owned by Amazon. It is the leading livestreaming video game service in the U.S., with more than 15 million daily active users, predominantly men ages 18 to 34.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty interested in video games, but over time, I have played less because of work and other priorities,\u201d said Tang, speaking from his office at the company headquarters in San Francisco. \u201cWhen I came here, I was a big user of the platform, and I still am. I\u2019m passionate about the product.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people who work here are Twitch users,\u201d he adds, \u201cand it fosters a culture of always wanting to do better for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tang\u2019s responsibilities include supporting the sales business, and assisting in launching new features and products for Twitch, which Amazon bought five years ago for $970 million. Twitch allows broadcasters to livestream themselves as they play popular games including \u201cFortnite,\u201d \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d \u201cDOTA,\u201d \u201cPUBG,\u201d and many more.<\/p>\n

Growing Up in Hartford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tang was born in the United States to parents who were Chinese refugees. Because they were still learning English, as he grew up he would translate the mail, help them with the taxes, and assist his younger sister with school work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney was definitely a concern,\u201d he says. His family lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment, and he shared a room with his sister until she was 8 and he was 15, and they could move to a larger apartment.<\/p>\n

Despite life\u2019s challenges, his parents encouraged him to pursue his interests, whether sports, video games, robotics, or simply hanging out with friends.<\/p>\n

From the early days, Tang was an insatiable learner.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, I was very curious about learning in general,\u201d he says. \u201cI was very interested in history in high school. I took multiple AP history courses, and wanted to continue my education. I found the internal motivation because it was just interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time, Hartford Public High School was very diverse, and included students who were White, Latino, African-American, and Jamaican. \u201cI hung out with people of various races and backgrounds,\u201d Tang says. \u201cIt allowed me to become my own person. I didn\u2019t feel I needed to fit in with a particular group, because we were such a mix of cultures and personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the folks he went to school with at Hartford Public High were as motivated as he was. They took classes together and developed a core group of friends.<\/p>\n

His parents [Huyen and Jin] did not go to college, nor even finish high school. In China, education ended for women after 8th grade, Tang says. So they did not feel strongly about him going to college. \u201cI don\u2019t think they were aware of the benefits,\u201d he says, \u201cit just wasn\u2019t on their radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he had excellent guidance counselors who encouraged him and his friends to pursue a college degree. \u201cMy parents were supportive,\u201d he says, \u201cbut they wouldn\u2019t have been disappointed if I went right to work after high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

At UConn, \u2018I Was Happy From Day One\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tang grew up a stone\u2019s throw from Trinity College, and his mother works there today in food services. But through grants and scholarships offered to Hartford\u2019s top students, Tang was able to attend UConn at no cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn was a top choice for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI live in San Francisco now, but at the time I was a big \u2018home body.\u2019 When I knew I was going to UConn, I was happy from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He completed his bachelor\u2019s degree in finance in 2011.<\/p>\n

At first, he planned to major in engineering, but soon switched to the School of Business, where he opted for a major in finance. \u201cIn finance, the professors really dove deep into the fundamentals, but they always touched on other things that were interesting. I learned so much at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the most beneficial course he took was business writing. \u201cAmazon has a culture of \u2018documentation, not presentation\u2019,\u201d he notes. \u201cAt UConn I learned to write in a very factual, scientific way, and I learned how to properly frame a paper. That has helped me tremendously in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of academics, Tang says, living in UConn\u2019s Global Learning House and being active with the Asian-American Cultural Center were among the highlights of his UConn experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that was helpful at UConn was participating in extracurricular activities. I was introverted going into college,\u201d he says. \u201cNow I have no problem approaching people, talking to them, and asking them questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Tang also spent a semester in Singapore. \u201cIt opened my eyes to travel,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been back to Singapore two more times, and traveled many other places because of that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tang not only led the way to higher education for himself, but also for his sister and cousins, a number of whom are UConn Huskies.<\/p>\n

His younger sister, Jenny Tang \u201918, graduated from UConn last spring, and is a data engineer at Traveler\u2019s, joining a family Husky network of engineers and nurses. \u201cWe\u2019re all big fans of the University,\u201d Tang says.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Tang accepted a job with an insurance company in Boston, working in strategy and finance. But then, while visiting friends on the West Coast, he networked and found an opportunity at Twitch.<\/p>\n

Award Came as a Surprise<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018Thirty Under 30\u2019 award was unexpected. Tang knew that he was nominated, but didn\u2019t give much thought to actually winning.<\/p>\n

He didn’t even know the results would be released that day. He was in a meeting, when he began\u00a0receiving messages of congratulations.<\/p>\n

Tang says his parents were particularly proud. “Forbes<\/em> is very big in China,” he says, “but it is called by another name. When I first told them, they didn\u2019t fully grasp [the significance], but when I clarified, they were like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a real publication!\u2019” he says, smiling.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Twitch is banned in his parents\u2019 native country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-nine year-old Jimmy Tang ’11 (BUS), finance specialist at Amazon’s livestreaming video platform Twitch, has been identified as one of an elite group of industry leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":146212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1862,92],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-146197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-busn","category-uconn-hartford"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-30 06:40:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146197"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146234,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146197\/revisions\/146234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/146212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146197"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=146197"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=146197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}