Yijing Brentano is a senior level general management executive with a strong global leadership background in diverse finance and operations roles at Fortune 500 companies. Her primary strengths include: solid financial management expertise in Treasury, cash management, investor relations, contract negotiation, risk management, budgeting/forecasting, bank relationships and debt financing; a highly productive P&L focused operational background; a high value personal business network from Wall Street to global business leaders and corporate Board members to top tier industry groups; and significant global market perspective representing HARMAN and Sprint in several complex growth initiatives in Asia and Europe, and delivering keynote speeches at industry/management conferences on four continents.
Most recently Ms. Brentano served as the head of Strategy and the Investor Relations Officer for HARMAN International where she led the development of the company’s strategy and executed business agreements with key technology companies in China including Alibaba and Baidu. She also headed up HARMAN’s relationship with the investment community. Prior to HARMAN, Ms. Brentano spent seventeen years with ten leadership assignments across global business units and functional areas at Sprint Corporation. She was the Vice President, General Manager of Mobile Health, where she developed a company-wide strategy that sharpened Sprint’s focus on Mobile Health and grew market share. She also served as the Vice President, General Manager of International Wholesale, leading a global sales team generating over $400M in annual revenues and overseeing the commercial relationships with over 200 worldwide carriers; Investor Relations Officer; CFO for the Customer Equipment Business Unit; and Director of Staff Operations for the Corporate CFO. Additionally, Ms. Brentano cochaired Sprint’s Employee Benefits Committee that governed the company’s multibillion dollar pension and 401(K) plans. She also led Enterprise Risk Management planning for Sprint and was a member of the company’s Disclosure Committee. Prior to joining Sprint in 1997, she spent several years with Ernst and Young’s cash management consulting practice.
Remaining active serving on community boards throughout her career, Ms. Brentano is on the Board of Directors and the Treasurer of the 1,000 Dreams Fund, a non-profit organization working to open doors for young women. Previously, she served on the board of CommunityAmerica Credit Union ($2.3B in Assets), where she also chaired the Asset and Liability Committee. In addition, she was on the boards of Blue Valley Educational Foundation, the Asian Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, the Central Exchange as well as the Finance Committee of the United Way.
Ms. Brentano is a certified treasury professional and a member of the Association for Financial Professionals. She was the 2013 recipient of the CMO Asia Women Leadership Award; named among Ingram’s 40 Under Forty Class of 2010; recognized by Kansas City Business magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Kansas City; and was a winner of the 2000 Women of Color Technology Award – a national award recognizing successful minority women in technology.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with highest distinction from the University of Kansas, and a Master of Business Administration with high honors from the University of Chicago. She is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and the dialect of Shanghai.