Tao Zhang is a co-founder of Dao Foods International, Inc., a cross-border impact venture established to invest in eco-friendly alternative protein ventures in China. Dao Foods was one of 15 startups disrupting the global meat industry selected by The Grocer in 2018, and it won the Special Award from the International Climate Finance Accelerator (ICFA) Luxembourg in 2019. 

Tao is also the founder and managing director of Dao Ventures, a cross-border impact investment, advisory, and accelerator group with co-headquartered offices in China and the US. 

Before this, he was the Global COO of New Ventures, the environmental entrepreneurship center at the World Resources Institute. In this role, Tao successfully led New Ventures in Washington, D.C., and its local centers (Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Mexico) to double investments into New Ventures companies to nearly $400 million in two years. Before entering the impact investing space, Tao had accumulated extensive investment and operational experiences in the telecom and high-tech sector, where he served as assistant president for Asia-Pac at an S&P 500 company and oversaw strategic venture investments in Asia at U.S. leading carrier Verizon.