Aimei Helen Yang, M.B.A.
Aimei Helen Yang, M.B.A. is the Senior Vice President at Spacetec Investment/Huamei PR Consulting and the former Chief Advisor at the Research Institute for Environmental Innovation, Tsinghua. She is a strategic communications leader at the intersection of artificial intelligence and the new space economy, with over 30 years of experience advising Global 500 companies on positioning, capital narratives, and stakeholder alignment.
Based in Shanghai, she advises organizations and founders on designing trust, perception, and understanding at scale in the AI era through strategic communications, her Trust-Design program, and Concept-Led imagination frameworks.
Since 2022, in her current role she has focused on AI aesthetics, space economy strategy, and the human dimensions of long-term space development. In June 2026, she was a featured speaker at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference (ISDC 2026) in McLean, Virginia, contributing to the conference’s AI & Space track. Read her reflections on participating in ISDC.
Aimei is a graduate of MIT Professional Education’s New Space Economy program, which she completed between December 2024 and March 2025, and she serves as a mentor to startup founders at Tsinghua TusStar and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Aimei’s advisory practice focuses on strategic situations where capital, reputation, and stakeholder alignment determine valuation, market entry, and long-term legitimacy. She supports boards, founders, and leaders with positioning, capital strategy, and stakeholder strategy across government, investor, and public sectors, and she advises on IPO readiness, reputation risk, and critical transitions in emerging markets.
As a researcher, she focuses on the human, commercial, and cultural dimensions of long-term space development, specializing in translating complex technological systems into durable public trust across cultures. Her recent work examines how AI shapes perception and generational commitment during the pre-settlement phase of space expansion, positioning AI as a collaborative engine supporting public engagement alongside physical infrastructure.
Aimei’s work on AI, imagination, and the post-AI era has drawn international attention. In February 2026, she released ART BITE, introducing the framework of “Imagination Infrastructure” — a thesis that frames perception itself as a defining frontier for the coming decade of human–machine coexistence. Read AI Cannot Automate Meaning: AIMEI YANG Introduces ’Imagination Infrastructure’ with the Release of ART BITE.
In January 2026, her work was featured in AI Is Reshaping Human Imagination: Award-Winning Author Aimei Yang Reframes Food as a Human-Scale Interface. Watch her short film Before Humans Settle Space, We First Imagine It: Space-Art Cuisine on her Next Bite channel.
Aimei is the author of Brand for Space: Shaping Future Marketing in Space Economy, the first marketing book specifically tailored for the Space Era, drawing on insights from our John Spencer, founder of the Space Tourism Society, and Nebula Award-winning sci-fi author Ai Jiang. Her book Next Bite: Exploring Space-Art Creativity and her earlier Futuristic Flavors AI Edition were each named “Best in the World” in the Food & AI category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in consecutive years (2024–2025), with Futuristic Flavors AI Edition also receiving the Best of the Best – AI (1995–2025) distinction.
Earlier publications include Stellar Plates: Exploring A Culinary Journey through Space-Art Fusion, which features 100 creative designs blending diverse culinary traditions with cutting-edge technology and imaginative artistry and the science-fiction collection Unveiling Eden: Is Mars Our Only Hope for Home, which interrogates what would happen if “Eden” turned out not to be an empty planet awaiting human settlement but a thriving world with its own intelligence.
Aimei also authored Unearthing The Perfect World: 寻找理想国, a story collection that examines value differences and behavioral conflicts between humans and alien civilizations through narratives such as Triple Impact, Alien Takeover, The Awakening of Sagittarius, and Don’t Mess with the Octopus; and her foundational PR work New Thinking of Crisis Management, published by China Guangming Daily Publication in April 2016, which draws on more than 25 years of crisis management practice in China across quality and safety issues, fraud, business ethics, regulatory compliance, financial issues, labor disputes, environmental issues, IPR, information security, and CEO reputation.
Aimei’s communications career spans more than three decades across consumer goods, hospitality, retail, and consulting. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Vice President at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Shanghai, where she led the Consumer, Retail and Lifestyle Practice and advised clients across retail, hi-tech, financial services, manufacturing, and travel and hospitality.
From January 2021 to October 2022, she served as General Manager of Huamei PR Consulting, and from September 2019 to March 2021 she was Vice President & Advisor at the Chinese tea brand HEYTEA, where she led marketing strategy. Between 2018 and 2023, she was Chief Advisor to the Research Institute for Environmental Innovation at Tsinghua University in Shanghai, and between 2012 and 2016 she sat on the Board of Directors of an Industrial Fund at Tsinghua TusHoldings, executing investment transactions while managing reputation risk.
Earlier in her career, Aimei built a track record in government relations and corporate affairs at major multinationals operating in China. From 2009 to 2012, she was Head of External Affairs & CSR and Government Relations Consultant at Metro Cash and Carry, responsible for the company’s external relations across 30 provinces and cities. From 2006 to 2009, she was Director of Government Relations, Greater China at InterContinental Hotels Group. She was Director of Public Relations & Government Relations at Trane from 2004 to 2006, Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Carrefour from 2001 to 2003, and Senior Public Relations Manager at Walmart in Shenzhen from 1996 to 2001.
Across these roles she contributed to major international initiatives in China, including the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo, and Belt and Road–related programs, and she has worked extensively on legislative lobbying, IPO PR, crisis communications, and reputation management.
Aimei earned her M.B.A. in International Marketing from NEOMA Business School between 2003 and 2005, where she was active on the debate team, and her M.B.A. in Commercial Law from Dublin City University between 2004 and 2005, where she sang in the chorus. She holds an MIT Professional Education credential in New Space Economy: Technologies, Products, Services, and Business Models, issued in March 2025, alongside earlier professional certifications including Brand Management from Hill+Knowlton Stratégies (2017).
Aimei has been a member of the National Space Society since November 2024 and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) since December 2023. Her long-running volunteer commitments include serving as a First-Aid Member of the China Red Cross between 1996 and 2004, and contributing to project partnerships with the China Youth Development Foundation between 1996 and 2003.
She is a native Chinese speaker, with professional working proficiency in Cantonese, and her interests span culinary art (she has completed coursework with the ICIF Culinary School in Italian cuisine), debate, choral music, and the cultural and educational dimensions of space development.
Visit her LinkedIn profile and her ISDC 2026 speaker page. Follow her work on the Next Bite YouTube channel. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and X.