Ziyi Michelle Liu is the founder of Stillwater — Stillwater Capital, a private investment company, and Stillwater Institute, an independent think tank.

Before Stillwater, she worked in venture capital in Sunnyvale, California, at one of Silicon Valley's largest early-stage investors (2024); in private equity in Hong Kong, at one of China's leading firms, through APEC (2025); as a policy fellow at a think tank in Washington, D.C. (2025); and in private equity in London, at a global firm that invests in software companies (2026).

Outside finance, she directed a documentary for a school for children with autism, which received the JEA National Excellent Award (2018); volunteered with the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia (2020); worked as a producer on the international channel of a Shanghai television station (2022); and served as cultural relations liaison at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland (2025). She speaks English and Mandarin, with basic French and Swiss German.