AI Native / Coaching / Organization / Japan
Shen Laoban Sean | Executive coach / Organization architect / Community long-termist
I help founders and core teams connect strategy, culture, and technology, then build organizations that can keep working over time. An organization does not grow from slogans. It needs foundations, structure, shared language, operating flow, and a culture people can actually use.
Start with a real question for AI Shen Laoban
Works / Proof
Communities, organizations, courses, books, and fieldwork I have helped build or learn from. They all point to the same work: helping people form shared goals, shared language, and shared ways of collaboration.
2014 / 2016 / 2020
In 2014, Sean co-authored an Architectural Journal study of functional integration at Vanke Liangzhu Cultural Village. He later published Into Dream Town and Cultural Field: From Vanke to Alibaba, each selling more than 15,000 copies.
2015
Former assistant to the ARF president and member of the promotion committee, supporting the growth of grassroots rowing clubs in China. Competed in more than 50 races and led 5 international events.
2018
Founder and second-term board chair, practicing public participation, trust building, and long-term relationships in a real community, with more than 3,000 hours of community participation.
2019
As a team member, admissions interviewer, and new campus director, I worked on candidate interviews, philanthropic giving, and development of the new campus. At the center is Hupan University founder Jack Ma, then executive chairman of Alibaba Group.
2020
MBA industry mentor, including courses such as “Product Thinking in the AI Era,” with more than 350 class hours taught.
Recent years
ICF coach certification, LCP leadership certification, more than 2,000 hours of executive coaching practice, and Academician status with the UK’s Academy of Urbanism (AoU).
2023
Each year, Alibaba Group selects 2 alumni as Public-Interest Stars from 20 projects. A confirmation from the public-interest field, and a reminder of what long-termism asks of a person.
2025
As a coaching partner, I accompany AI Native founders as they build organizational capability in rapid change. A total of 64 companies have joined the program.
Now
In Japan, I observe Chinese AI companies going global and record emerging cultural, organizational, and commercial markets.
International Publication / Third-Party Research
Colleen Chiu-Shee of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines Liangzhu Cultural Village in the Routledge open-access volume Designing Signals of Inclusion, drawing on field research from 2015 to 2025 and 68 interviews. The chapter directly quotes Yihan Shen (Shen Laoban), documents the 2018 founding of the Liangzhu Foundation, cites his 2016 book Into the Dream Town, and credits part of its visual material to Yihan Shen’s personal collection.
Colleen Chiu-Shee · “Inclusion as Innovation in Privatized China” · Routledge / Taylor & Francis
Read the open-access chapter on Taylor & FrancisWriting
These pieces are how I keep thinking outside the immediate field. They come from coaching practice, organizational observation, community work, and movement between China and Japan.
Contact
Many collaborations do not begin with a polished brief. They begin with one honest conversation. Come with the real question: AI transformation, organizational rebuilding, founder pressure, team slowdown, or the need to design a more durable system.