Wanyu Zhang

• Senior Marketing and International Business Manager / Audience Growth
• NPR
• https://www.wanyuzhang.com

Wanyu Zhang (she/her) is a senior marketing and international business manager on NPR’s Audience Growth team. Her primary responsibilities include leading the branding and marketing strategy for shows like Code Switch, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Invisibilia, Throughline, TED Radio Hour, NPR’s Book of the Day, and more. Her goal is to shift the traditional mindset of how NPR and NPR podcasts sound and look as a brand, and to work alongside internal and external teams to create new visual narratives. She recently led the nation-wide brand awareness campaign “NPR’s More Voices, All Ears” to help younger, more diverse listeners discover NPR’s array of podcasts, ideas, and personalities.

Zhang has always believed that creating a culture of innovation and global thinking is critical for NPR to be a leader in the podcasting industry. She was the primary business partnership lead to support NPR’s first international adaptation — How I Built This in Japanese — in creating content to meet audiences where they are. She continues to push NPR to explore the content for non-English speaking countries that have immense potential for audience growth.

She is the recipient of two employee awards at NPR: the 2020 Spark and Impact Award, which honored her as an individual who improves everything she touches,and the 2021 Excellence & Innovation Award, which celebrated the team that created the Where We Come From series.

Zhang is originally from Beijing, China, and has lived in the U.S. for 12 years.  She is very proud of her Chinese roots. She has a master’s degree in Communications and Asian Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication and Japanese from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.