Yan has completed thousands of nautical miles as a Seafaring Engineer, serving mostly on large sailing yachts. This includes two circumnavigations and numerous transatlantic crossings. In 1999 he moved ashore and joined a leading equipment manufacturer, specialised in automated hydraulic systems and hydraulic hardware. There he served for 12 years initially as super yacht equipment product manager and finally as Director of technical sales.

Yan joined Hill Robinson in September 2011.