Canaan's annual report on Form 20-F names him twice over, as the person and as the date: "On January 19, 2013, Mr. Nangeng Zhang, our chairman and chief executive officer, and his team, shipped the world's first batch of mining machines incorporating ASIC technology to consumers in Bitcoin's history under the brand name, Avalon." The same filing states that he "is a founding member of our Company and has served as our Chairman of the Board and chief executive officer since our inception".
The filing gives his background before that: he was an assistant researcher at the Beijing Remote Sensing and Communication Technology Institution from August 2005 to July 2008, he received a bachelor's degree in electronic information engineering and a master's degree in software engineering from Beihang University in 2005 and 2010, and he pursued a Ph.D. there between September 2010 and October 2013.
Canaan's share capital is split into classes, and the 2025 annual report states that its chairman and chief executive controls approximately 31.9% of the aggregate voting power through Class B ordinary shares carrying fifteen votes each. He continues to speak for the company in its monthly production releases.