Why it's called Swando.
My Chinese name is 胡雙多 — Hu Shuāng Duō — which means "double plenty." Years ago, my father tried to capture its sound in English: 雙 Shuāng, meaning "double," became Swan; 多 duō, meaning "plenty," became do. Together: Swando.
I am one of nine siblings and cousins who all share 多 as the third character of our names — a tradition that follows the Hu family record 胡家家谱, drawn from the phrase 自求多福: rely on yourself for abundant blessings.
The logo carries that same idea forward. Two swan heads rising from a single flame, meeting in one curved line — double becoming one mark. It is the emblem of a name that was always about more than one thing.
The mark is also a yin yang — two swans completing each other in perfect balance. East and West. Feminine and masculine. Presence and reach. An emblem of the two threads I inherited and carry forward: a family legacy of soft influence — founding schools, shaping education, investing in people — and a lineage of engineers who solve through hard innovation and practical application. Both live in this work. The two swans do not merge. They meet.
I am moving between Asia, Europe, and the Americas — roughly 25% in each, plus 25% everywhere else. Chair of the Yale International Alliance. Mother of four. Empty nester on a 10-year sprint toward 2027, with one clear ambition: clear teams under each trinket, going beyond Asia.
If any of this resonates — as a collaborator, co-founder, investor, or fellow traveller — reach out.
I am blessed — as if skipping along a red ribbon road, savoring all the different trinkets along the way. Thank you, Chinese Moon Grandfather 月下老人, for making red ribbon matches with all the 贵人 — the royal people who appear to make dreams real.
— April Swando Hu