Sophia Yao
Marketing Director

Sophia Yao has an extensive marketing background in IT, Education & Training and Hospitality. She has also worked in the area of HR where she planned the staff development, the execution of training programmes and conducted sales promotion events to intensify cooperation with customers and potential clients, such as organizing family parties, culture event, tour, etc.

Her focus has been on marketing and branding where she has held positions in Shanghai and Singapore for a major international hotel and a start-up e-marketing company that has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and China. Before joining the marketing industry, Sophia was a teacher teaching at several schools including a Middle School in subjects of Science and Arts and a language school in Shanghai. Her other business interests include business development, PR and strategic planning.

Sophia possess a self-motivated and effective personality She has good communication and presentations skills. Not only she is able to work independently under pressure, she is also good at paying high attention to details.

Sophia has a Master of Business Administration from a US University and an Advanced Diploma in Education from Huzhou Teachers College. She is proficient in Mandarin and English and has obtained an English certificate from Shanghai International Studies University.

Dr. Balbir Singh
Associate Director (India)

Balbir has a wide range of experience both in the not-for-profit and profit sectors in management and leadership roles. He has lectured for 25 years in management, communication, and has facilitated numerous life skill programs. Apart from his operations and management experiences, he is actively involved in planning, and developing of new courses for professionals in the education arena. In many ways, he is a coach, educator, facilitator, and consultant. He is sensitive to the learning needs of others, and has a warm and pleasant personality. He has conducted numerous workshops/seminars in motivation, communications, management, and teacher’s training in Singapore and around the region.

Balbir holds qualifications in liberal arts, Masters in HealthCare Management and a Doctorate degree in Education.  He is also a certified Instructor in Train the Trainer program.  Balbir is a fellow member of the Institute of Healthcare Services, UK and the Institute of Management Specialist, UK.  Balbir has worked in the Healthcare industry, Education & Training industry, and remains active in school business set-ups, program development and education consultancy work.

Ms. Irene Jonda
Associate Director (Middle East)

Irene is educated as a therapeutical educationalist; she also studied educational science as a long distance study. She is professional in virtual learning environments (moodle) and computer mediated communication.

Apart from having been employed by several educational institutions in Germany, she ran her own business, where she gave lectures on ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and advised as well as coached young people and adults or parents regarding ADHD. She also qualified teachers in primary and secondary schools dealing with this subject. The major part of this work was to focus on concentration improvements, time management and planning or organizational optimization. She is able to assist people in effectively handling their personal challenges and using their own potential.

Currently she is living with her family in the Emirates, in the beautiful “garden city” Al Ain, which belongs to the Emirate Abu Dhabi. She used to live in Egypt and China for several years and therefore she has developed a deep intercultural understanding.

Meanwhile Irene is working on her masters degree in e-education.

Christopher Pereira
Non-Executive Director
(Professional Development)

Christopher works with business people, professionals and managers, and teachers who want to love their jobs and excel. His experience in Teacher-Training (Academic) combined with his management experience has made him not only masterful at content delivery but also achieved mastery at building relationships and rapport. He also works with organizations that are implementing leadership development or culture change programs involving coaching.
Christopher has developed his natural listening talent and his insight into human nature to become one of the leading professional business and career coaches. He acts as a thinking-partner with his clients to uncover different perspectives, and to provide unconditional support that allows them to make dramatic changes. He is an engaging and natural facilitator experienced in drawing out the best in people.

In addition to his business, training and teaching experience, his leadership and managerial experience gives him insight into how to guide people to do their best.

Christopher has a Master Degree in Educational Leadership & Management from RMIT University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education, RMIT (Australia). He has a Diploma in Psychology from University Hawaii, Diploma Training from Masters Trainer of New York, and is a trained TESOL English teacher with London Teacher Training College, UK.

Soh Cheong Hian
Non-Executive Director
(Corporate Finance)

Cheong Hian was trained as a Financial Analyst and began his career as an investment analyst for a prominent private family fund based in Singapore where he was responsible for managing family assets across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

He has successfully helped a start up IT company to listing in Australia (1st day market cap A$103m). His role was mainly to oversee strategic positioning of the company, fund raising from US/ UK/ Australian venture capitalists, handled all investors' and investment bankers' presentations, and oversee the forex hedging as part of company's exposure to different currencies requirements.

Cheong Hian has since been actively involved in venture capital projects and has in-depth experience in derivatives, foreign currency exchange and equities. He plays a critical role in bridging the technology and business aspects of the company. Through his extensive experience in finance and information technology, he plays an important role in company's corporate finance activities and identifying strategic partners.

Cheong Hian is a finance graduate (with honours) from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and is CFA qualified.

 

Jason Chee
Business Development Manager

Jason has close to 5 years of management experience in the civil service. His time in the civil service has exposed him to operations management, logistic and administration coordination, human resource management and project developments. His strong involvement with foreign liaisons of various countries has greatly strengthened his public relation skills as well. His flexibility, patience and understanding has enabled him to lead and coordinate his team to be the praise of his bosses and his creativity and passion for innovation has greatly spurred the development of his department too.

After his bond with the civil service ended, he developed a passion for teaching and traveling, thus leading him to take up a diploma in TESOL where he graduated with good grades.

Although, he is still relatively new in the field of training and education, his willingness to learn and positive mindset compensates for his inexperience and he will strive to develop the business for the company.

Jason is a computer engineering graduate from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.