Mr. Howard Yang
CEO

Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Mr. Howard Yang has been in the Educational English Training industry for over 15 years. He started as an owner of a private English Cram school there in the early 1990’s where he ran its entire operations. In 1996, Howard returned to Taipei, Taiwan where he served as an Educational Consultant for Learning Technologies (Taiwan) Ltd. where he began selling the ALE English Club memberships.

Howard spent over 9 years at LTTL where he eventually worked his way to top sales position of Regional Sales Director. There he oversaw 5 sales offices throughout the island, directly managing 5 sales managers & over 100 sales reps. His sales teams generated over USD$12M per year in revenue. A consummate people trainer, he was responsible for helping architect the highly successfully LTTL Educational Direct Sales Platform which is the forerunner of the Talk Group Sales Force Management System which is a modified system that is completely tailored to the China market. As a trainer, Howard has delivered over 3000 hours of successful training to more than 100 managers in sales, marketing and operations.

In Howard’s 9+ years as the Regional Sales Director at LTTL, he was an integral part of the company’s growth from a 50 person company where revenues stood at USD1M to its peak where the company grew to over 1000 employees with earning an excess of USD100M a year. It is because of this experience that Howard possesses an intimate and comprehensive understanding of all facets of LTTL operations.

In 2005, Howard relocated from Taiwan to Shanghai to help transform Talk Education Group into the company it is today. He serves as Talk Education Group’s CEO and is responsible for the overall strategy and direction for Talk Group with a focus on sales and marketing.

Howard graduated from Soochow University in Taiwan in 1994 majoring in Math.

Mr. Jim Leu
Chief Product Officer

Mr. Leu is one of the founders of Talk Education Group. Raised in the U.S., he has been working in Greater China for the past 15 years. With a truly international and multicultural background, Jim brings the overall product and services vision as well as a combination of product development, academic and IT skills to the Talk Education Group management team.

In 1994, Jim moved from the U.S. to Taipei, Taiwan where he worked at LTTL in the role of Internet Product Development for both of Learning Technologies Internet product lines - World Family - Disney’s World of English and ALE – Actual Living English. In the mid-1990’s ALE became one of Asia’s largest membership websites due to Jim’s efforts managing their internet departments. At LTTL, Jim also worked closely with the Operations, Marketing and Sales, and Customer Service departments to launch various company initiatives which led to over 10,000 monthly sales leads and an excess of USD10M in annual sales revenue.

Additionally, at LTTL, Jim also served in the role of a “Crew” teacher where he took on a myriad of responsibilities related to the development of teaching content. His work included the organization of focus groups and other research tools, to design materials that would both appeal to the learners and deliver educational value.

Trained in experiential education theory, Jim and his Crew team organized over 300 activities each month at ALE to service its base of over 30,000 members. In this position, Jim also worked extensively with all of the company departments to create and modify company strategies and key policies.

In 1999, Jim later went on to be a founding member of Kick.com, Inc., a digital music company. At Kick.com, Jim directed overall marketing strategy and execution, including the development of detailed objectives and budgets, as well as the management of the entire company brand strategy and corporate identity. Kick.com was later sold, in 2001, to Sony Broadband Entertainment.

In 2002, armed with entrepreneurial experience from Silicon Valley, Jim returned to the Far East and went on to found Talk Group with David Wu. For the first 3 years, Jim and David launched Talk Group’s Media Division, Talk da Talk bringing Educational and entertaining English learning content to the masses in China.

In Talk Group, Jim serves as the Chief Product Officer, overseeing all IT, Academic and R&D as well as CRM initiatives for Talk Group.

Jim graduated in 1994 with B.A. in Psychology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY and in 2005, he received his MBA from CEIBS - China Europe International Business School (中欧国际工商学院) in Shanghai.

Mr. Eric Tsai
COO

Mr. Tsai has over 15 years of operational and administrative experience having worked at S&T Technologies (新泰伸銅科技股份有限公司), a listed company on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange that focus on production of copper plating for use electronic equipment.

Starting as an engineer, Eric steadily rose through the ranks to become Vice-President of Production where he managed a team 4 Production Managers and 8 supervisors indirectly managing over 150 engineers. In this role, Eric was responsible for creating, implementing and evaluating all Standard Operating Procedures for his department. At S&T, Eric was responsible for several process related initiatives including helping the company achieve ISO 9001 certification and also obtaining Grade A ranking within their industry.

In 2004, Eric left S&T to start, Red Spider, a government sponsored online shopping and telemarketing company where he served in the capacity of COO.

Eric joined Talk Group in 2005 and as COO overseas all operational and administrative aspects of Talk Group.

Eric graduated from Soochow University in Taiwan with a major in Chemistry.

Mr. Michael Nee
Marketing Director

Michael Nee possesses a unique combination of sales, mass media and product marketing experience having worked in both Taiwan and China for the past 15 years. Fully fluent in both English and Chinese, Michael brings his vast experience from the telecom and IT industry to Talk Education Group.

After completing his advanced studies in 1999, Michael began his career working in the telecom industry working at TCC (台湾大哥大) where he was involved with various new handset product launches. In 2001, he joined DBTel Telecom Corp., one of Taiwan’s most successful OBM handset manufacturers, to introduce DBTel’s handsets into the China market. For 5 years at DBTel, Michael successfully led the design, launch and marketing of over 25 different handset models throughout the China market. Michael was intimately involved in all facets of the new product launches including creating sales and distribution channels, product pricing and positioning, to product design to fit the China market.

In 2005, Michael left DBTel and joined MITAC Technology Ltd. to help spearhead their smartphone lines and their new GPS navigation system to the China market. Again, he was involved in all facets of their launch into the China market. In 2006, his teams pushed over 35,000 smartphones units to the market which ranked third in total smartphone sales in 2006 behind Nokia and HTC.

In 2007, Michael joined Foxlink, one of Taiwan’s largest electronics manufacturers, as VP of Sales and marketing for the China region. He helped launch their range of OEM mobile phones. It was at this point where Michael realized without a strong brand identity, it was difficult for new unestablished entrants to successfully penetrate the China market as they would forever be competing on price point alone. He understood that the future of successful technology rested with solid software that could be bundled with their ever changing hardware models.

It was because of this realization that Michael joined Talk Education Group in 2008 where he became involved in the development and marketing of their newest business line, Talk Online. With its strong brand image in the English education market, Michael realized this represented an almost unlimited opportunity for growth.

Mr. Nee received a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. In 1999, he obtained a Master Degree in Manufacturing Management from South Australia University in Adelaide, Australia.

Hank Chen
Talk Online Product Manager

Hank possesses over ten years of experience in finance and sales having worked both in Taiwan and in Mainland China.

Previous to working at Talk Education Group, Hank was Senior Sales Manager in Taiwan Far Eastern International Bank. Hank was responsible for their individual customer banking unit and also managed a 150 call center sales team. An expert in call center sales, he also developed online sales program for Far Eastern International Bank.

Hank joined Talk Education Group in early 2009 as Talk Online Product Manager to spearhead the launch of the Talk Online product in May of 2009. Hank is responsible for all facets of the the Talk Online product including product optimization, sales channel, business development opportunities using the Talk Online platform, online marketing, as well as online and call center sales.

Hank graduated with a B.A. in Accounting from Tak-Ming Junior College of Commerce, in Taipei, Taiwan.

Mr. Gordon Chou
CRM Director

Mr. Chou has been in the Educational training industry for over 5 year also coming from Learning Technologies (Taiwan) Ltd. At LTTL, Mr. Chou worked as an Educational Consultant and as a marketing specialist for their Adult English training division, Actual Living English (ALE). At ALE, Gordon served on the frontline helping ALE Members reach their English training goals.

In Talk Group, Gordon is responsible for managing and continually refining our proprietary Customer Relationship Management system and staff. His primary objective is not only customer service but also upsell opportunities for all the different Talk Education Group members across our various business lines.

Gordon graduated from Ching Yi Technology University in Taiwan majoring in Business Management.

Mr. David Wu
Company Spokesperson

David Wu, virtually a household name in Asia, started his professional acting career over 15 years ago and has taken part in over 70 feature films, including notable blockbusters such as “Farewell My Concubine”, “Full Throttle”, and “Restless”. David’s popularity extends well beyond the silver screen, as he also has significant experience hosting broadcast programs and live events.

He is perhaps even more famous, however, for his work at Channel [V]. In addition to his role as a video jockey, David hosted a 5-minute, interstitial English series called “Go West”. “Go West” blended everyday English idioms, a unique production style, and a charismatic host to create a hugely successful program. Despite the appearance of numerous competing programs by other hosts and channels alike, “Go West” remained the clear market leader. This success was largely attributed to David’s inimitable personal abilities – he effortlessly combines his years of cultural insights from living in the United States with his affable personality and ability to communicate with native Chinese speakers. As the original designer of the “Go West” program concept, David has a fundamental understanding of the program mechanics, organization, and content creation necessary to create a successful program. To this day, “Go West” is considered to be the one program that forever altered the Chinese market’s perception of the English language.

Though not involved in the everyday operations of Talk Group, David serves as the company spokesperson and its marketing face.

Fully fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, David received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Business.