Board of Advisors
Bill Trenchard: CEO, LiveOps
From his experience as CEO of LiveOps, Bill brings more than a decade of experience creating and growing technology and media companies. Prior to LiveOps, Bill was the founder and CEO of Callcast, a revolutionary call routing technology and outsourced teleservices firm that merged with LiveOps in 2003. Prior to Callcast, Bill was a managing director at idealab!, where he served portfolio companies in capacities ranging from a board member to interim CEO. Bill was also the founder and CEO of Jump Networks, Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft in April 1999. Jump offered the world's first completely connected online organizer, integrating email, calendar, contacts and group capabilities in one easy to use location. At Jump, Bill set the company's vision and mission, participated in product design, raised venture investment, and served as a representative to the press and business partners. Bill has a Bachelor of Arts degree in science and technology studies from Cornell University.
Franklin F. Kuo: Co-Founder MTone (Formerly GWcom Inc.)
Frank co-founded a successful mobile phone content provider in China that currently operates in over 15 cities in China and has over 5 million subscribers. As an early internet and telecommunications pioneer in China Frank brings an in depth understanding of the regulatory and technological environment in the telecommunications industry.
From 1960-66 Frank was a Member of the Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ. While he was at Bell Labs, Frank wrote "Network Analysis and Synthesis", John Wiley & Sons. This book has sold over 100,000 copies over 25 years and 27 printings, and was used at over 100 universities and translated into 5 languages
From 1982-94 he was Director, then Executive Director, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA. At SRI, (formerly Stanford Research Institute) Frank also operated the Network Information Center (NIC) for the Internet. He was Director of the NIC for several years and served as the first architect for the NSFNET in 1983-84. During 1992-94, He helped Tsinghua University, Beida, and the Academy of Sciences establish the first full-scale Internet node in China. He was a World Bank Lecturer in 1984 at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. For that work, he was appointed Honorary Professor at Jiaotong, and in 1994, Honorary Professor at the Electrotechnology University in Chengdu.
Frank is currently an active mentor to students participating in the business plan design course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
James Liu: Co-COO, Oak Pacific Interactive
James Liu is the Co-COO of Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI), the second largest private internet company in China that owns and operates leading online services including mop.com, 5q.com, uume.com, donews.com, and renren.com. James was instrumental in helping OPI raise 48 million dollars from leading US investors such as GA, DCM, TCV, and Accel in late 2005. James joined OPI through the acquisition of UUMe which he founded in 2003 as the first social networking site in China. Before that, James was heading the marketing group with the Silicon Valley based Fortinet, and helped the company grow revenue from zero to US$ 33 million within 2 years. James was a senior product manager for two years with Siebel Systems, and worked as Product Manager at Netscape and Cisco as well while at Stanford. James served as consultant to eBay and helped the company develop market entry strategies into the global Chinese markets. Before that, James worked with BCG as a management consultant for three years. James is an engineer by training. He holds dual degrees in CS and in Economics, both from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, He received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Paul Kim: Chief Technology Officer, Stanford University School of Education
As the Chief Technology Officer for Stanford University School of Education, Paul provides strategic leadership in all aspects of academic and innovative technology. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Technology from University of Southern California and has been collaborating with educational research and development institutes such as U.S. Satellite Laboratories, Medical Research & Information Center, and Korea Educational Research and Information Service. He has served as Vice President for Vatterott College, MO and Chairman of the Board for Intercultural Institute of California. He also serves as Investment and Strategy Advisor for the for-profit education sector. His recent involvements were with Endeavor Capital, Wellspring Capital Management, Coleman Research Group, and Knowledge Direct.
At Stanford, he is teaching EDUC392 - Enterprising Higher Education in the Digital Age and EDUC391 - Web-Based Technologies for Learning as well as many other computer assisted training programs.
His recent presentations include "Assessment through Digital Portfolios", EDUCAUSE, October, 2005, "Development of Large-Scale Stereo 3D Image DB Network for Medical Education Using KOREN", Korean Association for Educational Information & Media, September, 2005. "Enterprising Higher Education with ICT", APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Education Forum, September, 2005.
Phil Hubbard: Director, English For Foreign Students, Stanford University
A specialist in computer-assisted language learning for over two decades, Phil is the author of more than 20 software programs for teaching English as a second language and serves on the editorial boards of three academic journals focused on technology in language teaching. He is the author of a number of research and methodology articles in this field and is co-editor of a new volume on technology in language teacher education. He has held elected offices in several professional organizations and currently sits on the Executive Board of the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium.
He is a senior lecturer in Linguistics at Stanford University and directs and teaches in the English for Foreign Students Program in Stanford's Language Center. He taught previously at UC San Diego, San Diego State, and Ohio University.
Phil holds an MA and PhD in Linguistics from UC San Diego, as well as a BA in Communication from Stanford University.
Russell Siegelman: Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
As a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Russell invests in consumer and energy related technologies and markets, including software, electronic commerce, Web services, semiconductors, consumer systems, media and telecommunications. He is currently on the boards of Digital Chocolate, Friendster, Lilliputian Systems, Mobilygen, Quorum Systems and RazorGator.Russell also leads KPCB's investment in WildBlue Communications, and is also on the board of the non-profit organization Sustainable Conservation.
Russell joined KPCB after seven years at Microsoft. At Microsoft he helped launch LAN Manager, Microsoft's first network operating system, then was the marketing manager in charge of Windows for Workgroups, a small-business networking version of Windows. For the first half of 1993, Russell worked directly for Bill Gates, during which time he researched the online market and recommended an entry strategy for that market. This led to the formation the Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft's online service. Russell became the first employee of this division and became its General Manager and then Vice President through April of 1996. Under his direction, MSN was developed and launched and reached over one million paying members. Russell was also responsible for the formation of the Slate project, Microsoft's World Wide Web political and arts commentary. He recruited the editor, Michael Kinsley, and was the business manager in charge of Slate until he left Microsoft in July 1996.
Before Microsoft, Russell was a software engineer who wrote artificial intelligence applications for the financial services industry at Applied Expert Systems, a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup, and was also an engineering consultant. He earned his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Physics in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard University where he was a Baker Scholar in 1989.
Xu Xiao Ping: Ex. Director, New Oriental Group
Xiao Ping brings a wealth of experience, contacts and understanding of the English Training industry in China. After co-founding New Oriental School; Xiao Ping has over 10 years of experience with New Oriental Group. Xiao Ping has been responsible for the company's marketing, public relations, government relations and most recently a specialised consulting arm for Chinese preparing to study abroad. Xiao Ping also presided over an advisory board that helped advise management on a variety of issues relating to English Training in China.
Xiao Ping holds a MA from the University of Saskatchewan of Canada.
Yang Ji: Ex. Director, New Oriental Group
Yang Ji has over ten years of experience in the education industry, Mr. Yang was responsible for establishing German, French and Japanese language programs for the New Oriental School. He was the Board of Director of New Oriental Education Technology Ltd and was in charge of the oversea study business. To date, Mr. Yang’s language programs have trained over Chinese 100,000 students in foreign language acquisition.
Yang Ji holds a PHD from the University of Frankfurt of Germany.