Yu Minhong

Yu Minhong, or Michael Yu is the founder and current CEO of New Oriental Education amp; Technology Group Inc. , member of the central committee of China Democratic League . Yu Minhong is considered one of the twenty-five people that has great impact on China in the twentieth century. As the owner of one of the largest private educational services, Yu is known as the richest teacher in China, and Godfather of English Training. Born in the rural area of China, Yu's family was poor. His father's never give up spirit inspired Yu to consistently pursue his dream. Yu overcome a lot of obstacles in his life path, including childhood poverty, two failures of the university qualification exam, one year delay of sickness in university, and several refusals of oversea studying visas. Although Yu did not have chance to study abroad, he made up his mind to become an English teacher and help Chinese students learning English. In 1993, Yu founded New Oriental Education and Technology Group. Started with a class of only 30 students, New Oriental had grown to China's largest private education service provider. Approximately 70% Chinese students who are studying in the United States and Canada now have taken English classes in New Oriental. In addition, the online education section, which was developed in year 2003, attracted more than 2 million registered users. New Oriental was the first private education company in China that listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Some media give Yu Minhong the moniker of the most successful teacher ever. But Yu says he is still far from being successful. Yu has a greater ambition rather than to be merely wealthy and famous. My biggest dream is to found a private university, and for it to be one of China's top educational institutions after 40-50 years of development. When applying for higher education, my dream is for the best high school graduates to take my university into consideration, along with the likes of Tsinghua and Beijing University.