Dr. Enio Ohmaye
Chief Scientist, Technology & Experience Officer, EF Englishtown

Enio Ohmaye holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence & Education (Northwestern University) and a Master's Degree in Computer Science. As a former Senior Scientist at Apple Computers, Enio helped build and design Englishtown. He has led ground-breaking research in cognitive science and computer technology and their application in English training.
Enio has a natural love of languages: as a Brazilian born Japanese, he speaks English, Portuguese, and Japanese fluently.

Dr. Christopher McCormick
Head of Academic Development
EF – Cambridge University Research Director

First and foremost, Dr. Christopher McCormick is a linguist. Besides his native English, Christopher speaks Russian, Mandarin, French and Spanish. Dr. McCormick pursued his passion for languages with a PhD in Applied Linguistics from University of Texas and a B.A. in French and Russian from Tulane University. Dr. McCormick currently serves as EF’s Chief Learning Officer, directing the development of EF’s language testing and training programs.

It is safe to say that there is probably no one in the world who knows more about using technology to accelerate language learning. As Head of EF’s Academic Research and Development team, he oversees the instructional design of EF’s educational media, including software, textbooks, video, and audio. He holds patents in collaborative online language learning technologies and leads the group’s research in language teaching innovation. He has a great sense of adventure as well, and has lived in Shanghai, Boston, London, Paris and Monterrey (Mexico).

Elisa Olenik
Online Marketing Manager, Englishtown (Amsterdam)

People are often mesmerized by Elisa’s feline eyes, inherited from her Japanese mother and Hungarian father. It’s no wonder that she used to moonlight as a model while she worked in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York.

After receiving her masters in French from NYU, Elisa moved to Hong Kong where she joined Englishtown as the Online Marketing Manager. In this role, she creates free online content for 12 different markets, supervising teams of writers and developers. Need dating advice, interview tips, career guidance, business skills, help in pronunciation—all in English? Email Elisa. Thanks to her efforts, millions of people receive a daily English lesson. Recently, she and her team have launched Englishtown Friends, the biggest online language community. Elisa is fluent in English, French and Japanese—and with her recent move to Amsterdam, she hopes to be speaking Dutch soon.

Alex Brodbeck
Vice President of Business Development, Englishtown (London)

Alex is a Renaissance man: well-educated, well-traveled and well-dressed! A lawyer by training, Alex was working for a New York law firm that specialized in mergers and acquisitions when he decided he wanted to be part of the action rather than writing contracts about it. So he pursued his business degree in France, where he was born and raised by his French father and American mother. He admits that his first year at EF has rivaled his intense MBA studies at INSEAD. “I can honestly say that in my one year at EF I have learned more than I can fathom: people management, strategy, business development, e-commerce, operations and much more,” Alex declares. “Today, I am launching EF’s online schools for all of Europe, building teams from scratch and helping move our business to the next level. It’s exciting to be part of this!”

Ku Chung
Vice President, EF Internet and Search Marketing (London)

Ku started his career at Citibank in Korea after graduating from Dartmouth, where he received both his bachelor’s and his master’s in business administration. He specialized in marketing strategy and research, and was initially hired to do Web analytics for ef.com based in Hong Kong. He soon found himself in London building EF’s central search marketing team to support EF’s worldwide markets. “EF saw the importance of search marketing several years ago, and I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. When I started, the team consisted of just me and one other person. At this pace, we will soon be close to 40 people working with search,” Ku says. “I have lived in nine cities across seven different countries in my life, and I can safely say London is one of the most international cities I’ve ever lived in. I feel fortunate to be part of EF’s unique and exciting culture.”

Zac Murphy
EF New Media Producer(Shanghai)

Zac Murphy is California-born and bred, growing up in southern California and attending The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Turning down a job offer with Nike’s main advertising agency, Zac took a leap of faith and moved to Hong Kong with EF.

Since then, the pages in Zac’s passport have quickly filled with stints in Hong Kong and Shanghai as EF’s New Media Producer. With his prodigious talent in media production, Zac has been on the cutting edge of EF multimedia projects including EF’s podEnglish video English lessons and the new Efekta™ learning system. According to Zac, “I always tried to find a place where I could bridge content, film, and technology. EF turned out to be a perfect fit.” In his spare time, Zac is writing a feature length movie.

Angela Xu
Executive Vice President, Recruitment and Employee Development, EF China (Shanghai)

Charisma often is intangible, but you can sense Angela’s as soon as she walks into a room. She is the ideal EF representative in her role as head of recruitment and employee development in China. Angela started at EF in 1999 first running a school and then being promoted to Vice President of Expansion. She left EF to run Li Kai Shing’s Cheung Kong Graduate School, but after three years she came back to lead EF’s human resources team in China.

“In the last year we have hired 1,000 new staff. If you had told me two years ago that we would grow this fast, I never would have believed it. It has been an incredible journey.”

Michael Lu
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, English First Adults China (Shanghai)

In another life, Michael would have become an actor or an artist. He has starred in musicals and television commercials. Instead he went into business, working at News Corporation, Bertelsmann, and Pricewaterouse Coopers before joining EF in Shanghai to run English First’s China-wide marketing and business development. Raised in Australia, Michael is fluent in Mandarin. He possesses a rare combination of creative flair and business savvy, as he has devised marketing campaigns aimed at Chinese professionals that have helped our business in this segment grow by over 300%.

“Compared to my previous jobs at well-known media companies, I think my job now in English education is far more exciting. My ability to help steer the business is dramatic,” Michael shares.

“Strategy is not just a buzz word at EF.”

Peter Winn
President of English First for Adults, China

Peter, besides having taught himself both Cantonese and Mandarin, is also a record-breaking endurance athlete. Walking into his office, behind Peter’s desk, you will find several first-place trophies he has won for mountain marathons. As a competitive long distance runner, Peter displays stamina and passion in everything he does: from running races to running our schools for adults in China. Peter was raised in Miami, Florida, attended Princeton University and received his MBA from The Wharton School of Business.

Prior to joining EF he held management positions at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey and the Wharf Group Ltd. Peter is so passionate about EF that he convinced the company to let him paint his van hot pink with racing stripes to generate curiosity and interest in our company.