Born in a rural family, nothing predestined Mickaël Minhong Yu to entrepreneurship nor to such an impressive success.

Unlike the practices of the time, her mother encouraged him to go to higher education. After two failures in the university qualification exam, he lost an extra year when he catched pneumonia. He was finally accepted at Beijing University, where he graduated from a Bachelor of English. While Mickaël chose to teach at university; a position he held from 1985 to 1991, many of his classmates went abroad to continue their studies. He himself tried the experiment by applying in American universities. Understanding that his teaching salary will not be enough, Mickaël started to give lessons for a private educational structure. By dint of hard work, he is accepted after three years in several universities. Unfortunately his visa application was denied. He realized that he enjoys working with students in this way and was quite talented.

Soon, the opportunity to start his own training structure sprouted in his mind.

At that time, the policy for teachers was not to teach at the university and in the private sector simultaneously. In 1993, two years after leaving his university teacher position, he made his choice and decided to devote himself fully to the launch of New Oriental.
Initially specialized in foreign language test preparation in particular for the English ones, the company had rapidly diversifying and integrating tutoring from primary to secondary education and online education. The company’s trademark came from its methodology that combines playful learning techniques and traditional educational values. Mickael Minhong Yu began alone by being the only teacher. The first times was difficult. Journalists and Mickaël himself was fond of telling that to publicize his services, he walked, winter and summer, in the streets of Beijing with buckets of glue to hang his posters. Nevertheless, he succeeded in hiring former classmates who held important positions abroad. New Oriental has been listed on the stock exchange in New York since 2006.

It is also the first Chinese educational company to go public.

In 2019, New Oriental has more than 44.8 million students, 33,900 teachers in 83 cities, a network of 95 schools, 1233 learning centers and 15 online and offline bookstores. Since 2015, Mickaël Minhong Yu directs part of the investments towards digitalization and in particular towards artificial intelligence. In addition, New Oriental has set up numerous partnerships with structures such as ETS, Bell Education and Oxford University. The burgeoning private education market is dominated by New Oriental and its main competitor Tal Education. To ensure a high quality service and the involvement of its employees, the manager has implemented a remuneration based on local innovation. The corporate culture is very strong and built around creativity. Employees and primarily executives are encouraged to participate in the creation of new ideas. The burgeoning private education market is dominated by New Oriental and its main competitor Tal Education. To ensure a high quality service and the involvement of its employees, M.Yu has implemented a remuneration based on local innovation. The corporate culture is very strong and built around creativity. Employees and primarily executives are encouraged to participate in the creation of new ideas. In an interview, Mickael Minhong Yu delivered his definition of the 4 dimensions of an entrepreneurial spirit: the spirit of adventure, which implies being prepared for risk taking and failure; resilience, bouncing back and turning chess into opportunity; Team spirit, being aware of the work of your team and its importance and finally the spirit of innovation to allow the organization to be in perpetual improvement.

Mr. Yu also thinks that a contractor must be idealistic and not just make a profit.

Mickael Minhong Yu lives in Beijing with his wife and two children. The businessman sometimes deplores the lack of privacy that gives him his status as billionaire and CEO in China. Just like Jack Ma, the entrepreneur, who is also nicknamed «the godfather of training in English» is a real star in China and gives many interviews or conferences.