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The Value of Expertise

75+ years of combined experience in the higher education industry including 30+ years in Asia create a lot of insights, learnings, and ideas to improve lives through education.

Our Team

Dirk Hopfl

Founder & Managing Director

Miko David

Strategic Advisor

Sharang Dhaimade

Strategic Advisor

Youjin Sung

Strategic Advisor

Javier Marin

Strategic Advisor

Ben Roberts

Technology Advisor

Dirk Hopfl

A Higher Education Leader with Global Experience

Extensive Experience in Admissions and Growth
Dirk boasts over 25 years in the higher education industry, working with both progressive institutions and industry leaders. He honed his expertise in admissions at IE Business School, a top-tier global player, and later led the admissions department, implementing innovative strategies.

Building Bridges in Asia
For 17 years, Dirk called Asia home, spearheading the market development strategy for a European university. He was instrumental in localizing recruitment efforts and fostering long-term growth by building partnerships with universities, institutions, and alumni across the region, fostering a collaborative ecosystem.

Industry Expert and Coach
A regular speaker at education conferences like QS HigherEd Summits, Dirk is widely acknowledged as an authority in the field. In 2024, Dirk has been named Top Higher Education Voice by Linkedin. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge, having coached peers and teams on admissions strategies, analytics, and student recruitment.

Education and Continuous Development
Dirk holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration (double major in Finance and HR) from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He furthered his education with an MBA and an Advanced Management Program at IE Business School, and most recently, completed a micro-MBA in EdTech and Higher Education Leadership, showcasing his commitment to lifelong learning and leveraging technology in education.

A Passion for Education's Future
Dirk's dedication to the education industry is evident. He constantly explores ways to improve technology-driven processes and how learning agility can enhance student recruitment, ensuring a future-proof approach.

Dirk is the co-founder of the Tech start-up Speechsquare.

Follow Dirk on Linkedin

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Miko David

Miko David is President of David & Golyat, a digital strategy consulting firm that provides business & market intelligence, to help organizations make calculated, performance-driven decisions.

Prior to founding David & Golyat, Miko was previously Marketing Communications Director for Globe Telecom's Small & Medium Business Group and also served at the Global New Business HQ of Havas Media in Madrid, Spain. He was also based in the regional office in Singapore, where he served as Senior Digital Manager.

Miko has spoken about digital trends and online consumer insights on CNN Philippines and News 5. His other speaking engagements have also been covered by BusinessWorld, The Philippine Star, Inquirer.net, When In Manila, and other news organizations.

He has taught master's students from London Business School and was previously Adjunct Faculty at the National University of Singapore's Institute of Systems Science and a mentor for Plug and Play Tech Center (Singapore). At home, he has also conducted classes at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines, Certified Digital Marketer, and FTW Foundation.

Miko earned his MBA from IE Business School. He is also a member of the Philippine Map Collectors Society (PHIMCOS), an Independent Board Member at Startup Village, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP).

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Sharang Dhaimade

Sharang has 8+ years of experience in the higher education industry. He started off his career as Executive Assistant to the President of S P Jain School of Global Management - Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, and Sydney where Sharang contributed to admissions, outreach, and corporate relations. Sharang had a short stint in Singapore with Global Data as a Regional Sales Manager where he built relationships with Higher Education Universities in the APAC region.

He then joined IE University Spain as an Associate Director in the India & South Asia office, based out of Mumbai. At IE, Sharang led student recruitment, strategic partnerships, and corporate relations in the India & South Asia region.

In 2019, Sharang co-founded SEED Global Education where we aim to be the leading partner for global higher education institutions looking to grow their international footprint and build local presence in key strategic markets. SEED has helped higher education institutions like INSEAD, George Washington University, New York University, IE University, MISB Bocconi, Hong Kong University, Nanyang Technological University and many more reach their strategic objectives.

Sharang has completed his MBA from S P Jain School of Global Management. He also loves teaching – he is a Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Digital Education (IIDE).

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Youjin Sung

Youjin is Managing Director of the positive thinking company, LnD, an educational consulting provider with specialties in fast-changing trends and teaching methodologies.

LnD aims to be the initial contact for local and global educational groups for a market extension. Youjin has a high interest in helping people with teaching skills, personal growth, and building positive team relationships. Youjin gets energized by people.

She has worked as Country Director of IE Business School, Associate Director at KAIST, certified facilitator for MNEs and startups, and designed diverse programs such as Fun&Learn, Lan school, YNOTNOW, How’s your, etc.

Youjin has also published a self-development book to help an individual’s career and personal goal setting.

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Javier Marin

Javier has extensive experience in developing and managing companies in the education sector. He is Director of Business Development at the Proeduca education group building a global network of educational consultants and portals for MIU City University Miami. Prior to that, he created education franchise projects from scratch with exponential growth, Javier is advising startups and technology companies on digital transformation.

Javier holds a BBA from the University of Granada, an MBA with a finance specialization as well as a Masters in Internet Business. He is a lecturer on Innovation Management at UNIR.

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Ben Roberts

Ben is an EdTech entrepreneur and coder with a strong personal commitment to creating technological solutions which increase access to education and ultimately social mobility.

Ben built a start-up that allowed university students to gain paid work experience before graduating. After its successful exit, he is now dedicated to Speechsquare, an AI language tutor for educators, speech therapists, and language practitioners. In parallel, Ben founded Melyngo, an AI-backed language course provider in the 7 most popular languages. 

Ben holds a BA (Hons) in International Business Management from the University of Wolverhampton. He started his career as an IT Professional Practitioner at Capgemini. Ben has extensive experience in business development, marketing, and IT from working in the UK, France, China, Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore.

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