Kathy Shi
Founder & President
'Shi' means giving, 'Hua' means essencesMs. Kathy Shi (Hua) brings her vision of giving the essences of Chinese and Western education to children. With over twenty years of experience in education, Ms. Shi and BIBS are committed to integrating Chinese education with Western education in supportive and stimulating environments.
Jiangtao Gao
Head of Schools
Former Vice Principal of RDFZ, Senior Teacher, Special-class Teacher in Physics. Member of the National Expert Training Program of the Ministry of Education, the first group of State-level Backbone Teachers of the Ministry of Education's "Cross-century Gardener Project". Former Deputy Director of the Science Popularization Work Committee of the Chinese Physical Society, Committee Member of the Beijing Institue of Physics, former Deputy Director of the Competition Committee, former Director of the Beijing Youth Science and Technology Association. The only 2022 Yale University Distinguished Educator award winner from mainland China.
John McBryde
CEO
John McBryde is an educator with over 25 years of experience as Director/Head of School in five international schools in Asia, including 9 years as Director of the Western Academy of Beijing during its growth and development phase during 1998- 2007.John is co-founder of ACAMIS and served on both the ACAMIS and EARCOS Boards. He has extensive experience in IB Programs and school accreditation. He was awarded the "Foreign Expert Award" by the Beijing Municipal Government for his outstanding contribution to Chinese education.John’s keen interests include Future Education, Learning Technologies, Community, Service and The Arts.
Karen O'Connell
Special Projects Consultant
Karen O’Connell, an Australian educator, has over 40 years of experience in national and international schools as a teacher, consultant, researcher, Principal, and Head of School. With more than 30 years in educational leadership, her international career began in 1999 at the Western Academy of Beijing, where she served as Elementary Principal/Deputy Director for 12 years. She later moved to Indonesia and Singapore, taking leadership roles at Sinarmas World Academy and United World College South East Asia. In Beijing, Karen led the development of bilingual schools with Origins Education and served as Deputy CEO and Head of School for the Beanstalk International Education Group. She holds degrees from the University of South Australia and Bath University and has completed the International Leadership Management Programme. Karen is now a consultant at BIEG, focusing on Kindergarten and Elementary Schools.
Dr. Paul Kim
Director of BIBS CoFE
Director, BIBS Center of Future EducationDr. Kim is the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, who received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Technology from the University of Southern California in 1999. As an education technology entrepreneur, Dr. Kim designs and implements mobile technologies and social learning environment for Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Kim serves on the Board of Directors of WestEd, the Committee on Grand Challenges in International Development for the National Academies of Science, and the advisory committee for the National Science Foundation's Education and Human Resources Directorate.