I just saw the news.
It's said that the KaiEn English close suddenly and the Irish boss Brian McCloskey gone with money

any one know more detail? who is the teacher there?

I am hearing a lot of similar stories recently...Last time it was a gym in Hongqiao I think. If this becomes a trend Chinese will start to avoid doing business with us, small businesses with foreign ownership.

Ah ah, you again shyhi. Funny one.

This is actually quite common in the English-education industry. The Chinese-American owner of Linguaphone split earlier this year and the owner of Canilex (sp) about 4 years ago . . . in the last case the company took a month of the employee's salaries . . .

why would anybody break the common chinese business practice "milk it while you can and get out once things start running dry". that is common practice here. no matter whether the owner is chinese, korean, japanese, taiwanese or the rest of the world.

once things don't look so rosy, just drop it like it's hot...

good to see shyhi back here! missed you dearly!

English schools are a big money maker for these guys.

Chinese are desperate to study more English to make up for the time they lost studying English but not learning in school that was free and they now pay to study English but still not learning.

Here's a thought - try using English outside of work!

I have worked with so many locals who whined they are desperate to improve their English but they can't BUT I see what they do. Their computer is all Chinese, they never surf English websites - only Chinese, they never read English books or magazines, watch DVDs with Chinese subtitles - English for them is a tool to use only at work. Duh!

It is all true. I am (or was) a teacher there. At the Xuhui branch.
I can't confirm whether money was taken but the boss certainly copped out.

Brian, if you are reading this. You are finished! You are a liar. A coward. A cheater and you have a lot to answer for. Your days are numbered.

Having said that... we still don't know what happened. Just that we kept working while no one was piloting the ship. The money wasnt there. and so a decision to stop working and to admit the school was finished was made by myself, this is what started the landslide (so to speak) And any later would have just been more harmful. More students might have paid and lost their money. More hours worked by us would have been wasted. And was I wrong. No of course not. The Owners have all disappeared.

And nicest of all: it is Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all

To Brian McCloskey, founder of KaiEn and Partner/Shareholder (you are lower than low)
To former Managing Director and scum of the earth Alex Wee (I really hope I see you on the street someday)
To former Finance Manager Jill (you are just as responsible, and your days are numbered too. The investigators will want to find you, Jill)
To Ken and Steve, the two other foreign partners who absconded months ago leaving the wreckage for us to sift through (Karma will find you)
and to the Chinese Partner who have said "we dont know anything about it" well you are left now, to hold this debt in your little greasy hands. So better start selling your stocks or something because you are screwed.

To all of you. Merry Effing Christmas!!!

wrong thread, sorry

Post their pics here

Ah. We needed this one now the that the chap selling noodles who lying on the Cv thread is going limp dik on us.

This site is better than TV man.

Let the fleecing begin.

Mxyzptlk wrote:wrong thread, sorry

Uh, Superman and Batman are over here...

http://tinyurl.com/yc4gkaj

what is it the season for farking over staff? It's Christmas so I should screw everyone? I won't comment on Kai En but had some dealings with them that led me to believe these most recent actions were not far off... and to make it a true season to remember....

Genowledge owners have also disappeared from the country, leaving both their offices (beijing and Shanghai) without a word, AFTER not paying the local staff for several months. What I want to know is,,,, how do they get away with not paying staff. I've never seen one local staff yet who would be at their desk the next day if payroll got behind. Why do local staff who can be the most abrasive arrogant people on the planet at times, allow this to happen?

fortunately in the case of Cristophe and Genowledge I saw the writing on the wall and got out as they weren't paying their trainers. (but WERE booking and invoicing a few high profile clients for work they never intended to complete because they had to know they were going to abscond with the funds and they had a tasty little business too, blue chip clients, nice vertical niche)

Cylon is right, this kind of crap has a significant impact on doing business here at the SME level. Shame on you Genowledge and Kai En, for taking advantage of people who trusted you and making it just that much harder for the rest of us...and for letting things get to the point that you left good people without jobs for the holidays. You suck and I can only hope that karma kicks in and you get what you deserve.

Henry_Chinaski wrote:Ah. We needed this one now the that the chap selling noodles who lying on the Cv thread is going limp dik on us.

This site is better than TV man.

Let the fleecing begin.

i had no idea what you were talking about so i went and read the noodle thread and i must admit, it is better than TV. lets me see if i can make this better?

I worked in kaien in quite a senior role (lets quit the noodle jokes here) and can conclude that the demise of kaien resulted from the founder (Brian) recruiting the wrong individual (Alex) as CEO. Brian's fault lies in standing by Alex's side (his decision to recruit the sucker) when everyone around him (including myself) have been saying that Alex is running the company into the ground.

Alex Wee is a Singaporean national who used to be the CEO of Informatics China which also went out of business a while ago. I heard from a "source" that the reason why informatics went out of business was because their students no longer enjoyed the fast-track visa application into singapore when they sign onto their courses.

The reason why the singapore autorities no longer offered the fast-track application is because (again, so i heard) that most of the students sent from China to singapore were young girls aged between 18-22.

The plot thickens...

I believe the Kai-en dudes will surface in Tainan, Taiwan as that is where they started...I have a few friends there and can find out if needed.

Brian told me that Alex bought in, as in, was an investor and that was why he couldn't get rid of him. So the money problems were there before Alex, as you don't take on an investor unless he brings something good to the table, or you need the money. three minutes with Alex and it's apparent he brought nothing to anyone's table but his own..."shudder" Oily little man that one,,, they deserved each other.

I am going home early to follow this thread properly!

disconbobulated wrote:I believe the Kai-en dudes will surface in Tainan, Taiwan as that is where they started...I have a few friends there and can find out if needed.

You are a regular...



...guy.

First Nat now....?

Jesus this is getting better by the minute!

Disco is kicking some ass lately eh?

Keep it up, hombre.

Let the dirt be dished.

Merry Xmas + Happy New Year! DILLIGAF

*************************************

Limbo for students as school shuts
By Shi Yanjie, Ni Yinbin and Liang Yiwen | 2009-12-16 | SHANGHAI DAILY NEWSPAPER EDITION

AT least one outlet of Kaien English, one of the biggest language training institutes in the city, closed suddenly due to financial problems, leaving hundreds of pre-paid course takers worrying about their money.

Property managers with the Jianke Mansion in Xuhui District, where one of the outlets was located, said the school has owed 200,000 yuan (US$29,281) in rent since May.

They lost contact with Brian McCloskey, the British investor, as well.

"The head of the institution said he would pay the rent last Friday, but we can not find him thereafter," said a manager of the building, surnamed Yu.

The Xuhui police said agitated students had rung them for investigation.

"We will keep an eye on it but so far it's still unclear if it was a swindle case," officer Huang Li said yesterday.

Huang said the case could also be an economic dispute, depending on the nature of McCloskey's absence.

Huang said similar cases - institutions pulling out of business, leaving the students in limbo - happened before in the district and not all of them turned out to be criminal cases.

"Sometimes the boss just disappeared today and showed up tomorrow," Huang said.

A foreign teacher from a Xuhui District outlet, at No.75 Wanping Road S., made the announcement Monday night to students, after a brief talk with another faculty member, that the school head disappeared and the school would be closed.

It aroused a panic among the students.

"My friend paid 7,000 yuan, and now it was over all in a sudden," said a woman surnamed Shen, a close friend of one of the students, Luo Tong.

Luo and other students called 110, the police hotline.

However, other outlets of the Kaien English are operating as normal.

A customer representative, surnamed Li, at Kaien's Pudong New Area branch said they had not received any notice about the closure and "everything is in good order."

"Our operation and service in the Pudong New Area are OK," Li said. "Our Chinese partner will take over in any emergency, and we will offer a satisfactory explanation to our students."

Kaien English was established in 1996 as one of the first joint institutions offering English curriculum in Shanghai.

Over 170,000 students have graduated from it by this year. The center offers a five-phase course in a maximum span of 10 months.

sinbad wrote:Brian told me that Alex bought in, as in, was an investor and that was why he couldn't get rid of him. So the money problems were there before Alex, as you don't take on an investor unless he brings something good to the table, or you need the money. three minutes with Alex and it's apparent he brought nothing to anyone's table but his own..."shudder" Oily little man that one,,, they deserved each other.

I heard that that alex was brought in because he had connections in the ministry of education and would help take kaien to areas outside of Shanghai. (Alex worked for the MOE for 2 years as special consultant in charge of vetting through Sino-foreign JV schools)

Check this out LinkedIn (I refuse to sign up so I cannot see the profile)

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/brian/mccloskey

Brian McCloskey

Education Management | China

Coincidence?

Who you calling a spook....Why does the CIA even have intelligence in their name,when they are clearly retarded.

@emailcharlie well yeah dude, you don't go and tell your staff that you let a guy invest because you need the money because your other partners cut you out of the good side of the business and left you with the English schools....and never mentioned you when Newsweek did the article... poor Brian left at the prom without a date when the egotistical and lame Ken Carroll went off to make Chinese Pod a success. I never could get a straight story about who still owned what, there was Brian, Ken, Alex, Praxis Language, Stephen,, too many players to keep straight

yes there WERE expansion plans but honestly they were a knee jerk reaction to the decline in overall revenue.(If we can't make the money in Shanghai, let's try to make it elsewhere school of business) Alex made a lot of promises but it was the fact that he was willing to put some cashola on the table that kept him in play.

wow. you are an insider. the scoop i got was that brian was the nice guy and gave Ken and Steve equal shares in Kaien. however, Alex was sort of instrumental in creating a conflict between the owners so that his incompetence may be hidden amongst their bitter rivalry. ken and brian never saw eye to eye when it comes to sales and marketing.

Alex has planned to licence the kaien brand out to other cities but that never worked out. knowing him, he probably gave them an offer that they cant accept. not much dissimlar from his failed attempt to work with a vocational college owned by the chinese partner. Basically the vocational college charged like 3000 tuition per year and there went alex asking the team to design and market and sell a one year course which would cost 19000rmb. the team went there on three seperate occasions trying to sell this, we even kept them in the auditorium after the graduating ceremony and when these kids started to leave, alex was at the door saying "please stay" how sad

well the Kai en brand is useless now, because even if Brian walked in tomorrow with all the money he owes for rent salaries and those students who want refunds because they no longer trust them, the damage is done.

And I wasn't an insider, I was an outsider who was being brought in as a fixer, so could ask some very hard questions. Hey at least they don't owe me money,, now those wankers at Genowledge,,, Baby gets cranky when her invoices don't get paid....

Look if Brian is smart he'll raise some cash, come strolling in looking doe eyed and telling everyone he was off on Christmas holiday,, in Bali, without a phone, and fry the teacher who made the announcement at the XuHui branch in the press and probably take him to court. Since the other branches are still open for business.

Should be interesting to see what happens next

Was Brian the one with the bad skin and cheesy turtlenecks? Both of those owners were creepy anyway...the lame turtleneck one and the fat other one. I never worked there or as a teacher, but I've seen them and they both looked like losers. jmo.

you know when I think about it that's a really elegant spin. The announcement was not made by Kai En owners or managers but by a disgruntled (however rightfully) employee without the standing within the company to announce something as significant as a closure. If he can raise enough cash to make everything right, all he has to do is walk in ,, say Hey,, we told you we were working on it boys and girls and here's what we owe you,, we don't know why that teacher did what he did, yes, we had some problems,, but we told everyone it would be fixed soon and I went off to make that happen....as you can see it's all sorted now,,, bad teacher bad BAD !

And the poor soul who lost his cool with the press, students and police may well find himself on the wrong end of a significant law suit because there would be no choice except to lodge one if the web were to remain intact.....

And they weren't losers they had at one time a fabulous business with significant multiple revenue streams,, too bad when success came knocking they didn't have a plan for it.

I thought I would do my part and help out because Brian might be busy with his banana daiquiris. So here is an update for their website.



HAHA!

you veddy veddy bad man! make gurl snort coffee on her keyboard.