Joel Neoh
| Joel Neoh | |
|---|---|
 Joel Neoh on the cover of Men's Health Magazine |
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| Born | October 11, 1983 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Education | Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with honours (Monash University) |
| Occupation | CEO of Groupon Malaysia & Groupon Taiwan, Co-Founder of Youth Asia |
| Website | |
| Joel Neoh's Official Website | |
Joel Neoh (born 11 October 1983), is an entrepreneur whose first success was a million ringgit business venture at the age of 20 while still in university. At age 23, he won Malaysia's first corporate reality television programme, The Firm as the youngest contestant. He then co-founded Youth Asia and expanded it into a group of award winning internet companies.
Joel is currently the CEO of Groupon Malaysia as well as Groupon Taiwan - both part of the NASDAQ public-listed Groupon [GRPN], the world's fastest growing company ever (noted by Forbes).[1]
Joel was published on the cover of Men's Health magazine [2] and recently named to both the "Malaysia Top 40 Under 40" and "Men of the Year" list.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
[edit] Education
Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Joel Neoh is the youngest son of two educationists. Joel graduated as one of the top 3 students in his course from Monash University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005, and is a Monash Scholarship holder.
[edit] Student entrepreneurship
Joel founded a fast growing student agency while still an undergraduate student and achieved an audited revenue of over RM1 million during first year of operations.[3]
[edit] Co-curricular achievements
Joel represented Malaysia and won the annual Warman Student Design-and-Build Competition 2005.[4] He also represented Malaysia in various sporting events, such as squash and rock climbing.
[edit] Entrepreneurship
[edit] Youth Asia
Joel co-founded Youth Asia, an award winning group of companies that invests in launching and growing innovative companies in the internet industry. Youth Asia was previously known as Youth Malaysia, which won the coveted Dream Malaysia Awards: Youth Friendly Company of the Year in 2007.[5]
[edit] National Youth Entrepreneur Convention
Joel is the founder and organizing chairperson of the annual National Youth Entrepreneur Convention, which took place in 2008, 2009 and 2010.[6] The NYEC is the first and the largest youth entrepreneurship conference, featuring top Malaysian entrepreneurs under the age of 30.
[edit] The Youth Festival
As a flagship youth event of the year, Joel is the founder of Malaysia’s Largest Youth Festival, YOUTH'10. The Festival gathered over a hundred thousand young Malaysians since 2008.[7][8] The 2010 festival, YOUTH’10 generated over RM6 million worth of PR value and won #1 Promotional Activity of the Year at The Malaysian Public Relations Awards 2010.[9]
[edit] Groupon Malaysia & Groupon Taiwan
In September 2010, he founded GroupsMore, which was acquired by Groupon at an undisclosed amount in January 2011.[10] As CEO of both, Joel has successfully built and continues to lead Groupon Malaysia and Groupon Taiwan into one of the largest e-commerce businesses in the region.[11]
As of 1 November 2011, Groupon Malaysia and Groupon Taiwan has over 3,000,000 subscribers and employs over 300 employees.[12]
[edit] The Firm
Joel Neoh was one of the candidates for Malaysia's first corporate reality television programme, The Firm (season 1) in 2007, and was the youngest of the 10 contestants.[13] The youth entrepreneur, at 24, was placed alongside other corporate executives in dealing with various disciplines in business. The competition was judged by notable business owners, Peter Pek, Chan Boon Yong and Tengku Zafrul Aziz. Joel was announced as winner at the season finale, after a duel with 30 year old entrepreneur Ernie Chen.[14]
[edit] Model
Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Joel spent his free time during undergraduate years as a fashion model. He has strutted down the runway for various global fashion brands including Guess, Esprit, Adidas, Nike, Quiksilver and Levi's.[4]
Joel was also frequently featured in fashion lifestyle magazines including Men's Health, FHM, New Man, August Man, CLEO, Female, Seventeen, Marie Claire and has been interviewed by prominent publications in Malaysia including The Star, New Straits Times, Malay Mail, The Sun.[4]
[edit] Community Involvement
Joel is the Organizing Chairperson for the public fundraising charity event, One Heart Two Causes Three Reasons. Proceeds of this charity event went to several charity and non-profit organizations, namely the Tsunami Charity Event and Tsunami Victims Fund Raising, Malaysian AIDS Foundation Charity Show, Male Cancer Awareness Campaign, Kiwanis Club of Bukit Bandaraya Charity Auction and The Force of Nature Aid Foundation.[15][16]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupon-facebook-twitter-next-web-phenom.html
- ^ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Men%27s_Health_Oct_2007_(Cover).jpg
- ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2011/8/21/nation/8834389
- ^ a b c http://www.joelneoh.com
- ^ http://joelneoh.blogspot.com/2007/11/youth-friendly-company-of-2007.html
- ^ http://www.theyouthfestival.com/conferences/
- ^ http://www.malaysiantoday.com.my/node/1474
- ^ http://www.theyouthfestival.com/images/press-nst1.jpg
- ^ http://www.asiamediamonitors.com/insights/blogs/categories/blog-global-connections/the-malaysia-public-relations-awards-2010
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.entrepreneurs.my/who-is-the-new-boss-of-groupon-malaysia-and-what-are-his-views/
- ^ http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/09/15/groupon-malaysia/
- ^ The Star Online eCentral: Victorious Joel
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firm_%28TV_series%29
- ^ http://ecentral.my/services/sprinterfriendly.asp?file=/2007/8/27/tvnradio/18673349&sec=tvnradio
- ^ http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2007/6/29/central/18128843&sec=central
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