Our Team

Maozi Chen
BSc MSc (Bristol) CMgr FCMI | Managing Director

Maozi is from Zhejiang, China, and has lived in the UK since 2002. She is well versed with the British Education system and is accredited by the British Council as an advanced education agent. She has guided thousands of international students on education options in the UK, and have inspired them to achieve their dreams.

Before founding TopCourses in 2018, Maozi worked as the Operations Director in a leading global education organization in London for 7 years, where she liaised extensively with UK schools and universities, and gained senior management and leadership experience. She holds the Chartered Fellowship at the Chartered Management Institute. She is currently studying a Master’s Degree at University of Cambridge Judge Business School. In her spare time, she enjoys voluntary and charity activities and being a public tour guide for the British Museum.

Saratha Shan
LLB(Hons), MA, MCIPD | Business Manager

Saratha joins us as our Business Manager. She brings with her over 30 years of work experience in the public and private sectors. She has held senior roles in Human Resources and Business Management for many years and has a diverse skillset acquired from across a range of industries. Having studied law and employment law, her specialism is in employment relations which she has used in effecting smooth organisational and resourcing changes for businesses.

She has been working as an HR and Business Consultant for a range of clients for a few years and some of her successes during her varied career have included the creation and management of an HR Director Network for global HR Directors from FTSE 100 companies; significant benefits restructure for a hospitality company with offices in three continents; organisational wide change under a Private Finance Initiative for a London Local Authority and successful management of the first outsourced Facilities Management contract for Mouchel Consulting at their headquarters in West Byfleet (Engineering company) which has now been bought by WSP Global.

George Callaghan
BA MA (Oxon) LLB, CELTA, TEFL | Oxbridge and Public School Specialist

George graduated from Eton College and received Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in History from University of Oxford. George has been in the education sector since 2002, and has English teaching qualifications such as TEFL and CELTA. He is an examiner in English language GCSE. George’s personality is genial and buoyant. He has published a book on tuition. At Topcourses, George is preparing high calibre students applying to top boarding schools and universities.

Dr. Adrian Cheng
MBBS LLM MD FRCP (Imperial College London) | UK Public School and Medicine specialist

Dr. Cheng attended St. Paul’s School before studying Medicine at King’s College London, and then being awarded MD (Doctor of Medicine) from Imperial College London for his research at University of Oxford. He works for the NHS as a Consultant Cardiologist. In 2016, he received the prestigious Fellowship from Royal College of Physicians. At Topcourses®, he prepares high calibre candidates for entry into top boarding schools and medical schools.

Pornapa Ongrattanasenee
BA MBA (De Montfort University, Leicester) CMI | Marketing Manager

Pornapa is a Thai national and a Global MBA graduate from De Montfort University, Leicester. She works with TopCourses® as a marketing officer developing acquisition strategies and maintaining communication across all channels and platforms. She also handles activations, and helps to run the Topcourses® Student Ambassador Program. Previously, Pornapa has worked in the marketing and advertising field for five years at Unilever and Dentsu Aegis Network in Thailand.

Ruirui Zeng
MA English language and Linguistics (Newcastle University) | Leicester Office Manager

Ruirui has started to work with Topcourses since 2018 dealing with business development management and customer liaison. She has detailed knowledge of the American, Chinese and British educational systems, with experience of senior management in a Chinese education agent and a position as managing director of an American education consultancy company.

Ruirui has worked with people from many different backgrounds and nationalities, and has helped hundreds of students achieve their dream school offers. She edited and compiled a book on how to choose American universities which was published in 2016.

Haiyi Liu
MA (University of Leicester) | Leicester Office Marketing Manager

Haiyi is from Guangdong, China. She finished her undergraduate and graduate studies both in UK universities. Haiyi has been working with students for their UK schools applications for a few years. And she established a good rapport with all the students, dedicated to helping them achieve their education goals. With a degree of major in Media, she has been skilled at social media marketing.

Xingyu Tao
BA MA (University of Bath) | Senior Education Advisor

Xingyu is from Hubei, China. After she received her masters degree in International Education and Globalisation from University of Bath, she started to work for TopCourses® as an Education Consultant in 2020. She has a great passion for education. Before she moved to the UK in 2018, she has had a varied experience in a Chinese education agency for 3 years where she had been entrusted with responsible positions in an multicultural workplace, such as managing university student’s educational activities and assisting them to achieve their academic purpose in learning English.

Yihan Yang
MSc (University of Manchester) | Education Advisor (China) 

Yihan Yang is from Guizhou, China. She started to work in the education consulting industry in the UK after she got her master degree from University of Manchester in 2020. She joined TopCourses as an Education Advisor in 2022. Yihan has 1.5 years experience in helping international students to study and work in the UK and giving international students advice through professional consultations. She also has a passion for marketing and she operates multiple channels that aim to help international students in the UK.

Regina Jiang
BA MA (Durham University) | Social Media Assistant (China)

Regina Jiang is from Shandong, China. She is currently doing her master degree in International Relations at Durham University, she works for TopCourses as a media assistant in 2021. She has expertise in media with an International Journalism BA and has 3 years’ experience with writing across a variety of platforms. Regina manages Chinese social media for TopCourses, mainly targeting Chinese marketing.

Vivian Wong
BA (City University of Hong Kong) | Social Media Marketing Executive (Hong Kong)

Vivian is from Hong Kong and moved to the UK in 2020. She is an e-commerce and digital marketing professional with an Information System BA and has over 3 years’ experience in highly competitive industries. She possess all-round experience in digital sales & marketing, including social media marketing, content creation and retention marketing. Vivian joined TopCourses® in 2021 and works as a social media marketing executive, mainly managing Hong Kong social media. She has also been dedicated to providing professional guidance and support to the students who wish to study in the UK. 

Saki Gupta
BSc MSc (University of Sheffield) | Senior Education Advisor (East Asia)  

Saki is originally from Tokyo, Japan and has lived in the UK since 2014. She has been in the international education sector for years since graduation from the university and gained a great amount of knowledge and experience. She worked as Managing Consultant at one of the leading education agencies in the world for 3 years where she supported hundreds of students placed in their chosen universities. She then took a role of Senior International Officer at a leading UK university in Arts. Her role involved recruiting international students mainly from far East Asia and UK domiciled students as well as supporting existing international students at the campus.  

Dr. Audrey Xue
BSc, MSc (Edinburgh), PhD (UBC, Canada) | Business Development Executive (North America)

Dr. Xue spent 6 years in the British post-secondary education system before pursuing her PhD in Canada. She has taught high school to university level students in a wide range of subjects from science, arts to economics and statistics (data science). She is addicted to learning and understands the benefit of global experience, personally and professionally. She’s been to over 15 countries, studied in China, U.K., Canada, conducted field trips in Belize, Peruvian Amazonia, England, Scotland and Canada. Audrey is an effective communicator, a good listener, and will work with you to design the best strategies for TopCourses to partner with your organization and school, So that we can offer the most exciting U.K. educational experience for students from North America.

Lukas Bruell
BSc (Warwick Business School), MSc (Cambridge, Imperial College), BPP Law School | UK Consulting and Finance Career Coach

Lukas has a rich experience in the consulting and finance industry. He has worked at top firms such as Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Credit Suisse and McKinsey. Currently, Lukas is the CEO and founder of two companies in the consulting sector. The first company, MergerSightGroup, is a financial research company, specialising in M&A deals. The second company, Lifewill, is an Edutech application aiming to reduce student dropouts at universities. His partnership and role with TopCourses is to coach prospective graduates on their finance and consulting careers in the UK.

Karina Thorne
BA MA (University of Nottingham) CELTA, COLT | IELTS & Academic English Tutor

Karina is from London, England, and with a strong interest in other cultures has spent time learning languages in France, Spain and China. Following ten years working in Finance at the beginning of her career, Karina then pivoted towards teaching and now has 10 years of English Language tutoring under her belt. She specialises in preparing students for English Language exams as well as university life in the UK through Academic Skills training. Her engaging lessons are tailored to individual student needs and integrate her passions for creativity, digital technology and diverse/inclusive learning

Bradly Kneisel
BSc MSc (Imperial College London) | Science Tutor

Bradly has a first-class Biochemistry degree from Imperial College London and ten years’ tutoring experience. He is an American who was educated at the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later at Salem State University. While studying at Imperial College London, he tutored many science subjects. After graduation, he worked for two years as a full-time tutor in Warsaw, where he developed and delivered full IB and A-level courses in chemistry, biology, mathematics, and physics. At Topcourses®, Bradley tutors science subjects.