Dr. Michael

Dr. Michael Bakalis serves as AmBest Education’s Chairman for the Board of Directors and the President, CEO, and founder of American Quality Schools. He has previously served as the Deputy Undersecretary in the United States Department of Education and as the Illinois State Superintendent of Education. His academic career includes service as faculty of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, assistant dean at Northern Illinois University, dean of the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago, and as President of Triton College. Since 1999 he has worked with over 20 public and private charter schools to provide a full range of services including H.R. and management training, student enrollment and school establishment and strategic planning, US INTER EDU school accreditation and legal counseling.

Tao Wang

Tao Wang is Founder, President and CEO of Meidi Intl Group which includes 4 divisions: AmBest Education, Mag Vacations, Midwest Charter and Tours, Meidi MICE. He currently holds two master’s degrees from Northeastern University of Finance (MA in Corporate Finance) and Loyola University Chicago (MS in Computer Science). For nearly 20 years he has been involved with China-U.S. bilateral tourism, business, INTER EDU student summer camp and teacher training programs. He established Mag Vacations and AmBest Education which serve as the largest Chinese travel agency and INTER EDU student educational organization in the U.S. Midwest. He also currently serves as the President of Chamber of Commerce of Northeastern Chinese in Chicago.

Lin Wu

Lin Wu is the Executive Director of Meidi Intl’ Group (China). He holds a MA from Northeastern University of Finance and a MBA from Yale University. He has worked in China Development Bank and the world’s top 500 investment banks for more than 10 years and has extensive experience in the field of investment and finance. By virtue of his bilateral educational background, Lin has provided AmBest Education with extensive support in our INTER EDU education projects, foreign teacher recruitment and management, Chinese youth study abroad and college advising.

Mr. Leo J. Athas

Mr. Leo J. Athas is our legal advisor. Mr. Arthas is a recognized authority on education law with more than 30 years experience in the field. He consults to more than 400 independent and public schools nationwide and represents educational entities in all aspects of their daily operations. He is the only person who has ever served as General Council and Chief Legal Officer to both the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Illinois State Board of Education.

Mrs. Patricia B. Yadgir

Mrs. Patricia B. Yadgir is our chief administrative officer for school management. She is responsible for our K-12 schools daily operations and management. She coordinates the PRO DEV development for teachers and staff and oversees the Career and Character education programs for all schools. With over 25 years of experience in education, Ms. Yadgir has taught at the early education and higher education levels and holds a Master's Degree in Education from Northern Illinois University.

Mr. Valentino Colantuono

Mrs. Patricia B. Yadgir is our chief administrative officer for school management. She is responsible for our K-12 schools daily operations and management. She coordinates the PRO DEV development for teachers and staff and oversees the Career and Character education programs for all schools. With over 25 years of experience in education, Ms. Yadgir has taught at the early education and higher education levels and holds a Master's Degree in Education from Northern Illinois University.

Ms. Judy Zhao

Ms. Judy Zhao is VP for Project Development. Judy received her MBA from University of Illinois at Chicago. She has a great passion on Intl’ Education Exchange. Since joining us, Judy has been working with more than 20 secondary schools and Universities in the Midwest US area and developed handful short term exchange, study and PD programs for Chinese students, teachers and PRO DEVs. Our unique Summer Camps, Winter Classroom Immersion Programs, STEAM Camps, NASA Camps, Teacher and PRO DEV Training programs are extremely welcomed by our partner schools and institutions in China.

Ms. Grace Gao

Ms. Grace Gao, Director of AmBest China. Grace graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a master's degree in engineering. Since 2012, she has been playing a few very important rolls in our two divisions, Mag Vacations and Am Best Education. She is an expert in travelling arrangement in the United States for tourists, business PRO DEVs and young students from China; she is also supervising our operation and sales team in China. Over past a few years, she has successfully bring many Chinese student groups to the United States. Combining her own experience applying for and studying in IIT, she also provided Chinese young students personal instructions to get accepted by top Universities of USA.

Amanda Zhang

Amanda Zhang is GM of Mag Vacations Chicago and she is in charge of the operation team for student travelling arrangement from tickets, hotels, guides, meals and land transportations to camp registration and management. She is working with over 20 of our partner schools in both US and China to take American students to China and bring Chinese students to the USA. Before joining us, she served as a English national guide in China guiding English speaking groups from all over the world traveling to China. She now also assists the CEO of Meidi Intl’ group to build different business partnerships.

Andrew Dickson

Andrew Dickson serves as Ambest Education’s Project Manager. Andrew is a graduate of Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN with a degree in Chinese history and Chinese language. Fluent in Mandarin, Andrew has extensive experience living and traveling in China and Asia and is deeply passionate about the culture. Andrew has leveraged his Mandarin abilities in a number of PRO DEV capacities including teaching as an ESL teacher and working at a Chinese American immigration history museum. He hopes to continue learning and traveling whenever possible.

Lisa Zhang

Lisa Zhang, is our program coordinator and visa specialist. She graduated from Southern Cross University in Australia with BA in tourism management. Since graduation, she has been engaged in America tourism and study tours for many years. With strong communication skills and group management experience, Lisa is a leader chaperon of our America study tour groups. She is also an expert on US visa application for both visiting and student visas. Patient and caring, she has a great passion working with young students to ensure that they can really integrate into the learning life of the United States.

Henan Xu

Henan Xu, is our STEAM education program manager. He graduated from Dublin Institute of Technology in the major of Computer Science. After completing his studies, he worked at the Institute of Bioinformatics in the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and the ING Bank Ireland Branch. Before joining us in 2015, he had more than 8 years working experience in the Royal Bank of Scotland as a IT project manager. During many years of living, studying and working in Europe, Henan has his unique view about the culture and life of western countries, and rich experience in school choices and job applications abroad. He is using his strong IT background to lead our STEAM education program in China.