Xu Bo Staff

Jiong (Jessie) Duanmu, Founder/Director - Jiong (Jessie) Duanmu has been working with international students, volunteers and interns for five years. She obtained her Master's degree in Education in the UK and has taught English and Mandarin in primary and secondary schools for 9 years. She is the founder of Shanghai Xu Bo Art and Culture Exchange and Xu Bo (Singapore) Art and Culture Exchange. She loves working with international students, volunteers and interns from all over the world. Every time when volunteers and interns came to her and said “Thank you”, “You are life changer”, “China is my home!”, when the teachers or students said “having lessons with volunteers, we are more interested in English learning” “our teachers are so touched by your volunteers”, all these made Jessie working even harder. She felt she made the difference. The world is getting smaller and closer because of international, high school students programs, volunteer and intern programs. In her holiday time, she has a great love for travel and has been to France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Canada, USA, South Africa, Norway, Ireland, UK, Morocco, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brussels and Australia. In free time, she enjoys cooking, dancing, Chinese instrument, golf, table tennis and swimming.

Ken Jones, Program Development - Ken lives in Shanghai with his wife, Marianne Ye Donghua, two computers and several potted plants. He brings to us the benefit of 15 years of retail management and customer service experience after a career in the communications/electronics branch of the US military. Ken's hobbies include tinkering with little shiny boxes, experimenting with Amateur Radio and watching TED videos. He came to China as a visitor to Shanghai's Expo 2010, stayed to volunteer--and later to work--as an English teacher at one of Chong Ming's Senior Middle Schools, then joined Xu Bo in autumn 2011. In Xu Bo's program development effort, he hopes to help make what works work better while investigating new culture exchange opportunities for our overseas friends.

JieYu (Dora) Feng Program Coordinator - For the past three years, Dora worked as a teacher at one of Xu Bo’s partner schools in Shanghai. During that time she also served as supervisor for our Xu Bo’s volunteers at the school. For the last two years, she has also served as Xubo's Mandarin teacher for all of our program participants and they always had positive feedback about her lessons, giving her high praise. In August of 2011, she left her job at the school and joined us to become Xu Bo's program coordinator here at our Shanghai office. At present, she is looking after our high school exchange students, our volunteers and our interns here in China. She loves her new job very much. She likes reading books and newspapers during her spare time. She says that working at Xu Bo makes her feel happy and she is really enjoying her time with us.

BeiBei (Elva) Wang, Marketing & Sales Coordinator - BeiBei (Elva) lived and studied in Ireland for seven years and graduated from Griffith College of Ireland, obtaining a Master's in Digital Media. She returned to China for preparation and operation of the Ireland Pavilion at World EXPO 2010 and fell in love with the city of Shanghai. She believes experience is extremely important and greatly values her seven years of overseas experience. It has not only broadened her horizons and understanding of different cultures, but also cultivated a positive attitude towards life and sense of responsibility. During her time in Ireland, she actively participated in and organized various activities of an Association of Chinese students, enriching the lives of overseas Chinese students. She is pleased to join the Xu Bo family and hopes to grow with it.

Zou Xiaoqian, Office Assistant - Xiaoqian Zou studied in Ireland from 2003 to 2009. She got her Masters and Bachelor (hons) degrees in Dublin, and came back to China in 2010. In 2010, she worked as one of the 45 participants at the Ireland Pavilion during Shanghai EXPO. She told us that she really enjoyed the time working on the EXPO site and that it helped her to make many friends from different countries. She says ‘it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in my life and I was also really happy to see the development of our country’. She joined Shanghai Xu Bo Culture Exchange during the spring of 2011 and is working as an office assistant in our Shanghai Office. She hopes that she will get the opportunity to meet more friends from all over the world. She really appreciates being a member of the Xu Bo family and hopes she will grow along with the company.

John Millspaugh, Webmaster - John built and maintains the Xu Bo website. He is a retired software engineer from the USA who discovered Xu Bo as a volunteer teacher in 2008 and again in 2010. John believes strongly in the Xu Bo mission and enjoys making what's happening there available on the web. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Grace and four cats and has one son, Michael. He is currently volunteering as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at an organization near home. He enjoys woodworking projects, playing Blackjack in Atlantic City, traveling and spending time with his family. In 2012, he plans to teach English in Peru and is studying Spanish to prepare for that. He plans to stay involved with Xu Bo and will undoubtedly return to volunteer in China again.