Education

Yu Minhong

Founder, New Oriental Education & Technology Group | China

For bottling and selling the dream of study abroad to a generation of Chinese students.

That’ll show the Americans. Yu Minhong had desperately wanted to go to a U.S. graduate school in his youth, but after being denied a visa, the peasant’s son instead turned into a test-prep guru by founding a multimillion-dollar company that has helped hundreds of thousands to study overseas. Yu has often made glowing speeches about studying in the United States to his students, but his own story has inspired many to pursue the Chinese Dream instead.