Who we are
When our founder, Professor Joon Nak Choi (JC) was tired from grading hundreds of essays for his courses, he realized he could leverage cutting-edge AI to increase the efficiency of the grading process, but most importantly enhance fairness. He envisioned a human-in-the-loop process where an educator could grade and comment on an entire class’s essays all at once with the push of a button, and refine the output of each essay to provide consistent feedback and grading in a fraction of the time. Now, we provide schools, universities, and learning centers with this state-of-the-art technology, reinventing essay grading for teachers everywhere.
Joon Nak Choi (JC)
Founder and CEO
PhD, STANFORD
JC currently teaches at HKUST as an adjunct professor & advises the MSc in Business Analytics; he has also taught at Stanford and NYU Shanghai. JC’s research has been widely cited by media including the South China Morning Post, MIT Technology Review, & Sina. JC has an excellent track record as a teacher & founded Learnovate to address the pain points he and his colleagues encountered.
Iain Reed
Co-Founder & CFO
MA, CAMBRIDGE
Originally from the UK, Iain has lived more than half of his life in Asia. He spent the 90’s as an equity analyst with BZW, SG and CLSA before founding EFA – a fintech SAAS business serving the sell-side investment research industry – in 2003. After growing that business in Asia and EMEA he stepped back to focus on angel investing in 2011. He now spends his time as a board member, CFO, CTO and advisor to a number of businesses in fintech, AI and sustainability in Hong Kong, London and New York.
Ivy Shi
Business Development Lead
Senior Instructional Designer and Founder of Learnmonade
MSc IT Education
Ivy collaborates with teachers to integrate new technologies into their classrooms. She hosts Edtech HK, has previously lectured at HKU, and instructs a UNESCO Teacher-AI literacy training program.
Kylie Chung
Head of Product
BA, GOLDSMITHS
Kylie has been with Learnovate from the beginning and now oversees the continuing design & development of Learnovate’s products.
Aritro Mukherji
Technical Analyst
BA, HKUST
Aritro’s previous experience is in consulting and finance. Aritro oversees the technical and financial aspect of Learnovate’s products.
Mark Cohen
Data Scientist
PhD, New York University
Mark left a career as an academic sociologist to become a data scientist. He combines his experience as a university teacher with his knowledge of machine learning and AI to help build Learnovate’s tools for teachers.
Sneha Lalwani
School Accounts Manager
BA, HKBU
Sneha is an instructional designer with experience in business and education. She aims to teach people how to use GenAI for their benefit.