Joel Neoh Eu-Jin
Joel Neoh Eu-Jin
![]() Joel profile picture at Groupon MY HQ | |
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Born |
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 11 October 1983
Nationality | Malaysian |
Education | Harvard Business School, Monash University |
Occupation | International Vice President of Groupon Asia-Pacific |
Years active | 2006–present |
Joel Neoh Eu-Jin is a Malaysian entrepreneur, speaker and investor. He is best known for his role as the founder of Groupon Malaysia and currently serves as the International Vice President of Groupon Asia Pacific.[1]
At the age of 20, his first business venture was a fast-growing student agency set-up.[2] In 2007 he participated in The Firm, Malaysia's first corporate reality television programme produced by Popiah Pictures and ntv7 and became the show's inaugural winner.[3] In 2008 he started a business venture called Youth Asia, a social technology company known for the creation of a few technology startups, including YouthSays (which later on rebranded itself to Says Sdn Bhd) and GroupsMore, which later on joined Groupon via acquisition in 2010.[4]
In 2012 he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Emerging Entrepreneur category in Malaysia. He was named as one of Asia's Top 10 entrepreneurs [5] as well as Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum in 2013.[6]
Early life & Education
Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Neoh is the youngest son of two educationists. Neoh graduated as one of the top 3 students from his course in Monash University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005, and is a Monash scholarship holder.[7] Before that, he completed his South Australian Matriculation at Taylor's College where he was a scholarship holder with an average of 94.45%.[8] At university, Neoh won the annual Warman student Design-and-Build Competition. Neoh is also a former national representative for rock climbing and squash.[9] Neoh is currently completing his executive education at Harvard Business School.
Career
Modelling
Neoh was a fashion model during his adolescent years. He walked the runway for various brands in Malaysia, such as Guess, Esprit, Adidas, Nike, Quiksilver and Levi's. During his modelling stint Neoh was also frequently featured in fashion lifestyle magazines including Men's Health, FHM, New Man, August Man, CLEO, Female, Seventeen, Marie Claire and has been interviewed by local publications in Malaysia including The Star, New Straits Times, Malay Mail, and The Sun.
The Firm
Neoh is the winner Malaysia's first corporate reality television programme The Firm (Season 1) in 2007, and was the youngest of 10 contestants at the age of 23.[10]
Youth Asia
Neoh's first startup was a student agency which matched fresh graduates with employers.[11] In 2008 he started a business venture called Youth Asia, responsible for running its flagship annual youth event, The Youth Festival - Malaysia's Largest Youth Festival. The Festival was known as YOUTH'08, YOUTH'09 and YOUTH'10 respectively, and gathered over 100,000 young Malaysians within 3 years.[12]
SAYS.com
Neoh's team started YouthSays Sdn Bhd, an online youth opinion community under the Youth Asia umbrella. The company was responsible for a few other flagship events and campaigns, including Southeast Asia Youths for Change (SEAChange), a 2 days summit held in Putrajaya International Convention Center, Kuala Lumpur. Some of the speakers involved in SEAChange were Biz Stone, Garry Kasparov and Randi Zuckerberg.[13] YouthSays later rebranded as SAYS.com and joined Catcha Media in a merger in 2013.[14]
Rev Asia
As a result of SAYS.com merger with Catcha Media, Neoh was appointed to the board of directors of the newly rebranded Rev Asia as a non executive director [15]
Groupon
In August 2010, Neoh's team in Youth Asia started GroupsMore, a social e-commerce startup mimicking the Groupon business model. Within 4 months, the company joined Groupon via acquisition in an undisclosed amount, and rebranded itself to Groupon Malaysia.[16]
Neoh served as CEO of Groupon Malaysia. In 2012, his role expanded to the Taiwan market, where he stood in as CEO of Groupon Taiwan on top of his role in Malaysia.[17] He later on stepped up to be the Regional Lead for the Southeast Asian markets, responsible for operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and India. In 2013, Neoh became the Vice President of Groupon Asia-Pacific, directly responsible for the 12 markets: Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.[18]
Investments
In September 2014, it was reported that Neoh was part of a group of investors who invested $750,000 in Snaptee, an app that let users turn their smartphone photos into T-shirt designs.[19]
Awards & Recognitions
In 2012, Neoh was named as Ernst & Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the year.[20] He was also named as World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader in 2013. Top 10 of Asia magazine has also named him as one of the Top 10 Young Entrepreneurs in Asia.[21] Neoh was also awarded the Malaysian Service Medal by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.[22]
He's currently appointed as a line-up speaker The London Speaker Bureau and Asian Business Angel Forum in 2012. Neoh now also serves on the Advisory Board for the School of Business, Monash University.[23]
References
- ↑ "Malaysian takes up regional role for Groupon". 12 July 2012.
- ↑ "Joel Neoh, Groupon Buying Giant". 25 November 2013.
- ↑ "Joel Neoh, Founder of Groupon Malaysia: 'Go big or go home'". 23 June 2014.
- ↑ "Groupon extends reach with acquisition of GroupsMore". 26 January 2011.
- ↑ "Asia's Top 10".
- ↑ "Joel Neoh, Groupon Buying Giant". 25 November 2013.
- ↑ "Joel: Monash Graduate'".
- ↑ http://alumni.taylors.edu.my/page.aspx?pid=546. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - ↑ http://my.asiatatler.com/people/joel-neoh-ceo-of-groupon-malaysia. Missing or empty
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(help) - ↑ http://www.londonspeakerbureau.com/my/speakers/joel_neoh
- ↑ "Joel Neoh, Founder of Groupon Malaysia: 'Go big or go home'". 23 June 2014.
- ↑ "Malaysia's Largest Youth Festival". 29 May 2010.
- ↑ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/5/nation/4833136
- ↑ http://www.digitalmarket.asia/catcha-media-berhad-forms-rev-asia-as-one-of-malaysias-largest-digital-media-groups/
- ↑ http://says.com/my/news/says-and-catcha-media-berhad-announce-intention-to-combine-leaders
- ↑ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110125006969/en/Groupon-Expands-Southeast-Asia-Offering-Deals-Malaysia
- ↑ http://www.top10asia.org/10YoungEntrepreneurs.php
- ↑ http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/People/2013/11/25/Joel-Neoh-groupon-buying-giant.aspx/
- ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/02/t-shirt-design-app-snaptee-raises-750000-in-additional-funding/
- ↑ http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/News_release_20121206/$FILE/News%20release%20MY%2020121206%20-%20Dr%20Chia%20Song%20Kun%20of%20QL%20Resources%20named%20the%20Malaysian%20EY%20Entrepreneur%20of%20the%20Year%202012.pdf
- ↑ http://www.top10asia.org/10YoungEntrepreneurs.php
- ↑ http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/People/2013/11/25/Joel-Neoh-groupon-buying-giant.aspx/
- ↑ http://www.monash.edu.my/study/why/graduates/joel