Our team

When you partner with Eastern Bridge, you gain access to a robust and proficient team, dedicated to achieving your goals.

Our Team

Our leadership team

Simon Appleton

CEO
Joined: 2014
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Simon founded Eastern Bridge in 2014 after seeing the disconnect between local government's ambitions to be internationally engaged and their ability to do so in an efficent and cost affective manner. Simon has a Masters in Chinese Law and speaks Mandarin and Korea. He has worked in the media, education and local government sectors.

Wenhua Yang

Director of International Education
Joined: 2023
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Wenhua was a journalist and public affairs executive before migrating to New Zealand in 1998. Since then, Wenhua worked as a senior policy analyst at the Ministry of Education, leading the development of the legislative and regulatory framework for NZ international education. During 2018 -2023 Wenhua served as the Regional Manager of Learning Hawke’s Bay – a regional body promoting international education. Wenhua now leads the development of international education business for Eastern Bridge Education.

Yao Hongze

Director of administration and finance
Joined: 2022
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Yao is one of the founding members of Eastern Bridge Education. Yao has a background in business and finance.

Tim Bloor

Director of Domestic Education
Joined: 2022
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Tim is one of the founding partners of Eastern Bridge Education. Tim has extensive experiance in education, having run Land Based Training, a private training enterprise's Hawke's Bay campus for many years.

Ada Wang

Immigration (China)
Joined: 2022
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Ada has practiced law for 20 years, with long term practicing and researching in the fields of Company Law on Cooperation, Investment and M&A, Intellectual Property Law as well as International Trade and Commerce.

Peter Guy

Adviser
Joined: 2015
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Peter is a long time adviser to Eastern Bridge. With over 20 years experiance in China, Peter brings a wealth of knowelge about working in Asia to the company.

Cole Atkinson

Director of Digital
Joined: 2015
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Cole has spent over a decade as a software developer and coder. He is the project lead of Hongi and responsible for Eastern Bridge's digital infrastructre.