Toby Chu is the Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Global Education Communities Corp. (GEC Corp.), headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Since founding the company in 1994, Mr. Chu has grown GEC Corp. into a global enterprise with business locations in Canada and internationally.
In its early years, Mr. Chu launched the company’s expansion by establishing the CIBT School of Business & Technology Corp., which was rebranded as GEC Corp. in 2023. Today, GEC Corp. operates a network of student housing properties, joint educational programs in Asia, and recruitment offices worldwide.
To further his vision of global education, Mr. Chu acquired Sprott Shaw College in 2007—one of Canada’s largest and oldest private career colleges, founded in 1903. Under his leadership, Sprott Shaw expanded to 16 campuses across British Columbia and became the academic backbone of GEC Corp.’s future growth. By 2020, the college had evolved into a diverse institution serving over 10,000 domestic and international students. In 2025, GEC successfully divested the asset, realizing a substantial return on investment.
In 2010, Mr. Chu led the $4.3 million acquisition and restructuring of King George International College (KGIC), one of Canada’s largest English language training schools. KGIC became a key component of GEC Corp.’s global recruitment and language education strategy. After a successful reorganization, Mr. Chu sold KGIC for $13.5 million three years later. In 2017, he reacquired its assets for $3.1 million and rebranded it as SSLC Language College. In 2024, GEC Corp.’s education platform was serving over students from more than 79 countries annually. In 2026, Mr. Chu divested this asset and focused his attention on expanding the company’s student housing portfolio.
In 2014, Mr. Chu launched GEC Corp.’s student housing division, Global Education City (GEC), acquiring hotels, serviced apartments, and development properties to build North America’s first Education Super Center and Education Mega Center. Leveraging GEC Corp.’s robust student pipeline from 79 countries and partnerships with 90+ schools across Metro Vancouver, the housing division experienced rapid growth. The real estate portfolio, including its development pipeline, expanded to $1.3 billion, encompassing 14 buildings in the region.
Mr. Chu has received numerous accolades throughout his career. In 1993, he was named one of Canada’s “Top 40 Business People Under 40”. The following year, he was selected as one of the top 30 finalists among 300 nominees for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2015, he received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs.
Under Mr. Chu’s management, GEC Corp. earned the following recognitions during the past thirty two years:
Chris Ho is an accomplished finance professional with extensive leadership experience in capital markets, equity research, and corporate finance. Before joining GEC in early 2024, Chris spent over 12 years working across Asia as an Institutional Research Analyst, Equity Analyst, and Vice President of Institutional Research for a well-known Asia-based securities dealer and investment banking firm.
Throughout his career, Chris has developed deep expertise across the corporate finance lifecycle, including institutional equity research, financial analysis, investor relations, and supporting companies through pre-Initial Public Offerings (IPO) and capital markets activities.
Chris holds a Master of Finance degree from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University and is a CFA charterholder.
Betty Liang is Executive Director, Corporate Finance, where she works across corporate finance, business development, strategic partnerships and investment initiatives in support of GEC’s expanding real estate portfolio and corporate growth.
Prior to joining GEC, Betty founded and led a Vancouver-based real estate investment and development company, delivering more than $96 million of residential and mixed-use projects. Over more than a decade, she has overseen the full development lifecycle from land acquisition, feasibility analysis and financing to municipal approvals, construction and project delivery. Her experience spans townhomes, multi-family communities, complex land assemblies, heritage retention and urban redevelopment projects throughout Metro Vancouver.
Today, Betty combines her entrepreneurial background in real estate development with her growing experience in corporate finance and investment strategy. She works closely with lenders, equity partners, consultants and internal stakeholders on development financing, project evaluation and capital planning, helping advance GEC’s growing portfolio of student housing developments and broader corporate initiatives.
Betty holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace Engineering from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).
Vicki is a seasoned financial leader with over 15 years of corporate accounting and leadership experience. Since joining GEC Group in early 2023, she has overseen the company’s financial operations across its diverse portfolio, spanning active operating properties to ongoing development and construction ventures.
Before GEC Group, Vicki honed her expertise as an Assistant Controller and Vice President of Finance for two prominent corporations based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In her current role, she leads an internal team of accountants and collaborates closely with external financial advisors to ensure rigorous financial oversight and streamlined consolidated reporting.
Vicki holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from the University of Manitoba, bringing a data-driven, analytical approach to financial management and strategic planning.
Alan Sye has been providing accounting services to the Campany as an external consultant since 2023. Alan is a CPA, CA with over 20 years of international experience in the mining and resource industry. He has held progressively senior roles at global mining companies, including management positions at BHP and South32. His expertise includes financial reporting, financial and corporate risk management, corporate strategy and planning, investment evaluation and ERP transformations. Alan articled at Deloitte LLP in Vancouver, providing assurance, financial advisory and tax services.
Emily Liu is an education professional with over 16 years of experience spanning K–12 and higher education in both the public and private sectors. She is skilled in student engagement, student recruitment, institutional partnership development, and project management. Before joining GEC Corp, Emily worked in the public sector, focusing on international student recruitment and corporate training projects. Passionate about connecting people to real-world opportunities through education, she is dedicated to empowering students and strengthening the global education community.
Brendan Lee is a driven and well-qualified business development, corporate entrepreneurship and sales executive with broad experience in Post Secondary Education. Brendan has been with Global Education Communities Corp. for over 16 years of direct experience planning, leading and executing growth strategies and leading diverse sales teams.
His role at GEC is responsible for setting revenue targets and marketing goals. His duties include developing B2B, forecasting sales strategies and overseeing student, market and commercial leasing.
Mr. Paul Williams has significant experience in complex real estate. He has specialized in gaining development approvals for complicated development entitlements.
Mr. Williams has more than 25 years of commercial real estate experience and served as the Vice President of a premier Canadian real estate development company involved in dozens of high-rise developments. He was a former board member of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, where he oversaw their $100M expansion. Mr. Williams is currently an advisor to the City of Vancouver’s Advisory Committee on Green Building Strategy. He is past Chair of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Mr. Donald Yen Architect AIBC, is the Principal of Urban Solutions Architecture Ltd. (USAL), located in Vancouver, BC. Mr. Yen founded USAL in 1997 and has since focused the firm’s practice in the areas of; land-use planning & municipal approval processes, architectural & urban design, and in building & facility planning, all with the focus of delivering the technical design and construction quality standards expected on significant projects.
His firm, USAL, works with both private sector clients and public sector clients and has developed unique expertise with student-focused projects in urban settings. Donald is highly-skilled and experienced with complex municipal and community stakeholder approvals processes, and is experienced in balancing the user group needs, with the client’s perspectives, along with technical and budgetary considerations, while advancing the project forward in an expeditious professional manner.
Mr. Yen is fully experienced with codes, construction contracts, technical standards, material specifications, and best practices in construction and is well known in the industry. His professional experience is augmented by his former faculty and leadership roles at the BC Institute of Technology, where he led Programs in Sustainable Urban Development (SUD), Building Technology (ABET), and Architectural CAD & Graphics (ASCT). Mr. Yen also developed and taught courses such as Construction Contracts, Construction Management, BC Building Codes, and Construction Materials & Assembly, amongst others. On behalf of BCIT, Mr. Yen was responsible for establishing joint research in sustainable building technologies and graduate-level programs with UBC, SFU, and ECUAD. He was BCIT’s Campus-planning representative for the Great Northern Way Campus.
With his unique blend of experience and as a Principal Architect of Urban Solutions Architecture Ltd., Donald Yen Architect AIBC, has developed extensive “hands-on” experience in management and design. These unique experiences allow Mr. Yen and his firm to excel with particular proficiency at identifying mandates, critical evaluation/analysis of criteria, utilization of creative problem solving, management of resources/skills, and management/utilization of human resources, resulting in achieving the overall objectives, with timely & professional results.
Specifically, for GEC, Donald and his firm has developed an intimate understanding of the functional programming, spatial requirements, and overall requirements of the metrics required for GEC’s Projects, and has developed and applied them in creative applications with each unique GEC site and development project in the range of municipalities. USAL has been involved with all GEC Projects in either leadership roles, such as Architect/Prime Consultant, or in strategic advisory/support roles to communicate and articulate GEC’s needs; spatially, technically, and programmatically. Donald’s in-house USAL team consists of; Architectural (both design and technical), Landscape Architectural, and Interiors staff, where Donald and his team can focus and direct efforts on each GEC assignment.
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