Our Managment team
Samson Chu
CEO, Co-Founder
Samson Chu is the co-Founder and CEO of Career Academy, a global leader in on-demand training solutions for IT and business professionals. As CEO, Samson oversees and drives the overall direction of the company. Samson led the efforts in establishing an exclusive video training content partnership between Career Academy and the world’s largest training organization – New Horizons Computer Learning Centers with over 350 locations worldwide. Samson plays a key role at Career Academy in developing strategic partnership with training industry leaders.
Samson has a background in computer science and holds numerous industry standard information technology certifications. Before founding Career Academy, Samson was involved with many large and small technology consulting companies. He brings over 17 years of hands-on IT consulting, management and training experience. He also implemented and supervised the network integration for many large bank mergers as well as IT security and system design for government and commercial sectors.
Joel Kestenberg
President, Co-Founder
Joel Kestenberg is co-Founder and President of Career Academy, the world leader in video based course production and training content delivery services. At Career Academy Joel has assisted in managing and supporting the strong growth which the company has experienced since its inception. He brings to the company a strong skillset focused on legal, financial, business development and sales related strategies. Joel possesses an expert level knowledge in technology and technological trends which was gleaned through his work in the field as a Microsoft Certified Professional.
Joel has over 25 years of business development and management experience developed through his involvement in various business endeavors. A few of his major entrepreneurial accomplishments prior to co-founding Career Academy are founding and operating the largest tennis academy in the New England region and developing and implementing travel membership programs focused on providing discount travel services to large corporations and professional associations.
Lih wen Lin
CFO
LihWen Lin joined Career Academy in 2002 as the CFO of Career Academy. She holds a Master’s Degree from Boston University. With nearly 20 years of work experience in the accounting and financial field, she has worked in a variety of organizations from small businesses, non-profit organizations to hedge fund management corporations.
As CFO, LihWen oversees all aspects of Career academy’s accounting and treasury functions. She is responsible for the company’s cash management and risk planning activities. LihWen also possesses extensive operational management experience. Working hand in hand with the company’s senior management team, she has developed a financial and operational strategy, metrics tied to that strategy, and the ongoing development and monitoring systems designed to preserve Career Academy’s assets and accurate financial reporting.
Kevin Stuart
Director of Operations
Kevin Stuart joined Career Academy in 2008 as a Multimedia Developer and over the years has quickly climbed the ranks becoming the Director of Operations. As Director of Operations, he manages the Video Production, Software Development, Web site enhancements, Social Media Marketing, Technical Support and Customer Service departments making sure all operations run smoothly and successfully for Career Academy. He works closely with the CEO, Production Team and Instructional contractors on all video production related matters. He is in constant contact with various clients for video production requests and or development requests. He manages all video related projects from post-production to release.
Cathy Knight
Business Development Manager
Cathy Knight joined careeracademy.com, Inc. in July 2003. Cathy’s focus is building a strong team to build relationships in all market segments for the distribution of the Career Academy product line. She began her sales and marketing career in 1979, building a reputation for sales and marketing success in several diverse industries, before entering into the Technology training industry 15 years ago.
Cathy has received awards for sales and business development success in several companies, and is known in the technology industry for her proven market penetration techniques, strategic sales process planning and vendor and customer relationship management. Her earlier successes were at Specialized Solutions, Stampede Worldwide, Zac Catalog, a division of Systemax, and Arch Communications, applying her expertise in the successful introduction of new products, and developing and managing new channel partners. Cathy holds degrees in Marketing and Early Childhood Education.