Alex Wang, President and CEO
Alex Wang is the founder and chief spokesperson for 8D World. Prior to 8D World, Alex was a founding team member and Vice President of Business Development at Emptoris, Inc., a leading Enterprise Supply and Contract Management software company. At Emptoris, Alex was responsible for global channel sales and Asia Pacific region, accounting for one-third of Emptoris' total revenue. Alex led Emptoris’ efforts to secure the world’s top two system integration firms, IBM and Accenture, as Emptoris’ sales channels and delivered numerous Global 1000 client wins to Emptoris. Alex also played a key role in several Emptoris' acquisitions and was instrumental to Emptoris raising major venture capital. Prior to joining Emptoris, Alex held various sales, marketing, consulting, and project management positions at Lucent Technologies, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
Alex received BS in Applied Mechanics from Fudan University, PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech where he won the Paul E Torgersen Best PhD Dissertation Award, and MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he received the Alumni Leadership Award.
Rick Goodman, VP and Chief Product Officer
Rick Goodman brings a wealth of game development experience to the company. Prior to 8D World, Rick founded Stainless Steel Studios, Inc, where he served as the President and guided the company’s computer game development efforts. He led the design and launch of a series of historical multiplayer computer games, earning over $200M in worldwide retail sales. Prior to Stainless, Rick co-founded Ensemble Studios where he directed the development of PC game products. At Ensemble, Rick led the development of Microsoft’s Age of Empires, one of the most popular PC titles in the world, with total brand sales of over $500 million dollars. Rick also helped position Ensemble Studios for a Microsoft buy-out in 2000. Prior to Ensemble, Rick held various positions Lotus Development Corporation and Interactive Data Corporation where he helped direct development of large-scale software projects.
Rick has a BA from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Boston University.
Jodie Waldesbuhl, Creative Content Director
Jodie Waldesbuhl is an expert in ESL/EFL education. Prior to 8D World, Jodie served as a specialist in English language acquisition in the Brookline Public School system in Massachusetts. Jodie taught English language acquisition in Asia, Morocco and the U.S. in a multitude of teaching environments including universities, business language training centers, private Chinese primary schools, the British Council, Hong Kong kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as International Baccalaureate bilingual schools. In addition to language teaching, Jodie also worked in teacher training in Massachusetts and Hong Kong and consulted for Oxford University Press (OUP) and the Shanghai Education Bureau where she trained primary and secondary English school teachers. Jodie has also designed curriculums for English, Mandarin, and French language acquisition for primary and secondary school students.
Jodie holds BFA from the University of Minnesota, MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from the School for International Training in Vermont, and various licenses/certificates in early childhood education and K-12 ESL education. Jodie grew up in Hong Kong and is proficient in French and Mandarin Chinese.
Jimmy Wang, Director of Engineering
Jimmy Wang has extensive across country software development and project management experience. Prior to joining 8D World, he was a Principle Investigator and Technical Lead at Verizon, responsible for developing CRM applications for a large number of Verizon’s customers. His expertise in system architecture, software design and development, as well as project management across multiple global locations played a critical role in making Verizon's enterprise portal a benchmark in the telecom industry. Prior to Verizon, Jimmy led software application development at an eCommerce company Essential. Prior to Essential, Jimmy worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Summit Technology (now part of Alcon) and Software Engineer at MetaSoftware.
Jimmy received BS from Tsinghua University and PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences where he received the Presidential Award. Jimmy later extended his education in Information Technology at Harvard University. He authored 8 scientific papers and 1 pending patent. Jimmy served as the President of New England Chinese Information and Networking Association (NECINA) during 2004-2005. He is currently a board member of NECINA.
Daben Liu, Director of Speech Technologies
Daben Liu has over 15 years of experience in speech and language processing technologies and large-scale software project management. Prior to 8D World, Daben worked at BBN Technologies as a senior scientist and project manager where he worked on various projects related to speech recognition, speaker segmentation, identification, and verification. Daben was responsible for developing the first speech recognition system for Chinese broadcast news at BBN. As a project manager, he led the design, development and major releases of Audio Indexing and Audio Monitoring products. He was also responsible for managing multiple domestic and international system deployments to sites in US, Japan, Thailand, and Jordan. Prior to BBN, Daben worked as a software engineer at Fidelity Investments where he was responsible for designing and developing speech recognition solutions for Fidelity financial systems.
Daben received BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from South China University of Technology and Tufts University, respectively. He also received his MBA degree from Babson College. Daben was the recipient of Wiener Technical Achievement Award from GTE/BBN and Charley Osborn Management Information Systems Award from Babson College. Daben published 20+ academic papers in major journals and conference proceedings and holds 2 patents.
Keith Patella, Director of Technologies
Keith Patella is a game industry veteran with nearly 10 years of game development experience. Keith started his career at Stainless Steel Studios (SSS) where he helped create Empire Earth, one of the best selling RTS franchises of all time. He went on to become the Lead Programmer at SSS where he helped design and develop the Titan Graphics Engine. The Titan Engine was licensed to 3rd party game developers throughout the industry. While at SSS, Keith led the engineering team on the development of two other award winning titles, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World as well as Rise and Fall.
After SSS, Keith continued his career as the Lead Programmer at Iron Lore Entertainment where he led the development of the cross-platform technology for an action RPG engine to be used with the next generation consoles. At Iron Lore, Keith also led the development of two popular games, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne and Dawn of War: Soulstorm.
Keith has a BA in Computer Science from North Adams State College.
Roger Li, Director of Business Development and Administration
Roger Li brings extensive business development experience, deep knowledge of China’s business and tax laws and regulations, as well as key local relationships to the company. Prior to 8D World, Roger worked for Shanghai Baolian Investment Group as Special Assistant to President, in charge of internal control processes, major contract negotiations, and IPO preparation. Roger also worked as a government officer of Foreign Economic Relation’s Commission in Shanghai, responsible for foreign company registration and other legal/regulation services. Before his tenure in the government, Roger co-founded Shanghai Iceblue Electronics Company specializing in system integration projects for local schools. Roger was responsible for Business Development at Iceblue whose systems have been widely used in Shanghai under the authorization by Shanghai Education Bureau. Roger also worked at PwC Shanghai as a senior accountant, in charge of auditing some of China’s largest enterprises.
Roger holds a BA in English from Shanghai University of Technology and MS in Software Engineering from Fudan University.
Jiefei Mi, Art Director
Jiefei Mi has 10 years of hands-on and management experience in the gaming and animation industry. Prior to 8D World, Jiefei was the Art Director at Shanghai NorthStar Software Co., Ltd., leading the graphics group to make Discovery Online, a 3D MMORPG. Before NorthStar, Jiefei worked at Shanghai Cartoon Communication Group as the Animation Group Leader, responsible for creating MoMo Island (a 52-episode TV cartoon series), Hidden Dragon Saga (a 3D cartoon movie) and numerous short animated films and commercials. Jiefei also served as an Executive Art Director at Shanghai Spring Animation Co. and as an Original Art Creator at Shanghai Torch Animation Co. and Shanghai Luomen Animation Co., making over eight domestic and foreign animated films and TV series, including Disney’s Timon & Pumbaa, Gargoyles, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT).
Jiefei was trained in Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Shanghai Cartoon Communication Co. He graduated as the #1 ranked student from both training programs.
