Ted Lai
[Mentor]
President / CEO Zoodles
Mr. Ted Lai is the President/CEO of Zoodles, an award-winning mobile app startup backed by HTC. Kid Mode by Zoodles leverages cutting edge technology to inspire and teach children globally and is consistently one of the highest rated and most installed education apps on Google Play. He was previously BBC Worldwide’s Executive Vice President for Asia, responsible for setting the overall strategy and driving growth across the region through new products and services, as well as coordination across all existing businesses—ranging from TV channels, digital media, program distribution and local production to consumer and educational products, live events and Lonely Planet. Before joining BBC, Mr. Lai worked for Time Warner in a variety of leadership positions with his last role being Senior Vice President of Warner Bros. International TV, where he launched and managed the WarnerTV Channel and video on demand services across Asia, and opened the TV distribution and production offices in Greater China and Korea.
Prior to relocating to Asia, Ted was a business development and product management executive in the US at several high-profile digital media companies, including idealab’s FreePC from inception to merger and IPO on NASDAQ. He also developed strategic plans for new theme parks and innovative location-based entertainment centers for the Walt Disney Company.
Mr. Lai is currently on the Board of Directors of Taomee, a leading Chinese children’s online entertainment company (NYSE: TAOM). Ted is also the co-founder and steering committee member of Angelvest, one of Greater China’s earliest and largest angel investor organizations, and has been a strategic advisor to numerous digital media companies in both Asia and the U.S. He earned his MBA degree at Harvard Business School and MS Engineering-Economics and BS Electrical Engineering degrees at Stanford University.