Our founders

Anne Tham

Founder and Group CEO of
ACE EdVenture Group, Malaysia

Anne noticed something VERY strange when she was teaching in the colleges… After 11 years of studying English, her students did not have the mastery of the English language or skills required to excel in college level work. As a mother of two daughters, she did not want them to go through that.

After months of searching for English classes for the daughters and failing to find one she deemed suitable, she decided to start her own. She began by creating The ACE Method which allowed her to integrate analytical skills, creative writing and presentation skills into her cutting edge English curriculum in a fun, meaningful and challenging way.

The magic of the ACE Method stems from Anne’s masterful ability to break things down making it easier for her students to learn real world skills and English. She also has a natural ability to look at things from a big picture perspective allowing her to identify the core and heart of a skill or subject. Using that unique insight she designs often unconventional lessons that accelerate her students’ ability to learn English.

Her little centre that started from her dining room with 6 students eventually grew to 1,500 students with 12 branches in the Klang Valley in 7 years and students and parents started to request that The ACE Method be applied to other study subjects as well. This culminated in bootstrapping her way to a learning centre and from there, two international schools, Sri Emas and Dwi Emas.

Today, this ASEAN Business Award winner and Her World Woman Entrepreneur of the Year has further innovated The ACE Method for the ACE EdVenture Biosphere and Lil Unicorn with a team of highly talented (and over-qualified) teachers.

She is a teacher, multi-award winning entrepreneur and thought leader in education. She constantly champions and innovates new teaching methods that Unleashes Greatness and Maximises Human Potential so that every child gets an education that serves them long after they leave school.

“Today's world is beyond teamwork. It's about partnerships and collaborations across companies & across borders.”
Anne Tham

Our Group CEO

Dato’ Joseph Hii brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in business development, sales generation, and operational management.

Throughout his career, he has held prominent leadership roles, including Group Chief Executive Officer and Founder of several established educational marketing and media companies, where he successfully drove growth, built strategic partnerships, and expanded market presence.

Dato’ Joseph Hii is an entrepreneur and corporate leader with over 23 years of experience across education, property, media, and technology. As former Group Executive Director of HCK Capital Group Berhad (market cap > RM1 billion), he spearheaded strategic growth, achieving more than RM350 million in annual revenues while overseeing the Group’s property, education, and platform divisions.

He is also the Founder of GEN Education Group, a regional education powerhouse operating across Southeast Asia, and a recipient of multiple awards, including the British Council’s East Asia Most Entrepreneurial Award (2013) and Malaysia’s National Youth Award in Education Empowerment (2015).

Dato' Joseph Hii W S

Group Chief Executive Officer

Dato' Joseph Hii W S

Group Chief Executive Officer

Dato’ Joseph Hii brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in business development, sales generation, and operational management.

Throughout his career, he has held prominent leadership roles, including Group Chief Executive Officer and Founder of several established educational marketing and media companies, where he successfully drove growth, built strategic partnerships, and expanded market presence.

Dato’ Joseph Hii is an entrepreneur and corporate leader with over 23 years of experience across education, property, media, and technology. As former Group Executive Director of HCK Capital Group Berhad (market cap > RM1 billion), he spearheaded strategic growth, achieving more than RM350 million in annual revenues while overseeing the Group’s property, education, and platform divisions.

He is also the Founder of GEN Education Group, a regional education powerhouse operating across Southeast Asia, and a recipient of multiple awards, including the British Council’s East Asia Most Entrepreneurial Award (2013) and Malaysia’s National Youth Award in Education Empowerment (2015).

Board of Directors

Melinda Lim

Co-Founder of ACE EdVenture and engineer by training, Melinda’s style of teaching, has transformed tens of thousands of ACE students into Math and Science enthusiasts. She does this by anchoring our teaching in concept, not method. Today, as Chief Academic Officer (CAO), she runs a tight ship of ensuring all of ACE EdVenture's teachers uphold its standards and methodology so students love coming to school.

Denissa Lim

Under Denissa’s leadership, our exam center has been recognised by CAIE Malaysia as an Exemplary Exam Centre. Because of this she has co-trained Exam Officers from 60 other schools and was instrumental in creating Examinix, an online registration portal that enables a center to handle hundreds of candidates with smaller teams. Nicknamed our Lady of Time, she has been absolutely essential to running our schools as she deploys and creates timetables for 3 schools, 4 campuses, 200 teachers and 1700 students on a monthly basis. It is no easy feat as the system caters to creating flexible schedules to support teachers' well-being and family commitments. She was also instrumental in setting up admin processes to support Melinda’s Math and Science Tuition and when we started Sirius Scholar.

Erica Tham

Erica champions games and comics as the perfect medium to embed Real World Skills and Social Emotional Learning into Academics which gives our students the ability to succeed at life. Together with her team, they launched the Amazon Bestseller, Petticle Planet, a science adventure that explores the periodic table elements, Crocodile Hunter style. It was top 5 in the following categories: Study Aids and Graphic Novel for Kids: Fantasy and Action & Adventure. When Sirius Scholar started, she designed the Geography and Drama Class syllabus and co-designed the Social Skills syllabus. For many years she was the Group Academic Director of the Language Humanities and Department. She was also in charge of upgrading and overhauling the ACE English Classes’ syllabus.

Grace Tham

Grace has led the development of our Homegrown Teacher Training Programme which was recently certified by Education Alliance Finland (EAF) with an Outstanding score of 96%.Teacher trainer, teacher, business owner and game designer, Grace is committed to provide education that prepares all our team members and the children in our care to be able to thrive in uncertainty. When Sirius Scholar started, she designed the History syllabus and co-designed the Social Skills syllabus. When she took over as Academic Director for the Business Department, her work to create the Economics syllabus for IGCSE and A Levels was crucial in turning around our students’ hate for the subject into love.

Williamm Wong

Williamm is instrumental in innovating fun and quirky school curriculum that embed real world skills in the academic syllabus. He ensures that our current Education Innovations such as Lil Unicorn and the ACE EdVenture Biosphere are true to the ACE Method and essence of the learning culture. He was also the Co-Head of the Game Design team of ACE EdVenture Studio creating the world’s first chemistry adventure game, ChemCaper. He led the school as the Group Director of Student Affairs creating events that nurture and promote the practice of real world skills. The core of his design began when he rescued our Biology syllabus and led his team as the Group Academic Director for Biology.