Who We Are

As an investor in Asia broadly and China specifically, Thomas heard from corporate and social leaders about their pressing needs for talent. With China opening to the global economy, opportunities were everywhere, but seasoned managers who could compete and innovate were scarce. Then in 2009, Thomas founded "Interns in China" (IIV) to develop leaders who would not only succeed as individuals, but also make a difference by driving business, economic, and social change. To entice supporters and applicants, IIV wrapped this leadership development vision in an intensive internship program targeting top university students.

The initial program placed five students at Horizon Capital and IDG Ventures China in the summer of 2009. In 2010, under the direction of Napoleon Ta, IIV became an affiliate of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a U.S based non-profit organization that provides educational and career programs to young people from underserved communities. Thus, we formed SEO-China.

Since then we have grown dramatically each year. We have expanded the signature SEO-China Career Program to include two sessions in HCMC (Spring and Summer) as well as one in Hanoi (Summer). Additionally, we also run Momentum in an effort to broaden our impact to a wider base of students

The strength of SEO-China lies with the passion and commitment of our alumni. We operate on a 100% volunteer basis, yet we expect to serve over 100 students a year through our four intense programs.