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Louis T. Hsieh is a Chinese businessman and lawyer who serves as a Senior Advisor and a Board Director of New Oriental Education and Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), China’s largest private educational services provider. He was the company's president from May 2009 to January 2016. He is also the Independent Director and Audit Chairman for each of JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: JD), China's largest direct sales Internet company, YUM China Holdings (NYSE: YUMC), the restaurant owner in China operating KFC, Pizza Hut, Little Sheep Hot Pot and Taco Bell, and Nord Anglia Education, Inc. (NYSE: NORD), a global schools organization. He is also a board member at United Information Technologies, a Chinese storage solutions company.
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Early life
Hsieh attended Stanford University in California as an undergraduate, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. He later received an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, joining the State Bar of California.
From 1990-96, he worked at White & Case LLP as a corporate securities attorney. He then worked for four years at the technology investment banking groups at Credit Suisse in Palo Alto as an Associate and at J.P. Morgan & Co. in San Francisco as a Vice President. He subsequently served as Managing Director of UBS Capital Asia Pacific (2000–02), Managing Director of Darby Asia Investors (2002–03), and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Ario Data Networks.
New Oriental
In 2005, Hsieh became the CFO of New Oriental, China’s largest private educational services provider. In this role, he helped launch New Oriental's successful 2006 initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, which was oversubscribed 35 times.
In 2007, Hsieh was named Board Director, and in 2009, he became New Oriental's President. The number of New Oriental schools doubled in following two years, and in 2011, Hsieh announced that the company would slow its expansion for a time and make more of an effort to fill existing classrooms and facilities. During Hsieh's time as president, New Oriental also dramatically expanded its POP Kids program, which provided language instruction to children from 3–14 years of age.
One of the more notable events of Hsieh's tenure was the 2012 publication of a report by an American firm, Muddy Waters Research, that stated that New Oriental was using accounting tricks to overstate its profits, and that it would soon have to restate its earnings. The Muddy Waters report coincided with an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and caused EDU to drop by 57% on the New York Stock Exchange. Hsieh defended New Oriental in the press, stating that Muddy Waters had incorrectly extrapolated New Oriental's accounting and business model from one of its subsidiaries. New Oriental ultimately did not restate its earnings as Muddy Waters had predicted, and its stock rebounded by over four times since its low of $9.50 on July 18, 2012, the date of the SEC investigation announcement following the Muddy Waters report. The SEC investigation was concluded in 2014 without any enforcement action.
In April 2015, Hsieh was succeeded as CFO by Stephen Zhihui Yang, but continued to serve as New Oriental's President and Board Director. On 5 January 2016, Hsieh stepped down as New Oriental's President and was succeeded by Chenggang Zhou. Hsieh remains the Board Director and a non-executive Senior Advisor.
Other positions
Currently, Hsieh serves as the Independent Director and Audit Chairman for each of JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: JD), China's largest direct sales Internet company,YUM China Holdings (NYSE: YUMC), the restaurant owner in China operating KFC, Pizza Hut, Little Sheep Hot Pot and Taco Bell, and Nord Anglia Education, Inc. (NYSE: NORD), a global schools organization. He's also a board member at United Information Technologies, a Chinese storage solutions company. He previously served on the boards of LDK Solar, where he served as chairman of the audit committee, Perfect World, and China Digital TV Holdings.