About
EF Education First (abbreviated as EF) is an international education company that specialises in language training, educational travels, academic degree programmes, and cultural exchanges. It was founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult in the Swedish university town of Lund. The company is privately held by the Hult family.
As of 2017, EF had approximately 52,000 employees in 116 countries.
From Wikipedia’s article on Edward Hult, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Career
Occupation: businessperson.4
Governance
Following their father's retirement, two of Bertil Hult's sons took over management of EF – Philip Hult as global chairman and Edward Hult as chief executive officer.
Locations
EF has offices and schools in more than 100 countries. The company's hubs are in Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England; and Zurich, Switzerland. In 2014, EF opened a new North American headquarters facility on the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
From Wikipedia’s article on Edward Hult (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
Legal issues and controversies
EF has been criticised in several instances by students taking its courses.
In 2019, seven of its English teachers in Xuzhou allegedly tested positive for drugs. The case ignited discussions about EF's hiring practices, leading to its suspension from the China Association for Non-Government Education.
In 2020, a former teacher of EF was charged for exploiting a previous pupil in China. The defendant, an American national, threatened to post video footage of the student's sexually explicit conduct online unless she sent him more images and a video of herself engaged in similar acts. EF said the alleged crime happened after the man returned to the US when his contract in China had already been terminated for violating the company's code of conduct; they declined to explain the specifics of the violation. The teacher pled guilty in a Missouri court to sexual exploitation of a minor and to receiving and distributing child pornography.
On 17 February 2022, Claudio Mandia, an Italian student participating in the IB Diploma programme of the EF Academy in New York, took his life following his expulsion after being caught cheating repetitively. The Academy of New York Thornwood responded to the accusations of Claudio's family members by saying that the young man was not confined, that the room was not locked, and that he "could have social interaction".
The Italian television show "Chi l'ha visto?" has many testimonies from students who participated in the EF language study trips. Students have claimed that they were hosted by drunk parents and that one host parent had shot a neighbour.
From Wikipedia’s article on Edward Hult (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataEdward Hult on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaEdward Hult on Wikipedia
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- 7WikidataEF, Chief executive officer