Yu is the founder and chairman of NYSE-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group. Upon graduating from Peking University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1985, he started teaching English at his alma mater. Yu resigned from the university in 1991 and, two years later, founded the New Oriental School, where students learned how to pass the TOEFL exam or score high on the GRE. In 2014, he co-founded Hongtai Capital Holdings (Aplus Capital), which manages over RMB 20 billion in assets, with fellow entrepreneur Sheng Xitai. As an angel investor, Yu invests mainly in edtech startups.