After graduating from French school of management ESCP Europe in Paris, Marie first worked in France with multinational companies in the food industry in Marketing and Brand Innovation departments.

While moving in 2013 to Warsaw in Poland, joining the board of the French Lycee, she realized how enthusiastic she was about education, transmitting values and bringing solid professional competencies to good causes.

Her Executive Director role is to lead both the SYB charity program and the SYB social enterprise. Inspired by the students’ thirst and energy, her dream is to help more and more students to become passionate young bakers and to engage communities around them!

Senada holds a Master degree in Management specialized in the Agronomy / Food Industry. She has more than 10 years experience in the Retail Industry. Previously she worked as sales on the field before getting promoted to Head of Sales Development. Her multicultural background inspired her to discover more Cultures and led her to come to China where she studied Chinese language and Culture at the Shanghai Theater Academy. She choose to share her experience and expertise to serve a noble project. This is how she joined Shanghai Young Bakers. She is now in charge of the entire program as Resource development  and she helps SYB to find new sponsors and fundraising leads.

After 10 years in Paris in the banking industry and 8 years in Shanghai as an entrepreneur, Virginie joined SYB in September 2020 as Social Enterprise Director.
Very passionate about cooking and baking, she always found a way to help and support the community. Strong of her previous experiences in sales, marketing, and management, she wanted to make another organization benefit from her skills. SYB has been the perfect match!
Her mission is to run and develop all the social enterprise activities that support the charity program of SYB such as public baking classes, team building, and group events, and catering management.

Marta López is a lawyer and an international business expert with experience in operations, legal strategy advising, and business development. She was the Strategic Business Development Director for two Fortune 500 Companies, Compass Group (UK) and Sodexo (France), leaders in Facility Management Sector. At these organizations, she successfully led the development of the East China Region delivering the strategy, managing the operations, and achieving profitable growth.

As Program Director, she wants to strengthen the content of the program by bringing expertise talent and enlarging the industry connections while taking care of the well-being of students and supporting them to become a well-rounded world citizen and achieve the goal of finding a sustainable career path in Hospitality as bakers.

Cathy and her family arrived from France in Shanghai 4 years ago.

Executive assistant for over 15 years, she needed to stay busy and useful so she started to volunteer for different associations and charities. As a mother of 3, she feels concerned about kids’ education and that’s why she decided to join SYB team since September and uses her experience to help the charity to develop teambuilding activities and private classes.

Suzanne is from Qingdao, Shandong. She majored in French during her undergraduate studies and then obtained a Master’s degree in International Project Management from Université de Bretagne Occidentale in France. She has previously worked at several non-profit organizations and has always been passionate about non-profit work. Before joining SYB full-time, she volunteered at SYB for almost two years. While volunteering, she gained a lot more understanding of SYB’s project and mission. She wholeheartedly agrees with SYB’s philosophy–“Give an orphan some bread, you feed him for one day; teach him how to bake, you feed him for a lifetime.” By working at SYB, Suzanne hopes to help more young people in need to start new chapters in their lives.

Sophia joined the team as the Communication and Promotion Intern in 2021. She is currently a sophomore studying Philosophy and Economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. She has always been passionate about social justice and especially about supporting marginalized communities and tackling educational inequality and poverty. In the future, she hopes to work in the field of human rights law.

During her time at SYB, Sophia is constantly inspired by the energy of the students and moved by the dedication and effort of every team member and teacher at SYB. She hopes to contribute by increasing the visibility of SYB on social media platforms and raising awareness for marginalized youths in China.

Yue joined SYB in early 2021. Her role is mainly to manage and develop relations with current and potential partners and employers. She graduated from University at Buffalo (SUNY) with a Business Administration degree in 2020. Aside from her major, she is passionate about public affairs especially in the realm of women’s empowerment and children’s education. She wishes to use this opportunity at SYB to help marginalized youth groups in China and better support their future. She speaks Chinese, English, Cantonese, French, and Punjabi – in descending levels of fluency. In her spare time, she likes photography, traveling, and reading. She also loves cats.

Marine is a graduate in Chinese, Sociology and more recently in Management of Development. Before moving to Shanghai to join Shanghai Young Bakers’ team, she worked for more than four years in Guangxi Province for the French association Couleurs de Chine in order to provide school fees to children issued from minorities. She is convinced that a little push can place everyone out of the social and financial difficulties and can bring people to lead their path with dignity. Shanghai Young Bakers is for her this little push that helps young students to gain real skills and self-confidence in order to develop themselves and their environment. She joined the team in May 2016 as Deputy Program Director.

After an exchange year at Nanjing University to study Chinese and complete her master’s degree in cross-cultural relations, Emilie found herself a real passion for Chinese society and culture. After a few years working in Shanghai, she decided to take a turn in her career and do something she had always wanted to: join the non-profit sector. Joining SYB is the perfect way to give back to the Chinese society which has now welcomed her for 8 years, by helping underprivileged Chinese youth to gain financial independence and access to a dignified life.

Floriane is a graduate from Sciences Po Paris and Peking University. Her studies focused on her two passions: China and sustainable development. After getting actively involved in various non-profits, she realized that the most disadvantaged have all the resources to get out of poverty by themselves, all they need is for people or organizations to tap into their huge potential! Finding SYB to be the embodiment of this belief, she joined the team in 2011 and was program manager from 2012 to 2014. Back to France for new adventures in the NGO/social enterprise world, she remains involved as a program advisor. 

Mrs Helene Hovasse is the Head of food and agro business department at BusinessFrance China, the commercial branch of the French Consulate. As  the mentor of the project since the beginning of the SYB adventure, she  has provided invaluable support and contacts to the program. 

Chenbo joined SYB in July 2018, as Deputy Program Director in charge of students and their training, partnerships and communication. Prior to that, he worked 7 years as market researcher for both professional research agency and manufacturer sides. Driven by the passion for education, he also did jobs as language teacher and students’ career development manager. He hopes to positively influence people around by doing a meaningful job.

Xiao Jinjin is from Anhui province. She received her high school diploma before enrolling in our pilot programme. She interned at the Hyatt on the Bund and the Crowne Plaza as part of her training at SYB. Xiao Jinjin specialises in French pastry and taught SYB students for four years before taking over as the technical director of SYB’s social enterprise. She manages, develops and improves SYB’s commercial activities whose profits are used to fund the students’ training. Besides making pastry, she is passionate about everything that can improve the SYB programme and help people in need, who, just like her, want to make a positive change in their lives.