At the end of April this year, the TALK team was sad to say farewell to one of our longest serving members. Ken Jeffus has been with us for more than 8 years, taking over as the center director of the TALK Aventura Center from Mary Woods in January 2009.  At that point in time the center had 3, maybe 4 classrooms (if you included an office that was also used for teaching small groups) and about 50 students.  During his time at TALK, Ken spearheaded the impressive growth and development of the center and today the center has 13 classrooms and about 200 students.

Ken has decided to retire from full-time employment in academia to pursue his passion in painting and the arts – and he has certainly earned this right!  We have benefited from and will forever remain appreciative of his service to the company.

TALK Center Directors on the Move in Miami

Replacing Ken as Aventura Center Director is Jason Daily who will be leaving his position as the Miami Beach Center Director as of Monday.  Jason has done a great job at the smaller Miami Beach Center and is perfectly suited to take over at the bigger, busier Aventura Center.  We are confident that Jason will continue the good the work that has been done and maintain the dynamic growth and development of the center.

Replacing Jason as the Miami Beach Center Director as of Monday is our newest TALK member, Liam Anderson.  Liam comes with a strong background in higher education and international business, including directing the international MBA program at Stanford University, managing summer ESL group programs in New York (with over 500 students) and consulting in the design and delivery of digital marketing curricula.

Liam holds a BA (International Business and Technology) from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from HEC Paris.  Says Liam of his new role as TALK Miami Beach’s Center Director:

“I’m so excited to take on this role of Director at TALK in South Beach. It really is such a privilege to be running one of the most forward-thinking and prestigious language schools in this truly cosmopolitan neighborhood in South Florida. I am sure many challenges and growth opportunities await for TALK in this vibrant part of the world, and I’m excited to be a part of this journey in taking TALK to the next level of language education.

I come from a diverse professional background that includes teaching English in four different countries, managing international programs at Stanford University’s business school, developing and teaching business curriculum at nonprofit Year Up in New York, and working with several startups in Brazil and the US.  I was even a paralegal at a big law firm once!

I love being a part of the international community of TALK, and have a lot of ideas that will hopefully help make TALK a global leader in language education.”

As our Center Directors move into their new roles, all of us at TALK wish Ken well as he moves into the next chapter of his life, congratulate Jason and Liam in their new positions, and Liam, welcome to TALK.  Great to have you onboard!