National Education Corp. Names New President : Management: Sam Yau, a turnaround consultant, takes over at company hit by losses.
National Education Corp., a vocational education company that has been staggered by losses in the past two years, said Monday that it has named a new president and chief executive to replace longtime leader Jerome W. Cwiertnia, who retired recently.
Sam Yau, 47, has served as a turnaround consultant for National Education in recent months and replaces Cwiertnia, who left at age 53 to pursue other business interests.
Yau said he hopes to reverse the fortunes of National Education, a leading supplier of educational and multimedia products that has posted losses each of the past two years.
“I would want us to be in a break-even situation by the end of the year,” Yau said. “Then become profitable next year and grow from there.”
The company lost $9.6 million in 1993, followed by an even rougher performance in 1994 when losses totaled $63.9 million.
Company officials, however, attribute the 1994 total to the cost of discontinued operations, which added $49.5 million to the losses, and a one-time charge caused by a change in accounting procedures. Without those two factors, the company would have posted a $6.7-million profit, officials said.
National Education said last June it would discontinue its chain of National Education Centers, which provide post-secondary career training. That plan continued last week when the company signed two letters of intent that would unload 16 of the 28 remaining centers.
Yau said turning the company’s focus to the widening possibilities of multimedia education will lead it back toward profitability. “It allows people to learn anywhere, any time and at whatever pace they need,” he said.
Before joining National Education, Yau was chief executive of AdvaCare Inc, a managed medical care company in Dallas. He also has served as chief financial officer for Archive Corp., a Costa Mesa supplier of computer tape drives.
A graduate of the University of Hong Kong with a degree in economics, Yau earned an MBA at the University of Chicago. He and his family reside in Irvine.
