創辦人簡介
胡百熙先生 Edward P.H. Woo
博士．律師．作者
胡百熙先生出生於法律世家，早年已活躍於法律界。其父胡恒錦律師早於二次大戰前已為香港著名律師，其兄百融、堂兄百全亦為法律界名人。胡先生於1962年在英國倫敦考得律師資格，與其姊胡紫棠律師在香港創辦胡與胡律師事務所。
胡先生於1969年與友人在香港創辦了遠東交易所，為當時香港第一所華人主導的證券交易所。
胡先生對推廣教育事業亦不遺餘力。1981年與兩位友人吳毓璘博士及黃景強博士，創辦了澳門東亞大學 (現稱“澳門大學” ) ，是澳門開埠四百多年來第一所大學，為澳門教育界當時的盛事。
胡先生對學術研究非常投入，對世界各語言聲調的共通點甚有心得。胡先生研究發現，各地的語言和方言，都離不開六個聲調，因此把這六聲排列成基本的六度語音音程，掌全球語言聲調之共通點，提出 “六度語音理論” (The Theory of the Hexatave) ，又稱 “六通理論” (The 6-Tone Concept)。
胡先生多年來專注研究語言音韻方面的工作，發明了“六通拼音法” 和 “六通音標系統”，幫助世界各地學生解決學習母語以外的語言。學生可用同一方法，同一套音標系統，學習不同語言的發音；為此，胡先生編寫了兩套書冊：“Speak Cantonese in 7 Days” (廣東話7日通) 和《六通英語發音秘笈》。此等書冊一方面引證了，外國學生可於極短時間內成功掌握廣東話的發音。另一方面，中國學生亦可於同一時間內成功掌握英語發音的技巧。
胡先生更發明了558檢字法，並編寫了一本名為《558易用漢英詞典》的工具書，方便外國學生學習中文，外國學生只需經過學習漢語三數星期，已可成功翻查漢英詞典。
胡先生又熱衷於佛學研究，撰寫了《淺談佛教–分享學佛心得》一書；大陸版稱為《佛學與現代人》；英文版稱為 "The Core of Oriental Wisdom - Buddhism Explained and Compared with Other Religions"；美國版稱為 "BUDDHISM: The Big Picture Explained"。
其後，胡先生又編寫了《有為法與無為法》一書，目的透過此書嘗試啟發不同宗教信徒與沒有宗教信仰之人士，希望他們能互相了解，去除分別心，無分彼此，共同努力，促進世界和諧。
胡先生在推廣教育事業和服務社會方面，貢獻良多，故獲得英國 International Management Centre 頒授榮譽哲學博士學位，以資表揚。
About the Founder - Mr. Edward P.H. Woo
Mr. Edward P.H. Woo was born in 1937. He received his education in Hong Kong before proceeding to London to attend law school. Upon his return to Hong Kong in 1962, he started to practice as a solicitor.
In 1969, together with a group of friends interested in finance, Mr. Woo set up the Far East Stock Exchange in Hong Kong. Mr. Woo was also one of the founders of the Commodity Exchange of Hong Kong, serving on the board of the founder company. With his experience in futures trading, Mr. Woo wrote a book entitled "The Winning Art and Logic of Speculation in the Futures Markets". For many years, Mr. Woo served on the committee of the Far East Stock Exchange and subsequently at the United Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
In 1979, with another group of friends interested in the promotion of higher education, Mr. Woo set up a private university in Macau called the University of East Asia. The university was converted into a publicly funded university in 1990, and its name was changed to the University of Macau.
In 1992, he became involved with the setting up of the Asia International Open University in Macau (now re-named as City University of Macau). He had served as the Chairman of the Administrative Council and subsequently as the Chairman of Consultative Council, in addition to acting as the director in charge of the Center for Research on Linguistics (Tonal) Studies. Mr. Woo has since retired from all administrative and consultative capacities save and except in the field of research in the analysis of the tones of languages.
In the 1990s, Mr. Woo invented a system simplifying the process of teaching and learning Cantonese called the “Musical Approach”. Over the years, this system developed and extended into a discovery about the commonality in the tones of different languages spoken around the world. The discovery is known as the “Theory of the Hexatave” or “The 6-tone Concept”. This Theory proposes to supplement the International Phonetics symbols with the Hexatave symbols, and to illustrate the wisdom of the Chinese pinyin system in its universal application in learning languages of the world. Mr. Woo has presented its findings to an international audience at a UNESCO (聯合國教育科學及文組織國際會議) forum for the promotion of world peace. Since then, he has shared the fruits of his research efforts through lectures given at other universities and high schools locally in Hong Kong and Macau. To prove the usefulness of knowing the Theory of the Hexatave, Mr. Woo has written two sets of books, one for helping English speakers to learn Cantonese, know as "Speak Cantonese in 7 Days (2011); and the other for helping Chinese speakers to learn English pronunciation known as "Learn English Pronunciation with instant success" (六通英語發音秘笈) (2013).
Mr. Woo is also an avid reader in politics, philosophy and Buddhism. Always driven by his attempts to search for a better way of living in this world for the human race, as well as to seek enlightenment on a more spiritual and philosophical level, he is also the author of these books published in Asia and North America: "In Search of an Ideal Political Order & An Understanding of Different Political Cultures" (2002), "Buddhism: The Big Picture Explained" (2008), "The Core of Oriental Wisdom: Buddhism Explained and Compared with Other Religions" (2008), "淺談佛教 - 分享學佛心得" (2010), "佛學與現代人" (2010), "有為法與無為法" (2018).
Mr. Woo was conferred an honorary doctorate in philosophy by the IMC of London. Mr. Woo is spending part of his time in Kuala Lumpur.