Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Elbe Akman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dr. Elbe, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
The Founder of IMLAC, Dr. Elbe Akman, is the Founder of NEAC Medical Exams Application Center Inc. a business that has been serving medical professionals to get licensed internationally since 2007 and have assisted more than 78,000 medical professionals since then with about 90 employees, with offices in Manila, Cebu, Dallas Texas USA, Dubai (March) and planning for German office. He wrote his Doctorate dissertation thesis on the ‘Clientele needs of Foreign Nurses getting Licensed for the United States NCLEX-RN Licensing Exam’. He has pioeered and developed the first licensing exam application center concept as a center in the world. He has been awarded two times as an entrepreneur and most recenlty awarded by the Philippines Government for my company’s outstanding services to the medical professionals of the Philippines and NEAC has earned several awards for its outstanding services and innovation in its field.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
It was the year 2006 when the history of medical licensing for international applicants is bound to change forever. The agony of international medical professionals, especially Filipino nurses who went through the rigorous, confusing, and risky process of filing their application for the NCLEX exam on their own was about to end. The whole application process was about to become an easy feat, and they would owe it to one man-Dr. Elbe Akman. He revolutionized the medical licensing and exam applications for international medical professionals making it easier, more efficient, and cost-effective by centralizing and developing a series of services to facilitate the complex application process. This has not only eliminated expensive mistakes that were costing millions of dollars every year to Filipino applicants, but also empowered them to negotiate better salaries, benefits, and terms, with employers and placement agencies and saved them the time they needed to study for the difficult Medical Licensing Exams such as NCLEX.
Since 1948, the Philippines has been continuously sending thousands of nurses to the US. The number of nurses also increased as the country had to endure an economic crisis in the ’70s. As part of the survival strategy, then-President Marcos sent more Filipino nurses to work abroad to help the economy. Since then, the Philippines has become the number one supplier. About 80% of the world’s supply of nurses and medical professionals in the USA as well as Canada, the UK, Germany, Spain, and the Middle East are Filipinos.
However, nurses had to hurdle an obstacle course of procedures before they could land on the job. Most of the time, they didn’t know where to apply, what documents were needed for which State, where and how to send payments, what departments to submit to, dealing with credential evaluation, FBI criminal background check, eligibility, ATT, and scheduling phases as each phase was difficult. This kind of disarray often resulted in mistakes, applications getting lost, delayed, disqualified, or worse yet- rejected, risking their money, time, and effort altogether. Some applicants become vulnerable to absurd fees from placement agencies, or they had to sign placement contracts with terms unfavorable to them but in return, the agencies were processing their licensing exam applications. This type of scenario was common back then and when Dr. Akman saw this chaos, he knew something must be done.
“One of the stories that became an eye-opener and source of my motivation was when I heard how some poor families had to sell everything they had just so their kids could enroll in a nursing school. There was this applicant whose father sold his only carabao (water buffalo) to have the money for the application fees however end up losing that money when his daughter applied to a Board of Nursing that she later found that she was not qualified to, some boards of nursing forfeit the application fees in such cases. This is just one story. There were hundreds of inspiring yet heartbreaking stories we were hearing now and then. Therefore, I pursued establishing NEAC so it could become an instrument to make the lives of people easier. NEAC echoes their dreams.” Dr. Elbe Akman narrates. Today if you read more than 2000 testimonials on the NEAC website you will realize how NEAC has stopped this bleeding wound and has been a solution provider since then.
Indeed, Dr. Akman has helped more than 78,000 nurses get licensed internationally since 2007 through his company NEAC. Not only that it became the top choice of applicants from the Philippines, but it also become a ‘go-to hub’ for international medical professionals from all over the world such as UAE, India, Europe, the Middle East, the USA, and South America. Along with its strategic partnerships with key institutions, companies, and exam coordinators from more than 8 countries (and counting), over the years are the reasons why they are always ahead of others. NEC has gained numerous recognition awards from different agencies including the Consumers’ Choice Award.
NEAC maintains its reputation as the pioneer in its field and the most- trustworthy Medical Exam and Licensing Center in the world, and Dr. Elbe Akman, the revolutionary businessman who changed International Licensing Process.
Entrepreneurial History
Dr. Elbe Akman’s affinity for entrepreneurship started at an early age. He recalled selling his old comic books on the sidewalk when he was still a kid. In high school, he made a self-published sports magazine and sold copies in his school. During his college years, he invested in vending machines which was the “in” thing at that time. However, his real success story was about to start somewhere far from home.
It all started when his close friend asked if he could help recruit nurses in the Philippines. Thankfully, he had spent a 3-month tour in Southeast Asia beforehand, so he readily accepted the proposal. Before the introduction of the recruitment business, Dr. Akman was an IT Manager in Silicon Valley earning 6- figures in Time Warner – Netscape International Division. After finishing his MBA, he strongly felt the need to start his own business. Although, before that, he already had built a business providing e-commerce solutions for companies in the mid-1990 when these technologies were just started surfacing. He could have stayed in Silicon Valley and become one of the pioneers in the IT business, but his calling was somewhere beyond the Golden Gate. So, when the idea of hiring nurses in Asia came into the picture, he left everything behind and started a new business.
“I never thought I would be offering services in the medical field to medical professionals. I think it was destiny that brought me to Asia first, a region I fell in love with, and then within a month’s time from my return presented an opportunity in that region. Had I not visited Asia before that proposal came, I don’t think I would have accepted it. But I think God prepared me for what is yet to come.”
He flew first to Singapore and partnered with a local agency that offered online NCLEX Review courses through Kaplan and then flew to the Philippines in 2002 to recruit more nurses for his California-based company, CAREX Consulting International. He relocated to the Philippines to grow his business and continue full-time recruitment activities. While interviewing applicants, he saw the troublesome state nurses were in during the application process. The international licensing procedure is complicated and even local (US) applicants would find it hard. He saw the confusion and the stress that applicants went through due to the decentralized process and lack of means for international nurses to send payments to the related institutions in the U.S. The U.S. institutions assumed everyone has either a credit card or checking account which was definitely not the case in the Philippines or some other underdeveloped countries at that time.
The first three years went smoothly until the US immigration retrogression kicked in for the Philippines and recruiting nurses and sending them to the US became almost impossible or extremely slow which wouldn’t be conducive enough to generate enough revenues to sustain his business. Dr. Akman was put in a difficult situation as he had already spent money on applicants’ immigration and relocation costs. Instead of retreating to the US, Dr. Akman faced the challenge before him. He pursued the idea that would change the history of medical licensing for good.
He put down all his remaining savings in the bank to rent another office in a prime location to start providing a new service to nurses when things came to a screeching halt in the Immigration (for nurses). He was seeing the broader picture. He had an idea, and a concept he was excited about, and he knew he had a solution for a problem that made many medical professionals suffer since the 1950s. He was at that time working on getting his Ph.D. in Management field and he decided to write his dissertation on the Clientele Needs of International NCLEX Applicants.
His studies helped him further to develop a complete package of services that International NCLEX applicants needed. This gave birth to NCLEX Application Processing Center (NAPC), a center that was designed to centralize the exam application process, provide consultancy services, and do all the application preparation process for the international NCLEX applicants. This way applicants didn’t need to study 50 different states to find out which one they are qualified for, which ones are advantageous to apply to, which ones are easier, which ones have lesser requirements, which ones don’t require US SSN, which ones are cheaper etc., and what US State pay higher salaries to their nurses and offer better work conditions, and so on. To be able to compare all these, one had to study all the States which would be very time-consuming as well as figure out the credential evaluation process, FBI fingerprinting and local license verification processes, etc.
Dr. Akman believes that through NEAC, applicants save money and time, and increase their success rate in the exams since they don’t need to waste their time studying the complex licensing process and instead channel their energy and time to study for the exams which as a result increases their passing rate. Medical Professionals now have better leverage to negotiate their terms with agencies and foreign employers and not be taken advantage of like before when they didn’t know how to process their applications and needed the agencies’ assistance. Being internationally licensed such as USRNs or HAAD DHA Passers, increase their chances to find better-paying jobs and benefits compared to those who are not licensed yet even though they are locally licensed in the Philippines.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
specialization. and i can explain how it worked for me.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
referrals, so we had to make sure we give excellent customer service to keep getting more referrals. adding sincere care to our services. part of the sales cycle strategy had to customize it ofcourse.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://medexamcenter.com/
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- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NEACMedicalExamsApplicationCenter