Happy Masks: A Family Business for Melinda Hwang ’99 and Edward Fu ’99

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March 2020, Melinda Hwang '99 and Edward Fu '99 received a box of masks from their family back in Taiwan that quickly became a sensation. Pivoting from their careers in marketing and technology, Melinda and Edward found themselves running a hands-on small business within five months. Two years later, Happy Masks is now a leading choice in washable masks for families and children in the US, and they are happily resettling back in Taiwan. Melinda and Edward are setting their sights on even higher prospects, aspiring to bring other innovative Taiwanese products to the Western market and reinvent what it means to be a Taiwan-born brand.

How it All Started

Unsurprisingly, this couple, who work together so well, began their relationship as friends and teammates in high school. However, their paths at TAS were definitely different. While Edward attended TAS from Grade 2 to graduation, Melinda only arrived in Grade 8 from Minnesota public schools.

"TAS is a community where people grow up, so coming in later is difficult," says Melinda. "I was trying to fit in, make friends, and figure out who I was simultaneously."

What they did have in common, however, was sports, and they first got to know each other as fellow athletes in tennis and badminton.

After graduating from TAS, Edward studied engineering for his bachelor's and master's degrees at Cornell University and Stanford University. However, after graduation, he pivoted to finance and investment banking and attended Harvard for business school. Meanwhile, Melinda attended Wellesley College and started exploring her interest in advertising and marketing. This led her to her business school degree at MIT Sloan and then a job at Neutrogena as a brand manager.

Before the pandemic began, Edward worked in investments and tech start-ups. Melinda was thinking about a career switch after a series of marketing jobs and having three kids in quick succession.