executive moves

Adtalem Global Education Higher education provider Adtalem Global Education has announced that its next group president, financial services will be Stephen Beard, replacing Mehul Patel, who is resigning his post at the end of the month to pursue another opportunity outside the education industry.

Beard joined the organisation in 2018 as senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary, before taking on the role of chief operating officer last year. He was previously executive vice-president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of Heidrick & Struggles International, where he oversaw a variety of enterprise-level functions, including strategy and corporate development and directed global legal operations for the company.

In addition, Chaka Patterson is being promoted to Adtalem’s general counsel and corporate secretary. Patterson joined the organisation in 2018 as vice-president, deputy general counsel. He previously held various leadership positions in the public and private sector, including chief of the Civil Actions Bureau in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, partner at Jones Day, and vice-president and treasurer of Exelon Corporation.

Patel and Patterson will report directly to chairman and chief executive Lisa Wardell.

ApplyBoard International student recruitment online platform ApplyBoard has appointed Jo Johnson as chairman to its advisory board. Johnson the former UK minister of state for universities, science, research and innovation – and brother of the UK prime minister Boris.

Johnson is also the non-executive chairman of TES Global, owner of the Times Educational Supplement and a UK peer-to-peer marketplace for teacher resources, recruitment, and software services. He previously spent 13 years at the Financial Times, where he was associate editor.

ApplyBoard is headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario.

Barnes & Noble Education Barnes & Noble Education (BNED), a provider of educational products and services for higher education and K12, has appointed Jonathan Shar as executive vice-president, retail and client solutions, with responsibility for the growth and profitability of the retail segment. He joined the company in 2018.

Shar was previously senior vice-president, revenue and product development for the company. Before that, he was chief marketing officer at Akademos, an e-commerce and digital marketing company that provides online bookstore services. He was previously general manager of NOOK digital content at Barnes & Noble and before that senior vice-president and general manager at CNNMoney. Earlier he was vice-president of consumer marketing at Sports Illustrated Group and director of consumer marketing for Fortune Magazine Group.

The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based company also announced that Lisa Malat has been appointed president of Barnes & Noble College (BNC), with responsibility for the growth and profitability of BNC, providing strategic direction and operational leadership across the business, which manages campus bookstores and e-commerce sites in the US. She became chief operating officer of BNC in 2018. She joined the company in 1996, and has held various senior executive positions including chief marketing officer and vice-president of Operations. Prior to joining BNC she held several senior level roles within the Macy’s organisation.

Both Shar and Malat will continue to report directly to Michael P Huseby, BNED’s chairman and chief executive. ▶

Jo Johnson, ApplyBoard

Jonathan Shar, Barnes & Noble Education

Lisa Malat, Barnes & Noble Education

▶The company also announced Barry Brover’s positions as executive vice-president, operations of BNED and executive vice-president of BNC “have been eliminated and that he will be leaving the company at the end of the current fiscal year”. Brover’s former responsibilities are now shared by Malat and Shar in their new roles.

CeriFi CeriFi, a provider of education to the financial services sector, has appointed Matthew Given as chief executive, based in Atlanta.

Given will lead CeriFi’s portfolio of training and certification companies, including Dalton Education, Money Education, Keir Financial Education and PassPerfect, and the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists. The companies collectively cater to financial planning, insurance and securities professionals and organisations.

Given has more than 20 years’ experience in professional education and technology roles, initially as a teacher before moving into management and senior management roles. He has spent the past 10 years in senior positions within education technology businesses. Most recently he was the president and chief executive of a 500-employee education technology business that he transitioned from a founderled consumer publishing and credit recovery company to a unified software provider. His experience spans the institutional and consumer K12 and higher education markets, as well as the professional development and certification sector.

CeriFi is a Leeds Equity Partners portfolio company.

Digarc Higher education curriculum management software company Digarc has appointed Richard Becker as chief executive, succeeding Angela Selden who has joined American Public Education as chief executive.

Becker will be based in the company’s Lakeland, Florida headquarters. The company’s services include catalogue management, curriculum management, student scheduling, administrative schedule planning, and a student academic pathway builder.

Becker was previously chief operating officer at Stack Sports, a software-as-a-service company focused on the youth, amateur, collegiate and pro sports industry. Before that he was president of Target Analytics, a division of Blackbaud, which provides software and services for higher education and non-profit organisations.

Ellucian Ellucian, which provides software services to higher education institutions, has appointed Stephen Laster as chief product officer.

Laster will lead all aspects of product direction and strategy across the product, and the research and development organisations, and guide Reston, Virginia-based Ellucian’s platform, products, and solutions.

Laster is a technologist, business leader, strategist, e-learning designer and educator, with an extensive background in higher education. He was previously chief digital and learning officer at Penn Foster, where he led the technology, courseware, and education practices. Before that, he worked for more than a decade in technology leadership roles related to higher education, including as chief digital officer at McGraw-Hill Education, chief information officer at Harvard Business School, and director of curriculum innovation and technology at Babson College.

Freeths London-based law firm Freeths has hired Frank Suttie as a director. Working with national head of commercial, Iain Bowler, Suttie will focus on the developing the firm’s commercial presence in the north of England.

Suttie has nearly 20 years’ experience working as a legal advisor to the education sector. The focus of his practice is commercial and he has brought to Freeths a client base of ed tech and other education businesses with interests covering learning platforms, and developers of software and apps supporting curriculum delivery and assessment.

He is an advisor to the British Education Suppliers Association and takes an interest in policy development through his membership of the Education Policy Institute. Suttie’s appointment aims to make Freeths a leading player in education technology.

GBS Higher education provider GBS has appointed Stanley Johnson as a member of its advisory board, which offers guidance on governance and scrutiny.

Johnson is a former Member of the European Parliament and is the father of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson worked at the European Commission from 1973 to 1979 as head of the Prevention of Pollution Division. He was a senior advisor to DG Environment and as director of energy policy from 1984 to 1994. Following this was elected as MEP for Wight and Hampshire until 1982. He also served on the staff of the World Bank.

Johnson has been an advisor to Price Waterhouse Coopers, a director of environmental consultancy ERM and a trustee of the Earthwatch Institute. He is also a novelist and poet. He has published books about environmental issues and nine novels. He used to write a weekly column for The Guardian and continues writing for various papers and magazines, often on environmental issues.

OneSmart International Education Group K12 education company OneSmart International Education Group has appointed Tuanwei Shi as chief technology officer, responsible for overseeing operations at OneSmart’s research and technology centre, reporting to Steve Zhang, chairman and chief executive.

Shi has experience leading research and development initiatives for various online services and products in the online entertainment, e-commerce, and education sectors. He has worked in several senior roles across internet companies, including Baidu, Bilibili and LAIX.

The Shanghai-based company has also appointed Jinshu Ke as chief education officer, reporting to Zhang. Ke has been senior vice-president of OneSmart since August 2017. From 1999 to 2017 he worked as a customs official in Fujian Province and as a customs attorney. Ke was a middle school teacher from 1992 to 1996.

The company added that Min Zhang has resigned as an independent director and Mason Xu has been appointed in her place. Xu will serve as a member of the audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee of the board and will be the chairperson of the audit committee.

Xu is the founding partner of Heyi Capital and founder of Lightworks and DNA Pictures. Before that, he was group vice-president and chief financial officer of Bona Film Group 2010 to 2012. Prior to that he was executive vicepresident and chief financial officer of China Digital TV Holding Co from 2006 to 2010.

Osage University Partners Philadelphia-based venture capital firm Osage University Partners (OUP) has promoted Kirsten Leute to partner, university relations.

Leute joined the firm in 2015 as senior vicepresident, university relations and previously was associate director of the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University.

OUP has partnered with more than 100 leading universities to make direct investments in their most promising start-up companies. Last March, the firm announced the closing of its $273 million third fund. At OUP, Leute has led efforts in growing the firm’s partner institution network from 75 partners to over 100 today, including 27 of the top-30 US research institutions. The partner institution network includes universities, research institutions, accelerators, and university venture funds in the US and abroad.

Relias Bertelsmann subsidiary Relias, which provides online training for senior care, health and human services, has appointed Kay Krafft as chief executive, starting 1 April, in addition to his responsibility as chief executive of the Bertelsmann Education Group.

As part of this transition, the Bertelsmann Education Group headquarters will be fully based in the US.

Krafft succeeds Jim Triandiflou, who is leaving Relias “for personal reasons and at his own request” on 31 March, after eight years in charge, and who will support the transition, as well as assuming an advisory role for Relias until at least the end of the year.

Krafft was previously a member of BMG’s board, helping to turn the music company from a start-up in 2008 into the industry’s fourthlargest company worldwide.

Relias is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.

The Scion Group Student housing owner and operator The Scion Group has appointed Monte J Huber as the company’s first-ever chief financial officer, responsible for financial reporting, accounting and asset management activities on behalf of The Scion Group, Scion Advisory Services and Scion’s national portfolio of student apartment communities.

Huber has 25 years’ experience and is a knowledgable finance executive. For the past six years he has been chief accounting officer, chief financial officer and senior vice-president of strategic initiatives for Blackstone at its multi-family platform, LivCor, and its asset management platform, Revantage Corporate Services, where he was involved in $16 billion of acquisitions and $7 billion of dispositions. He previously worked at Equity Residential and Strategic Hotels & Resorts.

Weld North Education Pre-K12 digital curriculum company Weld North Education has appointed

Gautam Parasnis as chief operating officer, responsible for instructional design and curriculum development, product engineering, learning sciences and technology operations.

Parasnis joined Weld North in 2014 and has worked in senior operating positions with several of the company’s digital education companies. He previously worked at IBM, where he held leadership roles including global leader of the customer relationship management practice for the consulting business. He is a former consulting partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Weld North has also appointed Todd Ellermann as vice-president of engineering, responsible for all product engineering, data science and technology operations, reporting to Parasnis. Ellermann has 10 years’ technology leadership experience at TripAdvisor.com and as director of engineering at Lynda.com. He joins from Clarivate Analytics, where he was vice-president of the engineering science group. Before that, he was head of the digital home client applications at Xfinity/Comcast.

David Alderslade has been appointed to lead the finance and administrative function as executive vice-president, reporting to vice-chairman and chief financial officer Steven Berger. Alderslade was previously chief financial officer at Weld North business Edgenuity and managed shared finance and administrative services for several other Weld North companies. He has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services in Europe, Asia and the US and was previously managing director and chief financial officer at Richmond Park Partners, a London-based independent merchant bank.

Weld North Education is based in New York City and is backed by Silver Lake.

Wonderschool San Francisco-headquartered early childhood education provider Wonderschool has appointed Daniel Breiner as vicepresident of product. Breiner joins from competitor WeeCare and has extensive product and marketplace experience from his time at Dog Vacay and Omaze.

Zovio Education technology services company Zovio has appointed Michael P Cole to its board and as a member of its compensation and merger and acquisitions oversight committees. Cole is the managing member of SevenSaoi Capital, which, through its affiliates, beneficially owns approximately 6.8% of Zovio’s common stock. n