Christopher Nyren

Christopher is the founder of Educated Ventures, an education industry advisory and seed investment firm that has successfully raised and invested over $70 million across a dozen separate client capital raises and direct investments, while also advising four clients with successful M&A processes.  He initially founded the firm in 2012 around several consulting clients, including Bertelsmann AG, one of the largest media and publishing companies in the world, as well as the Gates Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the world, around their respective evaluations of potential investments and market entry plans within the global education market.  The firm has grown to become a leading investment banking and advisory boutique focused on the emerging education markets.

Christopher serves on the boards of GetSet and Wellspring Education and is an investor in All Campus, cielo24, Copley Retention, DecisionDesk, GetSet Learning, Learning.com, N2N and Presence Learning.

He has also founded Educelerate, a not-for-profit network to foster start-up ventures focused on education technology and innovation. They have held monthly events involving a membership base of over 3,000 Educelerants in Chicago, Twin Cities, Los Angeles and Colorado and have partnered with Education Entrepreneurs (now 4.0 Schools) to organize Startup Weekend Education events in Chicago, Twin Cities, Los Angeles and Phoenix.  Podcasts and blog content can be found at Educelerate.com.

Christopher spent the prior four years helping to build the Corporate Development & Global Strategy team for Apollo Education Group, the owner of the University of Phoenix and largest for-profit educational company in the world. During this time, Christopher was involved in the creation of Apollo Global, a $1 billion joint venture private equity fund with the Carlyle Group.  Over his career at Apollo, he was the primary corporate development professional on every acquisition and investment completed by the company and the fund (totaling four domestic and international deals and over $750 million of aggregate consideration).  This experience included his leadership of Apollo’s European Corporate Development efforts which culminated in the $600 million acquisition of the UK post-secondary education company BPP Holdings plc.

He has also worked in private equity, including interning with the education and services focused investors LLR Partners where he completed an investment in a vocational post-secondary education company.  He started his career with the education and services coverage team at investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston.  Christopher graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Lake Forest College and received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Todd Maurer

Todd Maurer is a partner at Educated Ventures.  He specializes in emerging markets, with a particular focus on Asia.   For over two decades, Todd has brought analytical research, investment banking and investment expertise to corporations, governments, and private investors worldwide.

Todd was previously VP of Corporate Development for Apollo Global, a joint venture investment company formed in 2007 by Apollo Group, Inc. and Carlyle Group.  Prior to this, from 1998 to 2001, he was a Partner at Lotus Asset Management Ltd., a Hong Kong-based hedge fund, which focused exclusively on the Asia-­Pacific and India through both public and private market investments.

From 1992 to 1998, he held senior corporate finance and equity research positions within Peregrine Investments Holdings Ltd. based in Hong Kong, Seoul and Beijing.  At Peregrine he worked on a number of landmark privatizations, global offerings and financial restructurings involving both state-owned enterprises and private sector firms, while also representing some of the world’s leading multinationals on acquisitions in China and Asia.  He commenced his career as a trade economist with KOTRA, a Korean government agency, where he developed US-­Korea economic and trade research.

Todd currently serves as a Board Member of The STEM Academy, a non-­profit organization that provides STEM literacy to middle and high school students, and is an Advisor to China Education Network, Inc., a Leading education services venture focused on executive education In China.  He is a Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, an affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Todd earned a B.A. in Economics from U.C.L.A, an M.I.A from Columbia University, and has conducted post-­‐graduate study at Peking University and Nanking University, China. He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese and is conversational in Korean and Russian.

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