Educated Ventures draws upon the fifty years of combined experience of its team, who all boast
extensive experience in the education industry as well as direct experience working together in
the global strategy and corporate development team for Apollo Group.
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 since its founding at the start of 2012. Christopher 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.
Prior to founding Educated Ventures, Christopher served as strategic advisor to one of the largest media companies in the world, Bertelsmann AG, where he helped support their investment and market entry plans within the global education market. Christopher spent the prior four years helping to build the Corporate Development & Global Strategy team for Apollo Group, the owner of the University of Phoenix and largest for-profit educational company in the world. During this time, he 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, Mr. Nyren was the primary corporate development professional on every acquisition and investment completed by the company and the fund (totaling over $750 million of aggregate consideration).
Christopher started his career with the education and business services coverage team at investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Nyren 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.
Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn.
Todd Maurer
Todd 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 conversational Korean and Russian.
Connect with Todd on LinkedIn.
Akhil Kishore (Special Advisor)
Akhil is a special advisor to Educated Advisors. He has over 10 years of diverse finance, investment and technology experience, with a particular focus on India and the education and employment sector.
Akhil received his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and completed his undergraduate studies at the Delhi College of Engineering.
