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.
Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn.