Ready Education, Global. Mackenzie Zak has joined Ready Education as an account executive. She joins the company from Higher Education Marketing, where she was in the role of professional sales representative for the US. Mackenzie is a dedicated, proactive and committed young professional described as a “fierce advocate for international education and a vivid voice in the industry”. She has over seven years of experience in the international education industry, consulting institutions and recruitment partners toward sustainable international strategies and solutions. She was also co-founder and COO of Applywave, a software for international student experience.

AIFS Abroad, US. Dr. Neal McKinney has joined AIFS Abroad as its new director of study abroad and internship operations. Neal was previously a graduate research associate at the College Impact Laboratory at Ohio State University, then in the institution’s office of Diversity, Equity and Global Engagement, and most recently as a dissertation fellow. AIFS called him a “is a renowned practitioner and scholar committed to individualized, inclusive student experiences abroad”. Of his new role, Neal said: “I am excited to join AIFS because I am truly passionate about living out their mission to bring the world together. Through this role, I aim to ensure that every student we work with can find just and equitable success through education and work abroad.”

EdCo LATAM Consulting, Global. Vinícius de Souza Santos has begun a new role as an account executive at EdCo LATAM Consulting, supporting on various projects, it has been announced. Vinícius has been working within the higher education industry for six years. He has experience in student counselling, supporting sales consultants with student profile analysis, assisting in student application processes, and conducting higher education training. Based in Brazil, Vinícius has previously worked with top Brazilian agencies and is passionate about making international education more accessible. Simon Terrington, EdCo’s CEO said: “It’s great to be working with you and supporting Olds College of Agriculture & Technology across Latin America!”

Harvard Business School, US. Bryan McAllister-Grande has joined Harvard Business School for director of administration and operations. He joins from a previous role at Northeastern University, where he was firstly assistant director of curriculum integration and most recently as director of academic integration and planning. He also has his own company, GlobalEd, which he still runs aside from his new post at Harvard Business School. Of his new role, Bryan said: “Very thankful for my time at Northeastern University – especially colleagues, students and international partners. I’m also excited to join the wonderful ODEI team at HBS.”

IDP Education, Global. Nathan Marshall has been appointed as an account director at IDP Education Ltd. He joins the team from Springpod, where he was the school and college partnerships lead. He also has experience in the edtech space, where he was head of sales at Ark Curriculum Plus. Of his new role, Nathan posted on LinkedIn: “I’m stacked to the brim with university data, and WOW the insights are unreal. I look forward to meeting my new university accounts and making a positive impact on their student recruitment. [I’ve] 15 years in the education sector so I am confident I can add something unique.

Department of State, US. Anthony Koliha, in addition to his current role as the director of the office for educational programs at the US Government’s Department of State, has taken on the role of acting deputy commissioner general, USA Pavilion for the Osaka Expo 2025.  Anthony has over twenty years experience in the non-profit, higher education, and government sectors both in the United States and overseas. Experience with staff supervision, budgetary oversight, program development and management, as well as strategic planning and policy formulation. At an event as part of the handover for his new, additional role, Anthony said: “I was honored to join Expo Unit Japan at today’s plot handover in advance of Osaka Expo 2025. See everyone at the USA Pavilion next year!”

University of Wolverhampton, UK. Jenny Hyde has begun her role at the University of Wolverhampton as its new senior international recruitment manager. Jenny has previously worked at the University of Portsmouth as a senior global officer, and was also a senior international officer at Oxford Brookes University. The role comes after a brief hiatus from the industry, and Jenny said she is “ready to dive in” to connect talent with opportunity. Of her new role, she said: “I’ll be focusing once again on Sub-Saharan Africa, and am delighted to be working with the dream team of Sergine Monple, Yusuff Kaffo, Manjit Sahota James Gachuki and Oluwatosin Daniel. Can’t wait to reconnect with old friends and forge new partnerships across this amazing region.”

Arden University, UK. Arden University has appointed Professor Dr Cyndi Banks as deputy vice chancellor. Cyndi has more than 13 years of experience in leading higher education administration and has a strong record of improving all dimensions of the student learning experience across a diverse range of institutions. Her previous roles support her expertise in academia, with a strong background in teaching, boosting student engagement and retention. Her academic history is in children and human rights, juvenile and criminal justice, and the rule of law with global criminology, with works published in all of these areas. Commenting on her new role, Cyndi said: “I’m thoroughly excited to start my role as deputy VC and work with Professor Carl Lygo, alongside the talented academics and students at Arden University, to strengthen the institution and its offer to students.”

ISC Research, Global. Will Saville has started as business development manager at ISC Research, the leading provider of data and intelligence services on the world’s K-12 International School’s Market. The moves brings him back to the UK after two yeras in Australia. Prior to joining ISC Research, Will was based in Melbourne for GL Education tasked with developing the new market and supporting schools across Australia and New Zealand with the effective use of data. Will has also held a number of commercial and stakeholder engagement roles at Cambridge University Press and Assessment.

Gateway Education, UK. Ryan Henderson is the new COO at Gateway Education, a UK leading recruitment and guardianship firm for the British independent school sector. Ryan is responsible for driving growth, diversity and execution for Gateway Education’s UK, China and South East Asian recruitment strategies, short programs and implementing Gateway’s own independent boarding house portfolio across the UK. Ryan started his career in education 16 years ago as an Art and Design teacher in Chinese international schools and has since worked in senior leadership roles for British International Schools ltd, Cognita Schools group, LH Global Group and Travel Scholars Ltd. Ryan said of his new role: “after working alongside Gateway as a partner for close to a decade, I am thrilled to finally be part of this extremely capable and dynamic company. With encouragingly strong staff retention rates, I find that I am working with familiar faces both in the UK and China offices. I have entered at an exciting time of Gateway’s growth and our plans for the short-mid- and long-term future will make visible ripples in the British independent school sector and beyond. Watch this space!”

Whitecliffe Education, Global. Whitecliffe has appointed Fay Amaral as its new CEO for New Zealand and Australia (Australasia). With over two decades of executive leadership experience, including a notable tenure as CEO in various sectors spanning education, film, retail, and media, Fay brings a wealth of expertise to her new role. Before joining Whitecliffe, Fay served as CEO of Youthtown, a national non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting young people in New Zealand/Aotearoa. During her tenure, Fay demonstrated remarkable leadership, further solidifying her commitment to educational initiatives. Feroz Ali, Chairman of the Whitecliffe Education Group, expressed his enthusiasm for Fay’s appointment, stating, “I am thrilled to welcome someone of Fay’s calibre to our team in New Zealand. Her extensive experience and dedication to education align perfectly with our mission to provide high-quality learning opportunities. I am confident that Fay will play a pivotal role in expanding Whitecliffe’s footprint into Australia.”

Kings Education, Global. Johnny Peters has joined Kings Education, managing onshore development for North America. Kings is a leading international education organization specializing in pathways to the best universities, assuring progression to the US top 50, the UK top 40 and elite institutions around the globe. His role at Kings will go alongside his continued running of the UK based summer school organisation he co-founded in 2017, Emerald Cultural Institute UK. His other experience includes 10 years at Study Group including International Development Director and Global Sales and Marketing Director at Embassy English. Based in New York, his new role at Kings will see him helping onshore North American partners develop their recruitment strategies for King’s Premium Universities. He can be contacted at johnny.peters@kingseducation.com

Buckinghamshire New University, UK. Rhys Thomas has joined BNU as head of admissions, based at their High Wycombe campus. Rhys joins BNU from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Previously Rhys has worked across both Student Recruitment and Admissions at a number of institutions including Swansea University, the University of West London, Pearson College London, and South Thames Colleges Group. Of his new role, Rhys said: “I am very much looking forward to diving into a number of exciting projects at BNU, and working closely with new colleagues.”

Rhodes University, South Africa. Orla Quinlan has been promoted to the role of director of global engagement at Rhodes University in South Africa. Celebrating its 120^th anniversary, Rhodes University’s vision is to be “ foremost in the generation and advancement of locally responsive and globally engaged knowledge that seeks to create a just and sustainable society”. The elevation to Director of a global engagement division signifies a commitment to a more comprehensive internationalisation strategy. Previously, Quinlan was director of the international office for over 10 years. She joined Rhodes after working for Oxfam as head of program funding. “We renewed our internationalisation policy to be in harmony with the aspirations of our Institutional Development plan,” said Quinlan of her new role. “Internationalisation is integrated into teaching and learning, research, community engagement, and will focus on the development of strategic partnerships for the advancement of our vision and mission.”

Fulbright Commission, US/Sri Lanka. The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka has hired Patrick McNamara, as its new executive director of the United States-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission based in Colombo. Patrick brings extensive professional experience to Sri Lankan-American academic exchanges, with over three decades in academia, consulting, business, and government. Patrick’s expertise will be instrumental in creating new opportunities to further Fulbright Sri Lanka’s mission to ensure that it empowers future leaders, underrepresented groups in higher education and advances the exchange of ideas and the intercultural dialogue for the promotion of inclusive and diverse societies in both our countries. Patrick said: “I am excited to begin this new chapter in my life and build on the strong foundations of the bi-national Fulbright Commission here. We will continue to build bridges of understanding and peace between the people of Sri Lanka and the people of the United States. The Fulbright Program represents the best of American and Sri Lankan values such as diversity, unity, and respect for others.”

EC English, Malta. Catherine Dalipe has announced she is joining EC English as its new operations manager for The Americas, Middle East and Africa in its Young Learners division. She will also help to grow the Embassy Summer brand in the same regions. She was previously a senior manager on partner engagement at Acumen, part of the Sannam S4 group, and also had a stint working at Amerigo Education as its regional director of campus operations on the West Coast. Addtionally, she used to run North American operations for the Embassy Summer program 13 years ago. On LinkedIn regarding her new role she said: “This fantastic opportunity brings me back to work alongside numerous talented colleagues whom I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with!”

Malvern International, UK. Matt Hird has joined Malvern International as its new director of sales. Matt comes to Malvern after three years as the director of student recriutment at David Game College, and previously held several roless at Oxford International Education Group, including a school principal based in Poland, head of recruitment, program manager and most recently global sales director. Writing on LinkedIn about his new role, Matt said: “I’m really looking forward to working with the Malvern team to help them develop both their Language and Pathway programmes and working with partners old and new around the globe.”

Strasz Assessment Systems, US. Rory McCorkle has joined Strasz Assessment Systems as VP of business development. Strasz’s software solutions support assessment organisations with item creation, item banking, test delivery, scoring, and psychometric processes, helping these organisations manage one of their greatest assets, their IP. In this role, Rory will support Strasz’s clients and prospect with their assessment strategies and needs. In addition, Rory took the role of Chair of the Board of the Association of Test Publishers (ATP) in January. ATP is an international trade association focused to promote and develop testing and assessment best practices, while working to promote assessment benefits to test takers, educational institutions, corporations, and society at large. Rory has supported the education and assessment sectors for over 20 years, most recently at PSI Services, but also organizations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI), IEEE, and Prometric. Throughout his career, he has been an active volunteer with ATP, ICE, and many other educational and assessment organisations.

NousCubane, Global. NousCubane announced the appointment of Adam Gray as its CEO. Adam has been acting as CEO delegate at NousCubane since December 2023 and has assumed the permanent role in late February 2024. He will lead the business as it expands its global presence and service offering to provide higher education institutions with a greater range of data-led solutions to address their biggest strategic challenges. Adam said of his new role: “It couldn’t be a more exciting time to be leading NousCubane as we leverage the business’ strong growth to expand our international presence and broaden our offer to help more higher education institutions solve a greater array of problems. Tertiary education leaders around the world are facing unprecedented challenges as they manage the after-effects of the pandemic, high inflation and constrained government funding. Innovative and robust data-led approaches, coupled with global cooperation, will be essential to success in coming decades.”

Pitzer College, US. Karey Fuhs has joined liberal arts institution Pitzer College as its senior director of Study abroad and International Programs. She comes from a 20-month stint at ApplyBoard, as its partner relations manager for the US, and later as a senior partner relations manager for the US. Previously, she held various roles at Northwestern University in Boston, where she worked in the Global Learning Office and the Office of International Program Development. About her new role, Karey said: “After 20 months at ApplyBoard learning about international student recruitment and admissions, I’ve returned to a higher education institution and the world of education abroad/international exchange – and moved to California! To all of my EA and ISSS friends and colleagues, including and especially those of you in the Los Angeles area, along the West Coast, and/or at Liberal Arts Colleges, I look forward to collaborating!”