Leadership

Matt Yale is the founder of Grove Partners. Prior to Grove Partners, he was the Co-CEO of Tusk Strategies. Matt has been the architect of several high-stakes corporate and civic-facing campaigns as well as activist defense situations. He was the matchmaker for the Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods.

Previously, Matt was the senior vice president of global communications and public affairs at Laureate Education. Before joining Laureate, Matt served as deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Secretary of Education. In this capacity, he was a senior advisor to the Secretary on policy and strategic planning and worked directly with the White House on several critical inter-agency initiatives, such as the nation’s H1N1 flu response.

Before joining the Obama Administration, Matt worked at Ariel Investments as the firm’s vice president of public affairs. He has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business and has been featured in multiple news publications including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Time Magazine. Additionally, he has spoken at Teachers College, Columbia University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Matt was a Charter Member of ChildObesity180 and a former Term Member on the Council of Foreign Relations.

Henry S. Bienen is the President Emeritus of Northwestern University. He was elected the 15th president in June 1994 and retired in August 2009.

Dr. Bienen is a Public Member of Rasmussen’s Board of Directors. He serves as a member of the Hedgefund Boards at Grosvenor, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and Ryan Specialty Group, where he also serves on their Compensation and Governance Committee.

Formerly, Dr. Bienen was a member of the Board of Directors for the Council on Foreign Relations, and also served on the Chicago Board of Education during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first term. He previously served as President of the Poetry Foundation.

Prior to becoming Northwestern’s president, Dr. Bienen was the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Dr. Bienen received a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Cornell University in 1960 and a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1961. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1966. In 2008, the Northwestern University Board of Trustees honored him and his wife, Leigh, a senior lecturer at Northwestern University School of Law, by naming the University's School of Music the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music. The Bienens have three daughters, five grandsons and one granddaughter.

Mr. Pianko is co-founder and managing director at University Ventures (UV). With over a decade of experience in education, Mr. Pianko has built a reputation as a trusted education adviser and innovator in student finance, medical education and postsecondary education. Mr. Pianko began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Since then, he has invested in, founded, advised or managed a number of education-related businesses. He established a student loan fund, served as chief of staff for the public/private investments in the Philadelphia School District and worked as a hedge fund analyst. He serves on a number of boards, including the Boards of Trustees of Harlem Village Academies and of American Public Education, Inc.

Angela Selden was appointed Chief Executive Officer of American Public Education in September 2019. Ms. Selden brings more than 30 years of experience in technology and technology-enabled services, both within private-equity and publicly traded environments, and has deep experience executing business transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 clients. She was previously CEO and board member of DIGARC, a leading education technology provider to higher education institutions. Previous roles include CEO of Workforce Insight, a global, strategic workforce consulting, analytics and services company serving Fortune 100 clients; CEO and Executive Co-Chairman of Arise Virtual Solutions, a virtual workforce solutions outsourcer; and interim CEO of Skybridge Americas, a global contact center and provider of fulfillment solutions. Ms. Selden serves on the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business Strategic Board of Governors and was honored as the University’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012. Ms. Selden currently serves as Chairman of DinerIQ and as a board member of TalentWave. Earlier in her career, Ms. Selden spent 18 years at Accenture, including serving as the Managing Partner, leading the North American Consumer and Industrial Products group to significant growth.

Claire Zangerle is president of CMZ Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm offering services focused on nursing organizations and the interdependencies of functional disciplines. Services include assessment of current state, action planning to optimize the nursing organization, future state and strategic planning, coaching for nursing leaders, and nursing organization redesign. Dr. Zangerle is certified as an Advanced Nurse Executive with the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a fellow of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Zangerle serves on the editorial boards of Nursing Management and Nursing Administration Quarterly and is a member of the board of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. She serves on the American Hospital Association (AHA) Workforce Committee where she was a former board of trustee and led the Hospitals Against Violence and Human Trafficking initiative.

Formerly, Dr. Zangerle was the chief nurse executive and chair at the Nursing Institute at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), where she led over 6,000 nurses in the acute and ambulatory care area and collaborated with AHN Home and Community Services.

Previously, Dr. Zangerle served as CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio. She also served in various capacities at the Cleveland Clinic, including chief nursing officer, director of quality and accreditation, and director of preventive cardiology. She began her nursing career at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Trauma.

Ms. Thomas Parrott is a retired Senior Vice President of External Relations and Global Responsibility of DeVry Education Group (Adtalem), where she was responsible for corporate and education compliance, internal audit, government and public relations, and higher education accreditation and licensing. She also served as the founding President of the DeVry Charitable Foundation and the DeVry Scholarship Fund. Previously, Ms. Thomas Parrott worked as a Program and Training Officer at the U. S. Department of Education and held faculty and administrative positions at several Illinois colleges and universities. She began her career as a Chicago Public School teacher and has served on numerous boards and commissions for the State of Illinois, One Goal, The College Board and America’s Promise Alliance.

Ms. Singer has an extensive background in higher education, having served as a chief executive officer, board chair, and public company officer for multiple organizations. Most recently, she served as the President and Chief Academic Officer of Rasmussen University, where she oversaw the institution’s strategic direction and academic initiatives, championing career-focused education and student success.

Prior to this, Ms. Singer spent 27 years at Laureate Education, Inc., where she retired as CEO of Laureate Online and Walden University. She also served as chairman of Walden University for 19 years. As Chief Laureate Network Officer, she led the development of online programs across Laureate’s 83 campuses worldwide, spanning Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, she was responsible for Laureate’s global portfolio of specialty schools in art and design, as well as hospitality education, with institutions located in New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, and beyond.

Ms. Singer was also the co-founder and principal owner of Nurturing Nest Montessori School and currently serves as a board director at the University of Connecticut Foundation. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and is proud to have been the first education major selected for the prestigious University Scholar program. In recognition of her contributions to higher education, she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa (L.H.D.) from Walden University.