|
International Education Corporation (IEC) today announced the appointment of Fardad Fateri as its Chief Executive Officer.
Fateri joins IEC with a rare and solid background in business as well as in academics. In his new role, he will be responsible for continuing the excellent standard of education provided by IEC’s subsidiaries, United Education Institute and Advanced Career Training. Fateri plans to reach a broader range of students by increasing program offerings delivered through multiple platforms and increasing distribution channels while leveraging current facilities and improving the level of academic quality.
“In our enterprise, it all comes down to student retention, graduation and employment,” Fateri said. “Colleges that focus on student outcomes and student achievement will sustain superior long-term financial results.”
Most recently, Fateri served as Chief Academic Officer for Corinthian Colleges, Inc., where he led the corporation’s academic vertical for the past four years. Prior to joining Corinthian Colleges, Inc., Dr. Fateri was President of DeVry University in Southern California, leading the organization to become one of the most successful divisions of DeVry, Inc. He served the DeVry, Inc. community for 10 years. Before his work with DeVry, he spent more than seven years at the Orange County Campus of the United States International University where he was Campus Director.
“I am excited about having the opportunity to work with a very talented leadership team, a quality staff, a passionate faculty, and the fact that IEC is not yet as large as some of the other players within our space,” Fateri said. “We can be nimble and build a culture grounded in top-quality programs delivered by top-notch faculty, and we will design a culture of accountability for student outcomes.”
Fateri said the proprietary education space is small compared to the traditional education sector, which allows a number of opportunities to gain market share and provide students with timely and relevant education that prepares them for careers.
Dr. Fateri earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees form the University of California in Irvine; California State University in Fullerton; and Alliant International University, respectively. His Doctoral degree is in Leadership and Human Behavior with a specialization in Organizational Behavior. Dr. Fateri also attended Harvard University, where he completed the Management and Leadership in Higher Education program.
Jim Mathis, the company’s outgoing CEO, was instrumental in positioning the company for the future. He will continue to support the IEC community by serving on the corporation’s Board of Directors.
“For the past year, we have been actively searching for a qualified Chief Executive and finally found someone who will take IEC to the next level. We are fortunate to attract someone of Fardad’s caliber to IEC,” Mathis said.
About International Education Corporation
International Education Corporation is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. As parent company of United Education Institute and Advanced Career Training, International Education Corporation offers a wide range of educational services encompassing career training and specialized higher education training. International Education Corporation’s mission is to provide exceptional career-oriented programs that prepare students for entry-level employment in their chosen field. For more information, visithttp://company.monster.com/iecglobal/.
Q/A
With Fardad Fateri, Ph.D
Title: Chief Executive Officer
School: International Education Corporation
Hometown: Irvine, California
College: University of California, Irvine (bachelor’s); California State University, Fullerton (master’s); Alliant International University (doctorate); and Harvard University (post-doc).
Major: BA & MA is social science, Ph.D. in leadership with a specialization in Organizational behavior and post doc in management of lifelong education.
Dr. Fardad Fateri has recently been named the new CEO of International Education Corporation. We had the opportunity to hold a meetng with Dr. Fateri to interview him regarding his new post and his views on many other topics. Below, you will find a summary of the interview.
How did you get started in the education profession?
I wish I could claim that I had a grand design for my life when I was 10 years old which dictated my entry into education sector. Actually, it did not work that way at all. In fact, my plan was to become a real estate developer like my father. I did start in the construction business while going to school. In graduate school I started teaching and I absolutely loved it, there was nothing more stimulating than helping students learn. At that point, I decided to make education my chosen profession. When I completed my Ph.D. program, I started working full-time as a mid-level manager for a small, top-quality non-profit university. After a few years, I received a call from a colleague who was with DeVry. She informed me of an opening in the company and encouraged me to join DeVry. I did extensive research on the career education sector and I grew very fond of the sector’s overall philosophy and then decided to become a member of the space. I joined DeVry in April 1995 and have been in the career education sector ever since.
In your new position as CEO of IEC, what challenges are you most looking forward to? To what challenges are you not looking forward?
In collaboration with the talented managers at IEC, I very much look forward to designing a future that allows our existing schools and future locations the opportunity to serve thousands of more students through new ascending programs within existing verticals as well as new ones and offering content through multiple platforms. I also look forward to building and leveraging the capability of our talented staff and managers so they can achieve the extraordinary and know that they can be the best in class.
I can’t think of anything I am not looking forward to addressing. I am passionate about what I do and I love what we do in our sector. We are in a unique position to change lives every day. Knowing that our service to our students has such great impact is bothrefreshing and fulfilling.
What has your work taught you about life in general?
Good question. We are brought up and socialized through school and the media to discover what’s wrong with everything and everyone including ourselves. Now, this process is amplified for me because during my doctoral program, I also became a trained skeptic which is the foundation for turning into a good researcher. During my work in career education, I learned that people are inherently good. Students come to school to learn, grow and enter into a great career. Staff and faculty are eager to serve their students and our employers. I have never seen anyone in our profession with the intent of not doing well. I am convinced that people don’t say to themselves or others, “let me see how I can mess up my work today.” More likely than not wrong, as well as poor training or unplanned situations, force people to make poor decisions. I have also learned that people want to perform and produce at the highest level but they need to be inspired and motivated, and most importantly, they need to understand the purpose of their work. In general, I have found that experiences in life manifest themselves with similar outcomes but in a larger scale.
What has motivated you most in your positions both inside and outside the sector?
In life what motives me most are opportunities to serve people. I covet developing creative approaches to complex long-term business opportunities, I enjoy developing colleagues to exceed even their own expectations and I am very motivated by achieving extraordinary results.
Please describe your values and philosophy in operating colleges.
I have very simple values and philosophy in operating colleges: growth with quality, integrity and a strong commitment to excellence. So, what do these words mean in our space? Fundamentally, we want to serve as many students as possible, so recruiting quality candidates aggressively is terribly important to our business. But, equally as important is to design effective communities that are positioned to deliver timely and relevant curricula. The content is facilitated in a practitioner-oriented environment to promote and ensure student learning and retention resulting in high graduation and employment rates. Therefore, a fantastic school is judged not only by its rigor on the front end but in its overall performance in keeping, graduating and placing its students.
How has your background in business and academics prepared you for your new role at IEC?
I am glad you have mentioned both business and academic experience because that is a relatively rare preparatory combination for a CEO in our space. I think my academic background provides for a more balanced and holistic view on complex business opportunities. The premise here is that the career education sector is more complicated than most people from outside of our sector are led to believe although the true levers of our business are relatively simple to identify, that’s the dichotomy. The danger and the threat are that many outsiders identify the wrong key indicators as true levers of the sector. Just to give you a general example without boring you with detailed strategic insights, I will tell you that I view education from a student centric angle. Essentially, I consider students to be at core of our enterprise and all systems as well as structures should be aligned to optimally reflect this strategy. This allows the organization to be structured around students and markets and not products. When the student is at the core, you learn, focus, organize, plan and execute based on the true levers of the business and not necessarily traditional business practices that provide a blueprint in effective management.
Tell something about yourself that people might not know by just looking at you.
People may not know that I am an Iranian-American by just looking at me. Many do obviously deduct of my possible origins but it is important for me that my true origins are known. Also, I went to an international boarding school in Switzerland called Le Rosey when I was only 12 years old and completed my “O” levels at that school. I also collect graded coins, mainly hundred year old Lincoln cents.
It is very rare and quite unusual for an Iranian-American to rise to the top of the education field or any other field for that matter in the United States without either starting or owning the company. How did you manage to rise to the top and achieve such a high status?
I don’t know if it is rare or unusual and with all honesty I do not have a “how to manual” for getting to the top. But I know one thing to be true in that most of the Iranian-Americans I meet are so much smarter than I am. I am always amazed to learn of the incredible achievements of Iranian-Americans in the U.S. I am impressed and very proud just to be placed in the same circle as them, it truly is an honor. I don’t have any special attributes but I can point to a period in our lives that made many of us Iranian-Americans develop special survival skills. Many of us came to the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during that period it was not popular to be Iranian; in fact, many escaped their identity just to remain safe and out of harm’s way. I recall many of us who entered the country at that time were focused on survival; we knew so little about this country, even getting a driver’s license was a huge ordeal. As young men and women, we not only had to learn survival skills to keep our heads above water but we had to help our parents as well. We learned to become independent, we learned to be tenacious and we learned never to give up. We learned on our own and we survived on our own, we became experts on how to make it. The best lesson in life is the lesson of struggle and the lesson of humility. Many of us went through periods of struggle and humility in the early years. We did not appreciate the experience back then but we are much stronger operators because of that dark period in our lives. Struggle and humility build character. I never thought I would ever admit to it but it would be fair for me to say that horrible struggle was a gift to all of us Iranians who became stronger and are leaders in many sectors of the economy today.
What is your school’s reputation in the community?
Our two brands, United Education Institute and Advanced Career Training, have a reputation of offering top quality programs in the healthcare, business and technology verticals in the communities they serve in the United States.
Name another professional in the education industry whom you admire and explain why?
In my career, I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with top industry leaders. I have learned a great deal from all of them. I have to admit though that the person I admire the most is a person who also has a strong background in both business and academics. His name is John Sperling, the founder of the Apollo Group, owner and operator of the University of Phoenix. John had the courage, tenacity and vision to recognize an incredible need and he carved a specialized niche for University of Phoenix. With close to 300,000 students, UOP is now one of the largest private for-profit publicly traded universities in the world with annual revenues in the billions of dollars. It would be appropriate to say that John created a new space for many of us and I admire him for that achievement. John will probably be embarrassed but he deserves this recognition.
What is your definition of success?
You know the saying, “doing well by doing good.” I love that statement because it represents how I feel about success both personally and professionally. I know it sounds too warm and fuzzy but I really care about what we are doing for our students. A large percentage of the students we serve have historically been ignored and avoided by traditional postsecondary education. Many of these students are first generation college students and to be able to have the opportunity to change their lives is a gift that I never take for granted. To recruit and educate thousands of students and then help place them in related careers is my definition of success.
What is your secret in creating such a successful professional life?
I am asked this question often but I have to tell you that I don’t have a secret. I do, however, have a code. 1. I work very hard, probably harder than most because I am not as smart as most. I am not just talking about time in the office but time and energy to the enterprise. I am 24/7; 2. I never give up and I don’t let anything bring me down; 3. I take personal responsibility for everything. I am just happier knowing that I am responsible and I never blame others for mistakes; 4. I treat everyone- and I mean everyone- with respect and dignity. My title or position in life is not justification for arrogance and I should not be treated differently so that is why I am Fardad to everyone who knows me. I respect people who have achieved success but I cannot stand arrogance; 5. I am a perfectionist and have extremely high expectations of myself; 6. I am super positive and have the capacity to believe everything is possible to achieve. 7. I hire the best talent in our business and surround myself with individuals who are much more capable than I am. People create excellence, not walls; 8. I believe in relentless and ruthless execution of the corporation’s plan. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary performance is execution. Those who know how to execute consistently will be at the top; and last but not least, 9. I love my profession. I am passionate about serving and educating people and I can’t believe I get paid for what I absolutely love to do every day. So, spending so much time in creating excellence is a privilege and not an imperative.
What advice do you have for our younger readers who have aspirations to become successful in life?
I care deeply about the next generation. I have a 15 year old daughter, Elika, and an 11 year old son, Cameron, who are super smart and super capable individuals and I am very proud of both of them. But in this competitive landscape both Elika and Cameron know that aptitude and capability are just not enough. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t talk to them about the attributes of a balanced and successful life. I will share a few of my thoughts that I think are key and I hope they are of some use to your readers: 1. Follow your passion. I know in our culture, everyone likes their children to become physicians, engineers or attorneys but in my career I have discovered that the superstars are those who love what they do and they are passionate about their profession. I have seen so many unhappy physicians, engineers and lawyers. They got into the profession because it sounded prestigious but they are now going through the mechanics of their jobs because they lack passion. Also, I have found contractors, florists, electricians, and plumbers who are very successful because they love their profession. The moral of the story is that when your love your career, you will do it because of the passion and not because it is work…always follow your heart and passion and extreme success is inevitable; 2. Find a mentor in your life. I did not have the luxury of having a mentor but I do realize now how important it is to have someone to guide, coach and direct you in the right direction; 3. Read more than anyone else you know. You can never read and write too much. I find very successful people have outstanding communication skills and you can only achieve this skill by reading and writing an great deal. It does not matter what you read, just read anything that interests you. When I was younger, I used to read several books every week; 4. Always exceed expectations. Do more than you are asked in school, at work and in life. Extraordinary people have the ability to achieve the extraordinary and they have the capacity to do more than others; 5. Eliminate the words: tired, exhausted, can’t, and won’t out from your vocabulary. 6. Develop a work ethic that you do not see or experience around you. What you see around you is normal and ordinary and if you plan to reach the top, you have to work 100 times harder than others. The saying, “work smarter and not harder” is not true and was made up by people who have not achieved excellence. The saying should be “work harder and smarter.” 7. Always- and I mean always- take personal responsibility for everything that happens in your life. And, never blame others for anything even if they are at fault. People who blame others are unsuccessful in work and in life. Successful leaders always accept responsibility even when someone else made a mistake; 8. Always respect the dignity of others and never do anything that would hurt people; 9. As a matter of practice, no matter how busy you are, always find the time and money to help others in need; and 10. Always be honest and have integrity in all that you do. I always tell people my word is the most valuable asset I own. It is powerful if and when you develop that reputation with your peers.
I am sure there are other words of wisdom to share but to me these are the most important.
In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing higher education today?
The rapid growth of our sector has had many positive consequences for multiple stakeholders. But at the same time, now that we are large and have a voice, we (colleges as well as accreditors) need to be better prepared and plan collectively to deal with state and national legislation much more aggressively and effectively.
|
