Advisory Board Grows as Higher Ed Moves Online, Faces Challenges
Paul Butler, Kim Wells, and Saundra Wall Williams, Ed.D. Join Other Experts to Provide Insight on Market Needs
Tysons Corner, Va., April 7, 2020—Higher Digital, the leading digital strategic advisor to higher education institutions, today announced that it has appointed three new members to its advisory board to deepen the board’s expertise in higher education and digital transformation management. Joining are Paul Butler, Director of Information and Library Services, University of Greenwich; Kim Wells, Executive Director, Executive Education and The Center for Career Excellence, Howard University School of Business and Managing Partner of Aksum Intelligence LLC; and Saundra Wall Williams, Ed.D., CEO, WMS Corporation, and former Senior Vice-President, North Carolina Community College System.
“For Higher Digital to continue to grow and successfully guide higher education institutions as they strive for digital transformation, we need a wide range of strategic advisors with recent and relevant expertise that spans education, business, information technology, and digital transformation. That’s exactly what we’ve done here today,” said Wayne Bovier, founder and CEO of Higher Digital. “We are delighted to welcome Paul, Kim and Saundra to our team of expert advisors.”
Paul Butler, Director of Information and Library Services, University of Greenwich said: “Higher Digital is exploring new ground. Its ability to package the concept of digital transformation – a complex blend of culture and technology – is quite exciting. To have digital transformation as a service would be an organizational holy grail. At the University of Greenwich, we collaborated with Higher Digital to successfully migrate millions of academic marks from a bespoke legacy system to a more robust modern platform. I’m excited to bring experiences like this to the advisory board and to be a part of this larger movement.”
Kim Wells, Executive Director, Executive Education and The Center for Career Excellence, Howard University School of Business, and Managing Partner of Aksum Intelligence LLC, said: “At my core – I am an educator, and Higher Digital speaks my language. Wayne and his team embody the ideal that harnessing digital and cultural transformation is instrumental in supporting diversity, inclusion and equal access to all learners. I see the results every day in my work at Howard with our Executive Education programs, as a private executive coach, and as a leader in national organizations such as the Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers and the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources. I look forward to using my experiences to help advance Higher Digital’s mission.”
Dr. Saundra Wall Williams, CEO, WMS Corporation, and former Senior Vice-President, North Carolina Community College System, said: “Digital transformation has been needed for years – particularly in higher education, which is currently at a pivotal juncture. From my experiences working in information technology in higher education, both at the university and community college system level, I know that education institutions will continually innovate to respond to changing culture and technological advances. Higher Digital has come at the right time as higher education readies itself for this next cycle of change.”
Higher Digital also expanded the leadership of its advisory board, announcing that current board member Jonathan Kaplan will serve as co-chair alongside Chuck Spence, Ph.D. Kaplan is founder of Hines Point Advisors and serves as a lecturer at Georgetown University in higher education administration. Previously, Kaplan held a number of senior executive positions over a 16-year career at Laureate Education, including as President and CEO of Walden University and CEO of the Laureate Online division. Kaplan also served on the White House policy staff for President Clinton.
In addition to Dr. Spence and Kaplan, the new board members join Brian Kraff and Mojdeh Mehdizadeh. Higher Digital’s advisory board serves to help shape the company’s approach within higher education.
About Higher Digital
Higher Digital is a digital transformation service company that provides an innovative software service, (SEA)RESULTS®, as well as enterprise-wide consulting capabilities, that significantly lower the time and cost for higher education institution executives to assess, plan, and measure their technology strategies. Higher Digital’s corporate headquarters is located in Tysons Corner, Virginia, and the company’s European office is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For more information, please visit higher.digital.
