Higher Digital Expands Leadership Team with Appointment of Brian Kraff as CFO
Higher Digital positioned for accelerated growth and operational scale as digital transformation management becomes a major factor in higher education
TYSONS, Va. – February 8, 2022 – Higher Digital, the leader in digital transformation for higher education, announced the appointment of Brian Kraff as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Kraff joins Higher Digital at a time when the demand for digital transformation success is accelerating across all industries. Kraff will lead the company’s financial strategy and fundraising efforts while also bringing deep operating experience from his rich career as a serial entrepreneur and startup leader.
Kraff is the latest of several recent additions to Higher Digital’s senior leadership team, accompanied by adjustments in team roles designed to scale customer success, accelerate software platform development, and establish strategic partnerships and channels. The additions and role adjustments include:
- Brian Kraff, joining Higher Digital as Chief Financial Officer
- Co-founder Colleen Baker, assuming role of Chief Operations and Customer Officer
- Erica McQuiston, joining Higher Digital as Vice President, Customer Success
- Joe Gottlieb, assuming role of President and Chief Technology Officer
- Co-founder and CEO Wayne Bovier, now also leading Higher Digital’s strategic partnerships and channels
Higher Digital works with higher education leadership, operations, and technology stakeholders to harmonize IT strategy with enterprise strategy, making them more agile and responsive to the ever-evolving needs of students, faculty, and school administration. The company is well poised to capitalize on the swiftly growing digital change management needs that higher education institutions are experiencing.
“At Higher Digital, it is our mission to help higher education institutions better manage strategic change brought about by technology. In expanding our leadership team, we are investing in the leadership necessary to accelerate the company’s global digital transformation software and services,” said Wayne Bovier, CEO and co-founder, Higher Digital. “We continue our un-interrupted run of annual growth since inception, with particular success establishing Europe in 2021, and we are poised for a 2022 that sets new records in all aspects of our business. These additions to our leadership team will be instrumental in building upon our momentum.”
Kraff joins Higher Digital after having managed a subsidiary of EverCommerce, which had a successful initial public offering (IPO) last year. Kraff will pilot Higher Digital through its active Series A funding round and will oversee several areas of operations, including their international business in the United Kingdom, which realized 625% growth in 2021.
“Higher Digital offers a unique value proposition to higher education institutions. Our experts leverage benchmarking tools, advanced analytics, practical change management methodologies, targeted process training, and facilitation to help institutions master success with digital change,” said Kraff. “This unique value and the vision to further automate digital transformation practices via software made joining Higher Digital a no-brainer.”
“Our customers need help in owning and managing their change – the old ways of implementing digital change to achieve the expected business outcomes have been failing for decades,” said Colleen Baker, CCO, COO, and co-founder, Higher Digital. “Through a combination of software, data, and facilitated change, we help our higher ed customers make better use of technology and achieve transformational results. We are continually improving all aspects of our customer success strategy and with my added focus as Chief Customer Officer, I am excited to bring our proven strategic change management process to higher ed institutions across the globe.”
Erica McQuiston will leverage her decades of experience leading enterprise software and change management teams for Think, iData, and Laureate International Universities to support Baker in delivering customer success and value through the implementation of (SEA)change™, Higher Digital’s Transformation-as-a-Service offering.
“With its breakthrough approach validated by numerous references from an impressive portfolio of customers, Higher Digital has established itself as the leader in practical strategic change management for higher education. I am thrilled to be focusing my efforts on accelerating development of our software platform that will continuously automate the strategic change management workflows necessary for all organizations to thrive in the digital age,” said Joe Gottlieb, President and CTO, Higher Digital.
For more information, visit higher.digital or contact us here.
About Higher Digital
Higher Digital is a digital transformation company that provides consulting, software, and data benchmarking tools to significantly reduce the time and cost for higher education executives to assess, plan, and measure their technology strategies. Higher Digital is headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, and has offices in London, UK and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For more information, please visit higher.digital.
