Orbis Education Adds to Executive Leadership to Help Accelerate Corporate Growth

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 13, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbis Education, a leader in the online healthcare-related higher education market, has added two new senior executives to its management team: Norm Allgood, senior vice president of operations, and Clay Gillespie, chief marketing officer.

"We are very fortunate to have Norm's strong operations background and Clay's marketing expertise as we navigate Orbis through the next exciting stages of our expansion," said Orbis Education Chief Executive Officer Daniel J. Briggs.  "Both come from organizations in the for-profit higher ed sector that experienced phenomenal growth both in terms of revenue and new student acquisition."

Allgood brings more than 17 years of executive experience to his position.  Prior to coming to Orbis, he spent nine years at the Institute for Professional Development (IPD), a subsidiary of Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL).  Most recently, he was IPD's senior vice president of strategic development.  In this role, he led a team of four vice presidents and 60 corporate staff members to provide outsourced educational solutions for adult programs at small liberal arts colleges and universities throughout the United States.  He also spent five years as the vice president of IPD's northern region, where he managed contracts with eight colleges and universities.  

Prior to his tenure at IPD, Allgood served in the U.S. Army from 1987-1991 as an active duty military police officer and in the Army Reserve from 1991-1995. While in the military, he was involved in operations in Panama, Egypt and Korea.  Following his military career, he was with Target Corporation from 1994 to 2000, responsible for up to 17 stores throughout the state of Michigan. While at Target, he was a master trainer in the Leadership Training and Development division and also served as the educational liaison between Target Corporation and Michigan State University.  In this capacity he worked closely with the University to develop the first master of science degree program in criminal justice to be offered completely online to students worldwide.

Gillespie, who also currently serves as vice chairman of the Education Marketing Council, comes to Orbis from Career Education Corporation (CEC) (Nasdaq: CECO) where he was senior vice president of marketing and media. His vast experience in digital/interactive and direct response marketing, in addition to his strategic and analytical approach to marketing, will be critical to helping Orbis meet its marketing and new student recruitment goals.

Prior to his tenure at CEC, Gillespie was executive vice president, client services and business strategy at UnREAL Marketing Solutions, where he was responsible for spearheading the strategic direction of all client accounts with primary emphasis on SEO, paid search and online media (both CPM and behavioral).  

The additions to the Orbis executive team follows the completion of $8 million in Series B financing led earlier this year by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm that manages more than $2 billion in capital.

"Orbis Education's solutions are revolutionizing nursing education.  We are seeing high demand for the company's products across all fronts – from prospective nursing students frustrated by the limited number of spots at quality schools, academic institutions interested in increasing capacity, and healthcare organizations who seek a high-quality pipeline of nursing students and a reduction in training costs," said Andrew Chung, who leads the education investment area for Lightspeed and is on the board of Orbis.  "Norm and Clay bring incredible experience and expertise to the company.  We are confident they will help position Orbis as a leader in nursing education and provide significant contributions in the execution of the company's growth plan."    

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 1 million nursing positions will go unfilled by 2020.  There is a growing concern about the increased number of patients per nurse and the impact of that on patient care and mortality, particularly in light of healthcare reform and an aging U.S. population.  In addition, by 2012, the average age of registered nurses is expected to be 45 years, with nurses in their 50s expected to comprise the largest segment of the nursing workforce.  

"Our collaborative educational solutions bring much needed opportunity at a time when the need for new, well-educated nurses is critical," Briggs said. "As we grow into markets across the country, and add new educational and healthcare partners, we will continue to focus on our key mission, which is to enable great institutions to expand the capacity of high-quality nursing education.  Norm and Clay will be instrumental in this journey."

About Orbis Education

Founded in 2003, Orbis Education creates, markets, and manages collaborative nursing education solutions that help alleviate nursing shortages for hospitals and healthcare systems.   In each of its markets, Orbis pairs an academic institution with a healthcare system to offer a Board of Nursing-approved, accredited accelerated bachelor's degree in nursing (ABSN) program.  The ABSN programs are second bachelor degrees for individuals who have already earned a baccalaureate degree in a non-nursing discipline.  The academic institution provides the curriculum and certain support services such as admissions and financial aid, and the healthcare system provides the clinical rotations.  In addition to marketing and student recruitment, Orbis Education's role is to migrate the academic institution's traditional, on-campus curriculum onto an online platform, and maintain and develop the technology infrastructure for online delivery of its programs.  For more information, visit the company's website.    

SOURCE Orbis Education