MARK B. DEFUSCO, PH.D.
Senior Consultant
Areas of Expertise: For-profit higher education, finance and institutional transactions, adult education, e-learning
College President, Wall Street investment banker, trusted advisor, education researcher. These are a few titles held by Mark DeFusco during a long career in the education sector. Most recently, he served as chief executive officer and president of Bay State College in Boston, a wholly owned United States division of Ambow Education, a Chinese multinational company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. While at Bay State, he sourced, negotiated and closed the acquisition of the New School of Architecture and Design from education giant Laureate Education.
His latest assignment followed a successful career as senior research associate at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Rossier School of Education Pullias Center for Higher Education. DeFusco led the Center’s higher education consulting practice.
Prior to his appointment at USC, DeFusco was Managing Director at Berkery Noyes, a Wall Street investment bank specializing in education transactions. There he participated in hundreds of buy-side and sell-side engagements.
Dr. DeFusco also served as chief executive officer/president at Vatterott Education Holdings, a private equity-held, for-profit college with 20 campuses in nine Midwestern states. Earlier in his career, DeFusco served in several senior management capacities with the University of Phoenix (Apollo group). He also served as assistant to the president at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, OH.
He holds a B.A. from Villanova University and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He sits on the board of several education companies and many nonprofit boards. He currently serves as the executive director of the Education Foundation, a leader in sponsoring for-profit joint ventures with nonprofit colleges and universities.