Who We Are

Gerald A. Heeger has nearly 40 years experience in higher education, providing leadership in adult and continuing professional higher education in some of the largest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Since 2005, Dr. Heeger has been associated with Best Merchant Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm. Dr. Heeger has helped put into place two major, innovative for-profit educational initiatives, which are now fully operational. Serving as the organizing president of Whitney International University System (WIUS), Heeger participated in the acquisition of four universities in Latin America (Colombia, Panama, Brazil, and Argentina) and organized their initial integration into a single international education system. Collectively, these institutions now enroll 30,000 students and engender revenues in excess of $60 million. More recently, Dr. Heeger headed up a new graduate teacher education institution, the American College of Education, in Chicago. The College works directly with school districts, providing graduate education programs to in-service teachers, again utilizing distance education technology. The College currently enrolls nearly 2,000 students. During this last summer and early fall, Heeger led its recently completed (and successful) reaccreditation process. The College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. The College is now expanding its operations throughout Illinois and into Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Previously Heeger served as President of the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), which had more than 60,000 students in 22 countries. Under his leadership, UMUC received national and international recognition for its leadership in online education and in providing educational access. In 2004, UMUC was designated the “Most Outstanding Institution of the year” by the International Consortium for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), an international association of such universities, for its work in these areas. Prior to joining UMUC, Heeger served as Dean of New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS). Under his leadership, SCPS emerged as the single largest school of continuing professional education in the United States. Heeger’s work in higher education has also included distinguished service as dean of the New School for Social Research (now New School University) in New York City and as dean of University College at Adelphi University, where he subsequently served as both provost and executive vice president. He has also been a faculty member at the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. Heeger has also been involved in the development of government policies that facilitate access to higher education and in facilitating economic development through the expansion of access to higher education at the state level. Heeger was invited in July 2000 to testify before the bipartisan Web-Based Education Commission, established by Congress in 1998. He was deeply involved in the development of educational policy in Maryland and chaired a statewide taskforce on tuition in that state. Heeger has extensive experience with quality management and accreditation in higher education, both in the United States and overseas. From 2000-2005, he served as a Commissioner with the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges. He has chaired numerous accreditation-visiting committees and participated extensively in discussions on cross-border accreditation. He has participated in several conferences on international accreditation. Heeger has extensive international education experience as well and currently serves on several university boards in Latin America, including Politecnico Grandcolombiano (Colombia) and Universidad del Istmo (Panama). He served, as well, on the University Argentina de la Empresa International Advisory Board. In the 1970s, Heeger did research in India and Pakistan as a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Faculty Research Fellow. He was named Sesquicentennial Research Fellow for the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies during his year in Pakistan. In 2006, Dr. Heeger was named to the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame, located at the University of Oklahoma. Heeger earned political science degrees at the University of California, Berkeley (BA), and the University of Chicago (MA, PhD).

John F. Kelly has nearly forty years experience in advertising and marketing. Though he has a successful big agency background, he has since 1984 defied odds by being a successful and independent agency leader in a sphere where over 80% of billings are controlled by just four holding companies. Most recently, Kelly has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Brown Kelly O’Neill and Partners, which has provided business strategy development services to clients such as DuPont, McGraw-Hill, Scientific American and the Sara Lee Companies. Because of his work and insights at BKOP with distance education clients Excelsior College, Boston University and the University of Maryland University College, he formed a joint publishing venture with the United States Distance Learning Association. Kelly is the publisher of Distance Learning Today, which is a magazine insert that appears quarterly in USA Today. From 1984 to 2001, Kelly was President and then CEO of Biederman Kelly Krimstein & Partners, a mid-sized advertising agency whose clients included ITT, Lands’ End, AOL Time Warner, IBM, New York University, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Western Union, National Institutes of Health, Spain, Cadillac, Rail Europe and the Tourism Boards of Israel and Scandinavia and others. He architected the agency from a creative consultancy to a full service, totally integrated communications firm including outstanding direct, interactive and media buying subsidiaries. The agency won over 100 awards for image, retail and direct advertising, most notably six prestigious John Caples Awards for their work on Lands’ End and New York University. Kelly’s additional strengths include marketing, brand development, creativity and advertising campaign design and management. Biederman Kelly Krimstein & Partners aggregated over $1 billion in billings. Until 1984 he was a Senior Vice President at Backer & Spielvogel. Kelly was included in the inner circle responsible for that agency’s remarkable start-up. Besides account supervision of Grand Metropolitan, he specialized in new business development. Prior to that, John was with Ogilvy & Mather during its “golden age” as Management Supervisor and Vice President. His accounts included Puerto Rico, Mercedes-Benz, Pepsico, Metromedia, Sports Illustrated, Hertz and others. In a novel twist, he also worked on the World Wildlife Fund and his client was none other than the legendary founder of Ogilvy, David Ogilvy. He became the youngest Vice President at Ogilvy, ran one of their management training programs and two of his accounts – Puerto Rico and Mercedes-Benz – won the prized David Ogilvy Award for best overall marketing, creativity and results. He started his advertising career at McCann-Erickson and acquired a thorough understanding of media and marketing fundamentals while working on such accounts as Coca-Cola, General Motors, New York Racing Association, Bahamas and Brown-Forman. Kelly’s experience in marketing and advertising span the entire spectrum of the field: strategy development, growth development, brand consulting, direct marketing, event marketing, internet marketing, media planning and buying, public relations, research planning and implementation, business organization and development, new business development and account management. He has been especially successful in translating marketing strategies and experiences in the corporate, government, and commercial business sectors into the higher education marketplace. He has learned from all of this experience that all communications must flow out of a single focused, one page strategy statement anchored with a rock solid key benefit. Add to that a little retail grit and direct response knowledge to close the loop. Make the offer and measure the results. Bingo! His work with the United States Distance Learning Association and higher education institutions such as New York University and the University of Maryland University College give him insight into the still new issues confronting institutions seeking a greater presence in nontraditional and on-line higher education. John is a product of Fordham College and The Baruch Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been a guest lecturer at the Fordham Graduate School of Communications and has been an advisor to the Management Institute of New York University. He is currently a guest lecturer at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies.