Laureate Education
Laureate Education, Inc. is a corporation based in Miami, Florida, United States. The firm owns and operates Laureate International Universities, with campuses in Mexico and Peru. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq. Corporate history Beginnings: 1998–2009 Laureate Education was originally created by Douglas Becker in 1998, as Sylvan International Universities, an operational division of Sylvan Learning Systems that would focus on post-secondary institutions. At the time, Sylvan was primarily focused on services for students in primary and secondary education through company owned and franchise locations. Sylvan International Universities' first acquisition was Spain's Universidad Europea de Madrid for $51 million in 1999. By 2001, the company had expanded to include institutions including Mexico's Universidad del Valle de México (UMV), Chile's Universidad de las Américas, Switzerland's Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, and 41% ownership of the online institution Walden University. In March 2003, the firm decided to focus exclusively on post-secondary education. It sold the K-12 business units, and the Sylvan name and trademark to Apollo Management, and in May 2004 changed its name to Laureate Education to reflect the new direction. Laureate took full control of Walden in September 2004, after purchasing remaining shares of the university for $109 million. The Baltimore Sun reported in 2004 that "Walden's enrollment grew tenfold from the time Laureate first invested in it four years ago." In 2007, the firm became private after being acquired by an investor group led by Becker. Growth: 2010–2017 Laureate continued to expand and acquire new institutions after becoming privately owned. By 2010, it owned more than 50 institutions, both campus-based and online, in 21 countries across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. According to the firm, it had a total enrollment of about 550,000 students. Former United States President Bill Clinton held a role as honorary chancellor of Laureate from 2010 until early April 2015. Clinton's publicly disclosed tax returns showed he was paid just short of $16.5 million for his work with the firm. His position included attending meetings on education issues, campus openings, and commencement ceremonies. In January 2013, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, made a $150 million equity investment in the firm to expand access to higher education in emerging markets. The firm, which had been present in Brazil since 2005, also bought Brazilian for-profit university chain Centro Universitário das Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas for $412 million in anticipation of a growing middle-class in Brazil. The firm was among investors in Coursera, a provider of massive online open courses, citing the opportunity to license courses through Coursera. Arizona-based Thunderbird School of Global Management announced a partnership with the firm in March 2013 to set up a joint venture that would provide capital support for Thunderbird to open multiple international instruction sites, create an undergraduate program, and expand its executive education and online programs. The partnership proved controversial. Some trustees and alumni expressed concerns that partnering with for-profit education could negatively affect Thunderbird's reputation, while supporters said working with