BrandEd, the leading provider of experiential and professional education offered in partnership with premier brands, today announced the appointment of Brandon Busteed as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 1, 2024. Busteed will replace Michael Chung, who has been CEO of BrandEd since founding it in 2014. Chung will take on the role of Vice Chairman of BrandEd and work with the Board to continue to provide strategic support and guidance.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Michael for his vision and entrepreneurial drive in founding BrandEd and developing it from an idea to the vibrant organization it is today,” said Andy Snyder, BrandEd Chairperson and CEO of Cambridge Information Group (CIG), which owns BrandEd. “We understand that Michael has decided to pursue new challenges after a successful 16 year run with us. I am incredibly grateful and proud of what we have accomplished with Michael’s leadership during his tenure. The strong foundation he built at BrandEd enables Brandon to lead the company into its next chapter and establish its position at the forefront of the global education industry.”
Busteed is an internationally recognized expert and business leader who brings a wealth of experience in the education and workforce development space, most recently as Chief Partnership Officer and Global Head of Learn-Work Innovation at Kaplan. At Kaplan he developed partnerships with top-ranked universities that help pre-college students explore majors and career paths, extended Kaplan’s advising into the corporate education benefits space through a partnership with Amazon to support their 750,000+ front line workers’ paths to new career opportunities and supported an equity and access effort enabling universities to provide free test and industry licensure prep to their students. Busteed is a frequent contributor to Forbes.com and other publications and is a LinkedIn “Top Voice.”
Prior to Kaplan, Busteed served at Gallup, first as Executive Director of Education and Workforce Development and later as Global Head of Public Sector, where he helped build a thriving research and consulting business serving higher education, government and workforce development organizations and led the Gallup-Purdue Index – the largest representative study of college graduates in U.S. history looking at their long-term outcomes in work and life. Busteed is also the founder and former CEO of Outside The Classroom, an EdTech company acquired by EverFi in 2011, whose flagship online courses have been taken by more than 13 million U.S. college and high school students. He serves on the boards of directors for the Association of American Colleges & Universities and the Business-Higher Education Forum.
“The whole world wants a good job. But our education systems across the globe are struggling to prepare students for the world of work and fulfilling careers,” said Busteed. “I’ve spent my entire career at the intersection of education and work and all the research and evidence of effectiveness points clearly to what students need most: relevant, experiential education taught by industry experts and caring mentors. No one is doing this better than BrandEd, and it’s why I am so excited to be a part of this trailblazing organization.”
Busteed succeeds Chung, who helped found BrandEd and has led the company since its formation in 2014. Chung has been with BrandEd’s parent company, CIG, for 16 years, through the acquisition of Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the expansion of the Institute’s model of partnering with premier global brands to build academic institutions. Under Chung’s leadership, BrandEd developed partnerships with leading brands including The New York Times, City Football Group (parent of Manchester City FC) and Condé Nast to develop world-class learning programs to nurture talent in the art, media, fashion and sports industries. Chung also helped expand the company’s global footprint from London and New York to a third campus in Madrid and partnerships in Mexico City, Seoul and Beijing.
“What started out as a master’s degree program for Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London has, over the last 10 years, been transformed into a truly global education enterprise offering an array of programs ranging from pre-college summer courses to bachelor’s and master’s degrees with locations and partnerships around the world,” said Chung. “BrandEd’s expansion and success underscores the growing demand for alternative sources of education leveraging curricula designed and taught by practitioners and therefore much more closely tied to professional outcomes. In addition to the strong foundation we have built as a business, I am grateful for the team at BrandEd that has been building and nurturing a strong culture of collaboration, openness and service leadership. I look forward to continuing to work with CIG and Brandon as BrandEd enters its next phase of evolution.”
About BrandEd
BrandEd is a global education company with a portfolio of academic institutions including Sotheby’s Institute of Art, The School of The New York Times, City Football Leadership Institute, and Condé Nast College. Our mission is to transform students’ lives by delivering relevant, experiential education programs taught by industry leaders and practitioners from iconic global brands. BrandEd is backed by Cambridge Information Group (CIG), a family-owned investment firm focused on long-term and meaningful enterprises in education, technology, and information services.
