Dr. Michael K. Clifford is an education entrepreneur. He views himself as an ethical business and finance strategist that is a catalyst for creating high growth education companies specifically on line.

Beginning as a volunteer business development consultant to learn the education business in 1996, Clifford was introduced to two leading education authorities. One was Dr. Roy Herberger then President of Thunderbird the International Graduate University of acclaim and Dr. John Sperling founder and current Chairman of Apollo Group (University of Phoenix). Clifford had the unique opportunity of working for free as a consultant for both organizations in order to learn the business. This allowed him to be the only ”outside guy“ in many high-level Board meetings and strategic management sessions to understand how education works from a regulatory standpoint, but most importantly the transition of the University of Phoenix from a ground based operation to the largest global online university in the world including the IPO process.

Clifford spends his time cultivating:

• Knowledgeable investors
• Seasoned Management
• Niche platform companies

Clifford has built some tremendous and valued relationships over the last 12 years in his travels entrepreneuring in education. Some of these highlights are as follows:

TeleUniversity formed by Michael K. Clifford with Louis A. Falcigno as an education boutique provider of online degrees eight years ago has been transformed through various financing into what is now a blockbuster holding company called Bridgepoint Education Group. While two of Clifford’s recruited partners play a key role in Bridgepoint’s success to date and currently,

Warburg Pincus stepped in to finance the company and provide a superior management team led by CEO Andrew Clark. Bridgepoint Education was listed as the 22nd fastest growing companies in America by Forbes Small Business. Bridgepoint Education is becoming one of the major education corporations in America based on its incredible rapid growth under superior management.

In November of 1993, Clifford was contacted by a friend in Phoenix, Arizona, to help raise money for Grand Canyon University which was about to close its doors. Clifford became the catalyst to organize the money and the management team while helping craft the core strategy for the success of Grand Canyon University.

At the time of the acquisition in January of 2004, it has been written that the company had less than 1000 students, numerous outstanding lawsuits that it was going to lose, and tens of millions in debt according to public documents, losing approximately $4MM per year on $10MM worth of revenue. Clifford leveraged his relationships with his recruitment of a superior CEO and his management team to recruit over 200 employees from the University of Phoenix which kick-started Grand Canyon University’s online operation, combined with investors ready to take advantage of this unique distressed university.

GCU was the first regionally accredited non profit university to convert to a for profit company in American history.

Today the company is enrolling over thousands online students per month, has in excess of 16,000 students, is at capacity for the 100 acre, 500,000 square foot facility in the center of Phoenix, Arizona. The return on investment will be substantial. Again, Clifford’s gift as a catalyst is to see the A-to-Z strategy but recruit the experts for the B-to-Y execution.