Susan E. Cates

Susan E. Cates, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A., is a Partner of Leeds Equity Partners, a private equity firm investing in the Knowledge Industries, and the Managing Partner of Leeds Illuminate, the firm’s growth equity investment entity. She serves on the Board of Advisors at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she co-chaired the Nominations and Governance Committee from 2016 through 2020. Ms. Cates served on the board of the legacy Primo business for six years prior to our acquisition of such business. She served on the audit committee of that board and was appointed lead independent director in January 2019. Ms. Cates served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of College and University Educators from 2019 to 2021, and as Chief Operating Officer of 2U, Inc., a leading provider of digital education services to universities around the world, from 2016 to 2017. Prior to joining 2U, Ms. Cates served as the President of Executive Development at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School from 2008 to 2016, and as the founding Executive Director of MBA@UNC from 2010 to 2016. Prior to joining UNC, Ms. Cates was a partner with Best Associates, a Dallas-based private equity firm, where she led the identification, acquisition and oversight of multiple domestic and international companies operating in the education sector, including leading M&A efforts for Best Associates’ largest portfolio company and closing a series of acquisitions and partnerships in South America. Prior to joining Best Associates, she co-founded ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank in New York, with former colleagues from Merrill Lynch & Co. At ThinkEquity, Ms. Cates headed the education investment banking practice with responsibility for business development, client relationships and deal execution. Prior to co-founding ThinkEquity, she worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch in New York, as well as in corporate lending at Wachovia Bank in Atlanta. She has served on our Board since May 2020.