Unibuddy Strengthens Executive Bench With New Hires Following Series B Raise

LONDON, December 9, 2021 (Newswire.com) - Unibuddy announces the addition of Nina Bilimoria Angelo as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Sam Park as Vice President of Finance, and Dan Sommer as its newest Board Member. With decades of experience under their belts, Angelo, Park, and Sommer will guide the company as it continues to grow globally in partnership with higher education institutions.

"We are proud to welcome our new executive leaders to the team at Unibuddy, given their impressive backgrounds and combined wealth of knowledge," said Diego Fanara, Unibuddy chief executive officer. "Higher education is currently experiencing immense change. I believe that we are building the right team to achieve our bold mission of empowering 10 million students to make the right decisions along their journey."

As Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Angelo will be responsible for building brand awareness and accelerating global expansion of Unibuddy's unique peer-to-peer platform. "At such a critical time in higher ed's evolution, students need authentic peer support now more than ever," Angelo says. "I am thrilled to contribute to the growing success of Unibuddy, and to be part of a diverse executive team that puts students at the heart of what we do." Angelo joins Unibuddy from Top Hat, where she served on the executive team guiding the business through 15 major product launches, four publisher acquisitions, and three rounds of fundraising. Prior to her tenure at Top Hat, Angelo led teams at Pearson and HP and advised Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant. A seasoned higher ed leader, Angelo specializes in strategy creation, product conceptualization, and market positioning.

Park, who joins Unibuddy to oversee all finance, legal, and business intelligence functions, is a CIMA-qualified accountant. Her experience spans large corporations such as GSK, General Mills, and Intuit. As part of the UK leadership team at Quickbooks Online, she steered the business to double-digit growth. Park also secured investment to build the brand in the UK and develop a platform from core accounting to other financial services including payroll, payments, and time-tracking. "I enjoyed my time in higher education very much but for others in my network, their experiences weren't so positive. The Unibuddy mission is important to me, and I'm looking forward to bringing my experience to help the Unibuddy team succeed," says Park.

Sommer will sit on Unibuddy's board to assist in navigating the market as well as advising on growth and product vision. As CEO and Founder of 10X Impact, Sommer invests in and advises numerous growth stage EdTech companies and sits on the boards of high-impact for-profit and nonprofit organizations. As founder and former CEO of Trilogy Education, Sommer spearheaded the company's growth globally and, under his leadership, Trilogy was eventually acquired by 2U, Inc. for USD $750 million. "Unibuddy's platform provides an unfair advantage to universities that want to leverage their current students to engage their future students. I look forward to supporting Unibuddy's momentum as they continue to promote better decision-making through the higher ed journey," Sommer says.

Today, Unibuddy partners with 450+ higher education institutions across 35 countries. By connecting student ambassadors and staff with college and university applicants, institutions can attract a larger and more diverse student population of best-fit students. Unibuddy partner institutions achieve an average of 51% yield in terms of students who use Unibuddy that eventually apply to the institution. In September, Unibuddy launched its newest product, Unibuddy Community, a group messaging tool designed to support student retention through peer-to-peer engagement.

About Unibuddy: 

Unibuddy offers smarter student recruitment to higher education institutions through the facilitation of peer-to-peer interactions. Our suite of products enables prospective students to virtually connect with student ambassadors and staff through one-on-one chat, communities, live events, and more. Partnering with universities around the world since 2017, Unibuddy has helped nearly one million students feel supported in making crucial decisions around their higher education experience.

To learn more, visit www.unibuddy.com.

For all media inquiries, please contact:

Maria Velasquez | Head of Marketing

[email protected]

Source: Unibuddy