TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
REID R. MILES, Chief Executive Officer MILES@MILES-HOWLAND.COM
Reid Miles founded Miles Howland & Co. LLC in 2005. Reid co-founded Miles Howland Education Partners, LLC in 2013 and Miles Howland Brand Partners, LLC in 2021. Mr. Miles has 28 years of executive and investment experience as a Founder, Managing Director or CEO of three private equity and alternative assets firms. Over the past 28 years Mr. Miles has served on 23 corporate boards and fund boards. Mr. Miles has board committee experience including audit, compensation, executive, finance and nominating committees.
Since 2005 Mr. Miles has been Chairman and CEO of Miles Howland & Co. LLC. From 2001 to 2005 Mr. Miles was a Partner and Managing Director at BV Group Ventures LLC, a global alternative assets investment firm. From 1995 to 2001 Mr. Miles was a Founding Partner and Managing Director at Blue Water Capital LLC, a venture capital firm. Mr. Miles started his career in the technology sector at IBM Corporation.
Mr. Miles graduated with honors from Claremont McKenna College, B.A., 1984.
Douglas Atkin, MEMBER
Mr. Atkin, based in New York, is a private investor and venture capital fund manager. He is a Co-Founder of Communitas Capital a venture capital firm focused on FinTech and marketplace investments. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of Instinet Corporation, a leading global electronic trading corporation. Mr. Atkin was previously a senior executive at Guggenheim Partners. Mr. Atkin received a BA in Economics from Tufts University.
Stephen Brackett, MEMBER
Mr. Brackett is a seasoned private equity industry executive with twenty-four years of experience building and managing independent investment firms and divisions of global financial institutions. Mr. Brackett is currently the President of Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk. Formerly Mr. Brackett was a Managing Director and Head of Business Development at Lincoln Vale LLC. Prior to Lincoln Vale, Mr. Brackett was a founding General Partner of Ironside Capital Group, LLC, an alternative investment firm managing private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. Mr. Brackett managed the Corporate Advisory and Investment Banking services for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Capital Corporation (BTMCC), where he was involved in structuring and syndicating financial products and transactions for the bank and third party clients. Before joining BTMCC, he was the President and Chief Operating Officer of State Street Business Group, Inc., an investment banking/financial consulting firm serving small and mid sized companies and fund management firms. Mr. Brackett received a BA in Political Science from Bates College, ME.
Martin Knott, MEMBER
Mr. Knott, based in Baltimore, Maryland is the former Chairman and CEO of Moodlerooms Inc., an educational software company. Mr. Knott is also a board member of the Knott Family Foundation. Mr. Knott received a BA from Loyola College.
Alex Vahabzadeh, MEMBER
Mr. Vahabzadeh, based in Geneva, Switzerland is the Founder and Managing Partner of Beaumont Partners. Mr. Vahabzadeh was previously the co-founder of SAFANAD S.A., a principal driven investment firm with a significant permanent capital base. Prior to founding SAFANAD, Mr. Vahabzadeh was a Founding Partner with Mr. Kamal Bahamdan of the BV Group, an international investment management firm, BV Group invests in real estate, hedge funds and private equity representing substancial private and institutional investors. Mr. Miles was a former partner of Mr. Vahabzadeh and Mr. Bahamdan at BV Group. Mr. Vahabzadeh holds a BA in International Business from George Washington University.
Aldus Chapin, CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER MILES HOWLAND Brand PARTNERS, LLC Chapin@MILES-HOWLAND.COM
Aldus Chapin co-founded Miles Howland Brand Partners, LLC in 2021. Aldus has over 30 years of experience as a corporate executive and restructuring specialist and has served as Managing Director of two private equity funds, and two family investment offices. Mr. Chapin has been the CEO of PJCOMN, an 87-unit Papa John’s franchise, as well as Director of Operations for Dean & DeLuca from 1988 when it opened its flagship store in Soho, NYC, until its sale in 1995. Mr. Chapin has served on over 25 Boards, and held numerous positions as interim CEO or Chairman in diverse industries such as consumer products, fashion apparel, foodservice & hospitality, business services, and manufacturing.
RICHARD BEYER, CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER MILES HOWLAND EDUCATION PARTNERS, LLC BEYER@MILES-HOWLAND.COM
Rick Beyer co-founded Miles Howland Education Partners LLC in 2013. Rick has a unique combination of experience in higher education and business. A former college president and board governance chair, successful technology CEO and senior operating executive of a $1B public company, Rick has consistently been at the forefront of industry leading initiatives and has a successful history of leading organizations through change and growth.
Rick serves as executive chairman of Core Education and previously was Chief Executive Officer at Lumerit Education, (acquired by Pearson Education) both portfolio companies of MHEP.
A former Senior Fellow at Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and a past member of the AGB board of directors, Rick was also the founding managing principal for AGB Institutional Strategies. He is trustee emeritus and former board chair at Olivet College and has served on the board at American University, Washington DC.
Having participated in the oversight or development of more than thirty merger, acquisition and affiliation transactions, Rick is a regularly-featured speaker on the topic of college mergers and affiliations, including work with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), Middle-States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWCCU), New England Commission Higher Education (NECHE), Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), and Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU).
Rick served for more than eight years as an executive and then as a corporate officer at Trimble Navigation, a $1 billion public company (NASDAQ:TRMB). He served as CEO of TracerNET, a wireless sensor business which was acquired by Trimble. Rick also served as CEO of Lumerit Education that was acquired by Pearson. Earlier in his career, Rick was part of the senior management start-up team at QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM).
Dr. Cornelius (Neil) M. Kerwin, Senior Advisor Miles Howland Education Partners, LLC
Dr. Kerwin became American University’s 14th president in September 2007 and retired from that role in 2017. He led an institution of about 13,000 students, 1,300 teaching and administrative faculty, and 2,500 staff in the nation’s capital; oversees a $640 million operating budget and a nearly $600 million endowment.
Dr. Kerwin joined AU in 1975 and holds a faculty appointment in the School of Public Affairs, Department of Public Administration. He was dean of the School of Public Affairs from 1988 to 1997; provost from 1997 to 2005; and acting—then interim—president of American University from 2005 to 2007.
Dr. Kerwin is a Senior Fellow , Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration; a former president of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration; and founding chair of the Section on Public Law and Administration of the American Society for Public Administration. He received degrees from American University (BA), the University of Rhode Island (MA, political science), and Johns Hopkins University (PhD, political science).