Key Executives

David L. Felsenthal, Chief Executive Officer

David L. Felsenthal serves as Chief Executive Officer of EAB, an education research, technology, and data-enabled services firm. Since its founding as part of The Advisory Board Company in 2007, EAB has grown to serve more than 2,000 schools, colleges, and universities across the country and around the world. Passionate about education and about building compelling careers for EAB’s 1,500 employees, David is proud to work alongside EAB’s experts to make education smarter and our communities stronger.

Across David’s tenure, EAB has been recognized with numerous awards for its impact on its partners, service to its communities, and commitment to its employees, including Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality,” Washington Post’s’ “Top Workplaces,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s “Top Workplaces,” and Washington Business Journal’s “Corporate Philanthropy by Volunteer Hours.”

David previously served as President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ:ABCO). In 2001, as CFO, David helped take The Advisory Board Company public. The company subsequently grew from $70M in revenue and 400 employees to more than $750M in revenue with 3,700 employees across 10 offices and 3 continents. In addition, from its origins as a subscription research business, The Advisory Board Company grew into a leading technology and services provider with more than 50% of 2016 revenue from SaaS-based analytics and workflow software. Across David’s 17 years at The Advisory Board Company, the compound annual growth rate for revenue was 16% and share price was 17%.

Earlier in his career, David worked in product development and delivery while serving as Vice President of eHospital, a company focused on producing health care information and delivering it to patients and providers via the Internet. David also worked as Director of Business Development at Vivra Specialty Partners, a private health care services and technology firm owned by Bain Capital and Texas Pacific Group. David holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. degree from Princeton University.

Sally Amoruso, Chief Partner Officer

Sally Amoruso is Chief Partner Officer for EAB and serves as an extension of the Office of the CEO. In addition to advising university presidents, provosts and other executive leaders on campus, Sally leads firm-wide efforts to integrate insights and expertise across EAB’s myriad capabilities in enrollment, student success, strategy and operations to drive greater impact and more meaningful results at and for our partner institutions. She has also co-hosted EAB’s Presidential Experience Labs, bringing presidential partners to out-of-industry exemplars such as LinkedIn and Zappos to explore non-linear career paths, transformative leadership and building a more client-centric culture.

Sally has 30+ years of experience building and leading enterprises serving mission-driven organizations in education and healthcare during times of dramatic change. She has worked with senior executives, leadership teams and boards as a presenter, facilitator and catalyst in developing future visioning and driving effective strategy. Sally is a passionate DEIJ advocate and part of EAB’s Steering Committee for VIVID, an innovative professional development program for rising leaders of color. She also hosts EAB’s Industry Insights Speaker Series, bringing thought leaders to EAB for open discussion and debate on topics such as the innovation and disruption in higher ed, the future of online education, resilience and mental health, women in leadership, and more.

She received her bachelor’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, her master’s in international studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and her M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business.

Scott Fassbach, Chief Research Officer

Scott serves as EAB’s Chief Research officer. He first joined EAB’s predecessor, The Advisory Board Company in 1987 and became Chief Research Officer in March 2000. Scott led the launch of EAB in 2007, working closely with college and university leaders to develop the firm’s first research memberships for education. Since that time, Scott has continued to lead EAB’s research team—now 150+ strong—in finding and forging best practices to make education smarter. Scott received a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MA from Harvard University.

Michael Kirshbaum, Chief Financial Officer

Michael serves as the Chief Financial Officer of EAB. He joined EAB’s predecessor company, The Advisory Board Company, in 1998 and became the Chief Financial Officer in February 2006 and Treasurer in March 2007. Prior to his current role, Michael held a variety of positions across the finance group, including serving as Senior Director of Finance, where he was responsible for most finance operations, including the overall financial strategy and budgeting process, as well as several other accounting functions. Michael has a BS in Economics from Duke University.

Jim Mathews, Chief Technology Officer

Jim Mathews leads software development, data science, and technical services for EAB as Chief Technology Officer. During his career, Jim has specialized in data-driven business performance optimization across multiple functions. He brings focused analytical discipline and strategy to EAB’s software development and services approach. Jim has particular experience with CRM, cloud application integration and data architecture, and applied data science.

Earlier in his career, Jim performed economic analysis with the White House and held a variety of positions with The Advisory Board Company. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree in Mathematics from Georgetown University.

Cara Weiman, Chief Talent Officer

Cara serves as EAB’s Chief Talent Officer. Cara is passionate about creating amazing careers, building an inclusive culture, and leveraging EAB’s exceptional talent base as a strategic differentiator for our business.

Prior to joining EAB, Cara spent more than 20 years at The Advisory Board Company, where she played a key role in a wide range of multidisciplinary and strategic projects, including financial transactions and investor relations, acquisitions and integrations of new businesses, the firm’s holistic response to the 2008 economic downturn, running the firm’s legal function for six years, and spearheading numerous strategic planning, leadership development, communications, and cross-functional process improvement projects. Cara earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Brown University and an M.B.A from Harvard.

Corporate Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility

EAB takes an active, intentional approach to corporate social responsibility by hiring staff attuned to their partners’ missions and creating skill-development opportunities beyond the office walls.

Social Impact

Their mission begins in education, but extends far beyond the walls of colleges and universities – their core values, work with their partners, and commitment to their communities are deliberately linked to generate the greatest social impact.

Community Service

Their Community Impact program encourages employees to give back to the community by offering additional paid time off, offering one of the nation’s most generous volunteer policies.

Customer Insights

“We saw the highest Fall to Spring retention rate that we’ve ever had.” – John Michalenko, Navigate user, Vice President, Student Life, Robert Morris University

 

“When EAB says they’re going to do the heavy lift, you can believe them.” – Dr. Juliann Mazachek, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Washburn University

Company Insights

“Our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger, and we can only do that if we raise the bar and hold ourselves accountable to setting the standard on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. I am passionate about making DEI an authentic, embedded part of my own personal and professional life as well as the culture of EAB, and I am committed to supporting our partners in their own DEI journeys.” – David Felsenthal, CEO