Executive Management

Richard Rubsamen
President, and COO

Richard Rubsamen current President and COO of Cardean Learning Group, initially joined the organization as Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer in 2007. In that role, he was responsible for managing a broad range of departments, including Financial Aid support, Information Technology, Audit and Compliance and Project Management. Prior to joining Cardean, Richard held the position of Chief Financial Officer at Sierra Nevada College, a private four year liberal arts college, for a period of three years from which he gained an intimate knowledge of the Education industry. Prior to joining Sierra Nevada College, Richard held a number of senior financial, operations and general management positions with a number of organizations in the gaming, hospitality, engineering and financial services industries among which was the position of Chief Financial Officer at Harrah’s and Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, a major operating division of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., a $10 billion gaming corporation. Richard is a CPA who attended the University of California, Berkeley and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Hayward State University.

Mark Griesbaum
Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Mark Griesbaum joined Cardean Learning Group in 2008 as Chief Information Officer.  In that capacity, he is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to insure that technology infrastructure and solutions meet the needs of CLG customers and functional departments and staff in a reliable, timely and efficient manner.  Prior to joining Cardean Learning Group, Mark spent eight years as Chief Information Officer at Career Education Corporation (CEC) where he played a key role in building the technology infrastructure to support an organization that grew to eighty schools in five countries, and supporting over 100,000 students. Additional career experience includes a variety of technology related positions including Vice President, Technology Services and Vice President Corporate Systems with Heller Financial. He additionally held various professional and management positions with Continental Bank, including Systems Analyst and Manager and Director Application Services. Mark holds a MBA with a major in Finance from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance/Management from the University of Dayton.

John E. Neal
Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer

John Neal joined Cardean Learning Group in 2008, and oversees course development, educational technology, and client relations. As the key liaison to Cardean’s academic clients, John also leads new business development and the creation of new programs for partner organizations. Prior to joining Cardean, John served as President of Ottawa University (Kansas), Maryville University (Missouri), and the home campus of Kaplan University (Iowa), where he led in the creation of innovative programs and in the use of educational technology. John has extensive higher education experience as a faculty member, Dean, and chief development officer, and is an accomplished musician. John holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, and received his doctorate in higher education from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

Sharon Sweeney
Executive Vice President of Student Finance

Sharon Sweeney joined Cardean Learning Group in 2009 and oversees the student finance consulting division. In her role, Sharon supports clients by providing student finance consulting services, including: processing, training, compliance, customer service, systems and staffing. Sharon formerly served as Vice President of Student Finance at Kaplan University where she was responsible for financial aid administration for the online university. While serving as Senior Vice President of Student Finance at Career Education Corporation, Sharon centralized the financial aid operation for more than 80 campuses and developed a strategic plan to ensure Title IV compliance. Additional experiences include serving as Vice President of Student Finance at Argosy Education Group and Dean of Financial Affairs at DeVry. Sharon holds an undergraduate degree in business administration and an MBA from Governors State University.

Board of Directors

Jeffrey A. Safchik, Chairman

Mr. Safchik is the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Greenstreet Partners.  Mr. Safchik is also the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of K1 Ventures, Ltd, a publicly traded Singapore based investment company.  He is also a founder of Greenstreet Capital Partners, a company engaged in the business of real estate investment and finance, and is the Chairman of their Investment and Advisory Committees.  He is an active member of a number of civic and charitable institutions in Miami, Florida, and is the Chairman of the University of Miami Department of Pediatrics Children’s Council.

Mr. Safchik is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration (majoring in Accountancy) degree from Pace University, New York, and obtained a Masters degree in Taxation from St. John’s University, New York.  During the course of his career, he attended advanced finance and real estate courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University.

Arthur H. Bilger

Mr. Bilger is the Managing member of Shelter Capital Partners, LLC, an entity engaged in venture capital investment management which he founded in 2000.  Mr. Bilger currently serves as a director of a number of private entities in which he or Shelter hold investments.

Prior to his present activities, Mr. Bilger was Vice Chairman of Akamai Technologies, Inc., a provider of global, high performance services for delivering of internet content.  Prior to this he was the President, Chief Operating Officer and a director of New World Communications Group, Inc., a television production and broadcasting company.  He was also a founding partner in Apollo Advisors, LP, an institutional private equity firm and he was with Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc., as Executive Vice President, the Co-Head of Corporate Finance and a member of the board of directors.

Mr. Bilger has been active in his local community as a member of the boards of directors of a wide range of non-profit organizations.  Today he sits as Vice Chairman of the Skirball Cultural Center, a member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Board of Overseers and a director of Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles based legal aid organization.  Mr. Bilger received his B.S. Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from The University of Chicago.

Derek Feng

Mr. Feng joined Knowledge Universe in 2006 from the General Electric Company (GE), where he was the global head of business development at GE Industrial, a $33 billion revenue division that has operating businesses ranging from high tech instruments to equipment leasing.  Mr. Feng was also an officer of GE Capital Corporation, the largest non-bank financial services company in the world with over $500 billion in assets.

Mr. Feng joined GE in 1999 as Manager, Americas Business Development at GE Capital; he then became Managing Director, Global Business Development at GE Equipment Management and then General Manager, Global Business Development at GE Infrastructure prior to his role at GE Industrial.  During his career at GE, he led the evaluation of over 300 acquisitions, dispositions, minority investments and joint venture opportunities globally and completed $11 billion transactions.  In addition, he also oversaw a number of strategy projects ranging from growth to restructuring as well as joint ventures.

Prior to joining GE, Mr. Feng was a manager of strategic planning at United Technologies Corporation, an investment banker, and held several finance and operational roles at Enron Oil Trading and Transportation.  Mr. Feng graduated from Tsinghua University in China in 1989 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and earned an MBA from UCLA in 1992.

Michael Milken

Mr. Milken, one of America’s leading philanthropists, has devoted more than a quarter century to active involvement in medical and educational causes.  He began to focus on medical research in the 1970s and formalized his philanthropy in 1982 by co-founding the Milken Family Foundation.  The Foundation has recognized more than 2,000 outstanding teachers across America with $25,000 awards and has supported extensive medical research in such areas as pediatric neurology, nutrition, brain and breast cancers and leukemia.  Mike’s latest medical initiative is FasterCures / The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, which is dedicated to shortening the time it takes to find cures, better treatments and effective prevention for all deadly and debilitating diseases.  A decade earlier, he founded The Prostate Cancer Foundation, whose worldwide research awards have had a profound impact on the field.

Mike is also chairman of the Milken Institute, an economic think tank, and is an active investor in a variety of companies focused on education; health, wellness and prevention; and building human capital.

As a financier, he is often said to have revolutionized and democratized capital markets, creating millions of jobs.  He graduated summa cum laude from UC, Berkeley and earned his MBA from the Wharton School.

Andrew M. Rosenfield, Founding Chairman

Mr. Rosenfield is the Founding Chairman of Cardean.  Mr. Rosenfield is also Managing Partner in Guggenheim Partners.  He is Founder, President and CEO of Leaf Group LLC, an advisory firm which applies law, economics, accounting and finance to a variety of modern corporate challenges including governance and organizational structures, capital structures, and risk assessment and monitoring.  Previously, Mr. Rosenfield was Founder, President and CEO of Lexecon, a premier economic consulting firm he co-founded in 1977 with Richard A. Posner and William M. Landes.  Mr. Rosenfield is also at The University of Chicago where he has taught for nearly 20 years.  He has written and testified in the area of antitrust and has worked on many mergers including many of the largest mergers of the 80s and 90s as well as large regulatory investigations of the telephone and securities industries among others.  Mr. Rosenfield holds a J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School, an M.C.R.P. from Harvard University and a B.A. from Kenyon College.  Mr. Rosenfield is a member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Chicago and of The University of Chicago Hospital System, a member of the Board of Directors of The Lyric Opera of Chicago and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago.