Online education firm Nerdy Inc. is turning to a former high-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Education to help guide one of its key expansion efforts.
Clayton-based Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) has tapped former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Bill Hansen as senior advisor of institutional strategy. In that newly created post, Hansen will assist Nerdy with its ongoing initiative to expand its footprint to schools.
Founded in 2007, Nerdy is a live learning company that offers an array of online tools for everything from immersive online instruction to self-study. It is the parent company of Varsity Tutors, its flagship brand, and became a publicly traded firm in September through a merger with special purpose acquisition company TPG Pace Tech Opportunities.
Nerdy’s decision to add Hansen to its team comes as it targets expansion beyond its direct-to-consumer learning platform. In August, it established Varsity Tutors for Schools, a new collection of products designed for school districts that includes instructional tools to provide tutoring, study support, test preparation and enrichment programs. So far, Nerdy says it has inked contracts with 47 school districts nationally with those deals having an aggregate annual contract value of roughly $10 million.
Hansen joins Nerdy in his advisory role with several decades of experience in K-12 education. Namely, he was U.S. deputy secretary of education from 2001 to 2003 during the presidency of George W. Bush. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of the Education Finance Council. More recently, he has served in executive roles with nonprofit Strada Education Network; Eagan, Minnesota-based Scantron and education consulting firms Madison Education Group and Chartwell Education Group.
“We are fortunate to have an accomplished leader of Bill’s caliber and experience serving as a senior advisor to our team,” said Chuck Cohn, Nerdy’s founder, chairman and CEO. “He deeply understands the needs of schools and students around the country, and brings invaluable insight and knowledge about how to scale our solutions to help students at a national scale.”
Nerdy said Hansen’s role will include assisting with its product development and commercialization initiatives while also helping to “expand its services to wider populations of students, promoting the efficacy of supplemental learning, and raising awareness with policymakers and decision-makers at a national level.”
“Administrators, teachers, students, and parents are in need of new tools and resources to support their unique learning objectives, and I’ve found Varsity Tutors and its Learning Platform as a Service offering and AI-enabled investments to be especially well-positioned to help school districts solve important problems,” Hansen said in a statement.
In November, Nerdy reported revenue of $31.3 million, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a 19% jump year over year. It has projected its full-year 2021 will range between $139 million to $141 million.
