Nick joined HEPSA in 2019 as President and COO before becoming its CEO shortly thereafter in 2020. Prior to joining the company, Nick was COO at Henley Business School Africa where he helped expand the product portfolio from a single MBA program to several accredited programs, and also developed a new business channel in executive education for the corporate and government sectors. Prior to his time in higher education, Nick was a shareholder and director at The Dermal Institute of Southern Africa (Dermalogica) where he was responsible for finance and operations and, working closely with an actively engaged board, he oversaw entry of the prestigious skin care brand into the retail market in South Africa.

Nick Previously, has lived in Johannesburg for 25 years but was schooled and educated in Britain, graduating with an honors degree in Economics from Durham University, and subsequently qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

José Luiz leads HEP Brazil and has worked in the higher education industry for over 20 years as a hands-on operator, consultant and founder/entrepreneur. He started his career with the Lutheran University of Brazil in various management roles, then moved to Multiversa (Hoper Group), Brazil’s leading market research and consultancy firm. After several successful years with Hoper, José Luiz joined Braz Cubas Educação, a parent of Braz Cubas University as head of its operations and academic division. Fascinated with the growing utilization of technology in the delivery of instruction, José Luiz subsequently turned to the emerging online program management (OPM) sector in Brazil, directing OPM business units for Brazil’s largest providers, including Grupo A and most recently Platos, an OPM arm of Kroton Education, Brazil’s largest publicly traded higher education company.

José Luiz holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Information Systems from Universidade Luterana in Brazil and both postgraduate specialization and a Master’s degree in Management from Universidade Fernando Pessoa in Portugal.

Rector of Unijorge and Operations Lead for the Ilumno Brasil Network, demonstrating a role as a transformational leader with the ability to lead teams of over 900 direct and indirect professionals, always grounding actions in ethical, humane, inclusive values, and in the belief that education is a transformative tool for individuals. With extensive professional experience spanning over 25 years in Operations and Management within Education and Healthcare companies such as ASBEC, SEEB, BIOS, and the Sarah Hospital Network, having established the largest Private Rehabilitation Center in the city of Salvador. This entrepreneurial inter-organizational experience translates into strategic and operational projects: launching new business units in the education sector, team development and structuring, implementation of deployment systems, company expansion, performance enhancement, business development, process management, goal setting, as well as implementation and revision of critical processes.