Todd Maurer, President. Todd Maurer is an entrepreneur, corporate advisor, analyst and investment banker with 20+ years of experience across G7 and Emerging Markets. In addition to managing Versatile PhD, Todd is Founder of Edunomix, LLC, a global advisory firm focused on education, workforce and fintech ventures, and a partner at Educated Ventures LLC .
Todd has represented client engagements ranging from Fortune 2000 companies to leading universities, start-ups, mid-market companies and global investment funds. He was previously VP of Corporate Development for Asia at Apollo Global, a $1 billion education venture formed in 2007 by Apollo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) and Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) with operations in 14 countries. Prior to this he was Partner at Lotus Asset Management Limited, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund and alternative investment firm (AUM $500m), conducting investment research across Asia and Australia. He spent his early career in the Asia-Pacific working in senior corporate finance and equity research positions at Peregrine Investments Holdings Limited based in Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong. He began his career as a trade economist with KOTRA, a Korean government agency.
Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, an affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations. Educated at Columbia University (M.I.A, International Economics), Peking University, Nanjing University and UCLA (B.A. Economics).
Dr. Paula Chambers, Founder: Raised in Los Angeles, Paula went to Cal Arts film school (B.F.A., 1986) and spent her 20s as an assistant director in the film business. In 1991 at age 29, she left the entertainment industry and returned to school in order to become an English teacher, earning an MA in English from California State University, Northridge (1995), and PhD from The Ohio State University in Rhetoric and Composition (2000). Midway through her PhD program, she realized that she would probably be happier in a nonacademic career, and while dissertating, founded a listserv called WRK4US (Work For Us) to create a safe space where humanities PhD students could openly discuss non-academic careers. The community grew under her leadership as she graduated and became a successful grant writer and fundraiser, raising millions of dollars for social justice, the arts and the environment. In 2010 she transformed WRK4US into Versatile PhD. Having sold the business in 2018, Paula is now a mind-body movement facilitator (www.valleynia.com) and also makes campus visits (https://paulachambersphd.com).