Randy BestChairman/Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Best has extensive experience as a private investor and senior executive in a broad range of business entities. He has started or acquired more than 100 companies with more than a dozen held in the public markets. Mr. Best founded Voyager Expanded Learning, which provides literacy solutions to over one million students a year in America's public schools. Mr. Best is a graduate of Lamar University.
Patrick AlbertChief Financial Officer
Patrick Albert joins Whitney International University System with a broad multi-cultural and multi-industry background. Patrick brings with him almost 20 years corporate finance experience with General Electric, where he has launched start-ups, completed mergers or ran day-to-day operations in almost 15 different countries. His most recent role with General Electric was the Asia CFO for GE Advanced Materials located in Tokyo, Japan. Patrick has a cross-border MBA from Kellogg and Wharton.
Peter WilcoxChief Operating Officer
Mr. Wilcox has extensive experience as a senior executive and managing director of high growth companies,
start-ups, turnarounds and emerging markets. Previous to Whitney, he was the Managing Director of Nielsen
Media Research and WPP’s television audience measurement business in the United Kingdom. Prior to that
he was Managing Director of NetRatings, a Silicon Valley high tech company which he lead from start-up to
having operations in twelve western European countries, while based in Milan and Oxford. During an almost
30-year career he has held positions at ACNielsen, PepsiCo, NutraSweet and Levi Strauss.
Mr. Wilcox has lived in Mexico and Brazil, among other countries, and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
While in Brazil he was the CFO of Pepsi-Cola International based in Rio de Janeiro. He holds two BA degrees
from U.C. Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Manchester (UK) and has attended Stanford and Oxford
University as part of his executive training. Mr. Wilcox is on the board of a number of Universities.
Vivian A. SanchezPresident, Whitney International Latin America
Ms. Sanchez has more than 15 years of senior-level, executive experience in creating and implementing new business and financial strategies. She has specialized in strategically repositioning and operationally restructuring private and public organizations in diverse markets including the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.
Most recently, Ms. Sanchez served as senior vice president for Florida International University, one of the top 20 largest public research university’s in the United States, managing a $1 billion operation. Prior to joining FIU, Ms. Sanchez served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Visa International Latin America & Caribbean responsible for strategic planning and financial operations throughout 33 countries. Additionally, she has worked with Barents LLC, a consulting subsidiary of KPMG Peat Marwick, undertaking international privatization projects and with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.
Ms. Sanchez holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and received her Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University where she earned the Dean’s Award for Extraordinary Contribution.
Mark FlanaganSVP Distance Learning Systems
Prior to joining Whitney, Mr. Flanagan was with Trinity Workplace Learning for twenty years, where he most recently managed the Customer and Technology Services group and served on Trinity's Executive Committee. Mr. Flanagan holds a BBA degree in Management from Northwood University.
Juan Carlos RabbatRector, Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21
Juan Carlos Rabbat has over 30 years experience in the Argentinean education market. Juan Carlos served as a professor of Math, Physics and Chemistry from 1973 to 1988 in various tertiary and university institutions.
Juan Carlos founded the private educational institution AES in 1974. He also founded IES in 1982 More recently, Juan Carlos founded the prestigious university Siglo 21, where he currently serves as rector of the university and president of the nonprofit foundation that manages Siglo 21.
In 2003, he ran for mayor of Cordoba. He was elected to the city council of Cordoba, where he serves the interests of the community.
Juan Carlos has a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the Cordoba National University.
Pablo Michelsen NinoRector, Politécnico Grancolombiano
Mr. Michelsen earned his bachelor's degree in Law at Universidad Javeriana, and his certificate diploma in Business Administration at Oxford University. He has served in the manufacturing and education sectors. He is the current Chancellor of Politécnico Grancolombiano in Colombia and Universidad del Istmo in Panama.
In the education sector, he has been a board member of different non-profit institutions and has written several papers about globalization, technology and education.
As a rector he has led academic processes such as accreditation, design of new programs, research programs and social projection, training programs addressed towards companies, academic quality programs, and encouraging enterprising students through two institutions which have been founded to promote their projects.
