Open Colleges gets a new CMO

Online education provider, Open Colleges, has promoted its CMO to a chief operations role and appointed a new marketing leader from within its ranks.

Kevin Lynch, who has been the CMO since October 2011, was appointed acting chief operating officer of The Apollo Education Group-owned organisation in September. He is being replaced by Matt Hill, who joined Open Colleges in February 2013 as head of brand and communications.

Hill was previously working at American Express UK in brand and communications. His resume also includes a stint as channel marketing manager for the Think Education Group.

As CMO, Hill is responsible for leading the digital marketing strategy for Open Colleges and driving stronger student outcomes.

“We aim to continue to demonstrate the strong benefits of online learning through our various media channels,” Hill said upon his promotion. “We want students to feel empowered and confident they can improve their lives through continuing education.”

For Hill, the future of education is online, and he hinted at big projects in the pipeline as part of the group’s educational expansion plans, which will see it focus on modalities, locations and sectors.

“Our brand purpose is to empower people to improve their lives – to free people to pursue a better life by removing the barriers that limit their confidence and ability to access the life-changing benefits of education,” he said.

Open Colleges has educated more than 700,000 students to date and has 55,000 active online students covering accounting and finance through to heal, childcare, design and programming.

Open Colleges recently partnered with Australian startup, Recomazing, an online recommendations site that aims to help individuals connect based on brand and product recommendations.

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