Leadership
Our leadership team has lived and breathed online education from the day it started.
We have more than 120 years of combined experience leading education organizations around the world to prepare students for future academic success. We know what online education excellence looks like. We know what it takes to achieve it – with best-of-breed outreach, platforms, content, teachers, and service. And we have the leadership and expertise to navigate our partners and students toward better global opportunities.

Bruce Davis
Chief Executive Officer
Bruce is an education industry executive with extensive experience in international business development. Before joining Hudson Global Scholars, he served as CEO of Teachstone. His education experience includes seven years as k12 Inc.’s Executive Vice President of Business Development. Throughout 2005-2007, Bruce was Sr. Vice President of Business Development for Laureate Education Inc., focusing on the Middle East region. From 2003-2004, he served as a strategic advisor to Discovery Communications, where he created the investment and market entry plans for Discovery’s education video business. From 1994 to 2002, Bruce held various positions with Sylvan Learning Systems, including Principal at Sylvan Ventures, Chief Operating Officer of Prometric, and Vice President of International Operations. From 1985 to 1991, Bruce was a consulting manager in Deloitte’s practice office in Cairo, Egypt, where he served clients including USAID, the Dept. of State, and the Egyptian government. Bruce holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Loyola University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Jonathan Stowe
Chief Operating Officer
Jon is a nationally known education ops leader, bringing over a decade of experience as COO to this role. Previously, he has built and led 3 different online schools and programs, serving recently as the COO of Teachstone. Prior to this he was the president of Dev Bootcamp where he led the expansion of the company and its sale to Kaplan Education. Earlier, Jon was the CTO and COO of Teachscape, a teacher evaluation and learning company. He completed 4 patents for the company prior to its sale to Frontline Technologies.
Jon has worked in senior technology and product roles at Pearson Education, Thomson Higher Education, and Cengage Learning. Jon began his career as a software developer and product manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Graphics and Sculpture from the University of Connecticut.

Brett Lundeen
Chief of Staff
Over 25 years, Brett has driven growth for education and ed tech companies by providing operational leadership through startup, international expansion, and acquisition phases; strategic planning; business model /process design; and program management/ execution. Brett led the start-up of Sylvan’s Prometric international testing division, serving as Managing Director of 27 overseas offices, building operations and staff, client relationships, and revenue growth to over $100MM in six years in 140+ countries. At Laureate Education, Brett led day-to-day operations through expansion from 2,000 to 65,000 students in 14 institutions globally. Brett earned his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, and his M.B.A. from Walden University.

Pat Hoge
Chief Academic Officer
Dr. Hoge is currently the Chief Academic Officer for Hudson Global Scholars and the Vice President of Education and Learning Innovation for Port Discovery Children’s Museum in Baltimore, MD. Previously, Dr. Hoge spent 12 years in leadership roles at Connections Education (Pearson Online and Blended Learning) as Chief Academic Officer and head of Curriculum and Instruction. In addition, she was the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Catapult Learning (now FullBloom), and the Executive Director of Education at eSylvan, where she led a team that developed 25,000 online lessons in reading and mathematics. She also supervised reading and language arts curriculum for Baltimore County Public Schools and served as a speech-language pathologist within K-12 schools. She was recently awarded honors at the 2019 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge at Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 2015, the United States Distance Learning Association - International Distance Learning Awards recognized Pat for Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning and for Best Practices in Distance Learning Program (Connections Education Professional Learning Model).
Dr. Hoge holds a Ph.D. in K-12 Educational Leadership from Walden University School of Education, and Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Speech-Language Pathology from Towson State University. She serves on numerous boards and educational association committees, including the Towson University Board of Visitors and the Alliance for Virtual Learning where she recently led the development and implementation of the Alliance’s summer 2020 Virtual Teaching Academy for teachers and school leaders across the globe.

Rose Piedmont
Chief Financial Officer
Rose Piedmont is a senior financial executive with over 30 years of experience in various settings and industries, including education, government, banking, leasing, construction-related industries, mutual funds, and insurance. Throughout her career, Rose has managed general accounting, budgeting, treasury, FP&A, financial reporting, fixed assets, information technology, payroll, human resources, procurement, pricing, grants and strategic analysis groups in both profit and not-for-profit arenas. She also has considerable experience with international firms and IFRS. In addition to her deep and varied financial experience, Rose is an exceptional leader. She is able to dive into difficult situations and quickly win the loyalty and cooperation of both staff and other senior managers. This vital attribute is a testament to her honesty and integrity, as well as her ability to learn and understand a company’s business operations quickly. As a member of the team, Rose feels she must contribute to the business’ success by truly understanding the challenges faced by the people who operate the business. She has worked in many diverse and challenging environments where clear communications, insight, the willingness to explore new ideas, personal credibility, and leadership were the critical elements in accomplishing the mission. Rose is a CPA licensed in Maryland. She earned her BS in Cost Accounting and Management from Fordham University and her MBA (with a concentration in financial services) from Boston University.

Brad Lineberger
Chief Information Officer
For the past 5 years, Brad has overseen all aspects of technology for Hudson Global Scholars and its affiliated brands. He has more than 20 years of management, development and online technical experience, architecting networks and developing interactive and social products. He has received multiple patents for his technology innovations. An online pioneer, Brad is credited with developing the world’s first graphical massively multiplayer online game. Brad led IT development for MPG-NET, Interactive Magic, World Gaming, I-Sun Networks, Fallen Earth, and Icarus Studios. He received in B.S. in Engineering Science from the University of Louisville.

Rob Birdsell
President of Catholic Virtual
Rob Birdsell is a veteran Catholic school educator, having started his career teaching in Jesuit High Schools. He led the Cristo Rey Network’s national expansion as CEO and was a founder and director of the Drexel Fund, a venture philanthropy fund focused on making grants to expand school choice. Rob also brings international Catholic education experience to the organization, having been one of the founders and executive vice presidents of Amerigo Education. He continues to support Amerigo as Senior Advisor.
Rob is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison and received his MBA is from the Lubar School at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Rob has taught courses at DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago. In addition to his serving on the Board of the Drexel Fund, he currently serves on the Board of Loyola Press and has been a Board Member at Alain Locke Charter School, the Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy, and was a Commissioner for the American Center for School Choice’s Commission on Faith-based Schools.

Howard Allentoff
Vice President of Human Resources
For over 30-years, Howard has been a multi-faceted human resources leader across the education vertical including testing, teaching platforms, vocational learning, and online education. Throughout his career, Howard has been on the frontline of several rapidly growing education companies starting with Sylvan Prometric. After leaving Prometric, Howard went on to become Blackboard’s first-ever Vice President of Human Resources. He later took a role as the Senior Vice President of HR at K12, playing an integral part in establishing K12 as an education industry leader. In 2013, Howard became the Chief HR Officer at Delta Career Education to manage and grow their corporate and campus staff across the U.S. He has been serving as Vice President of HR at Hudson Global Scholars since the company was formed in 2019 and has orchestrated its remarkable staff growth over that time.
Howard holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from Auburn University.

Susan Fancher
Vice President of Marketing (Interim)
Susan has more than thirty years of experience in marketing and analysis at financial, retail, and education organizations. For more than a decade she built the marketing department at Connections Education, a leading K-12 online education management organization. She led marketing at Connections for eleven years, from the company’s early stages through its acquisition by Pearson, the global education company. Earlier, Susan was a marketing director at Barnes & Noble, where she launched and marketed the company’s loyalty program. She began her career in financial organizations, starting in research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and later in consumer financial services marketing and risk management at American Express, J. P. Morgan Chase, and Harley-Davidson Financial Services.
Susan earned a B.S. degree in Economics at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and an M.B.A. degree in Strategic Management at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Gavin McLean
Vice President of Global Business Development
Gavin McLean has worked across the complete value chain of international learning for over thirty years. From global strategy, brand development, and digital transformation for multinational corporations to curriculum reform and capacity building for governments and NGOs, he is an experienced corporate leader with a global perspective.
Gavin began his career in educational publishing management in the UK before building his international credentials initially in the Middle East and North Africa, and subsequently across Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin and South America, East and Southeast Asia, and Australia. He has held various senior executive roles with some of the industry’s largest corporations, including Pearson, Macmillan Education, and National Geographic Learning.
In the last decade, Gavin has focused on virtual school business development with K-12 partners worldwide, most recently with Edmentum as International Business Development Director. He joined Hudson Global Scholars as VP of Global Business Development in May of 2020.