Education Corporation of America

President and CEO Tom Moore joined ECA in September of 2006. Before that, he spent twenty-five years at the Coca-Cola Company, where he held a number of leadership positions including President and General Manager of the North American Foodservice and Hospitality Division, a three-billion-dollar business unit serving the restaurant, travel and entertainment sectors. Moore has also served as a strategy consultant across a diverse range of industries.

Stan Banks brings more than twenty years of experience in career education to his current position with Education Corporation of America, including leading four successful "turn around" operations in previous companies. He spent the majority of his career working for publicly traded Corinthian Colleges, where he was a campus President and President of the FMU Online division. Banks began his career in education as an admissions representative, soon moved to Director of Admissions, and then later became President of a college for the first time in 1990.

Prior to joining ECA, Chris Boehm served as a Managing Director at Willis Stein & Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm and ECA's majority shareholder, where he spent thirteen years. At Willis Stein, he was responsible for initiating and structuring transactions, overseeing portfolio company management teams and arranging for the disposition of investments, most recently serving on the boards of directors of six portfolio companies across several sectors. Chris is also a co-founder and outside director of Lincoln Renewable Energy, a leading renewable energy development company. Before Willis Stein, he was in the investment banking division of Salomon Brothers, where he was involved with a variety of M&A and corporate finance transactions. Chris received an M.B.A. from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration and a B.S. in Finance and Accountancy from Miami University.

Dr. Pat Kapper holds an Ed.D. in Adult Education from Northern Illinois University, an M.S.T. from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and and a Bachelor of Science in Business Education from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She also completed the Executive Leadership program at Stanford University.  Along with her academic credentials, Pat has served as Dean of Academic Affairs at DeVry Institute of Technology in Addison, Illinois, and Senior Vice-President of Education at Career Education Corporation, a private for-profit system of 81 career colleges around the world. Her passion and her actions include a more than twenty year background of work dedicated to providing the best student experiences in the career college space.  Pat has enhanced her professional growth through involvement in various professional and civic organizations. These have included serving as President of the Wisconsin Vocational Association, vice-president of the American Vocational Association, member of the Career College Association (now APSCU) Board of Directors, and currently as a member of the Imagine America Foundation Board of Directors.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force as an airborne linguist responsible for monitoring Mid East Air Force capabilities during the late 1960s, Ron Maillette worked for Travelers and for Aetna insurance companies in a broad range of information technology roles. In 1990, he joined the Coca-Cola Company and ultimately became the Chief Information Officer for the company’s largest stand-alone operating unit, the Food­service and Hospi­tality Division. He later joined Pacer Logistics as its Chief Information Officer and most recently served in the same capacity for NUCO2 (a national carbon dioxide gas distributor).

Prior to joining ECA, Roger Miller was executive vice-president for a division of IKEA, the international furniture distributor and retailer. Prior to that, he was senior vice-president and CFO for Ellett Brothers Incorporated, a national distributor of outdoor sporting goods, and served in the same position for Chep Americas, an international industrial services company. He also held executive positions with Cott Beverages and The Pepsi Cola Company.

Bill Owens brings more than 20 years of experience in proprietary education management to ECA. Bill spent 12 years at Apollo Group/University of Phoenix in Admissions and Executive Management roles. He has also served as President of EDMC's Art Institute of Phoenix, and has performed consulting roles for a number of post-secondary schools, including Thunderbird, Jones International University, and Neumont University.

Roger Swartzwelder joined ECA in April 2005. He previously was counsel at Dow Lohnes PLLC, a Washington-based law firm specializing in higher education matters, from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that, he worked at the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) for more than thirteen years, including more than eight years as Associate Executive Director. Since joining ECA, Roger was elected to a three-year term as an ACICS Commissioner in 2007, and he was reappointed in 2009 to a second three-year term through December 31, 2012. He is the ACICS Chairman of the Board in 2012 and previously chaired the Audit Committee and the Financial Review Committee. Roger holds JD and MBA degrees from The George Washington University and a BA degree from Dickinson College.

Charles Trierweiler joined ECA from Capella University where he worked in marketing and business management. He began his career in marketing and product planning with Cadillac Motor Car, followed by twelve years with Alberto Culver in brand management. For six of those years he was head of marketing for the company’s European subsidiary headquartered in Sweden. Prior to Capella, he headed marketing and advertising at Supervalu, a top ten U.S. food retailer. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Mike Williams began his career as a Naval Flight Officer active in air reconnaissance, communications and electronic warfare and was selected to work on the START treaty at the Pentagon under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Back in civilian life, he worked in a variety of senior human resource roles with Hallmark Cards Inc., Georgia Pacific, Vanstar, Extreme Logic, and Polyvision Corporation. A native of Pinehurst, North Carolina, he received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA in Finance and Organizational Development from Marymount University.

Before joining ECA, Jack Clark had over 25 years of experience in executive/senior level positions in the healthcare industry, with roles such as Division President, Executive Vice President of Operations and Senior Vice President of Sales/Marketing. Earlier in his career he worked in sales and marketing roles for Procter & Gamble and the Coca-Cola Company.

Since joining ECA, he has been the Campus President at the Chattanooga and Jacksonville campuses, driving significant improvement at both locations. He is a graduate of Grove City College and has attended leadership programs at the University of Virginia's Darden School and Covey Leadership Center.

As president of GAA, Mike Largent oversees 45 PGA professionals and four PGA master professionals, the largest collection of PGA certified faculty and staff of any career golf college in the country. Largent joined GAA's parent organization, Education Corporation of America (ECA), in 2007 as campus president of Virginia College in Birmingham, Ala. and later served as the regional vice-president of the system's other three campus locations in Huntsville, Ala., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Austin, Texas. He also provided leadership for the successful launch of Ecotech Institute in Denver, Colo., the nation's first career college dedicated to the rapidly growing fields of renewable energy and sustainability. Prior to joining ECA, Largent spent more than 10 years in management consulting and general management roles with the Zyman Group and KPMG Consulting. He also served Frito-Lay/PepsiCo and digital marketing firm 360i.com in operations and management roles. Largent earned his B.A. in economics from Vanderbilt University and his M.B.A. in marketing from Indiana University.

Sara Lawhorne has a long and distinguished career in post-secondary education. She holds the Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, the Master's of Arts in Early Childhood Education, and the Doctorate of Education in Instructional Leadership from the University of Alabama. She has taught at Millsaps College, Hinds Community College, and Virginia College and has owned and operated two of her own businesses. She also served as the Academic Dean and then President of the Virginia College campus in Pensacola, Florida, before moving to her present position with Education Corporation of America.

Before joining ECA, Judy Lima was Director of Quality Assurance for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools in Washington, DC. She also previously served as President of Jones College in Jacksonville, Florida, and as Vice-President of Lakeland College of Business, Brandon, Florida, campus. She is also co-author of a textbook on job training and has been a frequent presenter at workshops and conferences, specializing in staff training and student retention.

Pam Long's background includes over 20 years with the Burger King organization, leading corporate initiatives to improve franchise and company restaurant performance. She also drove innovations in the design, testing, and execution of global operational processes to meet financial targets enterprise-wide.

As VP of Operations for the West and Mountain Central Divisions, Pam improved sales, profitability and operational metrics in over 1500 franchise-owned restaurants with over 500 franchised operators generating annual revenues of over $2 billion. She also helped Burger King earn the highest pass rate for food safety compliance in North America by designing and implementing global programs and metrics which improved food safety scores by over 100%.

Pam graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Business Administration from Syracuse University.

Scot Stapleton has over 25 years of leadership in strategic sales planning, marketing and account management with Nestle' Brands, the Coca-Cola Company and Education Corporation of America.

During the Coca-Cola Company's strategic re-alignment initiative his responsibilities included National Accounts, Zone Director and Manager of Sales Performance. In that role he helmed the delivery of sales skill development for Coke's North America business.

Scot also served as an executive sales consultant to Carew International and Miller Heiman, global leaders in sales performance and leadership training. There, he developed and delivered innovative training and sales practices to over 1100 sales professionals from various industries.

Scot received his BA in Marketing from the University of South Florida and MBA from the University of North Florida. He married his college sweetheart and is the proud father of three.

Shirley Wilkinson held several positions with Virginia College before assuming her corporate role with ECA, including Associate Registrar, Dean of Students, Academic Dean, and Vice-President of Education. Prior to joining Virginia College in 1999, she spent thirty-one years with the Jefferson County, Alabama, School System. There she worked in positions that included Scholarship/College Counselor, Vocational/Technical Counselor, Business Education Coordinator, and Business Education Instructor. She is certified in guidance and counseling and holds a BA in business from Birmingham-Southern College and a master's degree in education from the University of Montevallo.