Full Name
Mr. Mark Griesbaum
Job Title
SIM APC Relationship Director
Company
SIM
Attendee Bio
Mark Griesbaum is the Managing Partner of affinITy4U, LLC since November, 2014. affinITy4U, LLC is focused in the following key areas: IT Strategy/Vision Development, Operational Integration, Top Line Revenue Growth, and Executive Leadership Development. Mark’s background and experiences lend themselves to these key areas of expertise that can be put to excellent use for your organization. A summary of Mark’s career is outlined below.

Mark joined TCS Education System (TCSES) in 2010 as President of TCS Online Services. Mark’s progression through TCS increased with additional responsibilities during his four years serving the company. As Senior Vice President of Operations Mark oversaw Marketing, Admissions, International Services, Operational Integration, Information Technology, Online Learning course development and learning platform technology, Academic Operations, and Student Services for all of TCSES affiliates including The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Pacific Oaks College, Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law, Dallas Nursing Institute, and Saybrook University.

While at TCSES, Mark’s leadership enabled the company to grow top line revenue from $87 million to $140 million. He served as co-chair of the realignment effort in 2011 for organizational simplification, significantly transforming the use of Information Technology to enhance delivery of student services and learning systems. Mark created a student services unit that improved student retention and grew the online student population from 350 to more than 1,200 across all colleges. Additionally, Mark led system-wide operating reviews with each of the Colleges and developed a process for the successful integration of additional schools into TCSES. In all of his activities, Mark nurtured collaboration and diverse thinking.

Mark welcomes new challenges and encourages innovative thinking in advancing an institution’s mission. He is respected by colleagues for his commitment, professionalism, and willingness to undertake a variety of responsibilities to improve overall operations. Prior to joining TCSES, Mark was EVP and Chief Information Officer for Cardean Learning Group from 2008 – 2010. While at Cardean, Mark built a solid infrastructure framework across all operational departments that enabled Cardean to incorporate additional colleges into the portfolio.

Prior to Cardean, Mark was Chief Information Officer at Career Education Corporation from March 2000 – March 2008. Mark’s award-winning leadership was recognized by Computerworld Magazine, where he was recognized as one of Computerworld’s “Premier 100 IT Leaders 2006.” His appointment as CIO of Career Education Corporation marked his first position in the education industry. He led a staff of over 220 professionals that worked closely with the Presidents and staff at Career Education Corporation’s 80+ schools around the world. His group strategically put in place a common worldwide infrastructure, including a common set of business applications, and a focused competency on how to integrate new acquisitions, and start up schools into this fast paced growth company’s operation. During Mark’s tenure at CEC, top line revenue increased from $200 million to over $2.0 Billion.

Mark joined Acxiom Corporation in 1998 as the Account Executive responsible for the two largest customers in the Infrastructure Outsourcing business. He and his team were accountable for the successful transition of Montgomery Ward and Waste Management’s technology and staff into the Acxiom outsourcing infrastructure and culture of the organization. Mark worked across the operation of Acxiom, and closely with the CIO’s of the customer to be sure that the overall goals and expectations were met. These two successful transitions laid the framework on planning and executing large-scale enterprise operational transitions into Acxiom.

Mark began his career in the Financial Services Industry, working at a large money-center bank and well known commercial finance company. He held senior leadership positions with responsibility for cash management processing and operational improvements in the following areas: trust, treasury, private banking, check processing, letters of credit, transfer of funds, accounting, and the corporate departments’ technology.

Mark is involved in various non-profit organizations across Chicago including Society for Information Management (Trustee), Illinois Technology Foundation (Board Member), 1871 Chicago Innovation, I.C. Stars (Board Chair), and Higher Education CIO Special Interest Group (Co-Founder).


Mark received his Master of Business Administration in Finance from DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, and his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Management from the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio. Mark is married to his wife Paula for 42 years and has two daughters, Lauren and Lindsey. He enjoys golf, the outdoors, and relaxing by the ocean/pool in South Carolina as time permits.
Mark Griesbaum