COLLECTIVE EDUCATION

Providing superior private school education from
infant care through high school

About Us & Our Mission

Collective Education is a multi-brand network operating throughout the United States providing quality private school education in infant care, pre-school, elementary school, middle and high school (K-12). We specialize in partnering with school owners to create an exit strategy that ensures the utmost in rewards of having built a great school in a way that carries on the school’s legacy to protect students and teachers.

Our mission is to cultivate exceptional schools, implementing and supporting strategic direction, education expertise, administrative operations, and partnership opportunities. We like to ensure superior academic and personal growth outcomes for students, their parents and rewarding career opportunities for educators.

Our Values

Our approach to education is based on 4 pillars.
They are our guiding principles in designing every aspect of the learning experience for our students:

Great schools give people friends and mentors, so students can collaborate on projects and help each other succeed. Our role is to bring together a like-minded group of highly committed learners in a structured learning environment. Our goal is to guide them through a process of shared discovery where they can teach each other.

Learning cannot happen without trust. Community cannot happen without trust. Growth cannot happen without trust. Our students demand an environment of deep trust, and we will do everything we can to protect and promote it. This includes safeguarding student privacy, fair refund policies, transparency around our decisions, and complete honesty in our marketing.

Our fundamental attitude is one of service. Service to our work, our customers, our collaborators, our communities, and the world. We are in business to help people fulfill their potential, and ultimately to contribute to a better future. We know that we are part of a movement that is much bigger than ourselves, and will take any opportunity to inspire our students to play their own role in it.

Make a substantial commitment to professional development for faculty, expecting teachers to grow as learners themselves and to develop mastery in the art and science of teaching.

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Our Team

Collective Education is a group of highly motivated individuals specialized in the field of early childhood education. Our paths into the field originate from diverse sources, such as corporate finance, private equity, real estate, academia and technology. However, our team is motivated by a singular objective of ensuring that school owners are well served by trustworthy, smart and hard-working professionals with the utmost focus to enrich the future life’s of our children.

Omid Aghazadeh

CEO

Omid Aghazadeh is an accomplished operational business executive with a proven track record managing strategy and driving revenue growth for early stage startups as well as mature brands. His experience spans both consumer and B-to-B businesses in media, advertising, lead generation, ecommerce, manufacturing, development and email/direct, among diverse customer segments including: entertainment, real estate, retail, technology and education.

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A result oriented leader with a strong operating background, he has also led company turnarounds, M&A activities, divestitures and expansions.

As a founder of Speedlight, Inc. a media distribution & manufacturing company and RentDuo a property rental online SaaS platform, he has overseen the launch of multiple products and entities. He has directed successful local and national launches through a diverse set of business models in the content, online media distribution, lead gen, ecommerce, advertising and real estate, via web and mobile platforms.

A seasoned entrepreneur and executive for over two decades in several private companies, Omid has helped built many entrepreneurial teams to launch fast paced startups. He brings a track record of leading teams to strong revenue growth while committing to high value creation.

Sophal Ear

Chairman

Sophal Ear, PhD, is Associate Professor of Diplomacy & World Affairs at Occidental College where he serves on the Trustees’ Investment and the College’s 403(b) Committees. Prior to and during his academic career, he worked for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme.

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Dr. Ear currently serves on the board of Omnibus Trading Corporation, is NomGov Co-Chair of Refugees International, Audit Chair of Partners for Development, Board Secretary of Southeast Asia Development Program, Treasurer of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center and the International Public Management Network, and a Trustee of the Center for Khmer Studies. Dr. Ear was an Independent Trustee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation for over six years, serving on the Foundation’s Nominations and Investment Committees and as Chair of the Audit and Independent Trustee Search Committees; he was Vice-Chair of Diagnostic Microbiology Development Program for seven years, and a member of the Advisory Council of Leopard Capital, Cambodia’s first private equity fund. Dr. Ear has a PhD, MA, MS, and BA from UC Berkeley and an MPA from Princeton University.

Farnaz Kaufman

Director of Education & Industry Expert

Farnaz Mobasheri Kaufman is an educational leader and visionary. With over 20 years of experience in public education, she started her career as a teacher at Carpenter Avenue Elementary, now an LAUSD affiliated charter school. During her time as a teacher, she took every opportunity to lead and inspire

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Farnaz was one of the team members on Carpenter’s conversion to charter status; she also served as Curriculum Committee Chair, LEARN and Governance board member, Lead teacher, UTLA Representative, Gifted Coordinator and PTA teacher representative. Later, she founded and ran iLEAD Encino, a highly successful and innovative TK-8 hybrid charter school specializing in STEAM-based, learner-centered PBL curriculum. Currently, she is the Head of School at Santa Clarita Valley International School, a TK-12 charter school also with a PBL curriculum, with a focus on individualized instruction and social-emotional learning. She is an expert on differentiated curriculum and specializes in teaching Highly Gifted and Twice Exceptional students. Farnaz shares her expertise in a speaker series called Parent University that is sought out by both parents and educators. Farnaz received her degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from The Johns Hopkins University where she attended on a full Army Scholarship. She received her teaching credential through the LAUSD District Intern Program and then later her Masters in Educational Leadership from CSUN. Her university and military experiences provided her with a strong foundation for leadership and self-discipline. Farnaz is supported by her husband, Adam, and her two wonderful teenage children, Morgen and Xoe. As the parent of a non-binary child, Farnaz has become an advocate for LGBTQ+ children and their rights within public education. Farnaz believes that we need to honor all children as human beings with valid opinions while utilizing their passion and strengths to guide their education.

Ted Hamory

Head Of School & Industry Expert

Ted’s career in education began 30 years ago, as a bilingual teacher with Teach for America. Within a decade he had co-founded a small, bilingual charter school in downtown Long Beach, California.

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This school, which opened in 2000 with 70 students, brought progressive, public education to an underserved, ethnically diverse community. He then led the expansion of the school to three campuses, serving grades K-12, with 700 students. In 2010, Ted became the fourth Head of The Oaks School, a progressive K-6 school in Hollywood, where he is thrilled to help build on the school’s solid reputation for creating thoughtful, compassionate students who love to learn. Ted earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, a Master of Arts in Education from Pepperdine University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University, where he studied Economics and Spanish.

Hany K. Syed

Finance & M&A Expert in Education

Founder, advisor, and investor in global education related companies with a specific expertise in finance and tech innovation. A subject matter expert in K-12 through higher ed, regularly speaking at global education and finance conferences.

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Launched an education tech company in 2018 that partnered with UCLA Anderson School of Management to offer the first accredited online undergraduate course by a top-20 ranked business school. From 2007-15, was part of the founding team of a Dubai, UAE based investment management firm that focused on social infrastructure sectors (education, healthcare, TMT, transportation/logistics, power/energy, security/defense). Operationally active in transactions from Board participation to interim CEO/Executive Director roles. Possesses a unique combination of investment analysis/transaction execution skills and post-transaction business development/strategic leadership. Government and large corporate relationships throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (“MEAA”) region and in Silicon Valley.

Muhammad Shahzad

CFO

Muhammad is currently the Chief Financial Officer at The Honest Company. In this role, he partners with the CEO, founder, and the rest of the leadership team to drive strategy in all aspects of day-to-day operations. Prior to The Honest Company, Muhammad was a Vice President in the Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he covered a broad array of clients in the consumer technology and media sectors, including Apple, Disney, Facebook, Netflix, and eBay.

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Previously, Muhammad founded his own mobile advertising startup and also worked at Accenture and Deutsche Bank. Muhammad is involved in various nonprofit Boards, including as Board Member at March of Dimes, Chair of the Board at Developments in Literacy (DIL), Co-Chair of the Advisory Council at the Independent School Alliance (ISA), and Founding Charter Member at the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs SoCal. With his work at DIL and ISA, Muhammad has extensive experience in setting up and operating schools. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BSc in Economics cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 3 little kids.

Bardia Moayedi

Corporate Attorney

Bardia works with start-ups and emerging growth companies as well as public companies, particularly in the high technology, life sciences, and clean technology industries.

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He has experience representing companies and financial firms in a broad range of general corporate governance and transactional matters including venture capital financings, debt offerings, spin-offs/divestitures, IPOs, tender offers, and mergers and acquisitions.

Get in touch – schedule a Call

FAQ’s

Got Questions? We have got you covered.

Why are you interested in buying my school?

We are in the process of building a truly unique education company to become the leading provider of superior quality, professionally managed schools. Our focus is to create a community of schools that can help each other by sharing centralized recourses and provide children, their parents and educators the support and strategy they need to be collaboratively successful on their journey. After our initial conversation and meeting you in person, we will be able discuss what’s important to you, the legacy of your company and create a customized strategic plan that fits us both collectively.

Will there be a room for me to stay on board?

Absolutely.If you don’t intend to retire fully, our goal is always to potentially partner with the school owners to ensure a smooth transition and to build upon the trust in executing our created and agreed upon strategy for your school.

How do you plan to carry on the legacy of my school?

Our agenda in planning for the future is having an honest discussion and putting it into a concrete plan, one that includes expectations from both the current generation and the generation taking over, as well as how to carry the common goal to become successful.

How do you plan to finance the sale?

Collective Education has secured appropriate capital and financial recourses, and we strive to act quickly in the appropriate situation. Once we determine the size of your school by EBITA, we will be able gauge the approximate acquisition cost and continue the process.

What is your due diligence process?

We have a 3-milestone process, which starts first by sending you a short list of data points for you to provide us for review. The second and third milestones are comprised of some more data point questions, operating process questions and licensing. We thrive to complete our diligence process carefully and quick but also understand if it takes sometimes a little bit longer to put everything together. Collaboratively we will be able to make this process easy.

Educational Excellence

Our team has helped many school owners transition in a way that provided a more rewarding financial outcome than what was ever imagined. We do this by putting our years of experience and mission to cultivate educational excellence. Our team is the industry leader in early childhood education and we look forward to working closely with you to help you achieve your objectives.

We would love to meet you and your team, feel free to schedule a call
or email: info@collective-education.com