Our Team.
Vanta Partners have worked together for over two decades.
We have spent our careers as advisors, operators, and investors within the Education industry,
developing a shared belief centered around achieving superior student outcomes.
Greg cappelli
Managing Partner, Chief Executive Officer
Gregory Cappelli served as the 4th Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Education Group, a multi-billion dollar publicly traded global education and training company serving over a million university graduates. During his decade-plus tenure, Mr. Cappelli led the initiative to found Apollo Global Education, which was a billion dollar joint venture with the Carlyle Group. Apollo Global acquired more than a dozen entities in the international education space, including entities in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2016, Mr. Cappelli successfully helped take Apollo Education Group private under the ownership of Apollo Global Management and The Vistria Group and oversaw the spin-off of Apollo Global’s operations into Vanta Education. Mr. Cappelli continues to serve on the Board of Directors of Apollo Education Group. Before joining Apollo Education Group, Mr. Cappelli spent over a decade as a Managing Director with Credit Suisse, where he served as a Senior Equity Research Analyst and founded the Credit Suisse Global Services Group. He authored thousands of pages of research and was responsible for raising capital and bringing public dozens of companies in the education, training, and business services sectors. He is credited for his leading role in some of the first education company IPOs in Brazil and China (Anhanguera Educacional, Brazil and New Oriental Education, China). Mr. Cappelli was named a top-ranked analyst on multiple occasions in the annual Institutional Investor All American Research Team within the Education and Business Services categories. Prior to Credit Suisse, he held the position of Senior Equity Research Analyst at ABN AMRO Securities. Mr. Cappelli received his BA in Economics from Indiana University where he also studied Piano Performance and performed regularly in various musical concerts. He received his Masters of Business Administration from the Brennan School of Business at Dominican University where he served on the Board of Trustees for nine years. Mr. Cappelli serves on the National Board of Governors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, where he also serves as Chairman of the Midwest Region. He is the Chairman of the American Academy of Public Coders and also serves on the boards of Damon Motors, and Qmodo AI. Mr. Cappelli serves on the Board of Trustees for University of Phoenix, and has previously served on the board of directors of BPP Holdings in the United Kingdom, Universidad Latino-Americana, S.C. in Mexico, Open Colleges Australia in Australia, Sociedade Técnica Educacional da Lapa S/A (FAEL) in Brazil. Mr. Cappelli is a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council and the Milken Global Institute.
Chas Edelstein
Managing Partner, Chairman
Since 2013, he has served as a strategic advisor to educational institutions, family offices, private equity firms, and corporate clients. From 2008 through 2012, Mr. Edelstein served as Co-CEO, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the Board of Directors of Apollo Education Group, a multi-billion dollar publicly traded global education and training company serving over a million university graduates. While leading the team at Apollo Education Group, Mr. Edelstein championed numerous quality focused initiatives at the company’s University of Phoenix subsidiary and brought focus to a strategy aimed at broadening and diversifying the group’s operations, including through international expansion. Prior to Apollo Education Group, Mr. Edelstein was Managing Director of Credit Suisse (and its predecessor Credit Suisse First Boston), a global financial services firm, where he served for over 21 years. Mr. Edelstein’s leadership duties included his role as the head of the Global Services Group within the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse, which is responsible for providing advisory services regarding acquisitions, dispositions, and capital raising transactions. Mr. Edelstein founded and oversaw Credit Suisse’s advisory practice in the education industry, where he served as advisor to many of the largest education companies, including Apollo Education Group. He also served as head of Credit Suisse’s Chicago office. Prior to his work at Credit Suisse, he was with Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) for three years as an auditor and management consultant. Mr. Edelstein currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Triumph Higher Education, Lightspeed Systems, Carnegie Learning, Junior Achievement (including Chairman of its Investment Committee) and Teach For America. In addition, he is Chairman of the Investment Committee of The Heavener Company, a member of the Madison Dearborn Partners Advisory Roundtable, a senior advisor to the Board of Full Sail University, and a member of The Council of Chief Executives. He received a B.A. with highest distinction from the University of Illinois and his CPA from the State of Illinois. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar with high distinction.
Folline Cullen
Partner, Chief Financial Officer
Since 2007, Folline Cullen has served in leadership roles in educational institutions. With direct experience in successfully buying and selling companies, Folline has a proven track record of preparing companies for transaction readiness and direct experience in understanding and providing thought leadership in regulatory, financial, legal, and tax requirements in global jurisdictions. Folline was formerly the President and CEO of Vanta Education, an international education conglomerate owned by Apollo Global Management and The Vistria Group. While leading Vanta Education, she oversaw a network of businesses across the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Australia, India and South Africa, driving growth and positively impacting the number of students served. During Folline’s term, Vanta Education has made acquisitions and numerous divestitures. Folline joined Apollo Global from her role as CFO of Educate Online, Inc. (now operating as Meteor Learning), an online competency-based educational service provider, formerly owned by Sterling Partners. Prior to joining Educate Online, Folline was the CFO of Wall Street International (now operating as Wall Street English), an international English language education for adults franchise spanning Asia and Europe, formerly owned by the Carlyle Group. She began her career in public accounting with Deloitte & Touche, New York, as a Certified Public Accountant focused primarily on large public companies. Folline holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Southern California.
Matt Henriksen
Partner, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer
Matt Henriksen has served in legal and executive roles in the education sector for more than a decade. He has directed the legal, tax and operational aspects of more than a dozen major corporate acquisitions and divestitures in the global education space, and has provided legal, compliance and operational leadership to education businesses around the world and their financial sponsors. Matt was formerly General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Vanta Education, an international education conglomerate owned by Apollo Global Management and The Vistria Group, where he provided executive leadership and strategic advice to education businesses headquartered in the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Australia, India and South Africa. While at Vanta, Matt established and directed a network of internal and external legal counsel, tax and compliance professionals across the globe in support of the educational mission of Vanta, its subsidiaries and investors. Before being appointed to his role at Vanta Education, Matt served in various capacities at Apollo Education Group, the publicly traded company that previously owned Vanta. Matt directed Apollo’s international mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, corporate governance, and other commercial initiatives, and represented Apollo and its subsidiaries in connection with various other corporate, tax, regulatory and securities law matters. Prior to joining Vanta and Apollo, Matt worked at Ballard Spahr LLP, a large private law firm, and at another regional law firm, and interned with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Utah State Legislature. Mr. Henriksen earned his law degree and M.B.A. at the S.J. Quinney School of Law and David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and holds a B.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of Utah.
Chris Jordan
Partner, Investments
Chris has been an investor in the Education and Human Capital industries for the majority of his 15-year career. Most recently, Chris was a Vice President with Maxim Partners, a lower and middle market private equity firm based in Chicago focused on the Education & Wellness industries, where he sourced, executed, and supported investments out of its inaugural fund. Prior to Maxim, Chris was with the Corporate Development team of Apollo Education Group (parent of University of Phoenix) supporting buyouts across the globe as part of a joint venture with The Carlyle Group. Chris began his career with the Investment Banking group of Bear Stearns. Chris hails from Michigan and is a graduate of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan. He is a recipient of the Charles “Chick” Evans Scholarship, a full-tuition collegiate grant awarded to golf caddies, and continues to actively support scholarship growth as member of the Western Golf Association. Chris is also a CFA Charterholder.
Melissa Mitschke
Partner and Deputy General Counsel
Melissa brings more than 15 years of experience in providing legal and business advice to domestic and international companies across a wide range of industries. Melissa was formerly the Associate General Counsel at Vanta Education, Inc., an international education conglomerate owned by Apollo Global Management and The Vistria Group. During her time at Vanta, she successfully managed the sale of a number of the company’s international subsidiaries and provided legal advice to all areas of the business, including mergers and acquisitions, finance, legal compliance, insurance, human resources, and information technology. Prior to Vanta Education, Melissa was the Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs at Encore Capital Group, Inc., a publicly traded financial services company headquartered in San Diego, California. While at Encore Capital Group, Melissa led an international team of attorneys responsible for providing mergers and acquisitions, finance, securities, corporate governance and corporate transactional assistance to the company and its subsidiaries and joint ventures located in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Melissa is a former partner at both Jenner & Block LLP and Honigman LLP, where she represented public and private companies in complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, securities offerings and restructurings. She also served as outside general counsel to closely held businesses and portfolio companies of private equity sponsors. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Policy and Behavior from the University of Michigan and earned her law degree from Loyola University Chicago.
Eric Sledgister
Partner, Investments
Eric Sledgister, CFA, most recently led the Education Practice at Maxim Corporate Partners LLC (“Maxim”), a low-mid market private equity firm based in Chicago, where he oversaw the strategic direction and evaluation of new investment activity and also managed its education holdings. Prior to Maxim, he served in a dual role as CFO of Apollo Professional Development, a startup venture at Apollo Education Group that focused on enterprise solutions, and as CFO of The Iron Yard, a multi-location IT coding bootcamp. Mr. Sledgister also spent approximately seven years in Apollo’s Corporate Development Group, where he sourced, evaluated, and executed acquisition opportunities around the globe as part of a joint venture with The Carlyle Group. He began his career in equity research covering the education services and training sector at Credit Suisse, and later expanded that coverage to include the information technology, business process outsourcing, and diversified services sectors.
Marissa Vega
Partner, Portfolio Services
Marissa Vega brings over 25 years of experience in higher education and expertise in mergers and acquisitions due diligence, business operations, integration, executive talent-sourcing, and development. Her operational experience expands to six continents, having operated in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, UAE, and the United Kingdom. Marissa was formerly the VP of Global Operations for Vanta Education, Inc., an international education conglomerate owned by Apollo Global Management and The Vistria Group. While at Vanta, she led student acquisition, student services, operational diligence, and strategic technology initiatives for the Vanta Education network of institutions. Her responsibilities included the implementation of global strategies, best-practice sharing, training, corporate engagement, and system optimization. Ms. Vega has extensive knowledge in the development, implementation, and optimization of call center operations and most recently served as the lead for a business-wide global IT system integration. Prior to Vanta Education, Marissa held several positions with the University of Phoenix, the largest business unit of Apollo Education Group, in the areas of enrollment, student services, business analysis, executive coaching, training, operational management, business development, and process improvement . During her tenure at the University of Phoenix, she expanded operations into new markets, mentored campus transitions into new modality offerings, and participated in several national advisory committees regarding policy implementation and strategic planning. Prior to the University of Phoenix, she obtained diverse work experience in investments, import-export, and hotel remodeling. Ms. Vega holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from University of Arizona, and a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Global Management from the University of Phoenix.
