Edify EACPU 1 + 1/2 W
On April 26th and April 25th, 2021, Edify Acquisition Corp. (the “Company”) received the resignation of Ronald H. Schlosser from his position as a member of the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”) and Peter Ma as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, respectively.
Mr. Schlosser was appointed as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.
24 Months
Trust $10.00 - $240,000,000, or $276,000,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full
Whole warrant -- 1 + 11.50
BMO ---B Riley
April 26th and April 25th, 2021, Edify Acquisition Corp. (the “Company”) received the resignation of Ronald H. Schlosser from his position as a member of the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”) and Peter Ma as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, respectively. Neither Mr. Schlosser’s nor Mr. Ma’s resignation was the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices. On the same date, Mr. Schlosser was appointed as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.
Effective April 26th, 2021, the Board appointed Ari. Horowitz to fill the vacancy resulting from the resignation of Mr. Schlosser.
Mr. Horowiz is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Yardline Capital – a leading provider of non-dilutive growth capital solutions for business operating within the marketplace commerce economies. He has more than 20 years of experience in operational and transactional senior leadership, marketing, and corporate development roles. Prior to Yardline, Mr. Horowitz was the SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Corp Development at Thrasio, the fastest growing acquirer of Amazon third-party seller businesses, where he co-led the team which has acquired over 100 Amazon sellers. He continues to serve as an Advisor to Thrasio and has been the CEO of multiple companies, including Opus360 which he co-founded and took public. During his career, he has also been a senior member of teams which completed financings and M&A transactions with a total value in excess of $1.5B. Mr. Horowitz holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
focus our search for a target business in the learning and talent management industry which includes the education, edtech, workforce development, and HCM sectors.
Colbeck has experience with other relevant investments including Rimini Street, Limbach, and TechStyle Fashion Group.
We are sponsored by Colbeck Edify Holdings, LLC, an affiliate of Colbeck Capital Management, LLC (“Colbeck”), a leading middle-market private equity asset manager focused on strategic lending. Founded in 2009, Colbeck partners with companies during periods of transition, providing creative and highly structured capital solutions to meet their evolving needs. Due to the complex nature of its investments, Colbeck’s diligence and portfolio management is similar to that of traditional private equity firms. Its diligence processes regularly include third-party market studies, accounting and legal analysis, internally generated financial modeling and forecasting, and extensive on-site and management diligence. Colbeck supports its portfolio companies through consistent engagement with management in areas such as financial management, budgeting, governance, executive management, acquisition strategy, deal execution and capital markets activity, generating incremental returns for active sponsorship. Colbeck’s principals have participated in over $22 billion of strategic investments over 70 combined years and across market cycles at leading institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Macquarie.
In addition to managing capital from leading institutional endowments, foundations, insurance companies, and public and corporate pensions, the principals at Colbeck are founders of a fully-integrated education services provider, Studio Enterprise, LLC (“Studio”), that uses technology, human resources, and data to help top colleges and universities transform in the digital era. In addition to Studio, described further below, Colbeck has experience with other relevant investments including Rimini Street, Limbach, and TechStyle Fashion Group.
With our capability to source, execute, and manage assets across various sectors and our education-specific operating and investing experience, we believe we are well-positioned to drive ongoing value creation post-business combination within our targeted sector.
Studio Enterprise, LLC
The principals at Colbeck founded the predecessor company to Studio Enterprise, LLC (“Studio”) in 2013 to support the innovation, reinvention, and advancement of mission in higher education. Studio was launched as a fully integrated education services provider that offers critical services to partner institutions. As the founding team and sole control equity sponsor, the principals of Colbeck have grown Studio from a start-up to a leading education services provider in seven years. Today, Studio provides services including marketing and admissions, compliance, finance and accounting, financial aid intake, information technology, facilities management, and curriculum and instructional design to over 14,000 students across 19 campus locations and across 65 degree programs, ranging from certificate to doctoral, supporting institutions of various sizes with both online and on-ground modalities.
Given Studio’s history and with experience managing both organic growth and expansion through acquisitions in the sector, the management team believes we are well equipped to analyze and find an attractive investment opportunity in the learning and talent management industry. Post-acquisition, the team believes it is capable and comfortable with sponsoring a company within these industries given its precedent experience.
Our Management Team and Board of Directors
We will be led by Susan Wolford, our Chairwoman, Peter Ma, our Chief Executive Officer, and Morris Beyda, our Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have assembled a team of industry experts with executive and operational experience at education, edtech, or HCM companies, who will serve on our Board of Directors. Together, the team combines for over 150 years of experience as investors, advisors, and operators with over 100 years focused in the target sectors. We believe that the experience of our team and our affiliation with Colbeck and Studio will allow us to effectively source, identify, and execute an initial business combination that has the potential to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.
Ms. Wolford was previously a Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets and former head of the Technology and Business Services Group, which included the educational services and edtech, HCM, enterprise and application software, information services, and financial technology industries. She was an investment banker for over 35 years, leading a wide variety of financing and merger and acquisition transactions across many industry groups. For the past 20 years, she has been focused on the educational services industry, working with pre-K-12, post-secondary, and lifelong learning companies. During her tenure leading the education practice at BMO Capital Markets, which started when Ms. Wolford joined the bank in April 2003, Ms. Wolford sourced and executed 52 merger and acquisition transactions and was involved in over $37 billion in debt and equity financings. She has served on multiple nonprofit and publicly-listed Board of Directors and currently is on the Dean’s Advisory Council of Villanova School of Business and the Board of Director’s Leadership Council of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and previously served on the Board of the Center for Education Reform. Ms. Wolford graduated with honors from Villanova University and received a Master’s of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Ronald H. Schlosser is new CEO . Mr. Schlosser advises global leaders in private equity on investing in education and information services companies. He formerly served as Executive Chairman and as a Director of McGraw-Hill Education, having rejoined in March 2013. Previously, Mr. Schlosser was Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Haights Cross Communications (“HCC”), an educational and library publishing company, where he led expansion of the company’s product lines especially with digital segments. Mr. Schlosser joined HCC in May 2010. Before HCC, starting in 2008, he served as senior advisor to Providence Equity Partners (“Providence”), and was chairman of several of Providence’s education and information services companies including Jones & Bartlett and Assessment Technologies Institute (now Ascend Learning), Edline, and Survey Sampling International. Mr. Schlosser spent 12 years at Thomson Corporation, including four years as Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Learning Group (now Cengage Learning). Mr. Schlosser started at Thomson Corporation in July 1995. Earlier, he held executive positions at Elsevier Science, which he started at in 1988, and McGraw-Hill. Mr. Schlosser currently serves on the Board of Directors of Copyright Clearance Center and the Warehouse Arts District in Florida. Mr. Schlosser holds an MBA from Farleigh Dickinson University and is a graduate of Rider University.
Peter Ma is our ex Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Ma is a Partner and Managing Director at Colbeck. Mr. Ma also serves as Executive Vice Chairman of Studio where he leads the Company’s key strategic initiatives including mergers and acquisitions, tactical investments, and capital markets activity in both debt and equity. In this capacity, Mr. Ma also works closely with management on critical operational projects. Mr. Ma joined Colbeck in January 2012. At Colbeck, Mr. Ma leads the firm’s West Coast office based in Los Angeles where he is responsible for sourcing opportunities and leading investment execution, including diligence, documentation, and portfolio management. Previously, Mr. Ma joined and worked at MESA Securities (acquired by Houlihan Lokey) as an investment banker in June 2010, where he advised media and entertainment companies on mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising, with a focus on structured financings. Mr. Ma was previously a Member of the Board of Trustees at Woodbury University, one of the oldest accredited institutions in Southern California and was a Forbes 30 under 30 list maker in the media category. Mr. Ma graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, where he was a member of the football team.