Matt Kinnich has always had, even as a young child, a high sense of curiosity – which has served him well in expanding into new markets.
At the tender age of eight, Matt and a friend started a neighborhood newspaper. They went door-to-door to gather news. Their moms typed it, and they went door-to-door again and sold it for 5 cents. They ran it for two years which is remarkable for kids whose interests typically change at lightspeed.
As a kid, he was already a visionary and self-starter who demonstrated leadership, creativity, and resourcefulness. When he reflects on his parents’ character and the influence his parents and siblings had on him, he realizes the origin of his passion for education to change the trajectory of individuals, organizations, and communities.
After 30 years in the business world, those same qualities – plus many more – are still serving Matt well. Today, he is a strategic, engaging, and compelling professional with experience in a variety of industries such as education, talent management, professional services, big data, consumer package good, manufacturing, and distribution.
He has developed and implemented measurable improvements for early stage businesses, middle market companies, and business units of publicly traded companies and organizations.
For example, Matt was CEO and a board member of Language Stars, where he led operational enhancements and process improvements through codifying processes and implementing systems to ensure replicable success in mission critical functions. These areas included marketing automation, customer relationship management, talent management, and faculty scheduling/payroll systems.
At Riverside Paper, Matt grew the consumer products start-up division from $500K to $14M in revenue in three and a half years. His efforts drove sales, marketing, and product development that led to ongoing relationships with Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Walgreens, and more.
As vice president with responsibility for international and business development at Becker Professional Education, he had P&L accountability for international operations of company-owned and partner-operated teams as well as strategic partnerships, business development, and M&A growth. Matt was selected as 1 of 16 Career Coaches for high potential/high performing mid-level leaders from Adtalem Global Education’s business units. He led participants thru assessment & reflection sessions to identify strengths and opportunity areas, facilitated Individual Development Plans, and participated in monthly coaching/mentoring meetings.
Matt has an extensive international business background that includes establishing and expanding operations for Becker in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America.
Matt’s education sector experience includes higher education, professional education, credentialing, exam preparation, corporate training, and PreK-8.