A-HEC team

Rob Abel
Founder

Rob Abel is an education industry researcher, author, and analyst focused on transformation, innovation, and effectiveness in higher education. He founded the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness (A-HEC) in May 2004 for the purpose of performing research to uncover and disseminate best practices that enable transformation. In order to fulfill this mission in a scalable fashion, Rob has lead the development a new action research methodology of participatory evaluation that facilitates institutional collaboration. A-HEC’s mission is to help the United States and the world meet the challenge of providing postsecondary education to more people. A-HEC corporate and institutional sponsors are “Working Together to Educate More People.”

Prior to founding A-HEC Rob was the Senior Vice President of Client Services Collegis (now SunGard Collegis) where he was responsible for services delivered to more than 60 higher education institutions. Rob also served as General Manager of Collegis’ Online and Academic Services business unit (formerly known as Eduprise), Chief Marketing Officer, and Senior Vice President of Business Development.

Rob has over 25 years experience in high tech general management, business development, marketing, and product development. At Oracle Corporation has was the Senior Director for the Oracle Learning Architecture, a pioneering and award-winning learning management system and worldwide application service provider initiative. At National Semiconductor Rob was a Senior Market Development Manager focused on Internet products during the emergence of the Internet.

At TRW Rob was the Managing Director of the Accuscan Environmental Monitoring business unit and the Director of TRW’s Advanced Computer Laboratory, an applied research and development group focused on high performance computing architectures for signal collection and analysis.

Rob has provided market development or fund-raising expertise to numerous high tech companies, including Lotus, Macromedia, Intransa, DigiGroups, RightOrder, and Tegrity.

Rob has earned an undergraduate degree in Computational Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, a graduate degree in Computer Engineering from USC, and a graduate degree in Engineering Management from Stanford. He is currently a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership and Change program at Fielding Graduate University.

Rob has been recognized as a National Merit Scholar, a Hughes Master Fellow, and the recipient of the TRW Chairman’s Award for Innovation.

Bill Graves
Director

Dr. William H. Graves is a pioneering leader in helping higher education better manage information technology (IT) and apply it to measurably improve institutional performance. He is professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and senior vice president for academic strategy at SunGard Collegis Inc.

Graves’ perspective derives from over 30 years of experience as a professor and academic administrator, including leadership and management experience in encouraging the systemic use of IT in the educational process. He has given hundreds of invited presentations at conferences and on campuses, advised hundreds of institutions, and published over 70 articles and books on the academic applications of IT. Graves also founded Eduprise Inc., a pioneer in providing e-Learning technology and services to higher education.

Graves served on the board of directors of the Instructional Management Systems Global Learning Consortium, EDUCAUSE, and CAUSE, and is on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Academic Transformation. He helped launch Internet2 and EDUCAUSE’s National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, and chaired the NLII planning committee from 1994-2004. Graves earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University.

Larry Humes
Executive Vice President

Larry R. Humes is principal of Humes & Associates, a consulting firm that helps colleges and universities strategically leverage their marketing and communications.

From 2001 until 2003, Humes served as vice president of marketing and communication for Collegis, the leading provider of technology-related services to higher education. In that role, he supported not only the Orlando-based company, but many of its more than 100 client colleges and universities.

Throughout the 1990s, Humes served as associate vice president for marketing and public relations at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. From 1985 to 1990, he served as associate director of News & Public Affairs at the University of Florida. Humes began his career as a staff writer for The Florida Times-Union and as a stringer for United Press International, receiving national recognition for his articles and editorials.

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