FARIA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President
- Senior Vice President
Angelica Nierras is the Senior Vice President of the Learning business unit at Faria Education Group, which includes ManageBac, Pamoja Online Courses, OSC Study & Wolsey Hall for Schools.
Angelica's career at Faria Education Group is marked by her dedication and ability to drive remarkable growth. During her tenure as Managing Director from March 2013 to June 2018, she played a pivotal role in the growth of ManageBac and OpenApply, overseeing product launches, key business partnerships, and leading a diverse, globally distributed team. She has personally visited hundreds of schools around the world and firmly champions the work of educators.
Angelica completed her Executive MBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Faria Leadership Team
- Vice President
- Vice President / Americas
Bernard oversees the day-to-day operations of our sales, account management, support, and services team in the Americas across three different products; ManageBac, Atlas, and OpenApply. He previously served as the Director of Client Services and Standards, as well as Services Manager. Since joining the company in 2010, Bernard has led multiple initiatives, including growing new sources of revenue, doubled the size of our standards database, developed consultative solutions, and led the launch of new products to market.
Bernard earned a M.S. in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and his B.A. in International Studies and French at Willamette University in Salem, OR.
Darren Hughes is Vice President of the Online Learning business unit and serves as a Director of OSC-Pamoja Limited (UK).
Darren oversees the Online Learning business unit and previously served as Director of Product at Pamoja Education where he was instrumental in establishing Pamoja's presence as a provider of high-quality online secondary education. From startup in 2010, Pamoja's initial focus was on developing a portfolio to serve International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme curriculum. Recent investment has enabled expansion into Cambridge Assessment International Examinations (iGCSE) and International A-level curriculum. Over 27,000 students have enrolled in Pamoja's courses.
Prior to joining Pamoja, Darren worked as Head of Online Learning for the IB at its Assessment Centre in Cardiff, UK. As a member of the Academic Senior Leadership Team, Darren operationalised support for online learning and was at the core of driving process and education innovation, through technology.
Darren earned a B.A. in Geography from the University of Wales, UK
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President / Branding
Since joining Faria in 2010, Heryien has been responsible for the overall product branding and company identity across all marketing & communication form factors, including web & print.
Prior to joining Faria, Heryien served as the Creative Director of one of the leading digital agencies located in Indonesia supporting a range of industries.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Faria Leadership Team
- Vice President
- Vice President / Professional Development
Kelby oversees the Professional Development team, supporting schools with a variety of professional learning opportunities, developing engaging content, leveraging the expertise of the educators we work with and ensuring Faria has diverse offerings and events.
She previously served as Director of Professional Development, account management and product development. Since joining the company in 2005, Kelby has had numerous roles but over the last 5 years has focused on the growth of professional development services, taking it from initial planning and development to a team of dedicated educators delivering high quality professional learning. She has presented at numerous conferences around the importance of curriculum in driving student learning. Kelby also leads the publication of our Curriculum Insight magazine, starting in 2020.
Kelby earned a B.A. in Spanish and minor in Social Justice from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA and has spent time teaching in NYC.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Faria Leadership Team
- Customer Success Director
- Is Director of Customer Success for the Systems Business Unit
Kieran oversees the Customer Success operations of the Systems business unit, leading international customer support & implementation team members across ManageBac, OpenApply, SchoolsBuddy, OSC & Pamoja. He previously served as Customer Success Manager, EMEA and as Customer Support Lead, APAC. Since joining the company in 2016, Kieran broke all records in his time on the support desk, answering more than 23,000 tickets, 65% within a 1hr time-frame. Kieran has since led the optimization of the Faria customer life cycle, overseen annual decreases in Support tickets with increases in customer engagement, and a proven track record of aligning staff, processes, and systems to drive customer loyalty. Kieran also acts as feature request lead, driving customer-portal product management for ManageBac. Kieran has a strong passion for customer service in a global setting, and received plaudits from the New South Wales state government for his work in cross-cultural communications.
Kieran earned a B.S. in Advanced Mathematics from the University of Sydney and undertook a M.A. by Research at The Australian Film Television & Radio School (AFTRS) in Moore Park, Sydney.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Is Director of Teaching and Learning at Faria Education Group
Leila is responsible for leading a coherent and aligned approach to developments in curriculum, teaching and assessment across services. Leila joined the company in 2015 as a consultant and became Curriculum Director for ManageBac in 2018. She is responsible for the coordination and development of IB support in ManageBac, including the launch of the IB Career-Related Programme in 2018 and the Enhanced PYP in 2019. Prior to joining Faria, she taught Science in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
Leila earned a BSc Biology, PGCE and MA in Educational Leadership and Management from the University of Bath. Leila is currently pursuing a PhD in Education with a focus on safeguarding in international schools.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President
- Senior Vice President
MacKenzie Murray is Senior Vice President of the Systems business unit, and serves as a Director of Faria Education Limited (UK).
MacKenzie oversees the Systems business unit, leading the international sales, account management and support teams, data team, and three product teams. She previously served as VP of Sales, Regional Director, EMEA and OpenApply Director. Since joining the company in 2016, MacKenzie has led the development of OpenApply, managing product development, sales & support and branding & marketing to drive 6x growth with our integrated approach. MacKenzie also leads the publication of our International Admissions Bulletin magazine, publishing 8 issues since 2016.
MacKenzie earned a B.A. in International Affairs and Russian Language and Literature from George Washington University in Washington, DC and is pursuing an EMBA at University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.
Mike Vander Berg is Managing Director of CurriculumTrak.
Mike oversees all business operations, business financials and sales for CurriculumTrak business unit. Mike joined Faria from Dynamic Internet Solutions in 2019. He was the Owner and President of DIS for 14 years. Mike led DIS revenue growth of 20-30% per year for the first 12 years.
Mike earned a B.A. from Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA and an M.S. from St. Cloud State University in St Cloud, MN.
Mitch Campbell is Vice President of the Study business unit of OSC-Pamoja Limited (UK).
Mitch oversees the Study business unit, responsible for digital services, which includes online tutoring, development of the new OSC Study app featuring digital flashcards, study guides and video resources, as well as helping OSC to offer online revision courses to IB students all over the world.
Prior to joining Pamoja, Mitch was a teacher in IB schools for many years, then founded and ran Studynova, an education company aimed at supporting IBDP science and mathematics students. .
Mitch earned a B.S. in Physics and a B.Ed from the University of Ottawa, Canada and an M.S. in Astrophysics from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Software Engineering
Roman Marynchak is Vice President, Software Engineering within the Systems business unit. Roman oversees the engineering team for ManageBac and is responsible for the product engineering team, including release management, ensuring that quality standards are consistently met with code reviews, and ensuring overall system reliability, performance and stability.
Prior to joining Faria in 2011, Roman was a Common Lisp Software Engineer at SoftServe.
Roman earned a M.S. in Automation and Computer Science from Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Design
- Vice President, Design of Faria Education Group
Vladimir Raksha is Vice President, Design of Faria Education Group. Vladimir leads Faria's multi-disciplinary design team and is responsible for overall UI/UX design across Faria's product suite.
Vladimir previously served as Senior UI/UX Designer at Maze Design Agency (Ukraine). Since joining the company in 2017, he has led designs for key new features from concept to execution, and guided the design team through a successful launch of mobile Android and iOS apps, a complete re-design of ManageBac, and implementation of a new UI & Design system.
Vladimir earned a M.S. in Marketing from Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade, Ukraine.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Software Engineering
Yulian Tarantiuk is Vice President, Software Engineering within the Systems business unit. Yulian oversees the engineering team for ManageBac and is responsible for the product engineering team, including release management, ensuring that quality standards are consistently met with code reviews, and ensuring overall system reliability, performance and stability.
Prior to joining Faria in 2011, Yulian was a Software Engineer at SoftServe.