Career Education Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career Education Corporation (CEC) NASDAQ: CECO, founded in 1994, is a postsecondary education provider with campus-based and online curriculum. The organization operates over eighty for-profit college campuses with approximately 100,000 students enrolled.

CEC schools include Le Cordon Bleu Schools, Brown College (Minnesota), the Harrington College of Design, the Brooks Institute of Photography, the Katharine Gibbs Schools, American InterContinental University (AIU), Colorado Technical University, Sanford-Brown Institutes and Colleges, Collins College, and many others. See [1] for a list of all CEC schools.

Schools owned by CEC are located throughout the U.S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. They offer doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s, and associate's degrees, as well as diploma and certificate programs.

In recent years, CEC has set up the Central Processing Center (CPC) at its office in Hoffman Estates to centralize all student funds (Title IV, Private Loans), to efficiently increase revenues and mimimize audit findings. This group has responded well with handling all the financial aid processes for many schools including AIU. CEC continues to enroll these schools into the Central Processing Center. This plays an important role for CEC as its revenues are depended on enrollment of students and most student apply for financial aid. Therefore CEC's revenues directly corrolate with financial aid given to students.

The CEC Management

[CEO], Gary E. McCullough.
[CFO], Patrick K. Pesch.
[Chief Internal Officer], Steven M. Calbi.
[President], Stephen C. Fireng.
[Chief Compliance Officer], Robert M. McNamara Jr.
[President], Paul Ryan.
[President], Todd Steele.
[Director of Accounting], Jim Dudek.
[Senior Vice President of Student Finance], Mary Dorrell.
[Director of CPC], Frank Scumacci.
[Senior Manager of CPC], Julie Payne.
[Senior Manager of CPC], Michael Ambolo.
[Senior Manager of CPC], Karen Gioella.

[edit] Controversies and federal scrutiny

CEC is currently being investigated by the SEC [2], the Department of Justice [3], the US Postal Service, and state agencies for various issues of non-compliance. In January 2007, the U.S. Department of Education lifted its restrictions on the company opening new schools or acquiring existing ones.[4] In addition, its most profitable division, American InterContinental University, is currently on probation with its accrediting agency, SACS. [5] The accreditor's special committee noted significant progress by AIU in resolving its concerns. [6]

Read CEC's corporate FAQ for their perspective on these and other controversies.[7]

[edit] Merger with Whitman

On July 1, 2003, Career Education Corporation merged with competitor Whitman Education Group, Inc., gaining control over the latter's Sanford-Brown Colleges, Ultrasound Diagnostic Schools (now known as the Sanford-Brown Institute), and Colorado Technical Universities.