# Edwin van Rest

> Edwin van Rest is the co-founder and CEO of Studyportals, the Eindhoven-based platform that helps students compare study programs across borders. He started the company in 2007 with two engineering friends after his own year abroad in Japan showed him how hard it was to find information about international study options. Today Studyportals lists hundreds of thousands of programs, reaches millions of students a month, and van Rest is a recognized voice in international education, a former EAIE Rising Star Award winner, and chair of the EAIE Marketing & Recruitment Expert Community.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Studyportals
- **Organizations:** Studyportals, EAIE (European Association for International Education), ESTIEM
- **Nationality:** Dutch
- **Education:** Industrial Engineering and Management Science (knowledge-intensive processes and innovation management), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Exchange year during Master's degree, Osaka University, Japan
- **Known for:** Co-founded and scaled Studyportals into one of the world's largest study-choice platforms, listing hundreds of thousands of programs., Enabled 600,000+ international study placements toward a goal of sending more students abroad than there are soldiers abroad., Won the 2013 EAIE Rising Star Award for contribution to international education.

## Career timeline

- **pre-2007** — Worked as a strategy consultant on project management and analytics for large corporations, and on the IT services teams for the Athens and Turin Olympic Games.
- **2007** — Co-founded Studyportals with two alumni from TU/e and KTH, launching mastersportal.eu to let students search Master's programs across borders.
- **2012** — Studyportals' Mastersportal reaches roughly 2.1 million monthly visitors; company expands into distance learning and other program portals.
- **2013** — Honored with the EAIE Rising Star Award for notable contribution to international education early in his career.
- **2017** — Studyportals raises a Series A round (about USD 5.5 million).
- **present** — Continues as CEO, chairs the EAIE Marketing & Recruitment Expert Community, and speaks frequently at international education conferences.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and scaled Studyportals into one of the world's largest study-choice platforms, listing hundreds of thousands of programs.
- Enabled 600,000+ international study placements toward a goal of sending more students abroad than there are soldiers abroad.
- Won the 2013 EAIE Rising Star Award for contribution to international education.
- Won McKinsey & Company's New Venture competition for most promising social start-up.
- Chairs the Marketing & Recruitment Expert Community of the EAIE.

## Latest updates

- **2023-07** — Featured in a '5 minutes with CEO of Studyportals Edwin van Rest' video shared across Studyportals channels.

## Links

- Website: https://studyportals.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinvanrest/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/edwinvanrest
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kjOzpXwgk4

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/edwin-van-rest
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-17