online-program-management
(5)
Boundless Learning
Boundless Learning is a Boston-headquartered education technology company that designs and manages online degree programs, short courses, and workforce-aligned learning for universities and organizations worldwide. Spun out of Pearson Online Learning Services after private-equity firm Regent LP acquired the unit in 2023, the company builds and operates more than 450 online programs serving roughly 17,000 learners across 150-plus countries, with marquee short-course partnerships including three schools at the University of Oxford. Led by CEO Joshua Richards, it operates in the Online Program Management (OPM) market, handling everything from recruitment and course design to technology and learner support so academic partners can extend their reach online.
Joshua Richards
Joshua Richards is the Chief Executive Officer of Boundless Learning, a Boston-based online program management and edtech company spun out of Pearson. He rose to the top job in January 2025 after serving as the company's Chief Product and Technology Officer and helping steer its transition into a standalone business. With more than two decades in technology and education, Richards leads a company serving roughly 17,000 learners across 150+ countries and having launched more than 450 online programs, focused on driving learner success through personalization and helping universities and institutions reach new audiences.
Todd Zipper
Todd Zipper is a longtime education-and-technology operator now running Axio Education, a Scottsdale-based agentic AI learning platform that turns static coursework into adaptive, personalized pathways. Before Axio he spent more than two decades building and scaling online-education businesses: he led The Learning House to its 2018 sale to Wiley, then ran Wiley's global education and talent operations as an executive vice president overseeing more than $300 million in annual revenue. He hosts the higher-ed podcast An Educated Guest and holds a CFA charter alongside degrees from Penn and Columbia.
Risepoint
Risepoint (formerly Academic Partnerships) is a U.S.-based online program management (OPM) company that partners with regional, mostly public universities to develop, launch, market, and scale affordable, workforce-focused online degree programs. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas and owned by the Vistria Group, the company provides marketing, enrollment, student support, faculty support, and technology services so that universities can reach working-adult learners at scale. It works with 100+ university partners across the U.S., UK, and Australia and says it has supported hundreds of thousands of students.
Fernando Bleichmar
Fernando Bleichmar is the CEO of Risepoint, the online program management company formerly known as Academic Partnerships, which helps regional universities build and grow online degree programs for working adults. He joined in 2022 after running the U.S. higher education business at Cengage, serving on the leadership team at Elsevier Health Sciences, and spending his first decade in strategy consulting at Boston Consulting Group. The son of educators who founded a school in Mexico City, he frames the company's work around closing the access and affordability gap in American higher education.