Our people.
Pangaea was founded by Anthony and Karen Bohm.
Here is our story...
Pangaea is all about trying to make a lasting impact by tackling some of the hard social challenges. We are passionate about trying to harness the power of markets and capital to drive these changes. While there is definitely a place for philanthropy, we want to try and leverage our skills and expertise to help social entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams. ‘Doing well by doing good’ is a motto we live by and is a natural evolution of our professional careers.
Prior to founding Pangaea, we invested in two successful education businesses. In 2006, we co-founded Think: Education Group together with a bunch of really talented and passionate people. Our aim was to challenge the status quo in tertiary education in Australia. We could see that universities were struggling to produce graduates with the real skills and experience required to succeed in the modern workforce. By working in partnership with industry, we could see a unique opportunity to create new and innovative programs that would deliver the skills and experience to succeed in an increasingly competitive job market.
Through the acquisition and integration of eight highly specialised private education institutions, Think became the leading federation of private tertiary colleges in Australia. Think is recognised for delivering exceptional employment outcomes to graduates through its high quality, innovative programs and unique links to industry. Think is a dual sector institution – delivering both Vocational Education and Training (Certificate and Diplomas) and Higher Education (Bachelor and Masters degrees).
Anthony was the CEO (Operations) of Think: Education Group, leading the core operations of the institution and overseeing the exceptional growth of the group. We sold our interest in Think in 2010 to Seek Limited (ASX: SEK), Australia’s leading online job board. Today, Think is part of Laureate International Universities and we are very proud that it continues to be a leader and innovator in tertiary education in Australia.
In 2010, we co-founded Open Colleges Australia to make quality, career-focused qualifications available to working adults across Australia. We saw that the real skill shortages in Australia were in technical areas and that to meet these critical workforce needs we could not rely on high school graduates alone. We needed to engage and up-skill the existing workforce. Traditional education providers were largely focused on delivering on-campus, full-time courses to high school graduates. In contrast, this new group of adult learners required greater flexibility and a new approach to learning design, curriculum and learning support.
We acquired the largest correspondence learning institution in Australia, which at the time was owned by a global publishing company. The business was in crisis – losing money and market share… rapidly. We set about a fundamental turnaround and transformation of the business. We left no stone unturned. After a few nervous months, the business began to grow and fast. More than that, we also saw that our learning strategies were delivering a better learner experience and outcomes.
Today, Open Colleges is the largest provider of online learning. Open Colleges provides nationally recognized training and professional courses to working adults across Australia. Passionately committed to an open learning philosophy, Open Colleges provides learning opportunities to Australians from all walks of life by removing the traditional barriers to learning.
Anthony was the Joint-CEO responsible for the corporate strategy, strategic planning and core education operations. Working with a fantastic team, the institution achieved phenomenal growth – from 18,000 students in 2010 to more than 70,000 students in 2015. At the same time, the Open Colleges team increased five-fold. Anthony led the digital transformation of the institution: from a traditional correspondence learning organization to a high quality online learning institution. Along the way, Open Colleges picked up a bunch of awards and became the employer of choice in the sector. In 2013, we entered into a strategic partnership with Apollo Education Group (NASDAQ: APOL), one of the largest private education institutions in the US, and sold our remaining equity in Open Colleges in 2015.
In addition to providing sage advice on the growth and development of both Think and Open Colleges, Karen practiced as a highly respected lawyer in employment, industrial and corporate litigation in both Australia and the UK.
To learn more about our professional background, check out our LinkedIn profiles: Anthony Bohm and Karen Bohm.
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