International EduConnect Technologies Company

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International EduConnect Technologies Company
Public
Traded asPSE: IETC
IndustryEducation
FoundedJune 15, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-06-15)
FounderPiero Ferrari
Eli Hardman
HeadquartersDakos, Belhavia
Area served
Worldwide
(primarily Belhavia)
Key people
Eli Hardman (President; CEO)
Giacomo Albino (Chairman of the Board)
Geno Cantellini (General Counsel)
ProductsEducational services
Consumer electronics
Student loans
ServicesHigher education
Consulting
Test preparation
RevenueIncrease $4.8 billion (FY 2015)
Increase $2.45 billion (2015)
Increase $3.2 billion (2015)
Total assetsIncrease $1.73 billion (2015)
Total equityDecrease $5.97 billion (2015)
Number of employees
7,431 (2015)

International EduConnect Technologies Company (commonly referred to as IECTC or stylized as EduConTech) is a Belhavian educational services and technology company. The company owns two for-profit private colleges, provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials, student loans, and other services and products for various levels of education.

It was started as a profitable vehicle for education reform in Belhavia's private education system, a cause of its cofounders Piero Ferrari and Eli Hardman.

Operations

It is based in Dakos, Belhavia. The company has several divisions:

  • Educational Services Division
  • Student Loans Division
  • Test Preparation Division
  • Consumer Educational Electronics Division

Subsidiaries and Affiliates

List of assets of IECTC

Products and Services

Products

  • Educational services: A variety of professional, preprofessional, and secondary educational training, programs, courses, and related fields.
  • Student loans: Student loan options for eligible enrollees for the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate educational levels.

Services

  • Higher education: A range of programs, institutions, and services for higher education.
  • Consulting: IECTC consults with numerous educational institutions and organizations on cutting-edge educational tools, services, practices, technologies, and advances.
  • Test preparation services: Test preparatory programs for various levels of testing at all post-secondary educational tiers.

Controversies and Public Image

Co-Founders' Control

The company has become well-known for the tight executive and managerial control its two co-founders, Piero Ferrari and Eli Hardman, exercise over the educational firm. Ferrari was CEO and Hardman served as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors from its founding until Ferrari's leave of absence to serve as the Belhavian Chief Education Commissioner under President Eli Goldman in January 2014; at that point, the pair reshuffled the leadership team, which Hardman becoming CEO and staying President and Giacomo Albino, the brother of Ferrari's wife, Marietta, ascending to Chairman of the Board.

Geno Cantellini is a lawyer and banking executive close with both Ferrari and Hardman, and was installed as both General Counsel and an inside director on the Board to ensure "family control" over the company.

Ferrari and Hardman are the majority shareholders, controlling 52.3% of voting common stock shares.

Becoming a Public Company

When IECTC was founded in mid-2007, it was a privately-held company. By 2011, minority shareholders were intensely pressuring the Ferrari/Hardman-controlled board of directors to "go public" and list the company as a publicly-held company to increase shareholder value through the issuing of more liquid stock and bond issues.

Ferrari and Hardman and their allies controlling the board continued to holdout, fearing a risk of hostile takeovers by industry competitors if they became a publicly-traded company. In February 2012, they agreed to have the company go public but orchestrated a series of holding companies under their control to buy enough voting common stock issues to maintain a majority of equity and prevent a hostile takeover.