March 22, 2018

EDC Names Bill Hughes to Board of Trustees

WALTHAM, MA | Education Development Center (EDC), a global health and education nonprofit organization, has appointed high-tech entrepreneur Bill Hughes to its board of trustees. EDC President David Offensend announced the confirmation following the February board meeting.

Hughes is the president and founder of Open4 Learning, an innovation company that launches and grows ed-tech startups. As a software executive, he has focused on new ventures, strategy, innovation, and product management, and he has decades of experience advising senior executives at industry-leading multinationals on corporate strategy and partnership. In his role as a partner in Milamber USA, he advises global ed-tech ventures.

Previously, Hughes was chief strategy officer at Learning Objects, where he led its growth strategy, resulting in an acquisition by Cengage in 2015. Prior to that, he was vice president of Global Strategy and Business Development at Pearson, leading innovation, partnerships, and new ventures in postsecondary education. While there, he co-founded Intellus Learning (acquired by Macmillan Learning in 2017), launched Pearson Writer, and oversaw the transformation of Pearson’s learning products into the MyLabs platform. Over the past 20 years, Hughes has held leadership positions at Sapient, Mercer, and the Cambridge Innovation Center. He has also invested his time philanthropically as a venture partner at New Profit and a trustee of Kaplan University (acquired by Purdue University) and AISNE.

“As we continue to pursue technology innovations in the service of improved learning and teaching, Bill’s knowledge of the ed-tech landscape will be a tremendous asset to EDC, and we are delighted to welcome him to our board,” said Offensend.

Hughes holds an AB from Harvard and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School, where he was a Seley Scholar.

Learn more about the other members of the EDC Board of Trustees.


Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, we have been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world.