Next Steps for FindAUniversity
FindAUniversity have some important news to share with our clients and community this Christmas.
After more than 20 successful years supporting the postgraduate education sector our co-founders, Andy Holliday and Andy Pritchard (aka ‘the Andys’) will be stepping back from January 2023.
Rob Hardy will take on day-to-day running of the company, alongside the rest of the Senior Leadership Team: Reenie Hollis (Director of Client Services), Pete Smith (Director of Web Development), Amy Ward (Director of Sales), Sarah Linington (Director of Marketing) and Mark Bennett (Director of Audience & Editorial).
This is an important step for FindAUniversity, but it’s part of a longer journey the Andys will carry on guiding in their new roles as Senior Advisors to Keystone Education Group. FAU itself will continue to operate as a stand-alone business unit within Keystone, committed to delivering the best service we can to universities and to prospective students. Because, like the Andys, we know it’s impossible to do one without the other.
We’re sure our friends and colleagues around the sector will join us in congratulating both ‘Andy H’ and ‘Andy P’ for everything they’ve achieved together over 20 years.
In that time they’ve taken FindAPhD from a printed book (yes, we still have a copy in the office) to the flagship in a range of leading postgraduate study platforms, used by millions of students and hundreds of universities every year. They’ve also built up the UK’s largest and most successful portfolio of physical and virtual postgraduate study fairs and the only sector events dedicated to bringing together and supporting postgraduate marketing and recruitment professionals.
Like our founders, we know how complex and important postgraduate study is. We’ll continue to care about the work we do because we understand the value of the work it supports: helping people who are tackling some of the most significant (and interesting!) questions facing the world.
Like our founders, we know that the most innovative part of the higher education sector needs innovation to succeed. We’ll continue to roll up our sleeves and build the services and features our postgraduate clients and audiences actually need.
And, like our founders, we know the value of the community we’re part of. We’ll continue to enable connection and conversation between people working in postgraduate marketing and recruitment, whilst ensuring our own team feels valued and rewarded for the work it does to support them.
So, as big a change as this moment feels like, it’s also a point of continuity. All of the FindAUniversity leadership team have had the pleasure and privilege of working with the Andys for many years and will be proud to carry on the culture of the company they’ve built.
As Rob Hardy, our new Managing Director puts it:
“My three years with FindAUniversity so far have been far from uneventful, but they’ve also been a crash course in everything that makes this company special. That comes from the Andys themselves, but it’s present in the group of passionate and committed people they’ve brought together around them. I feel blessed to have worked with them and look forward to building on their work, supporting even more students and universities.”
And we couldn't let Andy H and Andy P get off without sharing some words themselves:
“It’s been a privilege to build FindAUniversity over the last 20+ years and we couldn’t have done any of it without our incredible team and amazing customers. We have complete faith in Rob and his leadership team to maintain FAU’s high levels of customer service and unique character.”
Andy Pritchard
“Handing the baton on will be emotional, but there’s exciting times ahead for FindAUniversity and Keystone Education Group as a whole, with a huge number of opportunities for growth and expansion. Andy and I are both looking forward to working more closely with the many talented people across the business in our new roles as senior advisors.”
Andy Holliday
Fredrik Högemark, Keystone CEO, has also taken the opportunity to thank the Andies and welcome to their new ongoing roles within the group:
“We are very thankful for what Andy & Andy have built up at FindAUniversity over the last 20 years. We followed FAU closely before the company became a part of Keystone and have always been impressed by the great culture and the great offering FAU have in the market for both students and schools. Having Andy and Andy step into senior advisor positions and work with the Keystone management team to help us improve our offering at Keystone will be very valuable in the journey we have ahead of us. Rob, who has been in instrumental to the success of FAU in the last couple of years, will become a great MD for the company and we look forward to having him join the senior leadership team at Keystone. ”
Nothing's changing for the day-to-day business of FindAUniversity and we're looking forward to an exciting new year in 2023. If you have any questions for Rob or the FAU leadership team, please get in touch.