Adam Newman is a Founding Partner of Tyton Partners and leads its strategy consulting practice. He guides companies, institutions, investors, and foundations through critical growth inflection points, delivering actionable recommendations that help them achieve their goals. He has extensive experience working with executives and leadership teams across all segments of the PreK-12, postsecondary, workforce, and professional education markets.

Prior to founding Tyton Partners, Newman was a director at Berkery Noyes, a mergers and acquisitions firm serving the information industry. Previously, Newman served as managing vice president at Eduventures (now Encoura), a leading market research and consulting firm supporting the education industry. Adam originated and led the firm’s syndicated market research and proprietary consulting businesses.

Prior to Eduventures, Newman served as a senior manager at CEB (now Gartner) in the company’s Corporate Strategy Board practice, working closely with senior strategy executives at Global 2000 companies. Newman began his professional career as a K-12 educator and athletic coach at schools in Boston, MA, and New Orleans, LA. He holds an AB in English from Duke University. Newman currently serves on his town’s elected School Committee and is a Trustee at Exploration School, a non-profit organization developing immersive, transformative programs for students and schools.

Barry Manno is the Head of Global Sales and Consulting Education at Cognizant, a multinational information technology services and consulting company. Manno has 30 years of experience in C-Level partnering and building world-class programs for Fortune 100 companies, and has developed organization learning models and programs to enable the selling effectiveness of a global salesforce.

Manno first got his start in 1983 as a Service Manager at Flexible Business Systems. From there, he went on to AST Research Inc., before eventually rising to global learning and talent enablement business Partner at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, his most recent position prior to joining Cognizant. Manno graduated from Farmingdale State College with an undergraduate degree in computer science.

Daniel O’Shea is a Partner in CohnReznick’s not-for-profit industry practice. Based in the Bethesda office, O’Shea has 37 years of accounting experience and began his career focusing on audit and other attestation services. His current responsibilities include engagement administration, team management, and practice development. With over a century of experience, CohnReznick has nearly 4,300 global team members and 30 locations including global subsidiaries. The firm serves clients in 30 different industries through an integrated team of advisory, assurance, and tax professionals.

In addition to providing accounting, audit, and tax services, O’Shea consults on CFO advisory engagements as well as cost allocations, related entity structures, employee benefit plans, and exempt organizations tax issues. He oversees engagements that are subject to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133 audit requirements. His clients include national trade and professional associations and labor and charitable organizations. O’Shea graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

Gregory Finkelstein is a Managing Director across both Tyton Partner’s Strategic Consulting and Investment Banking practices. His 30 years of expertise focuses on go-to-market motion, human capital development, operational effectiveness, and organizational planning and scale. Within higher education, he has served hundreds of institutions across the globe spanning from large national and state institutions to regional and local schools. He started his career helping to write five- and ten-year strategic plans for state universities which led to launching, leading, and exiting multiple EdTech companies before returning to strategic consulting for the past six years.

Additionally, he is a Co-Founder and Co-Lead of Tyton’s Center for Higher Education Transformation. This expanded focus on higher education has positioned Tyton as one of the sector leaders in several related sub-practices. Among them are school-to-school affiliations, where Finkelstein has led several of the largest efforts in the sector including the recent announcement regarding a signed agreement between the University of Phoenix and the University of Idaho (Announcement Article).

He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Antioch University and chairs several advisory boards for EdTech companies including K16 Solutions. Finkelstein holds a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University.

Ian Matthias is a highly experienced education consultant as well as a business, programme and change leader. He heads-up PA Consulting’s Global Education Practice and has 25 years’ experience of serving clients at national and institutional levels. Ian specialises in higher education and partners with 15 universities every year to design and deliver their mission-critical transformations. His work includes strategy development, student experience modernisation, operating model design, restructuring and digital transformation. Over the past five years he has led more change programmes across Russell Group institutions than anyone else in UK higher education.
Ian is a regular platform speaker and leads several communities of practice, including the Education Transformation Leader Network. He is also recognised for his thought leadership and co-authors PA’s annual survey of vice chancellors. Ian graduated from the University of Nottingham with a first in Industrial Economics.
- Every year I lead the development of PA’s annual survey of vice chancellors (copy attached – this is the 12th report). We interview 40 university leaders on the strategic challenges and opportunities facing the sector. The report is covered widely by trade and national press (UK universities ‘never faced greater threats’ | Times Higher Education (THE)).
- In January 2024 we launched an equivalent report for the Danish higher education sector. We will be taking the research into Ireland and the Netherlands for the next edition.
- Several articles published by Higher Education Policy Institute (e.g. Realising the Civic University - HEPI)
- Opinion letters published in the Financial Times (Letter: Universities could take lessons in efficiency (ft.com))

Mark Finlan leads Huron’s education industry business and has more than 20 years of experience in consulting, including deep expertise in higher education and the public sector. He specializes in leading institutions through complex programs to align strategy, improve performance and reduce costs. Mark has partnered with dozens of institutions leading complex, organization-wide programs to align strategy, improve performance and optimize operations for some of the most well-known universities. Mark has received Top 25 Consultant and Excellence in Social and Community Investment recognition by Consulting Magazine for his leadership and pro bono work. Prior to joining Huron, Mark led the Higher Education and the Organization and Human Capital practices within Censeo Consulting Group. He also served as a Principal at Bain & Co where he helped found their higher education practice.
- Led a 15-month cost transformation effort for a leading private university, identifying opportunities to close a nearly $100 million budget deficit and developing a new budget model aligned to the institution’s mission.
- Overseen the organizational assessment of a large public health sciences institution and developed an innovative service delivery model that spanned multiple functions including human resources, finance, IT, marketing and research administration.
- Helped a top historically black college develop a four-year strategic plan to fulfill the institution’s goal of becoming a best-in-class, land-grant doctoral research university.

Mark Jeynes is a Partner at CIL Management Consultants, where he leads the Education & Training Practice. Mark has over 20 years’ experience as a management consultant. He has extensive experience advising investors and clients in the international education sector, across a wide range of segments, including early years (pre-K), K-12, further education, higher education, professional education and corporate training. The geographic scope of his experience includes the UK, Western Europe, the US, India, GCC, Asia, Australa and Africa.
In his career to date, Mark has completed more than 100 education engagements, advising leading private equity firms and operators on commercial due diligence, market entry and expansion, proposition development, pricing and opportunity identification and assessment.
Founded in 1986, CIL is an international management consultancy with offices in the US, Europe and the UK. CIL helps businesses grow, build value and invest wisely. Typical engagements involve extensive primary research, competitor assessment and evaluation of business performance. CIL focuses on the key commercial issues and always maintains a strong, supportive client relationship.
Prior to joining CIL, Mark was a Partner at The Parthenon Group (now EY-Parthenon) and OC&C Strategy Consultants. He is also a co-founder of Inspiring Futures Education, an international schools group in the UK. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Banking & Finance from Loughborough University of Technology and an MBA from London Business School.

Roy Mathew is a Principal at Deloitte, where he leads the higher education consulting practice. With 25 years of consulting and industry experience across both private and public sector clients, Mathew has led many of Deloitte’s largest higher education transformation programs that span strategy, implementation, and operations. He is actively involved in developing the firm’s capabilities in new business models and innovative uses of technology.

Deloitte is a prominent provider of audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services, serving numerous brands including almost 90% of the Fortune 500 and over 7,000 private companies. With 175 years of experience, Deloitte's vast network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Mathew holds an undergraduate degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a graduate degree from Stanford University.

Vadim Tsysin is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Private Equity Performance Improvement Group in Chicago. He is the Education and Sell-side Lead and specializes in performance improvement, carve-out and TSA advisory and operational due diligence, as well as overall M&A and capital markets advisory.
With over 20 years of experience, Mr. Tsysin has executed 100+ transactions ranging from $1.2 million to $16 billion. He has substantial cross-border deal experience, having executed deals in Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the U.K. and Australia. His engagements center around merger advisory, integration execution, carve-out execution, pre-acquisition synergy assessments, operational due diligence, and integration and separation planning.

Mr. Tsysin has extensive experience working with education clients. His notable EdTech engagements include advising Leeds Equity Advisor on the sale and performance improvement plan of Campus Management Corp and Edcentric; handling buy-side synergy assessment for Edmentum’s acquisition of Apex Learning; and doing buy-side due diligence for San Joaquin Valley College and the Meritas group of private K-12 school in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Tsysin spent six years with DeVry Education Group in Chicago, serving most recently as Head of M&A, Integration and Capital Markets. He directed corporate M&A related activities, worked with the Senior Leadership Team on strategy initiatives and co-led operational assignments.

Previously, Mr. Tsysin worked with Bank of America Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banker, focusing on corporate finance and capital markets advisory in the packaging industry. Before that, he served as an M&A Consultant in the post-merger integration practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Mr. Tsysin earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Roosevelt University and a MBA (with distinction) from the University of Michigan Ross School of business. He is a licensed CPA in Illinois and holds Series 7 & 63 designations. Mr. Tsysin is fluent in Russian.