Rick Cruz

About Rick Cruz

Rick is a trusted advisor to organizations in the business, social impact, and philanthropic sectors. He has served in leadership roles at companies, nonprofits, and government agencies—and has extensive experience in organizational management and governance, partnerships, business development, strategic planning, and external relations.Rick was most recently the president and CEO of Arabella Advisors, a preeminent mission-driven professional services business that has been at the forefront of innovation in collaborative efforts to combat global challenges. In this role he oversaw a period of expansion, growing the firm\'s revenues, reach and impact while strengthening and diversifying product and service offerings to its clients. Previously he built and managed the firm’s client development and external relations functions.Over the last two decades, Rick has served in executive roles at several leading high impact social sector education enterprises. Rick began his career in the professional services sector, working at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) in Washington, DC, and London for more than a decade. There he assumed successive leadership roles and built teams that helped global corporations develop their strategic planning, finance, risk management, and governance capabilities.Rick is deeply committed to advancing access to quality education. He serves as chair of the board of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. As well, he recently completed an eight-year tenure as a board member and chair of the DC Public Charter School Board. That independent board oversees the 66 nonprofit organizations and their 126 schools which educate half the public school students in the District of Columbia. Rick is a frequent panelist and speaker on public education and reform efforts.

Experience

1. Chair of the Board of Directors

   Instruction Partners

   Jun 2017 — Present · Nashville, TN, US

   Instruction Partners supports schools and districts to achieve academic growth, working side by side with teachers and leaders to improve the quality of instruction in core academics. Instruction Partners specializes in smaller school districts which may have limited capacity but can make big changes—fast.

Education

• Yale University

  Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy

  1991 — 1995

Skills

• Strategic Partnerships
• Leadership
• Research
• Strategic Planning
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Human Resources
• Digital Strategy
• Management Consulting
• Staff Development
• Community Outreach
• Public Speaking
• Organizational Development
• Business Development
• Management
• Program Evaluation
• Business Strategy
• Advertising
• Strategy
• Curriculum Design
• Non-Profits
• Fundraising
• Marketing Strategy
• Leadership Development
• Program Management
• Networking
• Nonprofits